Missed Fists: Indonesian champion uses legs to secure arm submission

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.

Fast finishes, hammering heavyweights, and a strange submission are featured this week, so without further ado, let’s get to the action!

Carlos Ernesto Ochoa vs. Christian Gonzalez
Santiago Monreal vs. Heber Castillo
Laura Huizar vs. Dulce Hernandez

The Combate Americas promotion has been growing steadily and doing a good job of promoting its tentpole events, so it’s easy to overlook some of the smaller shows that it still puts on. Case in point, Combate 30: Mexicali in Baja California, Mexico, last Friday.

An easy one to miss, but even if you’d tuned in, you probably still might have blinked and not caught Carlos Ernesto Ochoa’s seven-second KO of Christian Gonzalez:

You can see Gonzalez has a game plan here and he’s looking to establish range early, but that goes out the window when Ochoa starts swiping at him like a furious woodland creature. Ochoa lands a right hook that sends Gonzalez’s mouthpiece flying at least 50 feet through the air (slight exaggeration) and Gonzalez immediately goes into a supine position hoping that it will deter his assailant from doing further damage. It almost works too.

Ochoa (4-6) didn’t last half a round in his last three fights, so what you’re seeing is a lot of pent-up aggression on his part and Gonzalez is the one who paid ford it.

In a flyweight bout, 23-year-old prospect Santiago Monreal improved to 4-0 after making pretty good use of an outside trip:

It looks like he drives his shoulder right into Heber Castillo’s jaw as they go down to the mat and the finish is academic from that point. I don’t care how small these guys look, someone driving their full weight down on your face like that… ouch.

But the best Mexicali finish may have come from atomweight Laura Huizar, who made a sloppy joe out of Dulce Hernandez’s innards with a shotgun blast kick to the stomach.

Hernandez’s audio isn’t available in that clip, but using my elite lipreading skills I can tell you that she’s saying something to the effect of “AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGH”

That kick from Huizar was so good that it’s time to set up another round of “Who Kicked It Better?”

Chase Sherman vs. Jeremy May

For our next contestant, we head over to Island Fights 52, which took place in Pensacola, Fla., last Thursday. In the heavyweight co-main event, UFC veteran Chase Sherman took on Jeremy May and he disposed of him inside of a round with a walk-off leg kick:

Or at least it would have been a walk-off if referee Sammy Collingwood had waved the bout off like he should have. Instead, he directs May to get up even though it’s clear that May has no interest in fighting anymore. It eventually does get stopped and Sherman looks aggravated by the whole thing.

Coincidentally (or not), Sherman actually fought Collingwood about three years ago and knocked him out inside of a round, so maybe he just didn’t want to give Sherman the win. Regardless, fine work by Sherman, even if he was denied the style points he so richly deserved.

Chris Barnett vs. Robert Neal

Also from Island Fights 52, there was a fun hoss battle between Chris Barnett and Robert Neal.

Barnett nearly squashes himself with a bad suplex attempt in round one:

And eventually the fight breaks down into both men throwing out techniques that belie their imposing statures:

Always a fun guy to watch, Barnett went on to win a unanimous decision and improve to 18-6 as a pro.

Island Fights 52 is available to replay on UFC Fight Pass, while Combate 30 can be re-watched via DAZN.

Wardi Suwardi vs. Erpin Syah

Moving on to a trio of cards from Saturday, we start off with the not-litigious-at-all ONE Pride MMA show in Jakarta, Indonesia. In the main event, flyweight champion defended his title against Erpin Syah and did so successfully with a submission that beggars belief:

This is what the best kind of real fight should look like, right? Two men with minimal rules (note the nasty knees to the head of a grounded target), one of them seemingly making up a move on the spot to disable his opponent. Suwardi used his legs to crank that arm submission. What?!?

According to @Fight_Expert on Twitter, this is a leg-lace Americana. So, you know, pretty standard stuff.

…

WHAT?!?

All that happened after Suwardi and Syah’s spectacular entrances. Suwardi came out riding a dragon-horse (or horse-dragon, if you’re so inclined) and Syah came out doing a whole lot of “I’m not sure what”:

Don’t do drugs, kids. However, do check out the rest of this card and other ONE Pride MMA fights in their entirety on the promotion’s YouTube channel.

Nathan Rose vs. Ranjeet Baria

While this is normally a non-UFC, non-Bellator space, there’s a good chance people missed this last-second KO by Nathan Rose of Ranjeet Baria at Bellator: Newcastle.

Now this isn’t quite as dramatic as it seems as Rose was on his way to a decision win anyhow, but we’re not going to look past a talented young featherweight putting an exclamation point on his seventh win in eight pro bouts. Judges, shmudges.

Vladislav Yankovskiy vs. Boris Byk

We finish with a follow-up to last week’s spontaneous MMA mosh pit, this glimpse of chaos occurring at a New Fighting Generation 11 event in Minsk, Belarus (full bouts available on YouTube).

While nowhere near as wild as that Germanic scene, this post-fight scuffle between Vladislav Yankovskiy and Boris Byk is worth a watch if just to try and understand how it develops.

In the slow-motion breakdown, you can see the point where it went from good-natured post-fight banter to full-on “YOU’RE TOO CLOSE, MAN” territory.

Until next week, everybody just chill out, okay?

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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.