Colin Fletcher has four wins with BAMMA. | David Lethaby/Sherdog.com
Gzim Selmani put in a short night’s work in the British Association of Mixed Martial Arts 15 headliner, as he submitted two-time UFC veteran Oli Thompson with a guillotine choke just 18 seconds into their heavyweight tilt at the Copper Box Arena in London on Saturday.
Thompson (12-6), meanwhile, had a two-fight winning streak halted. The ZT Fight Skool representative is now 3-2 since being released following consecutive losses in the UFC in 2012.
In the co-main event, Leon Edwards captured the promotion’s British welterweight strap with a relatively quick submission victory over reigning titlist Wayne Murrie. Edwards secured the tapout via rear-naked choke at the3:13 mark of the opening frame.
Murrie (17-6-1) wasted little time shooting for a takedown, and despite eating a knee in the process, remained persistent in driving his opponent against the fence. However, Edwards (7-1) was able to hang tough and eventually reversed position. The UTC Birmingham representative then took the champion’s back in a scramble before methodically sliding his arm under Murrie’s chin to secure victory.
Colin Fletcher utilized a curious game plan to capture a split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28) against Tony Hervey in a lightweight clash. Fletcher improves to 10-4 with his fourth triumph under the BAMMA banner, while Hervey suffers his fourth loss in five outings to fall to 16-16.
Despite having seven submission victories on his resume, Fletcher never made a serious attempt to get the fight to the floor. While the 6-foot-2 “Freakshow” had significant advantages in height and reach against the 5-8 Hervey, it appeared that the Detroit native landed the more significant blows on the feet, wobbling the “TUF: Smashes” alum with a left hand late in round two and opening a cut on his foe’s head with an overhand left in the third.
“I’m my own worst enemy. I normally let guys take me down and try to submit them,” Fletcher said. “I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I just like to fight too much.”
The Englishman was content to fight at range, relying on a variety of kicks and spinning attacks. Although he never was able to hurt Hervey, that approach worked well enough to find favor with two of the three cageside judges.
I thought it could have gone either way. I would have been happy to lose. It was a difficult fight to judge,” Fletcher said. “I wanted to pick my shots.”
In earlier action: Tom Duquesnoy submitted Teddy Violet with a triangle choke 1:29 into the second round; Harry McLeman captured a unanimous decision over Andy De-Vent; Ryan Scope outpointed Ali Arish; Rany Saadeh took a three-round verdict against Mahmood Besharate; Jefferson George won via split-decision over Jack Grant; Alex Montagnani tapped Nathan Jones with a rear-naked choke 2:43 into the opening frame; Andy Craven submitted Richie Edwards with a rear-naked choke at the 2:12 mark of round one; Ed Arthur submitted Nathaniel Wood via rear-naked choke 1:48 into the third stanza and Jacek Toczydlowski forced Benny Carr to submit to punches 1:32 into the card’s opening bout.