Jack Hermansson and Chris Curtis squared off in a Middleweight contest earlier tonight (Sat., July 23, 2022) from inside The 02 Arena in London, England. Following 15 minutes of action, Hermansson was named the victor.
The two began the contest patiently, as Hermansson worked small kicks from the outside. Curtis the counter puncher was looking for his left hand, but Hermansson stayed rangy. By the midway point of the round, Hermansson was landing hard with his distance blows, like a jump knee to the body and lead calf kick. He also landed a few decent jabs from the backfoot.
Curtis finally found a nice body rip with just over a minute remaining in the round. He began picking up the pressure more, landing another pair of crosses to the gut. Hermansson answered with a nice Superman punch. On the whole, Hermansson’s distance kickboxing was sharp enough to earn him the round.
Hermansson went right back to work on the lead calf to start the middle frame. Curtis’ left hand landed early at a better rate, but he was taking a lot of kicks to the arms, body, and leg. Curtis was having a difficult time landing against the longer fighter, and it seemed to be frustrating him. Hermansson ripped a heavy body kick in response to Curtis’ calls to scrap.
Moments later, a head kick connected through Curtis block, hurting him! Hermansson swarmed on his wobbled opponent, ripping a series of elbows while Curtis covered up along the fence. “The Action Man” recovered well, but he definitely took a bit of damage in those exchanges.
With five minutes remaining, Curtis needed a finish. He understood the problem and walked down his foe, but Hermansson remained a step ahead, using his footwork to score with jabs and kicks. A minute into the round, Curtis did dig a nice left to the torso, but Hermansson’s head remained continually out of range. Curtis grew increasingly frustrated, but he could never keep Hermansson along the fence for more than brief moments. His best sequence came in the final minute of the fight, but even then, he just couldn’t stay in the pocket for long enough to really hurt “The Joker.”
It wasn’t the prettiest performance of all time, but Hermansson showed some real improvements to his footwork to clearly outland a solid kickboxer. Curtis was angry about his strategy — a surefire sign of success!
Result: Jack Hermansson defeats Chris Curtis via unanimous decision
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