Facing a pair of Japanese opponents, strikers Elliot Compton and Junior Tafa secured impressive first-round victories in the debut Beatdown Promotions event on Saturday night.
Compton headlined the card, and utlised his decorated Muay Thai skills to drop his opponent Takuya Oyama with a pair of heavy knees. The referee immediately intervened to end the contest, only 1:35 into the bout.
Compton will need to decide at what weight his MMA future will be, as he reportedly weighed in heavy for the lightweight contest.
Compton was animated and relieved on the microphone post-fight.
“Takuya Oyama. Give it up for this guy. He flew across the world to fight the dragon and that’s ain’t no easy feat.”
“This s””t is a long time coming. There are a lot of people that wanted to see me fall flat on my face but there was a lot more that wanted to see me win, so f””k all those other guys and thank you to you guys.”
It was an even shorter night for former Glory-ranked kickboxer Junior Tafa who was too strong for Taisei Sekino. Tafa, the younger brother of UFC heavyweight Justin Tafa, needed just 66-seconds to dispose of his opponent, dropping him with a hook against the cage to secure victory in what was a long-awaited MMA debut.
Earlier on the card, Michael Stanoff looked impressive as he entered the winner’s column as a pro. He secured a second-round submission over Ryan Mortimer who incredibly was returning to competition after a 14-year lay-off. The bout was contested as a catchweight after Stanoff had failed to make the lightweight limit.
Meanwhile, in a heavyweight bout, David Taumoepeau outlasted Creedence Anderson in an entertaining back-and-forth encounter.
Results (Pro):
- Elliot Compton def. Takuya Oyama via TKO (Knees), Rd 1, 1:35
- Junior Tafa def. Taisei Sekino via KO (Strikes), Rd 1, 1:06
- Michael Stanoff def. Ryan Mortimer via Submission (Rear-Naked Choke), Rd 2, 2:59
- David Taumoepeau def. Creedence Anderson via TKO (Strikes), Rd 2, 4:02
Results (Amateur):
- Caleb Miller def. Ethan Mitchell via Decision (Split)
- Max Kelly def. Jacob Lucas via Decision (Unanimous)
- Joel England def. Bayden Toogood via Decision (Unanimous)
- Ellis Brown def. Jack Hansen via TKO (Strikes), Rd 3, 0:22
- Nicholas Morgan def. Valentin Melagrani via Submission (Armbar), Rd 1, 1:16
- Liam Taylor def. Brendon Riley via KO (Strikes), Rd 1, 0:54
- Cooper Martin def. Liam Lewis via TKO (Strikes), Rd 2, 0:14
