
FNC 12 Results: Historic Night at the Pula Arena for Croatian Fighters
It was a night to remember at FNC 12 on Saturday night, September 2. The event took place within the walls of the historic and beautiful Pula Arena, which was built 2,000 years ago and hosted gladiator battles for centuries.
A battle for the ages took centre stage in the main event as Pula’s very own Ivan Vitasovic (12-5-1) dug deep to beat the Polish giant Michal Andryszak (25-11) to retain his FNC heavyweight title.
Andryszak was dominant for the opening two rounds and found himself in several controlling positions, however, he was not able to finish the resilient Croatian. The tables turned in the third round and the whole arena were on their feet as Vitasovic landed blow after blow until Andryszak finally fell to his knees and succumbed to a strikes on the canvas.
There was a similar story in the co-main event as Russia’s Gadzhimurad Khebdeev (8-1) looked set to capture the inaugural FNC light heavyweight title after dominating the first four rounds. However, Croatia’s Matej Batinic (20-5) kept fighting and never gave up.
Then, in the fifth and final round, the Mirko CroCop trained fighter somehow found a new gear and managed to submit the previously undefeated Russian with a rear naked choke which saw fans around the arena go wild.
To round out the three title fights, Serbia’s Nikola Joksovic (12-1) showed his class and finished Austria’s Marko Kisic (9-4) with strikes in the second round to win the vacant FNC welterweight title. |