The Cage Legacy featherweight title fight on Saturday night ended in very unusual fashion.
Nathan Kelly, who represents Cabra gym Kyuzo MMA, became the new 145 lb champion after his opponent, BJJ Cork’s Jack Maguire, was disqualified in the second round of their bout in Drogheda.
The beginning of the end happened at the midway point of the second round when Maguire was working hard for a takedown with his opponent’s back against the fence. After softening Kelly’s right leg up with stinging knees, Maguire got his knee between the leg and the cage and drove upwards to lift his opponent high in the sky.
Unfortunately, Kelly went headfirst towards the canvas from the subsequent slam. The referee swiftly intervened to call the fight to a halt 2:59 into the second stanza, but not before Maguire could land a couple of more strikes on the ground.
Maguire raised his hands in triumph, thinking that he had been awarded the TKO victory, but instead it was Kelly who walked away with the belt after his opponent being disqualified for a ‘spike,’ an illegal move under the unified rules of MMA.
You can see the incident that ended the fight in the video embedded below. The lead up to the spike starts at around the 7:55 mark.
