David Onama is nothing but a full fledged warrior. The fact that he lost does not make him a loser in the eyes of hardcore fans or the fans in attendance tonight at UFC Fight Night Vera vs. Cruz. As we know and saw tonight that Nate Lanwehr is nothing less than a dog in the ocatagon. He put a pace on Onama after losing the first round and getting dropped . Noticeably we saw that Onama was gassed out going back to the stool before the second. Nate smelled blood in the water after the first and tried with every punch, and submission attempt to put Onama away. Onama took everything and the kitchen sink and still hung in there until the final bell.
Silent Assassin ain’t no quitter?
But lets focus on Uganda’s own, David “Silent Assassin” Onama, the Fighter Of The Week. The Silent Assassin was 10-1 going into this bout, with 6 KO’s and 4 submissions with 1 decision loss. Now 10-2 (2 decision losses). There is no way that Onama should feel that he lost in any way in this match up. It is understandable that he will go back to the training room, looking to work on cardio and possibly other things he saw wrong in his game tonight. But from the perspective of the fans he has only gained more stock, as well notoriety. Even more James Krause (Onama’s head coach) gave Onama every chance to quit in the corner going into the third round. Asking him repeatedly if he wanted to continue. Nobody is really sure if Onama ever responded, or understood from the extreme exhaustion as there was no response heard from him, but he got up off that stool.
Why Fighter Of The Week?
Onama had every chance that whole match after he gassed out, to curl up in a ball, and wait for the ref to call the fight and give his opponent a TKO victory, or let one of Landwehrs submissions sink in and tap. But he didn’t. He kept himself physically and mentally in the fight, and fought off every submission and defended as much as he could every shot, despite being extremely fatigued.
No “losers” in this contest.
David Onama is definitely a fighters, fighter. He has mental toughness beyond belief not to quit on himself, and to be going for knockout punches in the third round was a display of the dog in himself. From the perspective of a contest, there was a winner. His name was Nate Landwehr. And it can seem like everyone (fans) won Saturday except Onama . But we can assure from the UFC’s, fighters and fanatics point of view, Onama’s stock has done nothing but risen. It is also of importance to mention that Onama took this fight on short notice.
Image Courtesy of: @DavidOnama145
MMA Loki news room staff
