Missed Fists: Fighters swap shorts in bizarre post-fight ritual

Welcome to the latest edition of Missed Fists where we shine a light on fights from across the globe that may have been overlooked in these hectic times where it seems like there’s an MMA show every other day.

Normally we love to get into the weirdest things of the week. But this clip is just too charming to not save it for the end.

UFC President Dana White said that he believes MMA has a global appeal similar to soccer. So it is only a matter time before fighters adopt some of the same rituals as their famous counterparts in football.

Ladies, gentlemen! I present the MMA version a jersey swap.

(Big thanks as always to @Barrelelapierna for their weekly lists of the best KOs and submissions, and to @Grabaka_Hitman for uploading many of the clips you see here. Give them a follow and chip in on Patreon if you can. )

Narek Simonyan vs. JEKASEKSI

From a recent Nashe Dolo event (roughly translated to “Our Business”) in Russia :

Alright, so as far as I can tell, Narek Simonyan is a stand-up comic and actor and his opponent JEKASEKSI is some sort of YouTuber and a musician. Suffice to say, they’re both showmen, and based on the following clip it looks like Simonyan might actually have some kind of wrestling background:

What we’re really here to talk about is what happened after the fight, which was both a wonderful show of sportsmanship and a complete disregard for sanitary practices. I’m not sure how long the fight lasted, but if it was longer than, oh, 10 seconds, I personally would not want to be swapping any kind of lower body clothing with another person. But you know what, that’s just me, that’s just something that I don’t enjoy.

Why stop there? You could also swap jock straps. In fact, I think the only thing that stopped them from swapping underwears is that they appear to be wearing the same pair, so what would the point of that be?

Listen, I know I’m being a spoilsport here and raining on a friendly and funny scene. But seriously, barf.

Sergio Cossio vs. Edgar Delgado
Jonas Ortega vs. Kevin Arreola

Speaking of sportsmanship, I don’t think Sergio Cossio did anything wrong here, but he definitely wasn’t kind to Edgar Delgado here either.

From the lightweight championship main event of Lux Fight League 22 on Thursday in Mexico City, Cossio made Delgado pay for not defending himself at all times as he blasted a rising Delgado with a clean knockout shot. I can see why some might take issue with him seemingly giving Delgado a chance to get up and then hitting him anyway, but unless the referee is issuing a formal reset and standing between the two fighters, then any legal attack is fair game.

Delgado was already in tough stepping into this fight on short notice for Roger Garcia after Garcia was involved in a car accident, so you can’t blame him for not being at his best. Let’s hope he rests up, gets another chance to fight soon, and has a little more situational awareness next time.

Earlier in the show, Jonas Ortega scored one of the fastest body shot knockouts you’ll ever see, needing just 30 seconds to crumble Kevin Arreola.

Lux Fight League 22 is available for replay on UFC Fight Pass, with the prelims free on Facebook.

Julieta Martinez vs. Brenda Oliva

The best knockout of the week may have taken place at Samurai Fight House 4 (free replay available on YouTube) in Buenos Aires. Julieta Martinez annihilated Brenda Oliva in an amateur fight with just seconds left.

Call me crazy but I found this a bit like Kaitlin Young’s classic KO Of Miesha Tate.

This is a lofty comparison but Martinez deserves her time in the sun.

Alexandar Terzic vs. Miladin Kolarski

It turns out that Alexandar Terzic’s submission of Miladin Kolarski at ARMMADA 1 (free replay available on YouTube) in Kikinda, Serbia, was “just” an arm-triangle choke and not something more exotic. Somehow, I don’t think his opponent Miladin Kolarski cared about the difference as he went to sleep all the same.

Cameron Graves vs. Masio Fullen

At Fury FC 63 (also available on UFC Fight Pass), we had another sweet finish started off by a body shot as Cameron Graves put away UFC and The Ultimate Fighter: Latin America original Masio Fullen.

Not only was the body shot great, I actually loved that he followed up with non-stop punches even if they were all just hitting glove. Fullen was basically done. Sometimes it is okay to just do enough to get the ref to stop the fight.

Viktor Kolesnik vs. Mahmoud Abdel Razak
Ruslan Krainov vs. Shakhrukzhan Valzhan Uulu

Now to our regular plea for Viktor Kolesnik’s signature by major promotions

There’s the former M-1 featherweight title challenger snagging his fourth straight finish with a sweet ninja choke. Kolesnik has won six of his past seven fights and would be a welcome addition to any promotion’s 145-pound roster. While it’s certainly possible that Kolesnik, 26, is content fighting closer to home right now (and if so, that’s great! ), he’s nearly 30 fights into his pro career and the time is now for him to be tested against a higher level of competition.

For context, his opponent at Saturday’s MMA Series show, Mahmoud Abdel Razak, entered the bout with a 2-2 record according to Tapology.

Kolesnik’s rival Nate Landwehr already got the call to the UFC. We may see them as a trio in the Octagon.

On the same card Ruslan Krainov scored a Von Flue first round choke. You know what that means: We got you Von Flue.

Manny Ahoua vs. Adrian Hayes

We head to Atlanta for Manny Ahoua’s lovely counter boop KO that took place at a National Fighting Championship event (free fights available on Facebook).

Ahoua was able to time the punch just right and had such a clean footwork that it was hard to believe this was only his amateur debut. You can see how Adrian Hayes is caught coming in. Why waste your strength swinging for the fences when you can let your opponent provide all the force and momentum?

Victor de Paula vs. Brian Mengeli

Standing elbows are great and we didn’t want to leave out Victor de Paula’s awesome finish of Brian Mengeli at Budo Sento Championship: Volume 8 (free replay available on YouTube) in Mexico City.

Understandably, de Paula’s effort was overshadowed by Chidi Njokuani’s standing elbow at UFC Vegas 55, but there’s more than enough love to go around and de Paula deserves plenty for giving us another example of a finish that we don’t often see.

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If you know of a recent fight or event that you think may have been overlooked, or a promotion that could use some attention, please let us know on Twitter – @JedKMeshew and @AlexanderKLee – using the hashtag #MissedFists.