In the first Brits Abroad of this year, we review December’s efforts from the fourteen Brits who travelled overseas in the hope of securing glory from 2016’s dying ashes:
First was Carl “The Bomber” Booth (7-1), travelling to Bahrain for his December 2nd main slot on Brave CF 2: Dynasty. Living up to his nickname, “The Bomber” landed a nuke of a right hand on Gadzhimusa Gadzhiev’s chin (7-2) in the second round of their welterweight contest to cement an excellent year for Nottingham based bruiser, finishing 2016 with a clean 4-0.
You can watch Booth vs. Gadzhiev here.
Up next was John “The One” Maguire (24-9), contesting Borys Mankowski’s (19-5) belt on the KSW 37: Cirus of Pain card in Krakow, Poland. For three rounds, Maguire failed to mount any significant offence in a lopsided unanimous decision loss. The result kills Maguire’s 5-fight win-streak while Mankowski enjoyed racking up his 6th straight win.
Meanwhile, long-time UK MMA veteran Dan “Vinni” Edwards (14-14) thoroughly dismantled Montenegrin Vaso Bakocevic (24-13-1) in the co-main event of the European Beatdown’s inaugural event, a Belgium based MMA upstart. The welterweight bout finished after Bakocevic refused to answer the bell for the final round.
You can view Vinni’s handiwork here.
Over in Johannesburg, South Africa, Yannick “Black Mamba” Bahati (7-2) defended his EFC Middleweight title in the co-main event of EFC 56. Bahati, who was upset by Michiel Opperman in his previous outing, returned to winning ways by pounding out David Buirski (7-4) in the second round. Welsh featherweight Azi “One Bomb” Thomas (8-3) also enjoyed success in the EFC cage, choking out Wesley Hawkey (14-8) in the final round.
Christian “The Animal” Holley (10-3) fought for the third time in three years, facing Khamzat Dalgiev (8-1) at the M-1 Challenge 73: Battle of Narts show hosted in Nazran, Russian. Holley came close to finishing the fight on several occasions, but ultimately succumbed to a rear-naked choke in the second round. Holley tastes his third straight defeat and remains winless since 2013.
You can watch Holley and Dalgiev’s back and forth scrap here.
Elsewhere, James “Job Done” Brum (18-5) travelled over to the Croatian capital city of Zagreb for his second fight under the Final Fight Championship banner. During the 15-minute contest, Brum struggled to mitigate the reach advantage of recent UFC-competitor Filip Pejic (12-2-1), winding up on the wrong side of a unanimous decision verdict. The result marks the first-time Brum has lost back-to-back contests in his 8-year career.
Pejic versus Brum can be watched here.
December’s biggest winner was undoubtedly UFC debutant Paul “Bearjew” Craig (9-0), who wrecked the previously unbeaten Luiz Henrique da Silva (12-1) on the prelims of UFC on Fox 22: VanZant vs. Waterson. Craig showcased his vastly improved striking before ensnaring the Brazilian in a fight-ending armbar. The win earned also netted the Scot a $50k “Performance of the Night” bonus.
Fresh from their bonus winning victories on ACB 47: Braveheart in October, Ed “King” Arthur (8-3) and Jake “Brutal” Bostwick (18-9) were invited to compete on ACB’s 50th event, titled “Stormbringer”, from the Sibur Arena in St Petersburg, Russia. Both men failed to leave Russian with a victory however. Arthur was unable to nullify Tural Ragimov’s (15-3) relentless grappling attack, while Bostwick was knocked out by the much larger Alexey Butorin (11-1) less than 2-minutes into their middleweight bout. Arthur has alternated between wins and losses in his past six bouts while Bostwick’s eleven-fight win-streak ends abruptly.
Arthur versus Ragimov can be watched here and Bostwick versus Butorin here.
In Ploiesti, Romania, three Brits were pitted against Romanian opposition as part of the RXF 25: MMA Allstars 3 event. Resurgent light-heavyweight Dan Konecke (9-8) fought first, defeating Adrian Preda (7-2) via TKO after a leg injury left the Romanian unable to continue. Luke “Bigslow” Barnatt (12-3) was the second Brit to make the walk, as he stepped up to the light-heavyweight division to take on Cristian Mitrea (5-1). Barnatt ripped through Mitrea with ease, finishing the hometown favourite with an evil flurry of knees in just 3-minutes. Last up was super-heavyweight John Painter (1-5), who tapped to a neck crank from Alexandru Lungu (14-4) in just 25 seconds.
You can watch Barnatt’s massacre of Preda here.
The final “Brit Abroad” of 2016 was Dillin “Legend” West (0-1). West trekked over to Saitama, Japan for RIZIN’s New Year’s Eve extravaganza, but left with his hopes of a dream debut crushed, succumbing to K-1 Max veteran Kizaemon Saiga’s superior striking.
