Matt Schnell was down but never out as he pulled off one of the craziest comebacks in history to finish Sumudaerji at UFC Long Island.
After nearly being knocked out on the feet, Schnell survived an onslaught from Sumudaerji then fired back with some shots of his own before taking the fight to the ground, slicing up his opponent with elbows and then putting the Chinese flyweight to sleep with a triangle choke submission.
The end came at 4:24 in the second round, with Schnell getting the win after an awe-inspiring performance.
“It feels good. I train hard. I worked hard for this,” Schnell said. “I knew I could do it. I knew I could put him away. I think he got tired from beating on me so I was able to capitalize on it. I don’t even remember any of those [elbows]. I’ve always been one of these guys. I had him close to being out, tough kid. I was tired, too.”
With a long reach on his side, Sumudaerji tried to keep Schnell at a distance with his kicks as he looked to hurt Schnell to the legs and the head. The striking exchanges eventually led to a takedown from Sumudaerje, but it was Schnell who sought a submission from his back before ending up on top of Sumudaerji where he looked to rain down blows with his ground and pound.
Between rounds, Sumudaerji’s coaches told him to stick to his striking, and that’s exactly what he did on the restart as he began connecting with his combinations. A couple of shots snapped Schnell’s head around, and it appeared that Sumudaerji had him wobbled.
Another nasty left hand from Sumudaerji sat Schnell down, and he followed that with a pair of huge elbow strikes that nearly ended the fight. It appeared Schnell was nearly done, but then he clipped his opponent with a shot of his own that forced Sumudaerji hit the pause button.
Schnell then took the fight to the canvas, where he immediately moved to mount and began bludgeoning Sumudaerji with a series of brutal elbows that opened a number of cuts on the face. It appeared that might be the end, but Sumudaerji made one last attempt to escape, which only led to Schnell locking up a triangle choke from the bottom.
A few seconds passed and Sumudaerji fell motionless as the referee rushed in to rescue him, with Schnell earning the submission finish.
Following the highligh-reel victory, Schnell called his shot for what he wants next.
“November at Madison Square Garden looks awfully good to me,” Schnell said. “How about Matheus Nicolau vs. Matt Schnell? That’s what I’m eyeballing.”