Remember the Name Kailan Hill… The Rising Star Just Got One of the Knockouts of the Year With an Incredible Spinning Backfist KO…
The UFC is in Argentina this weekend, but with a relatively mediocre card, fans would be forgiven for looking to get their MMA fix elsewhere. With so many fights in loads of different promotions, there has never been a richer time to be a fan of the world’s greatest combat sport.
Legacy Fighting Alliance is one of the biggest regional promotions in the US, along with the likes of PFL and TITAN. Fighters. The likes of Holly Holm, Erik Andyrs, Tim Means, Sage Northcutt and Valentina Shevchenko have all fought for LFA in the past, graduating to the UFC.
These smaller promotions often go under the radar but can provide some incredible moments by exciting young prospects. We got such a moment the other night when LFA 54 went down in Costa Mesa, California. Kailan Hill smashed his opponent with a sensational spinning back-fist.
Highlight
This is a proper highlight reel finish. Kailan Hill is a young middleweight fighter from Puerto Rico. He’s now 4-0 in his MMA career, and all of his wins have come via first-round knockouts. This young man is a powerhouse and definitely somebody to watch, in what is often one of the thinnest divisions in men’s MMA.
This time he got the knockout after just 11 seconds. He throws a lead hook at his opponent Andre Walker and then immediately spun into a devastating back fist strike, knocking his opponent unconscious. In one week, we’ve had two of the cleanest KOs of the year. This is as good a finish as you’ll ever see. Backfists have to be perfectly timed because otherwise you could end up breaking your arm like Paul Felder and Paige VanZant have in the past.
BRAVE
Meanwhile, in Bahrain, Conor McGregor’s teammate and former cellmate Cian Cowley was fighting against Hardeep Ree. He also won in the first round, with a vicious TKO victory. Cowley is a controversial figure who openly showed no remorse for his involvement in the April bus attack, saying it was good for his profile. He might have a point.
Anyway, after a disappointing professional debut, the former kickboxer totally unloaded his skills on his opponent, obliterating Ree’s leg with brutal and venomous leg kicks. The pace at which he whips them in is disturbing and leaves his opponent sprawled on the ground, exposed to ground-and-pound. Soon after the referee separated them. It was an excellent performance from the young Dublin native.
Variety
With many fans becoming increasingly frustrated with the UFC, the answer is simple: watch something else. There’s more than enough high-quality MMA available these days. ONE has a fight card tonight in Jakarta, available to watch for free – on their free app. It’s a truly revolutionary way of keeping up with the sport. Meanwhile, Bellator and RIZIN also had fights this week.
There’s never been a richer time to be an MMA fan. The problem is there’s almost too much choice.
