Missed Fists: Dylan Hazan’s flying knee knockout steals show at Cage Warriors 175

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.

UFC is hosting a historic show this Saturday in Manchester, England, with a lineup featuring two British champions in action. But make no mistake, this is Cage Warriors territory, and the promotion reminded everyone of that fact by holding two shows in six days.

On Thursday, Cage Warriors 175 went down in Manchester, and it was Dylan Hazan who set the bar for the most picturesque knockout to take place on English soil this week so far.

(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.)

Dylan Hazan vs. Elves Oliveira
Naglis Kanisauskas vs. Leon Naumann
Giuseppe Mastrogiacomo vs. Seyed Hossein Mousavi
Mason Jones vs. Michael Pagani

Hazan rocked Elves Oliveira with a left hand and then went for maximum style points here.

My man got air on that one and caught every part of Oliveira’s face. Watch that one again and you’ll notice it almost looks as though the referee is running in to wave the bout off during Hazan’s run-up. He could see that Oliveira was hurt, but by the time he closed the distance, it was too late to save him.

Speaking of closing the distance, Naglis Kanisauskas showed no respect for Leon Naumann, just walking him down and causing him to instantly crumble with a right hand at the end of Round 2.

Not a bad Humpty Dumpty Fall of the week candidate, but there’s plenty more where that came from.

There were also a lot of finishes that saw one fighter mercilessly rush the other down, as Giuseppe Mastrogiacomo did to Seyed Hossein Mousavi.

Hardly a clean combination, Mastrogiacomo threw everything at him and he only needed one good strike to land. In this case, it was a dagger elbow right down the pipe.

And ICYMI, make sure to check out the co-main event, a three-round corker between Mason Jones and Michael Pagani.

Jones went on to win his fourth straight fight since parting ways with the UFC in 2022, and though he saw a finishing streak snapped, beating the previously undefeated Pagani shows that Jones is still a step above his Cage Warriors competition. The Welshman’s first UFC run never took off after he dropped a fantastically entertaining decision to Mike Davis, but he could see a return to that promotion sooner rather than later.

Francesco Mazzeo vs. Vanderlei Junior
Rhi Rhi Hudson vs. Jennifer Trioreau
Jimmy Quinn vs. Imad Bouamri
Gheorghe Grozav vs. Tommy Brunning

No, you’re not seeing a replay of the Mastrogiacomo finish. That’s another daring flurry that was capped off by a highlight-reel strike, this time from Cage Warriors 174, which took place in London this past Saturday.

Like Mastrogiacomo, Francesco Mazzeo threw a lot out there without much of it actually landing. His right hand though? On point, and more than enough to take out Vanderlei Junior.

Rhi Rhi Hudson landed pretty much everything in her pro debut, not that there was much to land as she won in just 13 seconds.

Once she dropped Jennifer Trioreau, she didn’t miss with her follow-up punches.

Jimmy Quinn took advantage of an inattentive Imad Bouamri, making him pay with a flying knee for turning away from the action.

That’s a rough way to get Horodecki’d.

We can’t leave out our grapplers, so big props to Gheorghe Grozav for this sick kimura submission.

Grozav had a dominant position at the end of Round 2 but he wasn’t satisfied with just riding out the last few seconds. He snatched Tommy Brunning’s arm, twisted it a brutal angle, and earned a quick tap-out.

Cage Warriors 174 and 175 are available for replay on UFC Fight Pass.

Thomas Glot vs. Parwaiz Arabzai
Theo Ulrich vs. Jason Polydor

Thomas Glot has a left hand that would make Conor McGregor blush, and he flashed it early and often at Hexagone MMA 19 in Orange, France.

Parwaiz Arabzai looked like he had no clue what hit him, which might explain why he made no adjustments to avoid Glot’s power hand. Over and over again that left connected until a perfect hook put Arabzai down for the count.

Theo Ulrich took a more traditional approach to setting up his knockout punch, first making Jason Polydor think about the left and then catching him with a zinging right on the chin when he least expected it.

Bekah Irwin vs. Tayde Garcia

At Fury FC 94 (replay available on UFC Fight Pass) in Houston, Bekah Irwin won her first MMA fight with a series of hellacious knees to the body.

I’m sure her opponent wasn’t using those internal organs anyway.

Andrei Borissov vs. Eric Perry

Things are no less violent on the amateur scene, as evidenced by the debuting Andrei Borissov’s spinning backfist knockout of Eric Perry.

This is the kind of stuff you expect to see at this level of competition and Perry should learn a lot from this experience. He just lunged in with no plan, not expecting Borissov to have the perfect counter ready. Five knuckles just whipped into Perry’s face at what looked to be about 200 mph.

Warrior Xtreme Cagefighting 94 is available for replay with a subscription to Spectation Sports.

Junior Luiz vs. Thiago Hayne

Remember when I said there were more Humpty Dumpty falls coming?

From Centurion FC 21 in Rio de Janeiro:

Junior Luiz read Thiago Hayne like a book to set up that one-punch flatliner. Hayne does the correct thing by patiently cutting off the cage, but he drops his hands at the wrong time and eats a skull-rattling right hand. That mat was looking mighty comfy all of a sudden.

Modestino Rodrigues vs. Nathan Oliveira

Skipping over to Jungle Fight 128 in Sao Paulo, Modestino Rodrigues scored a shutdown knockout of his own.

Rodrigues was tearing Nathan Oliveira apart with his standup and it was only a matter of time until Oliveira got dropped. That was just the beginning of the pain for him though, as Rodrigues landed a trio of Thor-worthy hammerfists to send Oliveira to Valhalla.

Milan Datelinka vs. Ondrej Raska
Losene Keita vs. Predrag Bogdanovic

You’ve probably heard coaches talk about the effectiveness of “punching through” someone. That’s what Milan Datelinka did here.

Both fighters taking a forward step at the exact same time, one letting his power hand go. The result? Oblivion.

In the Oktagon MMA 59 main event from Bratislava, Slovakia, top lightweight prospect Losene Keita improved to 14-1 with vicious body shot knockout.

Keita has been crushing it for the Czech Republic-based promotion and whether or not he signs with another major promotion in the future, he is must-see TV whenever he enters the cage.

Islom Boltaev vs. Murad Abdurakhmanov
Shokhasan Mirzamatov vs. Mahir Mamedov

That could also be said for Kazakhstan’s newly crowned Octagon League middleweight champion, Islom Boltaev, who appropriately enough bolted Murad Abdurakhmanov with a left hand and a perfectly timed knee to claim a vacant belt.

That’s three straight now for Boltaev, who at 5-2 still has his best days ahead of him.

And if you haven’t had enough knee knockouts this week, here’s Shokhasan Mirzamatov kneeing his opponent’s soul out of his body.

Adam Brysz vs. Hugo Deux

Last, but never least, KSW 96 delivered this wonderful finish:

Face swelling up, Adam Brysz decided to just say eff it and cranked up the aggression to 11 with time ticking away in the second round. He put it ON Hugo Deux, drowning him with a relentless series of strikes and capping off the performance with a spinning back elbow that Deux could not withstand.

Oh, Brysz’s nickname? “Tornado.”

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.