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9. Marcin Held vs. Alexander Sarnavskiy
Bellator 136
April 10, 2015 | Irvine, California
Held has a knack for placing opponent’s in peril in a blink.

That ability came in handy against the aggressive Sarnavskiy, as the Polish leg lock connoisseur submitted the Russian with a third-round kneebar at the Bren Events Center. Referee John McCarthy intervened 1:11 into Round 3, an audible yell from “Tiger” prompting him to act.

Sarnavskiy played Held’s game by charging repeatedly into takedown range. The Pole was all too eager to drag him to the mat, where he initiated one-sided grappling exchanges. Held opened a cut on the Alexander Shlemenko understudy with an elbow strike in the second round, all while threatening with submissions. He put away Sarnavskiy early in the third, as he snatched a leg, dropped to the ground and deftly transitioned from a toe hold to the fight-ending kneebar.

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