Missed Fists: Polish event features 5-on-5 MMA brawl, bare-knuckle bout ends in scary corner collapse, 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.

For ages, countries have battled for the right to proudly fly the tallest banner of MMA weirdness, an honor frequently held by Japan (when you see a strange combat sports clip floating around, there’s a better than 50 percent chance the explanation takes one word: “Japan”), occasionally held by Brazil (“is normal”) and the United States (“Just Bleed”), with the occasional nod to other countries doing their best to expand the borders of what constitutes a fight.

This year, 2021 belonged to Poland.

Regularly throwing multiple people into the cage with little regard to anyone’s experience or level of competence, the European nation has truly tested the limits of common sense, good taste, and just how much chaos we’re willing to stomach.

All of this is to say that The War promotion threw 10 crazy people in a cage a few days ago and you can watch that here.

(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.)

I’m not going to pretend there’s anything remotely good about this, but I’m also not going to judge you if you can’t look away. I’ve watched this over and over again and felt myself eroding within each time. The measure of a man has truly been taken. Thanks, Poland.

As for what we actually see in this clip, we have one team of masked goofs (well, partially masked, not all of them commit to the gimmick) going up against a more traditionally attired team of fighters and unsurprisingly, the team that looks like actual fighters wins.

Rule No. 1 in these things: Never fall down because once you do you are screwed. There is some ugly unanswered ground-and-pound in this fight, with only three referees on hand to attempt to make sense of what’s happening. We know how difficult it is for a referee to manage two fighters, so three managing 10 is a recipe for disaster.

Where does The War go from here? It feels like as long as they can keep building bigger and bigger cages, they can keep throwing more and more fighters and more and more overwhelmed referees in there. At one point do they just build a cage around the country and let everyone have at it? I’d pay $7 USD for that, which is about how much it costs to catch a PPV replay of this event.

If you just want to check out a couple of prelims, they’re free here and they feature a mortifying bare-knuckle boxing ending.

We don’t see how this unfortunate fighter fell, but the screenshots below should suffice to show you how quickly we can go from fun and games to near-disaster.

If you do watch the footage, you can see the fallen fighter was badly overheating in between rounds, so it’s not surprising that this ended the way it did. Hopefully everyone is alright.

Sharaputdin Magomedov vs. Joel dos Santos

Now on to the good stuff. And by good stuff I mean fools getting hook kicked upside the head.

From AMC Fight Nights 106 in Syktyvkar, Komi Republic, that’s Sharaputdin Magomedov doing the deed. You may remember the undefeated Magomedov (7-0) from such educational programs as The Nastiest Standing Elbow Ever and Don’t You Dare Try To Punch Your Way Out Of My Clinch. The 27-year-old middleweight is back with some new material that is soon to be Russia’s No. 1-rated show.

Look ahead to 2022 and it’s likely we’re going to see Magomedov sign with a major promotion, but it would be cool if he had a little more time on the regional scene to keep racking up Missed Fists-worthy finishes like this.

Daiki Tsubota vs. Makoto Kamaya

RIZIN held an event called “Trigger 1st” today in Kobe, Japan, and while it was prime time for them this bomb knee from Daiki Tsubota was loud enough to wake us up in the wee hours over here in North America.

Javier Basurto vs. Christopher Ramirez

Over in Tijuana, Mexico, at Ultimate Warrior Challenge 30 (available on UFC Fight Pass), Javier Basurto won a fight by — forgive the technical talk — kicking his opponent’s guts out.

Khadis Ibragimov vs. Denis Polekhin

Remember Khadis Ibragimov? The Russian fighter recently earned the dubious distinction of falling short in all four of his UFC appearances as a light heavyweight, but this year he’s bounced back with three straight first-round knockouts competing for Hardcore FC.

His latest is his best one yet as he needed just nine seconds to hit Denis Polekhin with a short uppercut and shove him to the mat with utter disdain.

Hardcore FC 14 is available for free replay on YouTube.

Ahmedshafii Farah vs. Andrew Felegie

We love when up-and-coming fighters know how to promote themselves, so major props to amateur flyweight Ahmedshafii Farah for uploading this slick clip of his awesome head kick KO from Rocket Combat Sports 7 in Winchester, Va., last weekend.

This is what I call dressing for the job you want. Put some professional footage out there and let everyone know what your intentions are. Hire this man!

Felipe Lima vs. Evgeny Odnorog
Enrique Sosa vs. Jonny Touma
Alastair Volders vs. Jaden Dalrymple

Did we mention knees are super dangerous? If Daiki Lightyear’s speaker-annihilator didn’t convince you, perhaps these efforts from Fight Club Rush in Sweden and Eternal MMA in Australia will.

First, Felipe Lima turns his opponent’s takedown attempt into a surgical strike on his internal organs.

Then there’s Enrique Sosa winning with a ho-hum running knee.

Speaking of takedown defense, Alastair Volders showed Jaden Dalrymple the hazards of carelessly pressuring against the fence.

You’ve heard of wall-and-stall. How about wall-and-fall?

Brian Hauser vs. Christian Clary
Parwaiz Arabzai vs. Oussama Rahim
Kody Steele vs. Keith Ford

Just as heated as our competition for the best knee knockout is the race for the most memorable Humpty Dumpty Fall of the Week. Here we have offerings from B2 Fighting Series in Kentucky, Free Fight Academy in France, and Fury FC in Texas.

Brian Hauser was going to get included no matter what for having the nickname “Doogie” (how does this even happen, Hauser would have been a one-year-old when Doogie Howser, M.D. premiered on television?). It doesn’t hurt that he had Christian Clary going downward dog after connecting with this uppercut:

Parwaiz Arabzai probably would have run away with this award as his opponent was twisted and turned around in the worst way. A shame about the late stoppage though.

And then there was Kody Steele — a man more well-known for his grappling exploits — who captured a welterweight title 13 seconds into his second amateur bout with this disgusting right hand haymaker.

Kaua Fernandes vs. Daniel Melo

Prospect watch alert! Kaua Fernandes, a 25-year-old bantamweight, improved to 5-0 last weekend with this spectacular knockout at a Brazilian Fighting Series event in Rio de Janeiro.

That is just a gorgeous step-in hook followed by a clean pose-off. Now 5-0, Fernandes is another one to watch in MMA’s deepest division.

If you want to check out the rest of the event, it’s available on PPV for a little under $10 USD.

Strahinja Gavrilovic vs. Jonathan Bosuku

There was no UFC this week as Americans celebrated Thanksgiving, a holiday that we Canadians get out of the way in October. So hopefully you’re all thankful that there were dozens of regional promotions out there keeping the combat sports flame lit (and in the case of Poland, in a blazing inferno).

Speaking of Canada, let’s close out with this finish by Strahinja Gavrilovic from the inaugural Samourai MMA event in Quebec (available for replay on FITE PPV).

It’s a common stereotype that my people are known for being kind and polite, so let’s just say that this knockout and the subsequent double hammer fist of doom was very un-Canadian.

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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.