Debuting fighters score dramatic 5 & 8-second knockouts before UFC Des Moines

Two fighters competing on separate continents scored a pair of incredible knockouts on the same day as UFC Des Moines.

The PFL kicked off a busy few days of combat sports action on Thursday before ONE Fight Night 31, Rolando Romero’s upset boxing victory over Ryan Garcia, and a wild Karate Combat 54 card went down on Friday, but even after all that fans still had the likes of Canelo Álvarez vs. William Scull, UFC Des Moines, and RIZIN: Otoko Matsuri during the rest of the weekend.

There was also still plenty of regional MMA action scheduled on Saturday as well, including Hexagone MMA 28 in The Netherlands and Eternal MMA 95 in Australia.

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One of Australia’s top regional promotions along with HEX Fight Series, Eternal MMA headed to the Logan Entertainment Center in Logan City, Brisbane, South East Queensland on Saturday for a card that included a matchup between promotional veteran Khan Deatta and the debuting Chilli Surapan Kancharlee.

Deatta came into the night with quite a bit of momentum after scoring three first-round finishes last year, but Kancharlee made a statement in his MMA debut when he ended things with a massive left hook in just 8 seconds (clip courtesy of the one and only @Grabaka_Hitman).

An 8-second knockout is the kind of thing that you might not see topped in an entire month of combat sports action, but later in the day a featherweight bout at Hexagone MMA 28 at Sportcampus Zuiderpark in Den Haag, Netherlands produced an even faster finish.

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Entering the night after a 6-2 amateur career, Stefano Groenendaal only needed five seconds to secure his first pro victory when he flattened Belgium’s Maynard van Laer with a perfect right hand (clip courtesy of the great @NeoValeTudo).

The lightning-quick finishes from Groenendaal and Kancharlee were incredibly impressive ways for both men to kick off their respective pro careers, and they immediately made the short list of best finishes for the week even before UFC Des Moines goes down at the Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, IA.

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