PBP Commentary

Coming up we have a light heavyweight MMA rules bout between Ilyha Porunov (ranked 0 p4p, 0 weight class) and Alex Ku (ranked 0 p4p, 0 weight class). Ku has a niggling injury. He would have liked to come in 100% fit but that's not always possible. Alex Ku has the better chin. Will he look to stand and bang today?

Porunov
vs
Ku

195 cm
18
200 lbs
0 - 1 - 0

183 cm
22
190 lbs
0 - 3 - 0

BJJ Blue Belt
Brawler
Cuts easily

BJJ White Belt
Good kicks
Experienced

Ladies and gentlemen. This fight is 3 rounds, in the light heavyweight division.
Introducing the fighter to my left, fighting out of the red corner.
With a record of 0 - 1 - 0, fighting out of St Petersburg, Ilyha Porunov!
And introducing the fighter to my right, fighting out of the blue corner.
With a record of 0 - 3 - 0, fighting out of St Petersburg, Alex Ku!
The judges for this bout are Aleksandr Martynov, Ivan Kurochkin and Viktor Lagutenko.

The bell rings for round one and we are underway!
Ku misses with a jab and misses with a cross straight after too.
Ku looks really tired already! That doesn't bode well for a good, competitive fight!

Porunov drives through with a takedown into guard.
Porunov sitting in guard here, content to control.

Porunov gets to his feet - Ku follows without any prompting.

Porunov moves into the clinch successfully.

Porunov breaks the clinch and we return to the middle of the mat.

Porunov closes the distance and clinches up, looking for a takedown. He shifts his weight and gets a nice trip into half guard.

Porunov is looking for a kimura but Ku is holding onto that half guard position, so it's hard for Porunov to get the leverage.
Porunov is looking to pass the guard... He's managed it - he's now in full mount!
Porunov cracks Ku with a nasty head shot there - the crowd let out an audible gasp there, as the noise reverberated around the arena.
Porunov lands an elbow that was bordering on illegal but the referee lets it go with a warning.
Porunov content just to control the position here.

That's one minute gone in the round.
Porunov has been looking to land a fair amount of strikes on the ground. He might be looking to soften his opponent up in order to work for a submission.
Porunov lands a couple of nice shots there from mount.
Porunov content just to control the position here.
Porunov lands a couple of nice shots there from mount.
Porunov with a couple of short strikes.
Ku really doesn't want to stay on the ground with Porunov. If he can't get it back to his feet, it's only a matter of time before he'll be tapping out.
Porunov controlling from the full mount.

That's two minutes gone in the round.
Porunov seems to have a rather negative gameplan on the ground. He seems keen to just score the takedown and hold down Ku for as long as he can get away with.
Porunov raining down shots from the mount!
Porunov unloading with bombs!

That's three minutes gone in the round.
Porunov controlling from the full mount.
Porunov punishing his opponent with strikes.
The ref warns both fighters not to hold the cage as they work up against the meshing.

Ku has left one of his arms exposed and Porunov doesn't need a second invitation. He's isolated it and locked on a tight armbar. Ku screams and taps out, obviously in a lot of pain. Hopefully there isn't permanent damage to that arm.

Ladies and gentlemen, after 3:55 of round 1, we have a winner by way of Submission (Armbar). Ilyha Porunov!