Submission Underground 12 has come and gone this past weekend, leaving us with our only taste of professional BJJ since Coronavirus became part of the popular lexion. It’s remarkable that the event ever even went ahead when you really consider all of the restrictions in place: The event was forced to go on behind closed doors with no crowd in attendance, It went ahead at an undisclosed location in Oregon in order to avoid impromptu crowding and all fighters had to wear both spats and long sleeve rashguards to minimize contact.
All of this was done to avoid the same fate as three UFC events and every Fight 2 Win event scheduled across a two month period. These kind of huge sweeping cancellations can have a tremendous effect on the viability of a promotion. The event itself was given an eerie feel thanks to the lack of crowd reaction, much like the last UFC event that did happen, UFC Brasilia. Submission Underground 12 even had only one commentator, with Chael Sonnen providing those duties and he even started reading out texts from his MMA friends during the broadcast.
The card produced some exciting fights despite the lack of big names taking part, the one exception to this being the Australian king, Craig Jones, taking on Kevin Casey in the main event. Jones predictably tried to work his bottom half guard game from the very start of the match but Casey did well to shut down his entries and made some decent attempts at passing Jones’ guard. Jones was able to stand up and try isolating one of Casey’s legs but the UFC veteran was able to slip out of danger.
Jones tried to score an armdrag from standing but Casey used his superior size to force Jones onto his back and prevent him from taking top position. From here Jones stood again and quickly tried a Kani-Basami style scissor takedown that Casey was able to avoid. In the scramble that followed, Jones was able to secure the saddle position and quickly expose Casey’s heel to sink in the Heel Hook finish just after the two minute mark.
The full event can be seen on UFC Fightpass, or the full results are below.
Submission Underground 12 Full Results
Craig Jones def. Kevin Casey via Heel hook – 2:40 of Regulation time.
Ben Egli def. Jake Ellenberger via Americana – 3:30 of Regulation time.
Juan Bernardo def. Bobby Emmons via RNC – 0:35 of Overtime Round 2.
Cris Lencioni def. Logan Skinner via RNC – 1:58 of Overtime Round 1.
Matt Stringham def. Joe Levasseur via Standing guillotine – 0:28 of Regulation time.
Alex Larmey def. Thomas Patrick via Escape in Overtime.
Jake Smith def. George Martinez via Escape in Overtime.
Don Stoner def. Lee Flores via RNC – 2:34 of Regulation time.
Cody Kenaga def. John Simon via Escape in Overtime.
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