Shamil Gaziev Bounces Back with Two Wins After Career Loss
Shamil Gaziev’s two victories after his first professional defeat gave his early heavyweight career a clear reset point. The heavyweight had started his run with the promotion with a second-round TKO of Martin Buday at 0:56 on December 16, 2023, then lost to Jairzinho Rozenstruik by corner stoppage at the end of the fourth round in March 2024. His response was not an uninterrupted climb, though: two wins followed, and later setbacks tested the same comeback narrative again.
At an August 3, 2024 event in Abu Dhabi, Gaziev met Don’Tale Mayes and won a unanimous decision, with all three judges scoring the bout 30–27. It was his first fight after the Rozenstruik loss. The result mattered because it ended the immediate losing streak and showed he could win a full three-round heavyweight contest after being stopped for the first time. The official fighter history records the Mayes decision and the exact sequence of results.
Two wins after the Rozenstruik loss
Gaziev’s second rebound win came on February 1, 2025, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He knocked out Thomas Petersen with strikes at 3:12 of the first round. The quick finish made the two-fight recovery more emphatic: first a clear decision over Mayes, then a first-round stoppage of Petersen. The official record lists the result as a knockout, while its recap and video coverage place the finish in the opening round.
The embedded clip is Gaziev’s post-fight octagon interview from Saudi Arabia, recorded after the Petersen victory. It is included as contemporaneous footage from the second win described here; it is not a new interview about his later career or a statement about how he processed his loss. The footage shows the immediate post-fight setting.
What happened after the comeback
The February 2025 win did not lead straight to a title run. Gaziev next returned in November 2025 against Waldo Cortes-Acosta in Qatar, where he was knocked out by a right hand at 1:22 of the first round. He then fought Brando Peričić in Perth on May 2, 2026. Peričić stopped him at 3:44 of round two after a hard, back-and-forth heavyweight fight. Those two losses interrupted the momentum built by the Mayes and Petersen wins and put his earlier comeback into a longer career context.
Gaziev returned to the win column on August 22, 2026, on the Sacramento card. He knocked out Kennedy Nzechukwu with a right hand at 1:20 of the first round. The official preliminary results confirm the method and time. The official fighter page lists Gaziev at 15–3 overall after that result, with a 4–3 record with the promotion.
A more measured view of the heavyweight
The verified record supports calling Mayes and Petersen consecutive bounce-back victories after the Rozenstruik loss. His official profile says he previously played volleyball and describes his stated ambition of becoming the best heavyweight, but that background does not prove how he prepared for any single fight.
Gaziev’s recent win over Nzechukwu gives him a fresh result to build on, while the Perth and Qatar stoppages remain part of the same record. The clearest account is the sequence itself: a first loss to Rozenstruik, decision and knockout wins over Mayes and Petersen, two later stoppage defeats, and then another first-round knockout win in Sacramento.
Sources
Tags: MMA
