Ref Mike Beltran barely dodges a right hook from Nate Landwehr at UFC San Diego

Adam Miller

At UFC San Diego: Marlon Vera vs. Dominic Cruz, Nate Landwehr and David Onama put up a nail-biting co-main event. In the bout, neither spared an inch of harm to the other. Mike Beltran, the referee, struggled to avoid their furious hitting.

The two engaged in three rounds of a furious back-and-forth, which became more heated at the conclusion of round three. Both were knocked down in the final seconds of the final round when Onama delivered the match’s last critical blow and bounced Landwehr over the edge of the cage.

In time to swing furiously just before the horn sounded, Landwehr recovered. However, his last swing flew beyond referee Mike Beltran’s face. As Beltran attempted to separate the two guys, the hook almost caught him.

This surprised the MMA community which responded to Beltran’s razor-thin victory on Twitter. Brian Kelleher, a UFC bantamweight, said that it would have been a fitting conclusion to a tumultuous fight:

“Could you just imagine if that right hand landed in the ref at the end and koed him haha would have made all the sense in the world after that chaos”

A fan named @BeefSmellingt0n prepared a meme for the fight’s last blow:

“The last thing Mike Beltran saw before the round ending”

The play-by-play on Sherdog.com noted the referee’s prompt responses on Twitter:

“Excellent head movement by Mike Beltran, by the way, slipping that stray punch during the wild final seconds. #UFCSanDiego”

David Onama and Nate Landwehr put up a “Fight of the Year”-caliber performance.
Nate Landwehr, a former M-1 featherweight champion, prevailed for most of the contest. However, he was also severely punished by David Onama.

Fans demanded that the battle also be named the Fight of the Year, and it easily won Fight of the Night.

Twitter users praised the fight between the two featherweights.

One user wrote: “Did I just watch the fight of the year? Holy crap”

Nate Landwehr has now won a bonus in two straight. He defeated L’udovit Klein in his last match, which also resulted in a bonus for Performance of the Night.

To go closer to duplicating his achievements from M-1 Global in the UFC, he will try to capitalize on this momentum and maybe obtain a matchup against a rated opponent in the next fight.