Exactly four years ago, MMA fans witnessed a rare knockout. There was a historic finish at the Brazilian UFC 237. Initially, the event was supposed to take the Arena da Baixada stadium in Curitiba, designed for 43 thousand spectators, but then the show had to move the Jeunesse arena to Rio de Janeiro, as the league leadership did not agree with the football club » Atlético Paranaense».
In general, 30,000 fewer people saw the beauty performed by the hostess of the octagon, Jessica Andrade. After all, I had to move to the basketball arena — cozy, but still not spacious enough for an event of this magnitude.
But in the second round, the UFC champion relaxed, which is unacceptable at this level. Andrade picked up the pace and, pinning Namajunas at the net, again raised her opponent above her… This time the throw turned out to be exemplary: the unfortunate favorite at full speed flew her head into the canvas and turned off. The referee did not save Rose from a couple of finishing punches — this slam knockout (that's what headshots are called on the floor) was the first in the history of female «title holders» in the Dana White league.
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“At that moment, I didn’t understand what happened. I saw that she fainted — I threw two blows, and the judge stood between us. But Namajunas woke up immediately, and I relaxed. I’m happy that everything worked out and I didn’t kill her ( laughs) I lifted her up like a feather. She was really light, I had no idea that she was so light. Such a throw came out because she continued to hold my hand and was about to come out for a painful hold. But she landed on her head — it was immediate knockout», — this is how the new champion commented on the terrible episode after the show. iframe src=»https://vk.com/video_ext.php?oid=-180706688&id=456239760&hash=275ad1898d6000e4&hd=2″ width=»100%» height=»100%» allow=»autoplay; encrypted-media;fullscreen;picture-in-picture;» frameborder=»0″ allowfullscreen=»»>
Unfortunately for Jessica, that fight was her peak in the world's premier MMA promotion:
- she never defended her title. In August 2019, the Brazilian lost to the Chinese Weili Zhang in 42 seconds and never touched the belt again. The chance to return to the top was in April 2021, but then Andrade fell under the rink of Valentina Shevchenko;
- Jessica and Rose's paths crossed again in 2020. And now the victory went to Namajunas: the fight lasted all three rounds and ended with a split decision of the judges.
As for the technique itself, which was so successfully used by the representative of Brazil, in Russia it is primarily associated with Fedor Emelianenko. In 2004, he himself almost became a victim of a slam. But the Last Emperor cannot be «turned off» so easily — in the wheelhouse with Kevin Randleman, the Russian survived the storm and made a comeback.
Read our text about that epochal battle.