[2000-07-26-IWA-MS-Cabana Surprise] American Kickboxer vs Hy-Zaya ('I Quit')

[soup23]

I enjoyed the work of this match. Kickboxer attacks the arm of Hyzaya with some nasty looking stuff. Zaya’s selling isn’t the strongest but he responds with going after the leg and the match progresses from there a while. They even shoe horned a schmozz finish pretty well with Zaya tapping out and the ref calling for the bell but Jim Fannin informing him that someone has to say I Quit. This allows Uncle Honkey to do some damage to Kickboxer’s back. Fannin sees that and kicks Honkey out but the damage has been done and Zaya attacks the back with a variety of submissions before locking in a camel clutch and Kickboxer is forced to say I Quit. *** (6.1)

[Tim Evans]

So Ian goes from one building that he left because they weren't drawing to what looks like a junkyard with hardly anyone there. Oh IWA. This was ok but the fake finish took me out of it. Was this the beginning of the Fannin heel turn? The finish came off really flat with Kickboxer barely saying I quit.

[GSR]

Well it looks like Ian did move to a new location after his rant a couple of weeks ago and amazingly he found somewhere even more scummier looking than the last place!  The change of venue has done nothing to increase attendance mind as we have one of the smallest crowds we’ve seen so far.  Side headlock take down by Kickboxer and one of the audience tries to dupe the official shouting “Hy-Zaya said I Quit”, although he’s a bit too sharp to fall for that!  Uncle Honky puts one of Zaya’s feet over the ropes for the break, but Boxer quickly drops a knee to the arm of his downed opponent.  From here he goes to town on that arm, crowbarring it and bending it around the ropes.  Zaya with a rake to the eyes followed by a reverse DDT before slapping on a leg lock submission.  He transitions to a Figure Four and Jim Fannin passes the official the microphone to see whether Boxer wants to quit.  As Zaya looks for a lariat Boxer snatches that arm and takes him down by it, cranking on a Fujiwara arm bar.  Double arm stretch, kneeling on, and stomping to, the back of Zaya’s head.  Crossface and Zaya taps out.  The referee calls for the bell, but Fannin informs him that he has to say “I Quit”, not just tap out.  As the two of them argue over the semantics, Honky gives Boxer a couple of Avalanche splashes in the corner.  Fannin announces that the match will continue and orders “fat ass” out of there.  The damage has already been done though.  Zaya works on Boxer’s lower back some more and he ends up quitting whilst trapped in a sloppily applied Camel clutch.  Boxer again looks to the crowd trying to milk some applause but doesn’t get any this time.

Maybe Jim Fannin is just a stickler for the rules but the finish saw this end on a flat note.