Missed Fists: Fighter choked unconscious after referee misses multiple taps

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.

Look, let’s make one thing clear, I have no illusions that anything you read in this feature today is going to be stranger than what happened at yesterday’s PFL’s Paris show, where Cédric Doumbé suffered his first MMA loss because of a splinter and a heavyweight got KO’d in 10 seconds because … he didn’t know it was time to fight?

But we soldier on and look back at one other bit of weirdness before moving onto a weekend of combat sports that is — crossing as many fingers as humanly possible — free of controversy.

(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.)

Jakub Lipa vs. Grzegorz Salomon

For anyone critical of how Marc Goddard handled the Doumbé situation, y’all might want to check this one out, from Real Fight Night 3 in Poland.

If Goddard’s call was a mistake, I don’t even know where to begin addressing this nonsense. Losing fighter Grzegorz Salomon can clearly be seen tapping out multiple times in the hope that the referee will save him, to no avail. Instead, Jakub Lipa had no choice really but to hold on until the bout was waved off, which happened far too late for my liking.

In fairness to the in-cage official, it looks like he was out of position to see the taps, but … maybe don’t be out of position? Honestly, even checking the arm seemed unnecessary at that point.

Let’s hope everything is OK with Salomon, because that was a grim scene.

Junior Quirama vs. Alejandro Rodriguez

While we’re on the unfortunate subject of fighters being left limp in the cage, let’s take a look at Junior Quirama’s knockout of Alejandro Rodriguez from an amateur bout at Way of Warrior 12 in Madrid, Spain, a clear winner the Humpty Dumpty Fall of the Week.

WOW is right.

Quirama’s counters had Rodriguez in a bad way before a 1-2 on the money caused the Shogun Skateboard to reappear and take Rodriguez out. Watch that again — that is legs completely stiff and arms raised to the heavens as he fell back to the mat.

Full fights from Way of Warrior 12 are available on the promotion’s YouTube channel.

Mochamed Machaev vs. Makwan Amirkhani

We always like to check in on fighters who have recently parted ways with major American promotions, and this week we have Makwan Amirkhani in his first fight since parting ways with the UFC a year ago. The bad times continued to roll for Amirkhani as he suffered a rough knockout loss to Mochamed “We Have Muhammad Mokaev At Home” Machaev at Oktagon 54 in Ostrava, Czech Republic.

The finish happened six seconds into Round 3, which should come as little surprise to anyone who has followed Amirkhani’s career. His UFC run featured plenty of exhilarating first-round finishes, but the end of it was marked by the veteran consistently running out of gas after the first five minutes.

Regardless, a nice win for the 24-year-old Machaev, who is now 14-1 as a pro.

Chihayafull Zukquinhos vs. Takuho Ishida

At a GLADIATOR show in Osaka, Japan, featherweight Chihayafull Zukquinhos had better luck with a comeback of a different sort, weathering the storm of Takuho Ishida and flattening him with a series of composed counters.

Ishida landed some solid shots there and clearly smelled blood, but he left his chin on a platter for Zukquinhos, who caught him with a wild left across the chin. I don’t even think Zukquinhos knew what he was throwing there, but hey, it worked out.

Teboho Ntene vs. Siyanda Vilakazi

Let’s head to Sandton, South Africa, for this next highlight from Extreme Fighting Championship Worldwide.

Teboho Ntene made a stalking Siyanda Vilakazi pay for his tunnel vision, flicking out a head kick that Vilakazi didn’t come close to blocking. Beautiful balance from Ntene to land a clean strike and leave no doubt.

Xavier Boa vs. Melvin Ugochukwu

We travel northward now, all the way to Lagos, Nigeria, for the third show from Kamaru Usman‘s African Knockout Championship.

Light heavyweights Xavier Boa and Melvin Ugochukwu may lack experience (just a combined four fights between them heading into this one), but they certainly made up for it in enthusiasm. Maybe a too much enthusiasm, as Ugochukwu appeared to punch himself out hunting for the finish, leaving the door open for Boa to smoke him with a right hand down the middle.

African Knockout Championship is available for free replay on YouTube.

Harry Webb vs. Abdalla Biayda

In contrast to the previous clip, there was nothing sloppy about Harry Webb’s knockout of Abdalla Biayda at HEX Fight Series 29 in Sydney, Australia.

Once Webb rocked him with that first right hand, he unloaded with a sequence of accurate punches that sent Biayda further and further into unconsciousness until the fight was stopped with one second left in the opening round. Webb improved to 4-0, with all of his wins coming by way of stoppage, and took home a well-earned vacant lightweight title.

Eduardo Garagorri vs. Wilian Poles
Jady Menezes vs. Gisela Luna
Carlos Leal vs. Marcio Breno

Things didn’t go great for Amirkhani above, but this past weekend’s UAE Warriors 48 show in Santa Catarina, Brazil, saw former UFC, GLORY, and PFL fighters pick up wins.

Eduardo Garagorri went just 1-2 inside the octagon, but he’s won two of his past three fights, including this powerful left hand that ejected Wilian Poles’ mouthpiece.

In a weird scene, Garagorri pointed to the mouthpiece perhaps in a show of sportsmanship, but it looked like a dazed Poles had no idea what was happening, so he just pointed at it too rather than wait to see if there’d be a pause in the action so that he could retrieve it. The end result, a win for Garagorri.

Jady Menezes has a GLORY Kickboxing title to her name, but hasn’t competed in MMA since 2015 nor any combat sport of any kind since 2019. The skilled striker didn’t miss a beat, putting together this wicked combination to put Gisele Luna away.

The bout probably should have been stopped when Luna doubled over from that body kick, but it wasn’t, so Menezes followed up with a couple of crisp kicks to the backside and then a few half-speed strikes against the cage. Menezes is only 32, so if she’s serious about sticking with MMA this time, there could be a future for her.

Remember Carlos Leal? Back in May 2022, he came in on short notice for a PFL fight against Ray Cooper III and he dominated the two-time league champion. Leal wasn’t able to parlay that win into his own million-dollar prize, but he’s doing just fine on the international scene as you can see here:

There’s levels to this and Leal just walked Marcio Breno down en route to a first-round knockout win.

Salamat Isbulaev vs. Bagautdin Abasov

We saved one of the best highlights for last.

From Alash Pride 95 in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Salamat Isbulaev unleashed that spin kick with incredible quickness, and while I do think he may have lucked into a head kick knockout, sometimes you just take those and thank the MMA Gods in the morning.

And ICYMI, make sure you check out a MMA fighter Marcin Sianos making the mistake of mixing the martial arts in a boxing match in Poland and delivering some highly illegal hellbows.

Street rules rule!

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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 X — @AlexanderKLee — using the hashtag #MissedFists.