Caesar takes lightning-fast victory

Twenty-eight seconds is not much time to get something done. One might brush one’s teeth, boil the jug or, in the case of Julius Poananga, win one’s professional mixed martial arts debut.

Poananga took out the co-main event of Shuriken MMA’s Elimination fight night in less than 30 seconds, choking Whangarei’s Ryan Anderson out cold with a crushing rear-naked choke (a submission applied from the opponent’s back) in a featured 86kg bout.

Stalking Anderson in a crouch, Poananga checked a hard kick from the Lion’s Den head coach.

The fighters closed the range and in the ensuing scramble Poananga – Caesar to his fans – took Anderson’s back before sinking in the choke and putting the lion to sleep against the cage.

Carlo Meister, head coach at Core MMA, was “extremely happy” for Poananga.

“But at the same time, we didn’t really get to see how he performed under pressure, or how much he has improved,” he said.

The win was Poananga’s first by rear-naked choke and has given him the opportunity to challenge for the Supremacy Light Heavyweight title.

“We’ll be training up towards that, as well as looking for opportunities for him to fight overseas,”  Meister said.

Coach Joesef Hamblin was also complimentary.

“He took advantage of the opportunity as soon as it presented itself, his strength is in finishing.”

Elimination also featured two brothers fighting within 15 minutes of each other.

The “Fighting Filipinos” Clarke and Frank Jarrett, both Core MMA representatives, fought on the B-Class under card.

Frank picked up a dominant-decision win with his sharp boxing and impressive take downs while Clarke lost a competitive and spirited bout.

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