Missed Fists: Brazilian prospect Laura Fontoura wins flyweight title with 18-second armbar
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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.
Lightning fast knockouts usually lead the show here, but this week we have a pair of submissions that had two fighters tapping before they even knew what hit them. It takes a lot of skill, aggression, and luck to catch someone in less than 30 seconds, but that’s exactly what we saw happen twice last weekend.
Cristian Quiñónez (14-3) vs. Dony Matos (20-7)
Mexico’s Ultimate Warrior Challenge organization returns for its 25th effort on Friday. The company’s show will air on UFC Fight Pass, which provides an excellent chance for bantamweight Cristian Quiñónez to make his audition for the UFC. Quiñónez will vie for the 135-pound belt against 27-fight veteran Dony Matos.
Quiñónez has already put together a strong resume of 14 wins across 17 appearances. The 24-year-old made his professional debut in 2013 at age 17. He won his first three fights before running into trouble against Jose Guadalupe Ruelas Soto and succumbing to punches in the third round of their 2014 affair. “El Taylon” responded with six straight wins, including one under the Brave Combat Federation banner. However, he was again stopped by punches in his sophomore outing with Brave CF. Quiñónez rebounded with another trio of wins. The third of these victories came against the previously undefeated Vinicius de
ONE Championship: Unbreakable Preview and Predictions
In M. Night Shyamalan’s 2000 film
Unbreakable, Bruce Willis portrays David Dunn, a character who survives a train crash that kills everyone on board. With some prompting from Samuel L. Jackson’s character, Elijah Price, Dunn comes to realize that he is essentially invincible, living up to the movie’s name.
The two combatants at the top of the bill for Friday’s
ONE Championship: Unbreakable card might not be gifted with Dunn’s supernatural traits, but they certainly managed to make their opponents look as brittle as Jackson’s “Mr. Glass.”
Alaverdi Ramazanov, the ONE bantamweight kickboxing titleholder, marched through Andrew Miller and Ognjen Topic with first-round finishes as he built an argument for a shot at gold. He achieved his goal when he decisioned Zhang Chenglong in December 2019 to claim the belt.
For the second time in three weeks and the third time since the new ESPN deal went into effect a championship fight sits atop the marquee of a non-pay-per-view event. This weekend, at UFC on ESPN+ 15 in China, strawweight champion Jessica Andrade looks to defend her title for the first time when she goes up against rising star Weili Zhang.
Andrade captured the title at UFC 237, where she knocked out Rose Namajunas with a brutal slam that showed fans why she has earned the nickname “Bate Estaca,” which translates to “Pile Driver.” A six-year UFC veteran, Andrade has amassed a 6-1 record at strawweight en route to capturing the belt. This came after she moved down from bantamweight, where she was clearly undersized.