Desert Force returned on Monday night with Desert Force 12 from King Hussein Sports Arena. There’s always excitement in the air when the octagon sets up in Jordan and the fans in Amman were nothing short of supportive through a 11 fight card that featured far more highs than lows.
The organization’s 12th fight card of the was arguably its best thus far, as a mix of expected results, surprising upsets, brutal finishes and submissions sent the fans home happy.
Now that another thrilling night of action inside the octagon has come and gone, here are our three stars for Desert Force 12.
Third Star : Mark Tanios
After his debut at Desert Force, Tanios was marked as a point fighter and everyone was rooting for the aggressive Baaklini to finish this one early. Yet, seems like Tanios had a different plan for the predator.
Mark Tanios dispatched of Baaklini in a swift and decisive manner without even messing up his hair in the process. Not only that, but the 25-year-old got the job done earning him the fastest finish that night.
Tristar’s Big boy took care of Baaklini quicker than any of the 20 fighters who competed that night further adding to his reputation as one of the sport’s most dangerous first-round finishers.
Second Star : Tareq Hamdi
Al Academiya lightweight title holder and the new Desert Force lightweight champion Tareq Hamdi was nothing short of remarkable in second round submission of Haider Rasheed.
There was a lot of doubt surrounding Hamdi’s validity as a title challenger, which made Hamdi’s submission finish of the Brazilian jiujitsu Black belt much more spectacular. Rasheed had little to offer in the way of offensive threats in the third round, he looked out of it, period!
That allowed the big hearted Hamdi to find his groove and implement his creative MMA tactics to choke the champion.
Hamdi shut all the critics out once and for all and this time in an impressive fashion!
First Star Ghorabi:
While Hamdi was incredibly impressive in his win over Haider Rasheed, there was a man in the co-main event named Mohamad Ghorabi (3-0 Desert Force) who was slightly more impressive, just in a different way.
Majri seemingly overlooked Ghorabi with all his pre-fight trash talk about the killer. He paid for that big time as he could not take Ghorabi to the ground and was turned into “Mr. Punching Bag” on stand up
Entering the cage, Ghorabi looked healthy, full of power, full of stamina and most critical of all, he was beaming with confidence.
Half way through the second round, the Lebanese killer accomplished his mission and was ready to call out the champ again without any hesitations.
