When an MMA fighter gets KO’d immediately after a glove-tap, it often means that his opponent was being a cheap dick about it. But in the lightning-fast knockout you see above, all blame should lay upon the victim. See, if you’re going to touch gloves before a fight, do it fast and then get out of the way. DON’T lumber forward with your feet flat and your chin out. And after you do your little fist-bump, for the love of God, get your damn hands up or you will be head-kicked into an embarrassing reverse somersault, like this idiot.
If you’ll notice, the guy on the left doesn’t initiate the tap, but he’s courteous enough to oblige when dipshit over there dangles his arm out like an overcooked noodle. Guy On The Left sees an opportunity, and snatches it with a front-leg roundhouse to the face. The impact is loud, and it is awesome. The only disappointing part is that the shirtless guy still looked like he was ready to bang some more. Ah well. Let this be a lesson to the rest of you aspiring fighters: After the ref starts the fight, “Wait, bro, I wasn’t ready” isn’t really a valid excuse.
When an MMA fighter gets KO’d immediately after a glove-tap, it often means that his opponent was being a cheap dick about it. But in the lightning-fast knockout you see above, all blame should lay upon the victim. See, if you’re going to touch gloves before a fight, do it fast and then get out of the way. DON’T lumber forward with your feet flat and your chin out. And after you do your little fist-bump, for the love of God, get your damn hands up or you will be head-kicked into an embarrassing reverse somersault, like this idiot.
If you’ll notice, the guy on the left doesn’t initiate the tap, but he’s courteous enough to oblige when dipshit over there dangles his arm out like an overcooked noodle. Guy On The Left sees an opportunity, and snatches it with a front-leg roundhouse to the face. The impact is loud, and it is awesome. The only disappointing part is that the shirtless guy still looked like he was ready to bang some more. Ah well. Let this be a lesson to the rest of you aspiring fighters: After the ref starts the fight, “Wait, bro, I wasn’t ready” isn’t really a valid excuse.
As we mentioned last week in our profile of Muay Thai coach Said Hatim, Andrei Arlovski competed in his homeland of Belarus on Friday night, taking on German journeyman Andreas Kraniotakes in the headliner of Fight Nights: Battle on Nyamiha. Arlovski appeared loose and in control throughout the fight, which ended in the second round with a big right hand from The Pitbull and some follow-up shots on the ground. You can watch the fight above, which we’ve cued up to the TKO finish.
The match gave Arlovski his second straight win, and his fourth victory in his last five appearances. Hatim won his fight as well, stopping Artem Kazersky by second-round TKO. We’ll update this post if video of that match pops up on the Internet.
As we mentioned last week in our profile of Muay Thai coach Said Hatim, Andrei Arlovski competed in his homeland of Belarus on Friday night, taking on German journeyman Andreas Kraniotakes in the headliner of Fight Nights: Battle on Nyamiha. Arlovski appeared loose and in control throughout the fight, which ended in the second round with a big right hand from The Pitbull and some follow-up shots on the ground. You can watch the fight above, which we’ve cued up to the TKO finish.
The match gave Arlovski his second straight win, and his fourth victory in his last five appearances. Hatim won his fight as well, stopping Artem Kazersky by second-round TKO. We’ll update this post if video of that match pops up on the Internet.
So there’s this featherweight from Santa Catarina named Julio Cesar Neves, and he’s an absolute monster. In less than two years of professional competition, Neves has racked up a record of 26-0 (!), with 24 of those wins by stoppage. On Saturday, he picked up his 13th win of the year (!!), and we have a feeling this one will get him noticed by the big leagues.
The fight you see above went down at Watch Out Combat Show 28, where Neves faced Dener Dos Santos. Less than two minutes into the first round, Neves fires a capoeira-style cartwheel kick that immediately sends Dos Santos into falling-tree mode. Your move, Lelo.
And now, in the women’s division, we have a knockout that’s less flashy, more smashy…
So there’s this featherweight from Santa Catarina named Julio Cesar Neves, and he’s an absolute monster. In less than two years of professional competition, Neves has racked up a record of 26-0 (!), with 24 of those wins by stoppage. On Saturday, he picked up his 13th win of the year (!!), and we have a feeling this one will get him noticed by the big leagues.
The fight you see above went down at Watch Out Combat Show 28, where Neves faced Dener Dos Santos. Less than two minutes into the first round, Neves fires a capoeira-style cartwheel kick that immediately sends Dos Santos into falling-tree mode. Your move, Lelo.
And now, in the women’s division, we have a knockout that’s less flashy, more smashy…
On July 27th, atomweight prospect Jinh Yu Frey produced a strong front-runner for WMMA Knockout of the Year at Sugar Creek Showdown 18 in Hinton, Oklahoma, when she put Darla Harris to sleep in the first round. Frey stunned Harris with a hard head kick, then knocked her clean out with a brutal straight-left. As Harris began to topple over in the familiar falling-tree style, Frey fired off another straight left, helping to speed up her opponent’s descent to the mat. The win bumped Frey’s pro record to 2-0. An injury and grad school might postpone her return to the cage, but we hope to see Frey on a bigger stage in the future.
Maybe one day there will be a Bellator lightweight contender who’s talented enough to defeat champion Michael Chandler — but it ain’t gonna be the dinosaur guy. (No offense.) Season 8 lightweight tournament winner David Rickels had a good head of steam going into his title challenge against Chandler last night at Bellator 97, with four straight wins including a TKO of Saad Awad back in March. But against a truly world-class lightweight, the Caveman was in way over his head.
As you can see in the video above, Rickels didn’t even have a chance to get started. Chandler swarmed as soon as he staggered Rickels with a right straight, landing more follow-up power shots and diving after Rickels when the challenger hit the mat. In just 44 seconds, Rickels was unconscious and Michael Chandler (now 12-0 overall) had made his second title defense with another fearsome display of killer instinct.
Chandler’s next fight will likely come against Dave Jansen, the Season 7 lightweight tournament winner who hasn’t been able to face Chandler yet due to injury. Jansen is 6-0 in Bellator, and is clearly the most qualified man for the job. And yet, we can’t help but wonder how Chandler would stack up against some of the top 155’ers in the UFC — not like that would ever happen.
Speaking of dominant Bellator champions who could use a higher level of competition…
Maybe one day there will be a Bellator lightweight contender who’s talented enough to defeat champion Michael Chandler — but it ain’t gonna be the dinosaur guy. (No offense.) Season 8 lightweight tournament winner David Rickels had a good head of steam going into his title challenge against Chandler last night at Bellator 97, with four straight wins including a TKO of Saad Awad back in March. But against a truly world-class lightweight, the Caveman was in way over his head.
As you can see in the video above, Rickels didn’t even have a chance to get started. Chandler swarmed as soon as he staggered Rickels with a right straight, landing more follow-up power shots and diving after Rickels when the challenger hit the mat. In just 44 seconds, Rickels was unconscious and Michael Chandler (now 12-0 overall) had made his second title defense with another fearsome display of killer instinct.
Chandler’s next fight will likely come against Dave Jansen, the Season 7 lightweight tournament winner who hasn’t been able to face Chandler yet due to injury. Jansen is 6-0 in Bellator, and is clearly the most qualified man for the job. And yet, we can’t help but wonder how Chandler would stack up against some of the top 155′ers in the UFC — not like that would ever happen.
Speaking of dominant Bellator champions who could use a higher level of competition…
Before his welterweight title defense last night against Season 7 tourney winner Andrey Koreshkov, Ben Askren completely wrote off his formerly unbeaten opponent, describing Koreshkov’s ground game as “embarrassing.” It turned out to be a very apt description, although Askren should feel free to share some of that embarrassment.
If you’ve watched any of Askren’s performances before, I probably don’t need to tell you what happened, but in short, Funky Ben took Koreshkov to the mat in every single round, and threw down enough half-hearted strikes to avoid being stood up by the ref. He racked up a truly absurd striking differential, and there were moments in the fight where Askren was confident enough to do absolutely nothing without fear of reprisal. That’s undoubtedly impressive, although not particularly entertaining to watch.
But while Askren was successfully able to lead the crowd in chants of “USA!” early in the fight, the fans eventually turned on him, as they always do. After nearly 18 minutes of Askren’s safe, stifling, tedious top control, the referee called it a TKO, more out of boredom than anything else. Afterwards, Askren accused the fans of being Communists. If booing lay-and-pray makes you a Communist, then yes, I believe the workers should own the means of production. Fun fact: Ben Askren is currently without a contract. Let the bidding war begin!
Elsewhere on the card, Muhammad Lawal went back to his wrestling roots for a ground-and-pound-based victory over Jacob Noe to win the 2013 Summer Series light-heavyweight tournament final, while Patricio Freire bounced back to the W column with a savage third-round TKO against Jared Downing. (Note: Downing was an injury replacement for Rob Emerson, who reportedly pulled a muscle while banging Ian McCall’s wife.)
Bellator 97 July 31st, 2013 Santa Ana Star Center; Rio Rancho, New Mexico
Main Card:
– Michael Chandler def. David Rickels via KO, 0:44 of round 1 [for Bellator lightweight title]
– Ben Askren def. Andrey Koreshkov via TKO, at 2:58 of round 4 [for Bellator welterweight title]
– Muhammed Lawal def. Jacob Noe via verbal submission (punches), 2:51 of round 3 [light-heavyweight tournament final]
– Vitaly Minakov def. Ryan Martinez via TKO, 4:02 of round 3 [heavyweight tournament final]
– Patricio Freire def. Jared Downing via TKO, 0:54 of round 3
Preliminary Card:
– Bubba Jenkins def. Mike Barreras via TKO, 1:05 of round 2
– Anthony Leone def. Frank Baca via submission (rear-naked choke), 1:07 of round 3
– Rafael Silva def. Rodrigo Lima via submission (rear-naked choke), 2:03 of round 3
– Will Brooks def. Cris Leyva via TKO, 2:20 of round 3
– Jeremy Kimball def. Keith Berry via KO, 1:45 of round 2
– Shawn Bunch def. Russell Wilson via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
– Donald Sanchez def. Cliff Wright via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
– Adrian Cruz def. Felipe Chavez via TKO, 4:24 of round 2
– Javier Palacios def. Richard Jacques via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
All knockouts are basically the same — a fighter gets his brain turned off and then gravity takes over. But when you’ve been watching MMA as long as we have, you begin to notice patterns. So here’s a guide to nine notable sub-species of KO, ranging from frighteningly violent to kind of hilarious. Enjoy, and let us know if we’ve left out any of your favorites…
All knockouts are basically the same — a fighter gets his brain turned off and then gravity takes over. But when you’ve been watching MMA as long as we have, you begin to notice patterns. So here’s a guide to nine notable sub-species of KO, ranging from frighteningly violent to kind of hilarious. Enjoy, and let us know if we’ve left out any of your favorites…
