Missed Fists: Authorities storm cage to break up post-fight brawl

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.

MMA is supposed to be fun!

That’s been my personal mantra for years and though there are times (days, weeks, months even) where the combat sports cycle can be a bit of a drag, in the end, I like to think we all hang on to this crazy business because we love it.

That said, sometimes, MMA can be a little too fun or unpredictable or crazy (or some combination of those and numerous other adjectives) and a firm hand has to step in to settle things down.

In other words: Somebody call the cops!

(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.)

Fakhriddin Hashimzhonov vs. Amanbekov Dastan
Talant Musakeev vs. Magomedov Magomed

This past Sunday’s Ertaimash Fighting Championship show in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, saw two instances of folks having to intervene to prevent a situation from completely breaking down.

First, let’s look at this fight between Fakhriddin Hashimzhonov and Amanbekov Dastan that was mostly uneventful until the final seconds of the fight (and the few seconds after it).

The majority of this three-round contest saw Hashimzhonov using his superior size and grappling to ground Dastan and prevent him from really getting anything off. One might say there were shades of Josh Koscheck vs. Paul Daley and, sure enough, Dastan went full Daley after the bell rang, chasing Hashimzhonov and attempting to punch his head.

It wasn’t long before a damn-near army of uniformed officers spilled into the cage to restore order. Afterwards, Dastan appeared to apologize to Hashimzhonov and all was well.

Later in the evening, a fight between Talant Musakeev and Magomedov Magomed proved to be just as volatile, with the seeds of chaos planted earlier.

Magomed was rocked in Round 1 and had a cut opened above his eyes, which resulted in a lengthy pause in the action to clean it up. This created tension between Magomed and the referee, but everything was fine until Round 3, when Magomed—who at another point in the fight had wiped his own blood all over his face—had his cut opened up again, resulting in a stoppage.

A dazed Magomed didn’t take the news well and had to be physically restrained by the referee.

The losing fighter refused to return to the center of the cage for the raising of his opponent’s hand, though he and Musakeev dapped it up after. Both fighters also had the chance to do a post-fight interview, complete with Magomed’s face still covered in blood.

You can watch a free replay of EFC 49 on YouTube.

Mike Bardsley vs. Alexei Bell

At National Fighting Championship 168 in Atlanta, Mike Bardsley and Alexei Bell were testing the waters with their jabs before Bardsley just decided to cannonball into the pool and end this.

Head kick beats jab more often than not, methinks.

This was an emotional win for Bardsley, who dedicated the fight to his brother that recently passed.

Ronald Paradeiser vs. Acoidan Duque

Ronald Paradeiser scored one of the most important wins of the weekend as he continued his Oktagon lightweight tournament run by smoking Acoidan Duque in just under 90 seconds.

That sweet finish sets Paradeiser up for a massive semifinal matchup with Losene Keita, which takes place at Oktagon 65 on Dec. 29. Mark your calendars.

Davon Duncan vs. Matheus Dino Jones
Alish Smith vs. Rhi Rhi Hudson
Marin Vetrila vs. Adam Shelley
Luke Riley vs. Alexandre Junior
George McManus vs. Dara Ward
Jair Ordinola vs. Gabriel Diaz
Cheyanne Bowers vs. Veronika Borisova
Jackson McVey vs. Ben Fowler
Tony Toro vs. Juan Alvarez
Alivia Bierley vs. Nadia Chmil

There’s no elegant way to say this: A lot of shit went down on UFC Fight Pass last weekend.

Let’s go to Davon Duncan, who shut Matheus Dino Jones down with a spinning body kick at a Shooto Brasil show in Rio de Janeiro.

There’s no shaking that one off. Jones had a delayed reaction to the finishing blow, but probably knew right away he was about to drop at any second.

Cage Warriors held two shows in Manchester, England, both of which delivered highlights in spades.

There was this boop knockout by Alish Smith…

And then another boop delivered by Marin Vetrila in the very next fight…

That’s back-to-back BOOPS! Soak it in.

Undefeated featherweight prospect Luke Riley headlined the second Manchester show and didn’t disappoint, putting Alexandre Junior away with strikes in about two minutes.

I can’t believe Junior was conscious after that knockdown shot. Riley was an astronomical favorite heading into this fight, so a step-up in competition should be around the corner whether it’s in Cage Warriors or if he signs with an American promotion.

Here’s a weird one.

Officially, this result goes down as an armbar submission win for George McManus. But it wasn’t nearly that simple. McManus forced a tap from Ward in the second round, the problem being that the referee wasn’t in position to see it. So the bout continued, the round ended, and then they went to video review.

And then McManus was retroactively awarded the submission win. Wait, we can do this? UFC, PFL, ONE, someone, get on it!

Speaking of easy-to-miss submissions, I had to watch this clip a few times to figure out what Jair Ordinola did.

From Fusion FC 81 in Lima, Peru:

That is a sneaky, sneaky armbar, and a clever way for Ordinola to put away his stubborn foe.

The best submission of the weekend may have come from new interim LFA flyweight champion Cheyanne Bowers, who claimed the title by reversing her fortunes to snag Veronika Borisova’s arm and earn a tap-out.

Club and subs are commonplace, but it’s rare we get to enjoy a “clubbed and sub.”

It remains to be seen if this performance nets Bowers a Contender Series booking or if she’ll meet Shannon Clark in a unification bout. Clark recently had her own Contender Series tryout in which she was heavily favored only to end up on the wrong end of a shocking knockout loss.

From that same LFA event, Jackson McVey scored a submission every grappler dreams of, converting a perfectly timed sprawl into an instant choke-out.

Thirty-three seconds, that’s all it took.

Lastly, we saw two fighters show off some exemplary fisticuffs with Tony Toro going berserk on Juan Alvarez, and Alivia Bierley ending her fight with a resounding THUD.

And from the ICYMI department, make sure you check out UFC veteran Damir Ismagulov doing some serious damage on the Kazakhstan fight scene. Once a ranked lightweight, Ismagulov kept his rep intact by spin kicking Oberdan Tenorio’s face off.

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 X — @AlexanderKLee — using the hashtag #MissedFists.