World Series Of Fighting 25’s one-night, eight-man tournament was won by Brian Foster last night despite the fact he’d been defeated by his fellow finalist Joao Zeferino in the opening round earlier in the evening.
Zeferino defeated Foster with a heel hook submission in just 1.46mins to get his night off to a good start and then booked his spot in the finals by doing the same thing to Jorge Patino (who’d lost to Islam Mamedov earlier by decision, but continued on in the tourney due to his opponent being injured), this time in just 1.24mins.
Meanwhile, Mike Ricci also made short work of Joe Condon, delivering a brutal head kick TKO in 2.41mins, but the victory came at a price as Ricci picked up an injury that forced him out of the tournament.
That gave Foster a chance to step back in despite his earlier loss and so he faced Luis Palomino who’d overcome Richard Patishnock by KO just 5 seconds before the end of the opening round in his opening round bout.
Foster seized the opportunity he’d been given, emerging victorious in a back-and-forth battle with Palomino courtesy of a TKO late in the second round after getting him to the mat and landing ground and pound.
So, in a quirk of fate Foster was now facing Zeferino again, just a few hours after being submitted by him in the prelims.
Zeferino threatened again to stop him with leg looks during the final, but this time Foster was able to successfully defend the submission attempts and despite also being hurt in the second round with a strike he eventually got on top, landed a big punch while diving into Zeferino’s guard that turned the bout on it’s head and then forced a knockout stoppage with follow-up strikes to win the tournament.
See all the results from last night’s WSOF 25 event below.
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Main Card:
Brian Foster def. Joao Zeferino via knockout (punches) – Round 2, 4:51 – lightweight tournament final
Jason High def. Estevan Payan via TKO (head kick, punches) – Round 2, 0:47
Brian Foster def. Luis Palomino via TKO (punches) – Round 2, 4:19 – lightweight tournament semifinal
Joao Zeferino def. Jorge Patino via submission (heel hook) – Round 1, 1:24 – lightweight tournament semifinal
Prelims:
Joseph Barajas def. Erik Villalobos via TKO (strikes) – Round 3, 4:06
Roberto Yong def. Jimmy Scully via TKO (strikes) – Round 1, 1:11
Luis Palomino def. Richard Patishnock via knockout (punches) – Round 1, 4:55 – lightweight tournament opening round
Joao Zeferino def. Brian Foster via submission (heel hook) – Round 1, 1:46 – lightweight tournament opening round
Mike Ricci def. Joe Condon via TKO (head kick) – Round 1, 2:41 – lightweight tournament opening round
Islam Mamedov* def. Jorge Patino via unanimous decision – lightweight tournament opening round
Ramil Mustapayev def. LaRue Burley via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27) – lightweight tournament reserve bout
