Just finished watching this fight (much love NLB).
My thoughts-
It really wasn't superior boxing that won Gannon this fight. No way. It was just pure brawling, with very little defense. Gannon wanted it more, was in better shape cardio wise, and maybe even intimidated Kimbo. Kimbo never really seemed KOed to me in the unconscious sense (although his guys should have stopped the fight earlier). He was just incredibly gassed.
I will say this for Gannon. I think his punching power intimidated Kimbo early on, it may have even dropped him which is why Kimbo grabbed onto his leg. There's also numerous spots where Gannon could have severely fucked up Kimbo with knees if he choose to go that route. Kimbo is lucky it wasn't kickboxing rules, much less MMA.
The guillotine choke was illegal, but fuck...Kimbo tried for a takedown when he went down (off being dropped?), and he attacked Gannon while he was on the floor (something I didn't see Gannon do). Gannon did hit 2 knees, but man if he wanted to earlier on he could have creamed him with knees. I think its just the case of Gannon being bigger, better shape cardio wise, nsand simply resolved to win the fight. I didn't see any shit talking from Kimbo. I bet after he hit Gannon with those shots that tore his face all up he got intimidated when he saw Gannon wasn't backing down. That and fatigue spelled doom for him.
That being said, Kimbo fucked up Gannon pretty badly. I heard Gannon was a six time GG champ. Listen, I didn't fight Kimbo, so I'm not going to talk shit about Gannon. I'll just say that either Kimbo's boxing is much better then it looks, or Gannon isn't as much of a boxer as he claims. Kimbos punching actually looked better to me at some points. To me, it was just two huge guys punching the shit out of eachother with no defense or any real technique.
Regardless, great fight. A bit unnerving how animalistic the crowd was. Props to both guys.
