Missed Fists: Last-minute replacements produce barnburner at Alaska FC 147, 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.

Before we begin, let’s tip our cap to a pair of fighters previously featured in Missed Fists that showed out at UFC Saint Petersburg this past weekend. Movsar Evloev won a unanimous decision over Seungwoo Choi to close out the prelims, and 22-year-old Arman Tsarukyan went a competitive 15 minutes with sleeper lightweight contender Islam Makhachev in the co-main event.

We’re proud of these boys.

Chance Staggs vs. Chante Stafford

AL: With respect to both these fine athletes, we’re not spotlighting “Fat” Chance Staggs and Chante Stafford for what they could be, but for what they already are: two regional fighters without a care in the world.

They got their chance to compete in a 160-pound catchweight bout live on UFC Fight Pass last Wednesday at Alaska Fighting Championship 147 when another fight fell through at the last minute and they did not waste the opportunity.

JM: That fight was substantially more fun than it had any reason to be, which should probably just be the Alaska FC motto by now. Stafford drops Staggs early and then does what people with no idea about fighting would think he would do, he gasses hard.

That guillotine that cements Staggs’ comeback isn’t even torqued super hard but Stafford is just completely spent from letting it all go early in the round.

AL: This was a superbly dumb one-round brawl, and I mean that in the most complimentary way.

Pat Carroll vs. AJ Hardaway

AL: From Alaska’s largest city to the heart of The Big Apple, we check in on the Combat at the Garden kickboxing show that took place on Saturday at The Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden, which is also available on UFC Fight Pass.

In the first fight of the night, we’re given a little MMA connection to sink our teeth into as competitor Pat Carroll apparently trains with UFC light heavyweight Gian Villante at Bellmore MMA. He did Villante proud with this awesome KO of AJ Hardaway that he set up by making Hardaway respect his left hand before uncorking a jaw-popping right.

JM: That’s just beautiful timing. Hardaway got put away hard with that right hand that landed right as he was switching his stance and didn’t have a good base to absorb the shot.

David Allen vs. Lucas Browne

Speaking of picture perfect timing, would you care to see a man’s liver explode?

At a Matchroom Boxing event in Greenwich, London, on Saturday, David Allen delivered one of the nastiest left hooks to the body that you will ever see in combat sports. Just look at Lucas Browne’s entire body quit on him. As well it should!

AL: The blood dripping down from Browne’s face afterwards is also a lovely visual.

JM: Allen times that body shot beautifully and it lands right as Browne is stepping in and turns his body square to the left. I bet Browne is still feeling that one.

AL: They had to hook Browne up to an oxygen tank after this one. And he was smiling the whole time.

Now, we move on to some more pressing business. Knockouts are never a laughing matter, but sometimes when a fighter is caught just right, their body glitches out and the part of your brain that is engaged by unnatural sights can’t help but be triggered. Case in point, we now present to you several examples of fighters being completely shut down by their opponents and plummeting to the mat in disturbing fashion.

Khamzat Chimaev vs. Ikram Aliskerov
Luan Santiago vs. Abdul-Kareem Al-Selwady
Hashem Arkhagha vs. Jeremy Smith

AL: I don’t know what was going, but my goodness there were some souls stolen this past weekend, perhaps nowhere more aggressively than at Brave CF 23 in Amman, Jordan, on Friday (available for pay-per-view replay on FITE TV in the U.S. or for free with a subscription to Brave TV for our international readers).

First, there was welterweight Khamzat Chimaev, who landed an uppercut that caused Ikram Aliskerov to go completely stiff before he even hit the canvas.

JM: Good.

AL: Then lightweight Luan Santiago drove his elbow directly into Abdul-Kareem Al-Selwady’s brain and the results are about what you’d expect:

JM: Better.

AL: And middleweight Hashem Arkhagha now has arguably the leading candidate for Walk-off of the Year with this counter-punch KO of Jeremy Smith:

JM: Best. And the haphazard slap on the back to the clattered opponent is *kisses the fingers motion*.

Kazuki Yamagiwa vs. Sho Oizumi

AL: It might be difficult to compare kickboxing KOs with MMA KOs, but we weren’t going to leave out this head kick by Kazuki Yamagiwa from K-1 Krush.100 in Tokyo last Friday.

Best wishes to Sho Oizumi, who suffered the dreaded “delayed reaction fall”.

JM: First, let me just say that I’m a big fan of the palm banana leaf Muay Thai shorts. It’s a shame Oizumi got so thoroughly blasted.

The thing I like about this clip is that you can see the set up for the finish as well. To start, Yamagiwa snaps a body kick in that Oizumi blocks. Then, just a tick later Yamagiwa goes high instead and you can see Oizumi preparing to block low before getting K-1 Krushed upside the head.

Paulo Pizzo vs. Caiona Batista
Ednilson Santos vs. Marcos Cirino
Wellington Turman vs. Marcio Alexandre Jr.

AL: Our last two contenders come from Future Fighting Championship 4, which took place in Sao Paulo, Brazil, last Friday. Paulo Pizzo put Caino Batista into a delayed fall here, but unlike Oizumi, Batista was open to follow-up strikes and Pizzo did not miss.

Bad hesitation on the part of the referee, who was a half-second away from being an accomplice to an in-cage fatality.

JM: Yeah, I have no idea what that ref was doing in there. Thank God Pizzo knew what was up because the ref’s decision to not jump in despite Batista being splayed out like Jesus on the cross was terrible.

Heck of a KO by Pizzo, too. Fast hands like vintage Vitor, right there.

AL: Speaking of late stoppages, I’m not sure what other sign Marcos Cirino could have given to indicate that he was done after taking a thunderous knee from Ednilson Santos.

Apparently, it took Cirino’s arm going limp and banging against the mat and Santos mauling him like a Rottweiler with a chew toy before the bout was called off.

JM: In the name of science, I counted every shot that landed after the fight should’ve been stopped. I came up with 11. Cirino should get to land 11 shots on that ref in recompense. It’s the only fair way to handle this.

AL: You’re a hard, but fair man.

Lastly, let’s give a shout-out to up-and-coming middleweight Wellington Turman who defeated the infamous Marcio “Lyoto” Alexandre Jr. (not to be confused with Lyoto “Marcio” Machida) in the evening’s main event. Turman is just 22 years old and he showed a ton of potential here.

Aggressive, powerful, great killer instinct, and a solid 15-2 record.

JM: 17 fights at only 22 years old is an incredible clip of combat and running through a UFC vet without any trouble is definitely something to make people stand up and take notice. Given the middleweight division’s thinning ranks with all the guys moving up to 205 recently, I’d be surprised if Turman didn’t get a call from Sean Shelby soon.

AL: As our own Guilherme Cruz has informed us, both Pizzo and Turman (as well as 45-fight veteran Gleristone Santos who was also victorious at Future FC 4) have received offers from Legacy Fighting Alliance, so we’ll probably be seeing more of them in Missed Fists and beyond.

You can check out Future FC 4 in its entirety on the promotion’s YouTube channel.

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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.