Missed fists: A bantamweight fighter takes on a giant in the ‘David Vs. Goliath’ battle

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.

UFC lightweight champion will face UFC featherweight champion to determine pound-for-pound supremacy. Cool, cool, cool.

I raise this.

(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. )

Raymison Bruno vs. Roger Dalet

We have Raymison Bruno “Formiga”, vs. Roger Dalet at the Sabadell Dogfight Wild Tournament event. This is the first in a series of events I hope will be numerous. Formiga is Portuguese for “ant”, as Jussier Formiga, a long-time flyweight champion, has made it clear. Dalet won the fight and was called “Goliat”.

The above moment captured by caposa tells one story, while the fighters’ records tells us another. Bruno is a 10-year veteran who has fought for respectable promotions such as Cage Warriors, Mr. Cage, and Pancrase. Dalet has no notable combat sports experience to speak of.

It was a mauling that ensued. Bruno tested Dalet’s grasping and Dalet failed. Bruno then played with his human training doll until Bruno decided to give up on the giant man with an armbar. A total mismatch, indeed.

This kind of thing shouldn’t be the norm. But every now and again it is worth remembering that what Royce Gracie did during the UFC early days wasn’t a fluke, or a freak show. It was just evidence of the power of the blending of martial arts.

Case in point, Cesar Alonso brought his 5-5 record into a 2-on-1 fight on this same show and actually managed to scrape out a win!

Jed Meshew, and I often state that it is nearly impossible for one fighter against multiple fighters. But every once in a while the fight turns out to be just right for Alonso. In this case, Alonso’s opponents were unable to execute the standard 2-on-1 strategy.

The key to winning a handicap fight is that one of the advantaged fighters has to establish a body lock or get some kind of hold of the disadvantaged fighter so that his partner or partners are free to throw strikes. Right away, Alonso scores a takedown and that sends the whole fight spiraling into chaos, which is good for him. On the feet, it’s a crapshoot, and Alonso is clearly the better, more powerful striker, which results in one of his attackers getting taken out. It’s done when it becomes a one-on-1 fight.

I’m just saying, this would never happen to Fight Circus Asymettrical Champions Bank and No Money (it actually did, we just agreed as a community never to talk about it)

Believe it or not, all of this actually happened, and you can see for yourself with the free replay of Dogfight Wild Tournament on YouTube.

Tumer Ondar vs. Ismaiel Haidari

Somehow, because of all that, this next clip is only the second strangest sequence we saw this week.

In the latest from the your-guess-is-as-good-as-mine world of Russian MMA, we had an AMC Fight Nights matchup end in a tap-out controversy that led to the fighters immediately rematching one another.

O…K.

Tumer Ondar appeared to have his fight with Ismaiel Haidari wrapped up (literally) as he finished off a kneebar that had Haidari tapping out against his thigh. One tap or not, that’s a clear tap motion to me. Haidari may not have realized what he was doing at the time, as he protested to the referee for stopping him.

They then performed the entire post-fight dance, before it became clear that they were going to fight again in order to end any confusion.

What???

Ondar’s grappling was again too much for Haidari and he bloodied him up en route to winning a unanimous decision, so it was just a bad time all around for Haidari. The strangeness doesn’t end there.

According to Sherdog’s record of the event, only the second result is official, which means the fight wasn’t really a rematch so much as a restart? That means that Ondar and Haidari did not get paid twice. Let’s not go over the referee’s decision next time.

Sanjar Yusupov vs. Oleksandr Popov
Bartosz Kowal vs. Lukasz Nowak

There’s nothing controversial about Sanjar Yusupov’s seven-second knockout from Strife MMA 3 in Pulawy, Poland, other than “wow, how hard does this dude hit?” I guess that’s worth a conversation.

Yusupov’s low kick left Oleksandr POpov lunging in the most horrible way. He was then left a sitting duck to receive a second left hook. Haidari was not the only one going through this.

In the next fight Bartosz Kowal was not quite as fast, but his second round switch-knee knockout of Lukasz Noak was just too good to ignore.

The Strife MMA 3 main card is available for free replay on YouTube.

Bassil Hafez vs. Evan Cutts
Alandria Brown vs. Rachel Martinez

This week on UFC Fight Pass, Bassil Hafez and Alandria Brown showed out with a couple of awesome finishes.

At Fury FC 75 in Dallas, Hafez faced off with Cutts for the second time with a welterweight title on the line. Cutts successfully defended a Cage Fury Fighting Championship title via split decision in their first fight in April 2021 and made the walk to the cage with gold around his waist once again last Friday.

This time, Hafez took the judges all the way out of the equation.

Cutts was able to eat all the right hooks. Maybe we see these two complete their trilogy somewhere down the road, but for now, Hafez has major bragging rights.

Over at LFA 153 in Hammond, Ind., strawweight prospect Alandria Brown improved to 3-1 with this brutal choke-out of Rachel Martinez.

All of Brown’s professional wins so far have been by rear-naked choke. Let’s hope her next opponent is a little quicker to tap should she find herself in Brown’s clutches.

Jared Gooden vs. Demarques Jackson
Valodia Aivazian vs. Phil Caracappa
Ty Gwerder vs. Dan Huber

The action was as wild as you’d expect at United Fight League’s inaugural show in Mesa, Ariz., which was headlined by UFC veteran Jared Gooden facing Demarques Jackson. Gooden outlasted Jackson, leaving him swinging at air by the time it was all said and done.

I can’t decide whether Gooden’s punches, his closing stomp, or an exhausted Jackson crashing face-first to the mat did the most damage.

Valodia Aivazian didn’t look super spry after two rounds with Phil Caracappa either, but he emptied out whatever was left in the tank early in Round 3 and it paid off.

This is the definition for a “wounded animal” in that context. Beware!

Bellator Veteran Ty Gwerder made me laugh with his absurdly high head kick finish by Dan Huber.

You can’t doubt the efficacy of Gwerder’s leg raise, but I don’t know if it was to kick Huber and Hong Man Choi.

Issa Isakov vs. Ruslan Tedeev
Shami Gaziev vs. Darko Stosic

From Brave CF 69 in Belgrade, Serbia, we have to give props to Issa Isakov for this expertly applied rear-naked choke and to Ruslan Tedeev’s immediate Undertaker impression.

Unfortunately, Taker’ing it is not a viable strategy in MMA, so that’s still one in the loss column for Tedeev.

Going up 100 pounds from the super lightweights to the heavyweights, we have Shami Gaziev dusting UFC and KSW veteran Darko Stosic in under three minutes.

That uppercut that opened that finishing sequence was a thing of beauty.

Abe Alsaghir vs. Dominic Dorsa

Last but not least, we had amateur lightweight Abe Alsaghir capturing a Lights Out Championship title and improving to 6-0 with a knockout of Dominic Dorsa in Wayne, Mich.

That’s some heavy leather being thrown by this 21-year-old prospect.

Alsaghir was adding a WXC lightweight belt and a first-round choke to Mike Walker when we last saw him.

Alsaghir, who took his first amateur fight in December 2021, told MMA Fighting that he plans to make his pro debut in April. Congratulations on your amateur success!

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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 — @AlexanderKLee — using the hashtag #MissedFists.

Source: https://www.mmafighting.com/2023/2/24/23613296/missed-fists-bantamweight-fighter-goes-toe-to-toe-with-giant-in-david-vs-goliath-battle?rand=96749