For the second night in a row, UFC Fight Pass showed the world a night of Canadian MMA, this time with Unified MMA at Unified 47. The night opened with two straight, quick TKO finishes from Usman Khattak and Ramil Kamilov. Amazingly, we then saw three fighters grab a comeback win, as John Nguyen, Fay Bursell and Tom O’Connor fended off some early adversity before eventually grabbing a win. The night then closed with a DOMINANT grappling display from Maged Hammo, thereby defending his featherweight belt. All the fights, along with the BLÜ BONUSES for the night, are described below.
Fight #1
Usman Khattak def. Michael Thomas by TKO in the 1st Round
Khattak was clearly the better striker early, landing clean combo after combo, dropping Thomas a couple times early. Wanting to get a quick finish in his MMA debut, Khattak never slowed down, wailing heavy ground and pound until the ref called him off.
Fight #2
Ramil Kamilov def. Sean Michael by TKO in the 1st Round
Both men were throwing out some quick jabs at first, then the fight went straight to the ground with Michael smothering him on the ground. It took a minute, but Kamilov got back up. He knew he needed to make a statement after that and that’s exactly what he did. He landed HUGE combos for about a minute straight, wobbling Michael and mangling his face. Eventually Michael just couldn’t defend any more and the ref called it off for another quick 1st Round finish on the night.
Fight #3
John Nguyen def. Diego Santos by TKO in the 2nd Round
Santos looked to be the more aggressive Unified fighter early, walking Nguyen down, throwing out some big combos. Perhaps waiting for Santos to tire out, Nguyen eventually started to get into his rhythm, landing some crisp combos of his own. The damage was starting to show on the face of Santos, but he didn’t let that stop him, still throwing out some heavy shots. Thanks to that late damage and precise striking, Nguyen had clearly stolen the round back on the cards.
Recovered well from the 1st Round, Santos came in hard once again, throwing some wild shots. Nguyen got clipped a couple of times, but stayed in there and was countering well. Eventually, it was the combos of Nguyen that ended the fight. He landed a beautiful body-shot that crumbled Santos along the fence. With a couple more strikes, he couldn’t defend himself and the ref was forced to step in.
Fight #4
Fay Bursell def. Ali Charkie by Unanimous Decision
Charkie seemed like the clear favourite early on, landing heavy, heavy leg kicks. He then partially landed a slick flying knee, then transitioning into a beautiful takedown. From there, Charkie landed some slicing elbows, absolutely smothering Bursell on the canvas. Bursell tried to keep the fight on the feet at the start of the 2nd Round, but was slowly broken down and dragged onto the canvas. He wasn’t able to do as much damage this time, instead he was focusing on maintaining his dominant positions.
Knowing he was down two rounds, Bursell started to walk Charkie down right away. Charkie seemed to be tired and was starting to get lit up by some crisp combos. Sadly for Bursell, Charkie then went back to his grappling, pinning him into the fence. Really starting to slow down, Charkie was starting to get hit by a lot of clinch strikes and was even reversed at one point by Bursell. With less than a minute to go, Charkie was completely exhausted, laying on the ground.
Sadly for Bursell, he simply didn’t take advantage of the situation. He ended up doing a bit of damage, clearly winning the final round; it’s just a shame because he had an EASY finish right in his lap for the final couple minutes. In spite of that, the judges seemed to forget what they were watching, scoring this Unified 47 fight unanimously in favour of Bursell.
Unified 47 Co-Main Event
Tom O’Connor def. Devon Brock by TKO in the 3rd Round
O’Connor was looking to grapple early, but was quickly met with some adversity, getting wobbled by a crisp jab. This trend continued for a couple minutes with O’Connor looking for takedowns and Brock landing some clean shots. Eventually, O’Connor was close, getting a clinch along the fence. Sadly for him, Brock shut that down easily and went back to striking. Thanks to all that crisp striking from Brock, he easily took the round on the cards.
Brock kept that dominance going early, dropping O’Connor briefly to the canvas. After over a round of unsuccessful attempts, O’Connor finally managed to drag Brock down to the canvas. After controlling position for a while, he started to land some damage and eventually transitioned to the back of Brock. Brock managed to slip out and get back up, but he seemed a little tired, getting easily taken down by O’Connor. The rest of the round was pure dominance on the ground by O’Connor, bringing the score to a 1-1 tie.
Refreshed from his shift in momentum, O’Connor was relentlessly pushing forward at the start of the third. It took him a while, but he eventually dragged Brock down once again. With 3 minutes left in the round and some heavy ground and pound, a finish seemed imminent for O’Connor. After a whole slew of elbows, the ref had finally seen enough, giving O’Connor one hell of a comeback finish.
Unified 47 Main Event (Featherweight Title Fight)
Maged Hammo def. Justin Basra by Submission in the 1st Round
Basra pressured the defending champ early, going for a slick takedown. Sadly for him, that was a mistake as Hammo quickly reversed him and took his back. Just over a minute into the fight and Hammo was DEEP in on a submission. Basrat slipped out of a couple of nasty-looking subs, but eventually couldn’t defend one of those chokes and was forced to tap.
BLÜ BONUSES
KO of the Night: John Nguyen
Sub. of the Night: Maged Hammo
Brawl of the Night: John Nguyen vs. Diego Santos
Most Valuable Fighter
Tom O’Connor
It was looking like it was going to be a long, rough night for him, but he somehow came back and ended up dominating after the 1st Round. Following that comeback win, he impressed even more, giving one of the better, more sincere, post-fight interviews I’ve ever seen. With an attitude, skill and grit like that, I’d like to see him in a big promotion some day.