Issac Hardman has claimed another scalp after making the switch from boxing to brawling, taking down Mikey Vaotuua with a knockout win at the International Brawling Championships on the Gold Coast on Wednesday. 

In the IBC 04 main event, Hardman secured a knockout win over Vaotuua, the cousin of Australian boxing superstar Jai Opetaia, to retain the IBC middleweight title. 

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Hardman knocked out Vaotuua with a huge right hand at the end of the first round, but Vaotuua fought back and knocked Hardman down, splitting his nose open in the second round. 

The pair traded blows in a frenetic fight before Hardman ended the fight with another right hand at the end of the third round, jumping over the cage and celebrating in the crowd. 

“That’s all she wrote, goodnight. This is madness,” the commentator said on Main Event. 

Hardman said after the win: “He is a weapon! His bloodline is Opetaia. Jai Opetaia is the best boxer this country has and I have so much respect for that family.”

Watch Issac Hardman’s KO win in the video above

Hardman, nicknamed The Headsplitter, had a 15-3 record in his professional boxing career but decided to make the switch to brawling when the IBC came calling and asked him to be the poster boy for their new MMA series. 

“It’s been seamless, it sort of reinvigorated my competitive athletic career in combat sports, because I was so sick to death of the way the boxer world operates,” Hardman told news.com.au.

IBC fights are contested in a 5 metre by 5 metre square cage and fighters are not allowed to wrestle or clinch, so it’s all action and more often than not the fight ends in a knockout. 

“Imagine just having a show of big hits on repeat,” Hardman explained. 

“The best part of a boxing match is the knockout. Imagine just having like 10 fights and 10 of them being knockouts. That’s what the IBC is I reckon. It really has the potential to cut through. 

“I get bored most of the time if it’s a 10-round boxing fight or with the UFC, as soon as someone starts wrestling, everyone turns away and gets bored because they don’t know what’s going on either. IBC caters to the everyday sort of geezer.”

He added: “The brawling, the size of it (the cage) is what makes people go toe to toe because there’s no real footwork involved in there.

“It’s pretty small in there, it makes you have to fight in moments. It’s not like a big octagon or a big boxing ring where you can simmer away on a jab, poke the jab out, move your head and stuff for three pretty cruisy minutes. 

“The IBC (cage) is so small you’ve got to really find little moments of 10 or 15 seconds, a bit of chaos in 10 seconds and then if you’re not ironed out and your opponent’s not ironed out yet maybe reset re-engage for other 10 seconds of chaos.

“It’s a sport of fighting in moments.”

Hardman has signalled he wants to fight boxer Joel Camilleri at the next IBC event for the vacant welterweight strap and become a rare double champion. 

The pair have traded barbs on social media and are set to fight at the IBC 05 in September.