Aaron Khalid took a while to get going, but when he did, he did so in violent fashion.
The MAT Academy fighter started slowly in round one of his fight with Phil Wells at last night’s Cage Warriors Academy Wales show, but in round two he found his form, submitting Wells with just 56 seconds gone on the clock. It was Khalid’s second straight fight that ended by way of choke, this time courtesy of a nasty guillotine which left Wells needing Oxygen on the canvas floor.
Speaking about the win, and his slow start, Khalid said:
“It always takes me a round to wake up. I think in the second round I came out, he caught me with a shot, my back leg kind of went out when I threw a teep. I was looking up at him, I thought, f–k, I gotta do something quick now, and I did, and it stopped there, so it worked.
“It felt good, it felt good to get the stoppage. When the ref pulled me off him, it was just like a rush of…f–k yes coming from me basically.”
The win was Khalid’s fourth in five fights and improves the Welshman’s record to 6-2-1. Prior to the card, Cage Warriors Wales promoter Richard Shore alluded to a potential high profile fight for the winner at Cage Warriors 83, and Khalid is eager if his body allows for it.
“My right hand’s a bit busted up, so we’ll see how that does in the next few days.
“If it’s fine then yeah, I’ll definitely fight on that show.”
As for who Khalid might fight next, the man himself doesn’t have anyone in particular in mind. He did mention that he fancied his chances against teammate Lewis Long, who is allegedly the test subject for Khalid’s submission arsenal. Long told Khalid earlier in the evening:
“I ain’t getting tapped to some f–king sh-tty guillotine.”
To which Khalid replied:
“He taps all the time to my sh-tty guillotine. It’s where I got the confidence to get it from.
“But yeah, I’m not going to call anyone out, I don’t know hardly any of the welterweights, I just fight whoever, Lew drops names into me really.”
For full Cage Warriors Academy, Wales results click here.