Nate Landwehr and David Onama put on a thriller of a co-main event at UFC San Diego: Marlon Vera vs. Dominic Cruz, where no inch was spared to inflict damage upon the other. Not even referee Mike Beltran could escape their frenzied striking.
After three rounds of a vicious back-and-forth between the two, it all intensified towards the end of round three. The final seconds of the fight saw both fighters get dropped, with Onama landing the last significant strike of the bout and bouncing Landwehr off the side of the cage.
Landwehr recovered in time, swinging wildly just before the horn went off. However, his last swing whizzed past referee Mike Beltran’s face. The hook nearly caught Beltran as he tried to separate the two brawling men.
Watch the incident in the closing seconds of the fight:
The stunned MMA world reacted to Beltran’s close shave on Twitter. UFC bantamweight Brian Kelleher reacted, saying it would have been an apt end to a chaotic fight:
“Could you just imagine if that right hand landed in the ref at the end and koed him haha would have made all the sense in the world after that chaos”
Check out Kelleher’s tweet below:
One fan, @BeefSmellingt0n, had a meme lined up for the closing strike of the fight:
Sherdog.com’s play-by-play made note of the referee’s quick reactions on Twitter:
“Excellent head movement by Mike Beltran, by the way, slipping that stray punch during the wild final seconds. #UFCSanDiego”
Nate Landwehr and David Onama put on a ‘Fight of the Year’ contender
Former M-1 featherweight champion Nate Landwehr dominated for most of the fight but took an equal amount of punishment from David Onama.
The fight won Fight of the Night by a comfortable margin, as fans called for it to also be declared the Fight of the Year.
Fans took to Twitter to laud the battle between the two featherweights:
This makes it Nate Landwehr’s second consecutive fight winning a bonus, as his last fight, a win against Ľudovit Klein, also earned him a Performance of the Night bonus.
He will look to capitalize on this momentum and perhaps secure a matchup against a ranked opponent next to get closer to replicating his feats from M-1 Global in the UFC.