Normally known as a knockout finisher, Darren Stewart showed a new wrinkle to his game tonight as he slickly submitted Maki Pitolo with a guillotine choke submission in the opening round.
Round One:
Stewart with a flurry of punches to the body in the opening seconds of the round and Pitolo responds with a knee attempt upstairs.
Pitolo begins circling around the cage. Stewart is stalking him. Leg kick lands for the Brit. Jab lands for Stewart.
Pitolo continuing to move on the outside. Stewart lets his hands fly but doesn’t land cleanly and Pitolo grazes him with a counter hook.
Stewart clinches but not for long. Jab lands for Stewart and a punch in return from Pitolo. Hard right hook for Pitolo stops Stewart in his tracks just for a moment.
One-two for Pitolo. Now a body kick. Double jab and then a right hand lands for Pitolo. Now a kick. Leg kick from Stewart.
Spinning backfist attempt from Pitolo, but Stewart was already ducking into a takedown attempt and presses Pitolo up against the cage.
Pitolo reverses the position though and is able to get Stewart down. However as he does so Stewart is able to lock up a guillotine choke submission and it’s in tight. Nice work from Stewart and that’s it, Pitolo is forced to tap out at 3.41mins of the first round!
