Colby CovingtonBoth former Iowa Central Community College wrestlers (and teammates) won their bouts at the UFC event at TD Place Arena in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Saturday night, both using rear-naked choke submissions in the third round of their respective matches.
Covington, who, after wrestling at Iowa Central went on to find success at Oregon State, submitted Jonathan Meunier with a rear-naked choke at 56 seconds of the third round of their three-round middleweight (170 pound) bout, while Soto, a fellow ICCC mat alum, applied the rear-naked choke on Chris Beal at 3:39 of the third stanza of their bantamweight (135 pound) fight.
Both BloodyElbow.com and Sherdog.com mixed martial arts websites had Covington winning the first two rounds of his bout. For the final round, Bloody Elbow wrote in its real-time reporting, "Covington drops Meunier early with a spinning back fist, then returns to the back ride as Meunier's recovering. This time Covington gets both hooks in and the rear-naked choke follows shortly after. Meunier taps."
Covington, 2007 NJCAA (National Junior College Athletic Association) champ at Iowa Central who went on to earn NCAA Division I All-American honors at Oregon State, is now 9-1 overall in MMA, while Meunier falls to 7-1.
As for Soto vs. Beal ... in its live, play-by-play coverage, Sherdog.com had Beal winning the first round, citing the Canadian's "fast hands and speedy strikes." The MMA website has Beal as the dominant force through the first minute of the second round, until "the Real Deal" started to tire, having to fight off two submission attempts in that round. In the final round, Soto remains the aggressor; in the last half of round three, Soto shoots on Beal at the fence, dragging him to the ground. Soto mounts him immediately, applies a rear naked choke, and forces Beal to tap out.
With the win, Soto, a two-time NJCAA placer (placing third at the 2006 NJCAA championships, runner-up the following year), breaks a three-bout losing streak and is now 16-5 in his professional MMA career, while Beal drops to 10-3.
Recommended Comments
There are no comments to display.
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now