Over four days, we saw 143 bouts take place at the inaugural IMMAF World Cup with the run time totalling 20 hours and 15 minutes. The week was one to remember for several reasons. Be it the fact that we saw the first-ever All-Ireland team compete at an IMMAF Competition. Or even seeing Kosovo register their first-ever win and medal in their IMMAF debut as Arlind Berisha dominated the Heavyweight ranks.
Stories like the above are the ones we admire and love to see at IMMAF competition but when you dig deeper into the numbers, they can paint a different picture and highlight some points that may have previously gone unnoticed.
Day 1
The opening day saw the total number of bouts reduced from 36 to 33 after a pair of fighters missed weight and a failed medical examination. It was a day where the grappling prowess of competitors stole the show. Norway’s Fabian Ufs set the tone early in the day by scoring a kneebar submission 34 seconds into his fight, the fastest submission at Junior over the four days and one of only two kneebars.
The sole d’arce choke of the competition came later that day when Germany’s Kevin Enz tapped Czech Republic’s Matej Sidunov in the first round of their Sr. Welterweight bout.
Ufs’ fight may have been quick but up stepped Manuchehr Rioev to create another highlight and set a tournament record. His 20 second TKO of Patrick Doran was the fastest fight of the competition.
Day 2
Over a third of the bouts came on the second day of fights with 51 bouts taking place across the two cages. On a day where over half of the fights went to the judges’ scorecards, 12 TKO/KOs also occurred. Making up half of the competition’s TKO/KO finishes overall.
Amongst the 12 was the fastest Junior TKO/KO of the competition when Lithuania’s Mykolas Korsakovas forced the referee to call a halt to the fight at 2:28 of the opening round.
Bahrain’s Rasul Magomedov added to the impressive finishes of the day by making light work of his fight by getting his opponent out of there in 58 seconds. Making it the fastest fight of the day.
Day 3
Semi-finals day produced some cracking fights along with one of the highlight reels of the competition. Ireland’s Kerry Ann Vernon was the only fighter to have a fight declared a KO victory as opposed to a TKO. After a vicious strike sent her opponent crashing to the mat and sending Vernon to the Final.
Her 32-second finish stole the show and proved to be the fastest fight of the day.
Day 4
Finals day ended up being the longest day of them all with a total run time of six hours and thirty minutes. This was to be expected as cages were reduced from two to one and medal ceremonies also had to take place.
Adding to the run time was the number of distance bouts with 16 of the 24 bouts going all three rounds to keep the judges busy. Although the number of decisions was quite high, only one was a split decision. Indicating that the fight being between Eva Melo and Yrsa Sandin was the closest of the day.
The fight before this saw the record for fastest senior submission being set by Cecilie Bolander. Her 35-second armbar being ever so close to the overall fastest submission.
Overall the competition was a large success and can be watched on IMMAF.tv for those who missed it. A summary of the overall competition stats can be found here.
