Misery loves company, and more so by consanguinity. Only two months after Mauricio “Shogun” Rua lost his UFC Light-Heavyweight Title to Jon Jones via TKO, now it’s elder brother Murilo’s turn to lose, by KO to BAMMA Middleweight Champion Tom “Kong” Watson in London on Saturday night.
The following are excerpts from the article Watson blasts through “Ninja” at BAMMA 6 by Mick Bower of Sherdog.com (May 21, 2011):
LONDON—British Association of Mixed Martial Arts middleweight champion Tom Watson put on a career-best performance as he stopped Murilo Rua in the third round of the BAMMA 6 main event on Saturday at Wembley Arena.
Watson and Rua went to war in Round 1. Rua ate a brutal right hand that rocked him, but he stormed back into the fray.
In the second, Watson stepped up his pace, as his chopping kicks to Ninja’s lead leg caused the Pride Fighting Championships veteran to hobble uncomfortably. It looked like it was only a matter of time before the Englishman’s attack caught up with him.
Round 3 followed the same script. A forlorn Ninja, urged on by younger brother and cornerman Mauricio Rua, went for one last takedown attempt. It failed, and his time was up.
A crushing kick knocked the Brazilian’s head back and left him staggering. Referee Marc Goddard intervened but not before a couple more punches hit their intended target.
Also last night, and unknowingly sharing the misery with the Rua brothers, UFC veteran Matt “The Law” Lindland suffered his own stoppage, getting choked unconscious by rising Polish prospect Mamed Khalidov in KSW 16 in Gdansk, Poland.
Hereunder is the report from KSW 16 Results: Mamed Khalidov Submits Matt Lindland in Poland posted by the MMAWeekly.com staff (May 21, 2011):
Mamed Khalidov continues to establish himself as one of the top middleweights outside of the UFC or Strikeforce after submitting Matt Lindland with a first round guillotine choke at KSW 16 in Poland.
Khalidov, who was the last person to defeat current UFC middleweight Jorge Santiago, showed a strong performance in his home country, and overwhelmed the veteran with superior work throughout the fight.
After putting Lindland in the unfamiliar position of being on his back, Khalidov opened up his offense, looking to rain down strikes on the former Olympian.
The fighters worked their way back to their feet, and Khalidov took the opportunity to slap on a guillotine choke and pulled guard. Within moments, Lindland was asleep and Khalidov was once again a winner, his third in a row overall.
So, are these unmistakable signs heralding that the rest of the world is truly catching up?
That its fighters are now seriously staking their respective places among the crème de la crème of international MMA?
Some quarters may question Ninja and Lindland’s rightful place among top MMA fighters today.
Still, the fact remains that, last Saturday night, they lost to comparatively lesser-known fighters in separate countries in Europe. (My apologies if I sound “America-centric.”)
After Watson and Khalidov’s convincing finishes of their respective opponents, regardless of the fans’ esteem of their more renowned victims, these two victors are climbing one more rung up the international MMA ladder.
And who knows how high they’ll climb?
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