BRISBANE, Australia -- Josh Barnett made it look easy down under, as he pounded out mammoth Brazilian Geronimo "Mondragon" dos Santos in the first round to cap Impact FC's debut card "The Uprising" in front of a spotty but enthusiastic crowd at the Brisbane Entertainment Center.
Barnett got a takedown to full mount within 10 seconds of the opening bell, and it looked like the bout wouldn't even see 30 seconds. Though "Mondragon" made it back to his feet, Barnett finished another takedown, again straight into full mount, and exploited the Belem native's nascent ground skills by posturing up and pounding away.
Dos Santos turned away from Barnett, who hammered right hands into the Brazilian's earhole. After a salvo of clean rights, referee "Big" John McCarthy stopped in to halt the bout at 2:35 of the first frame. Dos Santos complained to McCarthy that the bout was stopped too early. As Dos Santos reached his feet in protest, the hulking Brazilian was rubber-legged, zig-zagging across the cage.
"The referee stopped the bout; that's the only reason I quit," said Barnett after the bout. "If he thought it was going to get any better for him, he's wrong."
The loss was Dos Santos' third in his last four, with that quartet of bouts all coming in the last five months.
In what was intended to be the evening's co-feature, Karo Parisyan returned to action for the first time since January 2009 and recorded a tougher-than-expected second-round submission win over tougher-than-expected local Ben Mortimer in what was actually the evening's first fight.
"This was my first fight that I was away from my family, and I knew they were freaking out at home," Parisyan told Sherdog.com. "My sister was at home throwing up. I felt like it would be better for them, and for me, if I fought first, and I could get it over with so they could stop worrying."
"Karo came to me, and said it was really important for him to be the first fight of the night, so we made it happen," said Impact FC promoter Tom Huggins.
For the better part of two rounds, Parisyan's oft-praised judo dominated proceedings, as he notched four throws that landed him firmly in side control. Parisyan looked to have victory secured twice in the first round, as he spun for far-side armbars from side mount, but Mortimer escaped both, and even landed some sharp right hands on Parisyan's face.
In Parisyan's fourth trip to side control in the second round, Parisyan threatened with a kimura that forced a scramble. In said scramble, Parisyan rode Moritimer from the side and locked up a Caol Uno-style rear-naked choke. After securing the choke, Parisyan then sunk his hooks and coaxed the tap at 4:18 of the second round.
"I need more time. My body looks like a third-grader body. But I'm trying to get back," said Parisyan in self-critique.
