Beatdown 14 Results: Six Fights, Six Finishes as Toby Tsang Claims Gold

Six Fights, Six Finishes: Tsang Claims Gold as Beatdown 14

Nobody on the all professional main card heard a final bell at Beatdown 14. Of the six professional fights at Eatons Hill Hotel on Saturday night, six fights ended early and a clean sweep of finishes had promoter Damien "Beatdown" Brown very pleased backstage after the event.

"Six pros, six fight bonus finishes," Brown told me after the event. "That's the way it goes, you know? These guys are making money."

I spent the night ferrying between cageside and the backstage corridor, catching each winner minutes after their hand was raised. What follows is how it happened, and what they had to say while the adrenaline was still doing the talking.

Jake Piper submits Kotone Tada: guillotine, 4:19 of round one

The pro card opened with a feeling-out process that didn't stay polite for long. Piper landed a good body kick early and Tada clinched soon after. Piper was very eager to throw hard and swinging big got him taken down, where he immediately attacked a triangle off his back. Tada escaped, let him up, and it was back to an exciting battle on the feet.

They exchanged hands in space, Piper landing clean, mixing in knees, doing his best work in the clinch. Then Tada shot for a takedown and dropped his neck straight into a nasty guillotine. There was no escaping it. The tap came at 4:19 of the first, and Piper celebrated with a cigarette in the cage while the official decision was read out.

Backstage, the Ignite MMA fighter was exactly the energy you'd expect from a man who smokes a durrie in the cage, and completely unbothered by the significance of the result.

"The win, I couldn't give a fuck about the win," Piper told me. "I'm just here for money and bashing cunts, man."

On the choke itself, he was more forthcoming. "Once that's locked up, it's not going, bro. Sleeping or tapping. I got a good guillie. I'll jump that every day of the week, twice on Sundays."

His plans now the fight is done are refreshing, time with his girls, some cashies with the boys, and to celebrate now "Get high as fuck and just sit down with my missus and eat fucking cookies and chocolates and wake up at 5:00 AM to a baby."

Erin Carter TKOs Annie Thatcher: 2:24 of round two

Carter, the second Ignite MMA professional on the card, spent most of the first round in pressed against the cage. Thatcher initiated the clinch immediately and the pair traded knees and elbows against the fence for long stretches. When they finally broke and exchanged midway through the round, it didn't last. Thatcher put Carter on the mat, worked to mount with forty seconds left, and took her back before the horn. An exhausting round, Carter looked the fresher of the two returning to their corners though.

The second round saw Thatcher shoot immediately and landed some shots, but Carter answered with short rabbit punches and elbows from the bottom that appeared to split Thatcher open. Carter worked to her feet, found her range, and started landing big. The pace was visibly shifting in her favour when her right hand dropped Thatcher clean. Carter stood back up rather than stay on top. Thatcher rose slowly, shot on desperate instinct, and got taken down herself. Carter poured on the ground strikes for the stoppage at 2:24.

Carter called this finish before the fight, in her commentary questions, she predicted a second or third round KO/TKO.

"That's definitely what I envisioned," she told me backstage, "and I brought it to life tonight."

For a fighter who does that much damage, Carter is disarmingly kind and measured in person. She was over the moon with the win in her pro debut, already talking about the next Beatdown, and planning a celebration of desserts at home before returning to training on Monday.

Max Kelly KOs Nate Law: head kick, 23 seconds round three

This fight was only made four weeks out, after Kelly's original opponent was knocked out on an Eternal MMA card and Law had a fight cancellation. Brown, who wears two hats here as both the promoter and Kelly's coach, called it "a people's main event type fight. High risk, high reward."

For two rounds, Law was the one collecting the reward. The early distance striking gave way to a clinch battle Law was strong, pressing Kelly into the cage, and finding takedowns off inside trips in both rounds. Kelly kept popping back up, even briefly landing a takedown of his own in the second, but the grinding pattern looked to be favouring Law.

"He (Max) had to go to the third round and he had to find a way to win," Brown said afterwards.

The third started on the feet. Kelly, coming out southpaw, threw a blitz and finished the combination with an insane right head kick that knocked out Law immediately earning Mad Max the walk-off KO.

Kelly broke that kick down for me. "I throw that kick weird. I throw it like it's a leg kick, and it comes up over the top," he said. "He likes to get out and go left, which he's southpaw. That's my right. I was just lucky I caught him right on the dot."

His coach's version adds a wrinkle. Brown gave Kelly combinations to throw at the end of the second. "The head kick wasn't one of them," he admitted, "but it is definitely something he throws in the gym behind his right hook. Quite often we're like, 'Maybe don't throw that.' Tonight he threw it, and that's the shot."

As for what's next, Kelly wasn't naming names because he wants all of them. "A, B, C, D, E. Doesn't fucking matter. Let's go." He celebrated the win by heading for the pokies with a two grand advance he was already chasing Brown for backstage.

Tomoya "Fireball Kong" Hirakawa KOs Kris Ustijanovski: 3:39 of round one

Hirakawa was fast from the opening seconds, bouncing on his feet while Ustijanovski switched stances hunting elbows and big single shots. Not much landed early for either man, but Hirakawa was throwing with venom. When he threw a big glancing left, the huge right behind it landed flush, knocking Ustijanovski into the cage. Hirakawa swarmed a dazed Ustijanovski with wild shots and finished him on the ground at 3:39 of the first.

Hirakawa's English was limited but his delight wasn't. He told me he'd trained hard for three months specifically for Ustijanovski, that he wants to come back and fight in Brisbane and that his celebration plans were to "Party time."

Ben Watson submits Tetsuo Nakanishi: guillotine, 4:04 of round one

Watson took this fight on short notice, saw the finish bonus when he signed, and game-planned accordingly.

"We came in here to finish," he told me. "They give this cool bonus over here, so when we signed, we saw that."

The fight itself was a grappling exchange of genuinely high quality. Both men traded kicks early before Watson mixed his striking into a beautiful takedown. Nakanishi threw up-kicks off his back through the early scrambles, but Watson worked to half guard and landed massive elbows. When Nakanishi worked his way up he was caught in a first guillotine attempt and trapped against the cage. Watson later told me Nakanishi was slick at keeping his chin hidden. Nakanishi answered with a takedown of his own still in the Guillotine and hunted a Von Flue choke.

Watson let go and had Nakanishi in his guard. He was slick using a butterfly to create some space, grab the choke again and sweep.

"It was more about actually hitting the sweep that allowed the leverage of the choke to happen," he said. "We got the butterfly and swept him over. We swept him and then we were in Superman. Bam. Full extension, back extension. We call it the raptor."

The tap came at 4:04 of round one. A short-notice replacement had just submitted a Japanese veteran in one of the featured bouts of the night, and Watson made it very clear he'd do it again.

"If it's got money on the other side, I'm more than likely to jump higher than any cunt around," he said, before pitching himself for bigger things knowing exactly what promoters want "I'm always ready. I'm always training. I'm healthy, and I can fucking talk."

Toby Tsang submits Machine to win the Beatdown Promotion Light Heavyweight Championship: rear naked choke, 3:15 of round one

The main event didn't need five rounds. Tsang pressed from the opening bell, constricting Machine with pressure that left him nowhere to go. When Machine pressed back and initiated a clinch, Tsang threw him down, worked to the back, and ground away on top, landing shots until the rear naked choke arrived at 3:15 of the first. A five-round title fight, done inside four minutes.

The new champion was strikingly honest afterwards about what was happening behind his eyes in there.

"I had some thoughts in there. I was getting a little bit sidetracked, and I think that's from the buildup," Tsang told me. "The more buildup, the more you think about it, the more you sink into that thinking frame. But eventually I found my way out of it and found the finish."

The finish itself was Plan B. Tsang expected to put Machine away with strikes, but Machine's odd movement wasn't there to be hit. "So the backup plan, you build your game plan on grappling. In my opinion, that's like 70% of the sport."

Tsang plans to celebrate by spending time with friends and family. "We've got a certain section that we always fill out," he said. "They put so much into me and I'm the one here holding the belt. I get all the glory, but they deserve at least some time."

What's next

Brown already has plans. Beatdown 15 lands on October 2, and he wants his new light heavyweight champion on it. "I think there's a couple of good domestic light heavyweights that might want to have a crack at that title," he said, before issuing an open invitation: "Light heavyweight's a shallow division, so if there's Australian guys at light heavyweight that want to fight, give me a call."

Whoever answers that call faces a champion who just needed less than four minutes of a five-round fight. Until then, Beatdown leaves Eatons Hill with new light heavyweight gold, six bonus cheques cashed, and not a single scorecard filled in on the main card.

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