Shane del Rosario improved to 9-0 with a first-round submission win over Brandon Cash Friday night at the Strikeforce Challengers Series card in Fresno, and that's not a big surprise, as del Rosario has had nothing but quick wins in his MMA career.But it was a surprise that Cash actually had del Rosario in big trouble early in the fight: Cash dropped del Rosario with a hard right cross just seconds into the bout, and for a moment it looked like the referee was going to stop the fight. And even after del Rosario recovered, Cash was in the dominant position on the ground, had del Rosario mounted, and looked like he should have been able to finish him.
It wasn't meant to be, though, as del Rosario calmly waited for his opportunity and got Cash into an omoplata, forcing Cash to tap at the 2:57 mark.
Cash was 5-0 heading into the bout, but he had never fought anyone even close to as good as del Rosario: As I tweeted prior to the fight, Cash's opponents had a combined record of 9-10. He deserves some credit for getting del Rosario in trouble early, but del Rosario showed poise, showed why he's such a promising heavyweight prospect for Strikeforce, and got the win.
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