In one of the more anticipated bouts of the evening, Poster Boy took his unblemished record up to 4-0 with a round-1 submission victory over a very game 1-1 Jamie Hearn. Injecting a bit of a showmanship into the event, Windsor based Hearn made his way to the cage dressed as gladiator, while Jimi strolled up with Team 187, Dino from Team Spartan, and Nova Forca’s Ricardo Da Silva. After the customary ring announcements, both fighters politely touched gloves and got down to business.
The opening seconds saw no contact as Jimi and Jamie skipped around feeling out the cage and sizing each other up. Getting into their stride, Jimi was the first to land with a well timed roundhouse kick to Jamie’s calf/ankle region. Continuing to circulate the cage, Jimi flicked out another low unchecked roundhouse as Hearn stepped forward with a jab. Not fully knowing if it was the result of the kick or whether he had in fact rolled his ankle, Jamie gesticulated to the ref that he had a problem.
After taking less than a minute out, the fight resumed with Hearn launching himself at Jimi in a combo of tidily executed punches, the sort only seen from a professional boxer; without doubt, Hearn’s hands were among the quickest of the evening. On the back foot, Jimi covered up and absorbed the tirade before realising, ‘Hearn meant business’. Whilst Jamie worked another combo, Jimi shot in for a huge double leg, firing Hearn across the length of the cage in the process.
After some to-ing and fro-ing and, Jamie delivered a very hard kick of his own, and again, made it clear to the ref that he had a problem with his ankle. Following some words of warning from the ref, the fight continued, but this time Jimi wasted no time in finishing it. A couple of punches later, Hearn dropped to one knee while Jimi seized the moment and grabbed a guillotine. Not realising Hearn had tapped, the ‘187′ continued as Jimi jumped into guard, guillotine suck for the finish while the ref quickly intervened.
Congratulations to Jimi’s team mates, Ben Smith and John Joe Ellis. Ben won by a well executed arm-bar in round one, while John scored the quickest TKO of the night. All in all, a great night for Team 187!
