Welcome to the latest edition of Missed Fists where Jed Meshew and Alexander K. Lee 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.
We’re a day late, but we couldn’t pass on writing about a weekend that featured two of the craziest fights in recent memory. Even without our usual insights, these clips easily speak for themselves.
Michel Pereira vs. Hae Jun Yang
AL: The first fight we’re looking at this week, a middleweight bout between Michel Pereira and Hae Jun Yang from Saturday’s Road FC 48 show in Wonju, South Korea, features one fighter pulling out all the stops to get a win.
It’s not a stretch to say that Pereira put forth one of the most bizarre and spectacular performances in recent memory here. Just check out these highlights:
JM: I had never heard of Pereira until this weekend and I can now confidently say he is my favorite fighter. He’s like if Anthony Pettis had half the talent but double the “zero f**ks” freewheeling fight attitude. Rolling front kick? Check. Spring-loaded cage Superman punch? Check. Ali Shuffle? Check. Standing backflip kick? Check. Pereira took the phrase “everything but the kitchen sink” to its furthest possible MMA extent and I could not possibly love him more.
AL: I’m glad you identified that as an “Ali Shuffle” because in my notes I have it as “Riverdance feet thing”. The standing backflip kick (if that’s what it was even supposed to be) might be the greatest move I’ve ever seen, right up there with the Mark Hunt “Atomic Butt Drop”.
And it’s not all just flash from Pereira either. Whatever his strategy was, it legitimately wore Yang down and Pereira dusted him with knees to close this one out.
If you’d like to watch Pereira’s full performance (I’m not sure how much more of it I could handle) and the rest of Road FC 48, head on over to their YouTube channel for a full replay.
Mumia Abu Dey Ali vs. Mitch Aguiar
JM: Moving on, it was a wild weekend of fights all around as Periera’s absurd button-mashing style was not even the most thrilling thing to happen since Friday. Mumia Abu Dey Ali and Mitch Aguiar put on an absolute show Friday at Legacy Fight Alliance 46 in Newport News, Va.
Honestly, I want to give this fight a proper intro but I’m not sure we have the words to do it justice. Just see for yourself:
AL: I’m convinced that Ali not only knocks Aguiar down in the first three seconds, but actually knocks him out. The rest is just auto-pilot. How else to explain Aguiar’s erratic movement and counter-striking for the remainder of this extremely short bout? Counter-striking that leads to Aguiar getting a knockdown of his own, naturally.
He then dumps himself on his own head before Ali mercifully puts him away with a left hook and a hammerfist from hell. If Aguiar remembers any of this fight, I would be astonished.
JM: It’s pretty rare that any MMA highlight makes it on to SportsCenter (Anthony Pettis’ Showtime kick was SECOND to some standard-issue regular season game dunk, after all) so when an LFA highlight makes it, you just know something incredible happened.
