Connect with us

news

Shem Rock Comes Away With A Draw On His OKTAGON Debut

By

OKTAGON 42 on Saturday night gathered a lot of interest from UK MMA fans thanks to the home country fighters that competed on the card. Nowhere was this more true than the OKTAGON debut of Liverpool’s Shem Rock. If you know anything about his story to get to this point in his career, you’ll know that things haven’t been plain sailing for him and that showed no signs of stopping in Bratislava where he picked up a draw. 

Stepping in on late notice, his opponent Arthur Lima was coming to derail the hype train. As the larger and more powerful man that did not have the same kind of time to prepare for this date, the narrative was that Lima would be the most dangerous in the opening round. Shem was well aware of this going in but Lima sure did live up to it. 

After catching his opponent clean with the first shots that he threw, it was clear that Lima was the more explosive of the two. For the opening five minutes, he threw the kitchen sink at his opponent, locking up a triangle choke that looked to be the end of the night but Shem lived up to his story. He wasn’t going anywhere and after battling through an extremely difficult opening round, the door had been opened for a momentum swing. 

In the following two rounds, Shem was able to control a lot of the action in the grappling ranges with great success on his takedown attempts. Lima still showed a ferocious intent to find the finish despite his relentless pressure in the opening round. The Brazilian was able to create scrambles, threaten with more submissions and land some heavy strikes from the bottom so whilst his opponent was the one leading the dance, he wasn’t willing to let him take full control. 

At the final bell, Shem was clearly confident that he had done enough to win the fight on the judges’ scorecards. When they were read out, his demeanour shifted into a confused state, disappointed that two judges had scored the fight a draw with the other giving it to Lima. In his post-fight interview inside the cage, he called for a rematch with the Brazilian, giving him props for taking the fight on seven days notice and promising that he is a better fighter than he showed on the night. 

How did you score the fight and what do you want to see next for Shem Rock? Let us know and get involved.