Jorge Masvidal earned a first round TKO victory over Jake Ellenberger tonight at the TUF 24 Finale in a particularly bizarre fashion after his opponent slipped and got his foot stuck in the cage!
Round One:
Leg kick for Ellenberger to start. Now one from Masvidal. He misses with one upstairs though. Another light leg kick for Ellenberger.
Both men kick at the same time and Masvidal is able to catch his opponents kick and lands couple of his own at the same time.
Another kick from Masvidal and he eats a big punch, but Masvidal just smiles and motions him on.
Masvidal continuing to remain aggressive, unleashing a flurry close to the cage including a hard body shot and kknee upstairs, leaving Ellenberger dazed. Masvidal going all out for a finish, but Ellenberger hangs in there and survives the storm.
Mid-way through the round now and Masvidal eases of the gas and goes back to just working from range. He lands a solid leg kick. Ellenberger presses forward with a short flurry that doesn’t land.
Head kick attempt from Masvidal misses. Masvidal eats big punches, but again tries to just laugh it off.
Ellenberger charges forward trying to land a kick, but he slips on the mat and his foot slides awkwardly into the cage. In the heat of the moment it looks like Ellenberger has dropped down in pain from Masvidal’s offense, but he’s just trying to free his foot which is stuck in the fence.
It’s a bizarre moment and ref Herb Dean rushes in to call a timeout. Even with his many years of experience Dean isn’t sure how to proceed after that and he has to ask other officials outside the cage, who advise him that the fight should be declared over, with Masvidal earning a TKO victory with 4.05mins on the clock.
It’s an anti-climactic end to what was shaping up to be an exciting fight, but Masvidal was getting the better of it up to that point, and judging by the pain Ellenberger was experiencing in his foot afterwards it would probably have been difficult for him to continue anyway.
