Linares looked good in the first half of the fight, but Abdullayev gradually tipped the advantage in his favor when the 36-year-old Linares began to show signs of fatigue. Abdullayev finally managed to send Linares to the floor twice in the final three minutes and get the referee stopped. Thus, Abdullayev became the mandatory challenger for WBC champion Devin Haney, whom he lost ahead of schedule in September 2019.
Also that evening, in the WBA featherweight eliminator, Angel Rodriguez (20-1, 10 KOs) defeated Mark "Canelo" Urvanov (20-3-1, 10 KOs) by split decision. A technical and careful fight from start to finish, as a result of which the judges counted 116-112, 115-113 in favor of Rodriguez and 116-112 for Urvanova.
Undefeated super lightweight Ivan Kozlovsky (5-0, 2 KOs) beat Zoravor Petrosyan (12-2, 5 KOs) on points in the fight for the WBC Asian Boxing Council belt.