This last weekend up and coming promotion World Series of Fighting held their first show in Canada in a year that showed a lot of growth for the promotion. Because of the significance of this last show of the year for the promotion, I thought I would take the opportunity to review the fights:
Kalib Starnes vs. Dwayne Lewis
This fight was significant because it was Kalib Starnes first major televised fight since his release from the UFC five years ago. Starnes showed superior striking in his fight with up and coming Dwayne Lewis.
He kept the fight standing for all of the first round and finally was able to finish the fight with an elbow to the jaw in the second round. With this victory Starnes propelled himself into contention for the vacant WSOF Light Heavyweight Championship. Time will tell this time next year.
Nick Newell vs. Sabah Fadai
Once again Nick Newell proved that being a handicapped fighter by no means makes a fighter any less dangerous. In his second fight with the promotion, Newell went in and submitted fighter Sabah Fadai at 1:21 of the first round.
What makes Newell’s fighting style dangerous is because he uses the stub of his unformed arm as a hook to lock a submission quickly. He once again did this on Saturday night, proving that looks can be deceiving. After the fight Newell called out the winner of the inaugural WSOF Lightweight Championship fight in January for a title shot.
Jesse Taylor vs. Elvis Mutapcic
After a long delay, the second semi final match of the WSOF middleweight tournament finally took place. It was a significant fight for Jesse Taylor, most known for being the only fighter to be removed from a TUF Finale because of his behavior after the show ended filming.
Since then he’s waffled around in several regional and smaller international shows trying to get traction in his career. However, recently he’s been on a now seven fight win streak including his dominating decision victory over Elvis Mutapcic. We’ll see how he does in the finals of this tournament.
Georgi Karakhanyan vs. Lance Palmer
This was Georgi Karakhanyan’s second fight with the promotion and another chance to prove himself in the world of MMA. The last time Karakhanyan was on the major circuit was with Bellator where he lost to Patricio Freire. Since then he’d competed mostly on the regional circuit including the Tachi Palace Fights Featherweight Championship.
This fight was once again his chance to excel in a major promotion. He did so in spectacular fashion by submitting Lance Palmer in the third round after putting up a good fight against the college wrestling All-American.
We can only expect good fight cards from the World Series of Fighting on future fight cards on NBC Sports. Leave a comment!