{"id":545035,"date":"2026-03-16T23:51:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T23:51:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/545035\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T23:51:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T23:51:07","slug":"blood-diamond-lands-insane-mid-air-ko-at-sfl-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/545035\/","title":{"rendered":"Blood Diamond lands insane mid-air KO at SFL 4"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Highlights! Watch UFC washout \u2018Blood Diamond\u2019 score an insane mid-air knockout at SFL 4<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Welterweight Mike Mathetha \u2014 better known as \u201cBlood Diamond\u201d \u2014 scored a stunning knockout this past weekend (Sat., March 14, 2026) in the main event of Stealth Fighters League 4 inside Manuka Doctor Arena in Auckland.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Mathetha took on Chute Boxe fighter Elano Andrade, and while the first few minutes were competitive, the fight took a dramatic turn midway through the opening round.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">As Andrade attempted a flying knee, \u201cBlood Diamond\u201d timed it perfectly and blasted the Brazilian with a crushing left hook in mid-air, sending him crashing to the canvas. The referee immediately stepped in to wave off the fight.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Check out the knockout below:<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Mathetha \u2014 a longtime friend and training partner of Israel Adesanya \u2014 joined the UFC in 2022 following an exciting kickboxing career. However, his run inside the Octagon didn\u2019t go as planned.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cBlood Diamond\u201d went 0-3 in the promotion, suffering a stoppage loss to Jeremiah Wells in his debut (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/2022\/2\/12\/22930655\/ufc-271-full-fight-video-highlights-adesanya-results-espn-houston-wells-submit-blood-diamond\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">watch highlights<\/a>) before dropping back-to-back decisions to Orion Cosce <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/2023\/9\/9\/23866201\/ufc-293-fighter-apologizes-homophobic-post-fight-rant-may-have-broken-sydneys-vilification-law-mma\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">and Charles Radtke<\/a>, ultimately leading to his release.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The 37-year-old returned to the regional scene following his UFC exit and initially struggled, losing multiple bouts before finally snapping a five-fight losing streak late last year with a first-round knockout over Saeed Karsaz.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">With Saturday\u2019s spectacular finish, the Zimbabwe-born striker is now riding a two-fight winning streak and reminding fans why he was once considered an exciting prospect.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">To checkout more international MMA news and notes click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/international-mma-news-results\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Highlights! Watch UFC washout \u2018Blood Diamond\u2019 score an insane mid-air knockout at SFL 4 Former Ultimate Fighting Championship&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":545036,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,63173,40762,785,25627,85,14855],"class_list":["post-545035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-international-mma-news-results","tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","tag-mma","tag-regional-mma-news-results","tag-sports","tag-videos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=545035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/545036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}