Matt Schnell and Sumudaerji caught everyone’s attention with their unbelievable fight at UFC Long Island.
Though Schnell walked out with the win, both flyweights received a mountain of compliments from the fighters who had the privilege of watching their duel, including uncrowned UFC lightweight king Charles Oliveira, UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou, and former interim UFC lightweight champion Dustin Poirier.
Schnell completed one of the year’s best comebacks to cap off what will surely be recognized as one of the year’s best fights at the end of 2022, turning Sumudaerji’s lights out with a triangle choke submission in the second round after absorbing a frightening amount of damage.
The bout had the entire MMA community locked in, with fans, fighters, and media alike tweeting their praise. UFC fighters Paddy Pimblett and Saidyokub Kakhramonov called it, simply, the best flyweight fight they’d ever seen.
Check out more fighter reactions below.
#UFCLongIsland That second stanza was absolutely INSANE
Congrats Matt Schnell
— Charles ‘DoBronxs’ Oliveira (@CharlesDoBronxs) July 16, 2022
Those put on a great show
— Francis Ngannou (@francis_ngannou) July 16, 2022
Holy schnell this fight is amazing
— michael (@bisping) July 16, 2022
So many crazy things about this fight!
— Alan Jouban (@AlanJouban) July 16, 2022
Schnell a dog was on straight demon time
— Terrance ‘T Wrecks’ McKinney (@twrecks155) July 16, 2022
That ref helped make that fight amazing . Some would have stepped in and schnell would have never got the chance to come back
— Brian BOOM Kelleher (@brianboom135) July 16, 2022
Wow greatest flyweight fight ever @ufc Schnell
— Saidyokub Kakhramonov (@SaidYokubMMA) July 16, 2022
