Missed Fists: Bodies were flying at Fight Nights Global, a one-shot strawweight KO, more

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.

There’s a lot to get to this week, but let’s make sure we celebrate that @Grabaka_Hitman is back. And what better way to do so than to share some of his delectable clips?

Islam Tsechoev vs. Gagasha Imamaliev
Magomedzagid Isalov vs. Gadzhimagomed Magomadov
Magomed Isaev vs. Arman Karapetyan
Artur Aliskerov vs. Dmitry Minakov

You may not know this, but the Russians… they like-a-the-wrestling. That was on full display at Fight Nights Global 93 (full show available on VK.com) last Friday, no more so than in this middleweight bout between Islam Tsechoev and Gagasha Imamaliev.

It’s going to be hard to categorize this sequence in December when we’re tallying awards, but this might be one of my favorite finishes of the year so far.

Nothing quite says MMA like slamming someone through the damn mat and elbowing them into submission.

And that wasn’t even the only slam-to-crucifix finish of the night. Two fights earlier, Magomedzagid Isalov gave Gadzhimagomed Magomadov the same treatment, though he went for a simple keylock instead of murder-by-elbows.

Wrestling! It’s great! And you know what else is great?

Whatever the f*ck that was!

On a show filled with slams that would make John Cena blush, we had some more professional wrestling adjacent action:

Love this clip. It looks like Magomed Isaev is trying to put Arman Karapetyan out with an old ‘80s WWF sleeperhold, which would already be fun enough, but then Karapetyan ends up getting dumped on his head when Isaev jumps onto his back. He taps out pretty quickly after that.

Quick shout out to light heavyweight Artur Aliskerov, who defeated Dmitry Minakov (brother of former Bellator heavyweight champion Vitaly Minakov) in a solid three-round bout (which can be viewed at the 6:15:00 mark of the above link) despite both men almost being felled by a sudden meeting of the minds:

Aleksi Mantykivi vs. Kaynan Kruschewsky
Leonardo Casotti vs. Patrik Kapanen
Jesse Urholin vs. Husniddin Ganiev

Over in Helsinki, we visit the CAGE promotion, which has a knack for producing exciting finishes. Courtesy of @LWMMA_ (follow them!), here are a couple of chin-check knockouts and a Von Flue choke that was almost too effective.

First up, Aleksi Mantykivi hitting Kaynan Kruschewsky with an absolute club to the side of the head:

Since losing a unanimous decision to Zurab Betergaraev a couple of years ago, Mantykivi has won four of his last five fights and hasn’t gone to the scorecards since. That’s the kind of do-or-die attitude we like to see around these parts.

Then there’s Leonardo Casotti using a basic 1-1-1-2 combo to devastating effect against Patrik Kapanen.

Look at Casotti taking his time to measure Kapanen, waiting for him to attempt a sloppy counter before landing the kill shot. Exquisite.

Not so exquisite is our latest installment of Adventures in Officiating, where we have Jesse Urholin demonstrating on Husniddin Ganiev why referees need to be educated on how to identify a Von Flue choke!

Neha Kashyap vs. Roshnee Khaira
Ahmed Faez Anuar vs. Pardeep Kumar

At ONE Warrior Series 5 (available for free on YouTube) in Singapore, we had a rare sight. You don’t get a lot of one-hitter quitters at 115 pounds, but here we go with India’s Neha Kashyap smoking Malaysia’s Roshnee Khaira:

Wild or not, there’s no arguing with the results.

Our next clip on the other hand, does require some scrutiny. Ahmed Faez Anuar finished Pardeep Kumar with some sort of armlock that seemed mostly harmless at first glance.

Is this more dangerous than I’m giving it credit for? Kumar had been taking a beating up to this point, so perhaps he just wanted out? Either way, in the year 2019, we have a fighter submitting to what @VonPreux describes as a “primitive armbar,” which actually sounds kind of badass.

Filip Pejic vs. Filip Wolanski
Jamie Richardson vs. Phil Wells

Turning our attention to a couple of mid-major but still too often overlooked promotions, we have offerings from KSW 48 and Cage Warriors 104.

In Lublin, Poland, we had some Filip on Filip crime as Filip Pejic teed off on Filip Wolanski.

That’s five straight wins now for Croatian Filip and back-to-back losses for Polish Filip.

What would a KSW discussion be without some classic craziness. Check out the faceoff entrances from Lukasz Jurkowski and Stjepan Bekavac:

This was actually a rematch of a 2005 encounter and Jurkowski would even up the series at 1-1 when Bekavac was felled by an apparent knee injury in round one.

Wishing him the best in his recovery. Also don’t forget that Mortal Kombat 11 is in stores now!

Check out the rest of the KSW 48 results courtesy of our own Petesy Carroll and purchase a replay of the event for yourself on FITE TV.

Petesy also wrote up a recap of Cage Warriors 104 (available on UFC Fight Pass), which featured an awesome welterweight rematch between Jamie Richardson and Phil Wells.

Richardson won their first meeting back in November, but Wells almost put him away in the first and second round of this encounter only to be foiled by the bell both times. His last gasp attempt in round three still wasn’t enough and Richardson stormed back to pick up his second knockout of Wells in as many fights.

And now… look, I don’t want to talk about this, but who would we be as men if we didn’t talk about this.

Here’s the latest 3-on-3 bout from Universal Reality Combat Championship in the Philippines:

I can’t even begin to explain what this is supposed to be, so let’s defer to this hype video featuring the team of URCC heavyweight champion Sugar Ray “The Mammoth” Estroso, Brian “The Batman” Paule, and Mark “The Wolf” Palomar as they prepared for their fight with Team China’s Tian Hong Yan, Zhao Sigi, and Zhouzhe Yihang:

And here’s some more explanation from Estroso and Paule:

Get? No? That’s fine. Let’s move on.

Until next week, here’s some more goodness from FNG to send us out on a positive note.

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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.