Shayna Baszler – Tama Chan Recap

ShoXC presented their latest card last night, and Shayna “Queen Of Spades” Baszler dominated Keiko “Tama * Chan” Tamai en route to a first round submission victory.

Keiko Tamai was the first fighter out to the cage, which she did while dancing in her multi-colored rainbow robe and fight gear. Shayna Baszler was next, sporting a flying V guitar on her back, and walking in with heavy metal accompaniment as her entrance music. Baszler also had former UFC Heavyweight Champion Josh Barnett in her corner, and he gave the Muay Thai / Jiu-Jitsu fighter last second advise over the cage.

The fight starts with Tamai racing across the cage to throw a flying Superwoman punch, which missed, but was an exciting ice breaker to say the least. Tamai then moved to a headlock, which also got her a takedown. Baszler quickly escaped, moved into back control, and landed a couple of strikes to the side of Tamai’s head. Tamai then sprawled and was able to find her way back to the feet, only to be met by a stiff right-left-right combination from Baszler, all of which landed. Tamai took the punches well, and fired back with her own strikes, though these were easily blocked by Baszler, though the two fighters went backwards into the cage.

Baszler then delivered the most exciting sequence of the fight.

Baszler acquired a waist lock on Tamai, and was able to throw a knee around her opponent’s body and landed it on Tamai’s head. Baszler then picked Tamai up off the ground, and suplexed her onto her face in an incredible show of strength and power. This obviously disoriented Tamai, who simply covered up her head and allowed Baszler to move up her body, body lock Tamai with her legs, and land repeated strikes to the side of Tamai’s head. The referee began moving in and looking at Tamai’s defense, which was minimal. Baszler then attempted a rear naked choke, and flattened her opponent out with the body lock still intact. Baszler used this distraction to land more strikes to the side of Tamai’s head, and then pulled Tamai back onto her. Baszler then moved Tamai’s left arm behind her head and executed a picture perfect neck crank, to which Tamai tapped out at 4:05 of the first round.

Baszler quickly jumped up and smiled while doing her air guitar celebration, and now
improved her consecutive submission victories to 4 in a row. In a pre-fight interview, Shayna asked that “God have mercy on my opponent, ’cause I’m not gonna.” That was exactly how she competed in this fight. The suplex was vicious and had ill intentions, and after she slammed Tamai’s face into the ground she went to end the fight with powerful strikes and submission attempts, the last of which was successful. Another impressive victory for the “Queen Of Spades,” who showed that her modified chicken wing neck crank submission, which she calls the “Shwing,” is a threat at any time once the fight has gone to the ground.