The “Dean of Mean” Keith Jardine earned his first win in over two years after dropping five straight fights. Jardine participated in the main event of a Nemesis Fighting: MMA Global Invasion event in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic on Monday against Francisco “Kiko” France.
Jardine would go on to win a unanimous decision over France but the win comes with a storm of controversy over the fight and the event.
Cagepotato.com has the lead on the story, so we’ll summarize as best we can.
Bellator welterweight champ Ben Askren sent out a Tweet Monday night saying the event was a “complete mess” with no judges, bounced checks, and that Jardine was greased for the fight.
Just talked to kick he said nemesis was a complete mess. No judges. Jardine was greased. His check bounced. Doesn’t get much worse.
Jardine posted a message on his website (www.keithjardine.net) about how bad the event was saying it was “a big scandal” but had no comment about the greasing accusation.
Finally getting out of Dominican. Its looking like this thing has been a big scandal. Will be big news. Can’t wait to get back to USA and figure this out.
This wouldn’t be the first major event from this past year that has ended up in scandal, Impact FC anyone? It seems that some of these fly-by-night promoters looking to hold these big events outside of North America end up screwing fighters over. Hopefully this will stand as a shining example of why fighters, and fans, should be weary of these promotions holding events off the continent as there is little recourse in countries with little or no regulations for the sport.
Results from the Nemesis show via Cagepotato as follows:
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– Keith Jardine def. Francisco “Kiko” France via unanimous decision
– Paul Buentello def. Kerry Schall via unanimous decision
– Eliot Marshall def. Chris Davis via submission (armbar), round 1
– Travis Marx def. Jeff Curran via unanimous decision
– Terry Martin def. Marcus Hicks via KO, round 2.
– Kyle Seals def. Dean Lister via TKO, round 2.
– John Dodson def. John Moraga via submission (armbar), round 2