Lost fists: the fighter loses in a bizarre way, gets rematch, loses again

Welcome to the latest edition of Missed Fists, where we highlight fights from around the world that may have gone unnoticed in these hectic times when it seems like there is an MMA show every day.

That’s right folks, in the midst of the Star Wars cast drama and the middleweights calling Miley Cyrus, there are still fights going on, so let’s get to the serious matter of …

* checks notes *

… the guy fights twice and loses twice bizarrely in the same tournament.

OK then.

Bauyrzhan Kuanyshbayev v Sanjar Tajiev
Bauyrzhan Kuanyshbayev vs. Sanjar Tajiev?

AL: Did anyone ask for some good old-fashioned MMA weirdness? No, the header of this section is not a copy and paste error. In fact, we saw the same confrontation twice at Bushido Qazaqstan FC in Kazakhstan yesterday.

Go to @Grabaka_hitman (throw Patreon a dollar or two!) for game by game:

Just to be clear, Sanjar Tajiev beat Bauyrzhan Kuanyshbayev in his fight in the quarterfinals, complained unsuccessfully that the fight should be restarted, won an immediate rematch due to Kuanyshbayev’s semifinal opponent having been eliminated from the tournament with an injury and then lost again to Kuanyshbayev in a strange way.

Does it all feel right?

JM: It seems that this is what happened and really, it all shows that Fight Circus are at the forefront of MMA. They are like the MMA Simpsons. Immediate rematch that ends the same way? Fight Circus did that.

AL: Often imitated, never duplicated.

Neemias Santana x Rafael Souza

Last Saturday, at X1 Kombat 3 in Minas Gerais, Brazil, we saw the welterweight Neemias Santana somehow find a way to oppose the new hottest technique on the MMA scene: the kick kick.

That’s right, the deadly move – some would say, forbidden – that brought Dustin Poirier to glory at UFC 257 and made Chris Gutierrez threaten to end Andre Ewell’s career last Saturday, showing his ugly face on the international stage, but luckily, Santana was prepared .

I don’t understand, Conor McGregor had no way to defend himself from kicking the leg, how did Santana do that ???

JM: Because, as everyone knows, kicking the legs doesn’t win fights.

Seriously, I love MMA because the fans are all like, ‘This guy would dominate if he went to boxing or kickboxing’ when literally simple things like “punching” is what separates the world welterweight champion from everyone else . Calf kicks are not any new sorcery. They’ve been around forever, MMA fighters just don’t know how to deal

Except Jose Aldo.

Alberto Montes x Richie Santiago
Manuel Medina vs. Chancey Wilson
Marcin Kalata vs. Damian Olszewski
Jesus Pinedo x Elicardo Silva
Maria Oliveira x Enila Tabosa

AL: We will be back another day, because some bad things fell last week.

At Titan FC 67 (available at UFC Fight Pass), Alberto Montes, 26, improved to 5-0 with this relentless anaconda strangulation by Richie Santiago, a CES highlight and former Contender Series competitor.

JM: Is it impressive to win someone who has not won a Contender Series contract, since you are, by definition, winning someone who is not a Contender? Those are the kinds of metaphysical questions that keep me up at night.

Anyway, props for Montes for his obstinate pursuit of the submarine there.

AL: Later that same night on LFA 99 (also available on Fight Pass), Manuel Medina also got a great finish, albeit in more frantic circumstances.

This is not something that you see very often. It looks like Chancey Wilson really managed to break a guillotine choke attempt with a slam, only to end up taking a triangle anyway.

JM: Wilson just didn’t care about the neck. Scornfully, he left it to the guillotine and got away with it, but immediately went into a triangle. It is evident that the man never heard the Wu-Tang Clan.

AL: Are there any better heavyweights than Polish heavyweights? No, right?

JM: There isn’t and I can’t say how excited I am for KSW 59: Pudz vs. Bombardier. It will be glorious.

AL: We got a little classic action from the big boy at the Babilon MMA in Warsaw, and by “classic” I mean Marcin Kalata started the spinning shit, baby!

Look, you can make fun of the, uh, lack of acceleration here, if you like, but Kalata clearly did a good job of conditioning Olszewski to arm this backfist. Just watch at 1.5x speed and Kalata will look like Edson Barboza over there.

JM: This is amazing. Olszewski could have made a cake in the time it took Kalata’s back fist to get there and landed anyway. Never change, heavyweight MMA.

AL: And lastly from the group on Friday, we have some submissions with a former UFC fighter and a prospect who will probably go to the big show soon.

Apparently, Jesus Pinedo has been destroying overcrowded competitions (to be fair, his last three opponents had a combined record of 30-14, so there is at least some experience there) in Brazil and his native Peru since separating from the UFC. At Arena Global 10, in Rio de Janeiro, he looked like a guy ready for another breach in the octagon, needing only 75 seconds to destroy Elicardo Silva with a kick to the head and a sniper in his left hand.

And I’m not saying that just because he’s still wearing Reebok shorts. Don’t dress for the job you have; dress for the job you had and want again.

JM: But how flexible is that on the regional scene? Oh, you think you’re a good fighter huh? I was at The Show, little man. Sit down.

AL: Pinedo is only 24 years old, so there is plenty of time for him to do another race in the UFC.

Now, if you are looking for a suitable incompatibility, look no further than Maria Oliveira (12-4) x Enila Tabosa (0-0). Oliveira is also 24 years old and has fought for RIZIN and the Contender Series.

Tabosa did not fight for RIZIN or the Contender Series.

JM: Or anyone for that matter. But honestly, based on her experience, I thought it would be a lot worse. Tabosa certainly lit up with that knee, but he didn’t seem totally incompetent. A difficult way to make your debut, but that’s the case with many sports legends. Just look at Forrest Griffin! He fought Dan Severn on his MMA debut when Severn was 47-6-4.

I think what I’m saying is that Tabosa is guaranteed to be a future Hall of Fame.

Jared Anderson vs. Kingsley Ibeh

AL: As good as all the MMA clips were, there was no top boxer Jared Anderson beating Kingsley Ibeh.

Simply by modeling the man before placing him on the floor to count.

JM: There is only one “Big Baby” that we recognize here on Missed Fists and that is Glen Davis.

AL: No love for Marcus Jones? Junior Albini?

JM: No, because none of these people (with the exception of Albini, who only looked like a baby because he was in a diaper) look like babies. Anderson is six feet tall and made of bricks. What kind of babies are people having that have a pack of eight?

Going back to Anderson’s KO, however, this slow motion angle is too much.

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