Matt Schnell took an absolute beating at the hands and elbows of Sumudaerji in the second round of their fight today at UFC On ABC 3, but despite being rocked multiple times he rallied in remarkable fashion to daze his opponent with a punch on the feet, bloody him up with elbows on the mat and then finally sink in a triangle choke finish.
Round One:
Leg kick for Sumudaerji. Schnell with a leg kick now as he takes the center of the Octagon. Another leg kick from him. Sumudaerji with a leg kick.
Another leg kick from Schnell. Now a punch. Both trade heavy inside leg kicks. A couple of left hands from Sumudaerji. He tries to go upstairs with a kick.
Sumudaerji looks for a punch, but Schnell ducks under and brings him down. Schnell almost in full mount here then takes his back. Sumudaerji almost turning into him though and does well to get on top.
Schnell trying to set up a triangle choke though, but has to give up on it. Sumudaerji with some body punches from in his opponent’s full guard. Schnell trying for the triangle choke again, but Sumudaerji gets out of it and stands over him.
Sumudaerji follows him back down and soon finds himself caught in another triangle attempt that morphs into an omaplata. Sumudaerji stands with his arm still trapped and then slams him back to the mat, but the omaplata remains.
Schnell uses that to get on top and now starts to work from Sumudaerji’s guard. Schnell stands up and lands a nice right hand then drops back down. Sumudaerji lands a few elbows from his back. Schnell postures up but before he can work strikes the round ends.
Round Two:
Jab for Sumudaerji and then a hook. Sumudaerji lands a kick to the groin and Schnell gets some time to recover.
Back to it they go. Crafty uppercut from Schnell. Heavy left hand for Schnell whose legs stiffen for a moment.
Glancing left hand from Sumudaerji. Now a bigger blow that hurts Schnell again. Leg kick from Schnell and Sumudaerji slips for a moment.
leg kick for Sumudaerji. Another heavy one. Left hand gets through for him now. Another left scores and floors Schnell.
Schnell tries to counter with a single-leg, but nothing doing. He does get up though.
Big elbow lands for Sumudaerji and Schnell is in a lot of trouble here. He lands again. Now a power elbow rocks Schnell again, but somehow he remains standing.
Schnell still trying to come forward, but he’s in bad shape here. Sumudaerji with right hands that stun him again.
Schnell with a flurry of punches to show he’s still in this. Hard right hand from Schnell and now it’s Sumudaerji who is stunned!!
Schnell gets him down and is almost immediately in full mount. Schnell with good ground-and-pound here as Sumudaerji looks burned out. The ref hovers as more elbows land and bloody up his opponent badly.
Crazy stuff, however, just when the fight looks like it’s going to be stopped, Sumudaerji summons up the strength to go for a reversal and ends up on top.
Great work from him, but Schnell goes for that triangle choke again and he’s got it locked in. What a remarkable turnaround here and that’s it, Sumudaerji goes to sleep and Schnell earns him an instant classic comeback win via submission at 4.24mins of the second round.
What an incredible fight. In all honesty I felt like the ref could have stopped in to end the fight at any moment when Schnell was being repeatedly rocked on the feet as that was getting ugly, but all credit to him for enduring that onslaught and then producing a stunning comeback finish that will live long in the memory.
