Missed Fists: Rampage Jackson and Bob Sapp train for ‘Siamese Twin’ fight at Fight Circus 6

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.

We’re on the cusp of our second UFC pay-per-view in three weeks, a stretch that caps off what has to be one of the promotion’s most memorable first quarters ever (A new light heavyweight champ is crowned out of nowhere! Makhachev vs. Volkanovski! Shevchenko loses! Jones is back!) but the last day of March promises to bring us the most important fight of 2023 so far.

That’s right, Fight Circus is back on March 31 and this past week we were treated to an incredible preview of the main event. See for yourself below.

(Big thanks as always to @Barrelelapierna for their weekly lists of the best KOs and submissions, and to @Grabaka_Hitman for uploading many of the clips you see here. Give them a follow and chip in on Patreon if you can.)

It always felt like destiny that Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Bob Sapp would share a combat sports stage someday, though few could have guessed it would be as teammates and none would have guessed that it would be in a Siamese Twin Fight.

Guessing that their paths would cross in Fight Circus though? That was closer to -100000 odds.

Full Metal Dojo released a brief and hilarious clip of Jackson and Sapp training before later dropping the full trailer, which is full of the irreverent Fight Circus humor we’ve all come to know and love.

Give it a watch:

“This is seriously ill-advised, why would Twopollo Ramsapp Creed do this?”

“Because America is the land of opportunity.”

“Then why is the fight happening in Thailand?”

Great stuff.

Twopollo Ramsapp Creed vs. Sloppy Balboa goes down March 31 live on fightcircus.tv.

Now, on to the highlights of the week. Given how quickly some of these fights ended, it shouldn’t take you long to get through them so you have plenty of time to go back and watch that Fight Circus 6 trailer over and over again.

Nikita Leshukov vs. Tayron Chavarro

From Levels Fight League 8 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands:

We’ve seen tornado kicks finish fighters as they misstep into the direction of the attacker’s power, but this time Tayron Chavarro did the right thing by circling away and still got caught by the powerful leg of Nikita Leshukov. I’m thinking the ground-and-pound after wasn’t necessary as it looked like Chavarro was out of it already.

Leshukov improves to 2-0 as a pro with this 25-second, following a 32-second knockout in his debut last September. The 21-year-old welterweight might have a difficult time finding fights going forward.

Pablo Eduardo vs. Azizbek Norov

If Leshukov had the best KO this week, then the best submission has to go to Angel’s Fighting Championship’s Pablo Eduardo.

I had to replay this one a few times to figure out what happened. Azizbek Norov catches an Eduardo kick, but falls prey to an impossibly fast rolling kneebar right after. Eduardo moves to 3-0 with the win and has now won two straight via leglock.

Angel’s Fighting Championship 23 is available for free replay on YouTube.

Jonathan Ramsay vs. Emmanuel Suarez

Our Humpty Dumpty Fall of the Week comes courtesy of Jonathan Ramsay and Emmanuel Suarez from Samourai MMA 5 in Laval, Quebec.

It’s a right to the temple that shuts Suarez down and sends him crashing to the mat, with Ramsay’s little left hand shove to the face making the fall that much more awkward. That’s a tough break for Suarez, who will probably think twice about rushing in with his head and hands down next time.

Bailey King vs. Harrison Layne

Speaking of takedown attempts gone wrong, from Peak Fighting 27 in Frisco, Texas:

It’s hard to blame Harrison Layne too much for what happened here as this is a classic reaction shot leading to disaster. Bailey King was just lighting him up to the head and body and when he saw Layne change levels, it must have felt like Christmas came early. That is if Santa Claus decided to start giving out knee knockouts from Hell for Christmas.

Shanelle Dyer vs. Weronika Eszer

Shout-out to the Hexagone MMA team for putting up some excellent highlights on social media from this past weekend’s show in Poitiers, France.

The best one has got to be England’s Shanelle Dyer capping off her pro debut with a sweet spinning back elbow knockout of Weronika Eszer.

She got all of that one. Ouch.

Hexagone MMA 7 is available for replay on DAZN.

Kuae Fernandes vs. Felipe Douglas
Carlos Prates vs. Eduardo Ramon
Rodolfo Bellato vs. Mateus Messaros
Luana Santos vs. Bartira Rodrigues
Jean Matsumoto vs. Marlon Basilio
Lucas Fernando vs. Jansey Silva

I’d be remiss if we didn’t feature last Friday’s LFA 154 event in Sao Paulo, Brazil, which featured an absurd amount of headhunting, and not just of the knockout variety. Though there were plenty of knockouts.

First and foremost:

That’s Kuae Fernandes squaring Felipe Douglas up and then messing him up (technical term) with one of the year’s best head kicks. Poor form on the follow-up strikes though.

Perhaps you’d Carlos Prates decimating Eduardo Ramon instead?

There, Prates showed off the oft-overlooked technique of knocking your opponent down and then *gasp* letting them stand back up so you can finish them off instead of halfheartedly jumping into their guard. The result? Great victory.

Rodolfo Bellato absolutely froze Mateus Messaros with this knee before finishing with ground-and-pound.

He literally froze him. Time stopped for this man. For one sweet second, he ascended before being brought back to cruel reality.

Remember what I said about there being more than one way to take someone’s head home? Check out Luana Santos’ guillotine choke of Bartira Rodrigues.

I’m guessing Santos is a Jon Jones fan because that was straight out of the Jones “choke out Machida and then go make some fans” playbook.

And I’m guessing Jean Matsumoto is a Santos fan because three fights later he slapped on a guillotine choke on Marlon Basilio and it looked like he was trying to pop a lid off a jar. A human jar.

Of course, on a night filled with head damage finishes, Lucas Fernando capped things off by winning a vacant LFA middleweight title via a savage body shot.

Guess Fernando didn’t get the memo.

LFA 154 is available for replay on UFC Fight Pass.

If you know of a recent fight or event that you think may have been overlooked, or a promotion that could use some attention, please let us know on Twitter — @AlexanderKLee — using the hashtag #MissedFists.