Usually on a Friday night, you have either, both, or sometimes all of the following options when it comes to viewing combat sports:
This particular weekend in MMA was a rare bye week in the UFC as Dana White and his staff get ready for three events in September, beginning this coming Saturday night at the UFC Apex in Enterprise, NV for UFC Fight Night on ESPN+. Other weeks might have a ONE Championship card in the evening hours inside the United States and Canada on Amazon Prime Video.
While ONE 168 happens on Friday night in Denver, the night of Aug. 30 was one for Canadian MMA. For the third time since joining the UFC Fight Pass lineup this past February, Montreal-based Samourai MMA had the spotlight with Samourai MMA Chapter 11 from La Tohu.
Lack of Live Stream in Prelims Can’t Deter Amazing Night of MMA in Quebec Friday Night
All told, the final bout order of Samourai MMA Chapter 11 featured seven bouts inside the cage from La Tohu. The evening began with a two-fight undercard at 7 pm ET/ 4 pm PT on the UFC social media feeds.
Even though Samourai MMA’s social feeds indicated in the final days leading up to the show this weekend that Friday’s prelims were to have been streamed on social media platforms, such as Facebook and YouTube, no livestream of the undercard was available on the Internet.
Last time that Samourai MMA was scheduled to hold a card, June 21 during Samourai MMA Chapter 10 from Laval, the UFC Fight Pass YouTube channel streamed that evening’s undercard as scheduled.
As someone who likes to make a full day or evening of it when a combat sports card comes around, it was a little bit disappointing not to be able to watch the prelims as they happened live this past Friday. Sometimes, the prelims have the best contests of the entire evening.
Electrifying Display in Main Event
Even though the prelims on the card went unaired, everything that the fans got to see by tuning into the live stream on UFC Fight Pass amounted to an awesome display. Your main event of the evening on Friday night was a battle for the Samourai MMA Featherweight Championship between incumbent titleholder Frederik Dupras (8-1 MMA, 6-0 Samourai) and Jesse Arnett (20-11 MMA, 0-1 Samourai.)
This bout was initially supposed to have happened earlier in the summer. During Samourai MMA Chapter 10 this past June, Dupras and Arnett were booked to fight for the 145-lb. title. On the day of the fight, however, Arnett withdrew from the contest due to taking ill.
The rebooking of the fight was more than worth the wait for Dupras and his camp. During the second round of an advertised five, after Dupras sustained an inadvertent eye poke in round one of the contest, he scored with a clean leg kick before taking Arnett down to the mat.
While the latter briefly assumed top mat, Frederik Dupras reminded Jesse Arnett “This is my world. You’re just living in it,” quickly reversing position and locking up a guillotine choke in 40 seconds to defend the title.
Dupras is UFC-Ready
In so doing, Dupras scored his eighth win by submission in his professional MMA career. He hasn’t bested an opponent by any other method since turning pro in September of 2017.
After the fight, the fans in attendance at La Tohu chanted “UFC! UFC! UFC!” Those spectators who paid the money to watch Dupras successfully defend his crown are definitely onto something. Here’s a man who’s been pro for almost eight years as of press time.
He’s won eight out of his first nine professional MMA fights by way of submission and has a championship to prove it. With no UFC event to divert his attention away from Samourai MMA Chapter 11 over the extended holiday weekend, if he hasn’t done so already, Dana White should take some time out to look at the tape of Friday night’s main event and watch Dupras sink in the guillotine choke.
Once White gets back to the office on Tuesday morning, among his first telephone calls should be to Dupras, offering him a UFC deal. He’s conquered the Canadian MMA scene. Now, it should be time to see what he can do on a global stage.
Final Thoughts: An Impressive Product in Quebec
Despite being part of the UFC Fight Pass lineup for only about seven months, Samourai MMA knows how to put on good shows. They’ve got a great thing going up there.
Friday night’s show was a great case study on how to hold a wonderful show. One final word: Although Samourai MMA has yet to officially reveal the exact day and date for its next card, when such news is revealed, circle the date on your calendar or make a note of it on your cell phone.
If Samourai MMA Chapter 12 is as good as Chapter 11 was this past weekend, you aren’t going to want to miss the next show.
