Canadian middleweight fighter Brad Zazulak, who scored an upset victory over Shonie Carter.
Everybody said Zaz (that's the nick-name I'm giving him) was gonna get crushed by Carter at Friday's Maximum Fighting Championships 14: High Rollers, held in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. But hey, this is MMA, and with 2007 being The Year of the Upsets, read on ...
By JASON HILLS, of the Edmonton Sun
In his pre-fight interview UFC veteran Shonie Carter told the fans "You'll either love me or you'll hate me, but you'll definitely remember me."
But after Brad Zazulak was finished with Carter, the fans will be remembering Zazulak's name.
In just his third career fight, he defeated Carter by TKO at the 2:09 of the first round, last night in the main event of MFC 14 High Rollers. Carter has over 100 MMA career fights behind him.
Many rival MMA promoters felt this was going to be a clear mismatch in the favour of Carter, but the young Zazulak who hails from Fort McMurray proved them wrong.
"This is huge for me, this is a big stepping stone in my career," said Zazulak moments after his victory.
"If you would have told me six months or a year ago that I would be fighting Shonie Carter, I would have said get away from me you drunken fool."
Zazulak just missed a big roundhouse kick shortly after the opening bell. But moments after the miss, he out-muscled Carter to the ground and began to lay a beating on the more experienced fighter.
"I am younger, bigger and stronger and I just tried to get the upper hand early," said Zazulak.
"When I took him to the ground, I think he hurt his shoulder and I just tried to continue to throw blows."
Carter tried to get to the ropes, but when the referee got in between the two, Zazulak went right back on the attack, punishing Carter.
"For all those guys who thought this was going to be a mismatch, that just motivated me even more," said Zazulak.
"Shonie put up a good fight, it was an honour to fight a guy with his experience and this win hopefully gets me to where I want to go."
The loss drops Carter's record to 73-17-7 as a full contact fighter.
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