Coming at you Bam Bam style: relentless and dirty. Bryan Barberena and Vicente Luque put on a show with momentum shifts and a buzzer-beater ending. Let us reminisce. Early on, Luque outstruck Barberena lighting him up against the fence like a middle-aged Rafael Dos Anjos.

Luque almost finished the fight in the first with a rear naked choke to d’arce series. Barberena powered through and won the hearts and minds of Matt Brown fans everywhere with what came next.

Round 2: Luque can’t believe this guy is still coming forward and Barberena is just getting started. He turns the martial arts contest into a stinky, dirty, fight. Walks into the clinch and unloads elbows, gladly eating one to dish out two or more. The tide starts to turn.

As Luque looks for his sniper shot, Barberena starts pounding on his head and arms like he’s knocking on a door, banging a drum, and every other swinging metaphor you can think of. Unloading dozens of punches to the shelled up Brazilian. Now the crowd is invested in this man.

This pattern continues through the third round and it looked like Barberena was going to pull off the upset... until with 0:15 seconds left Luque catches him with an uppercut and then sends a knee up the middle that sends Barberena to the canvas.

Before Bam Bam can hit the canvas Luque sends another knee to the dome. TKO. Referee stoppage. All heart from Bryan Barberena, and nerves of steel from Luque who lost the momentum but never stopped going for the kill. The first nominee for Fight of the Year has been named.

As always this is Chris @RiniMMA and you can see sketches for these drawings on my instagram @chris_rini as well as more MMA artwork. Take care of yourself and I’ll talk to you tomorrow with some historical fights.