(Video courtesy of YouTube/kamppailukanava. The end begins at the 4:47 mark.)
Every now and again, I like to surf the Sherdog mainframes and see if I can make it from one fighter to another simply through their past opponents, like a “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” for MMA, if you will. For example, let’s say I wanted to go from Scott Smith to Mark Hunt. Now, where most of us would scoff, “That’s ridiculous, those two fight in entirely different weight classes!”, consider this.
1. Scott Smith has fought as high as heavyweight before. Don’t believe me? Find the video of his fight against James Irvin, and marvel at how much the human body can shrink, or expand for that matter.
2. Scott Smith fought Tim Kennedy in Kennedy’s professional debut (Smith won via cut) –>Kennedy submitted Melvin Manhoef in March at Strikeforce-Feijao vs. Henderson –>Manhoef became the only man in MMA to crack the iron jaw of Mark Hunt back at K1 Dynamite!! Power of Courage in 2008. Voila.
You may be asking yourself, why such a lengthy explanation for a knockout video involving none of the above people I just mentioned? Well, if I hadn’t noticed that UFC veteran Xavier Foupa-Pokam fought yesterday at the same M1 Global event that saw Fedor notch his first win in over a year, I would have never jumped to Mr. Pokam’s fighter profile to see that he lost via triangle to fellow UFC vet Lucio Linhares back in January. It was there I found that, since being booted from the UFC, Linhares had put together a three fight win streak that was snapped in the above video just a few weeks ago. You can thank my boredom later.
Anyway, let’s get to the fight itself, which saw UFC one-and-doner Kenny Robertson turn a tedious leg kick by Linhares into a takedown in the early going. After getting back to his feet, “Spartan” was able to mount some offense, mainly consisting of wild, looping punches, before attempting a single leg that would send Robertson toppling head-over-heels. Here’s where things would get interesting.
After rolling to his feet, Robertson appeared to be performing a tribute to Kalib Starnes v. Nate Quarry, rushing out of the corner like it was the Water Temple level from The Legend of Zelda. Linhares would give chase, hands down and chin high, and walk right into a perfectly timed spinning backfist that would drop him like a sack of Coxinhas at Boi Bumba.
Tough break for Linhares, who will likely have to put a few more wins together before we see him back in the octagon. As for Robertson, who knows? Bellator could always use another challenge for Ben Askren if he gets past Douglas Lima, which I really, really hope he doesn’t.
-Danga