Pit Submission Series 4 took place on April 20th, 2024 and the promotion delivered fantastic results in every match, including a stunning upset that nobody could have predicted. There were three matches booked for the event and each one featured some of the best grapplers on the planet in their respective weight classes. First up was an exciting match between two top contenders in the lightest weight classes, Zayed Alkatheeri and Osamah Almarwai. This looked like it was going to be the closest match on paper and that’s exactly how it started out, with Almarwai attacking from guard and Alkatheeri looking to pass.
Almarwai was putting in the better work for the first few minutes but that all changed as the match approached the halfway-mark, when Alkatheeri transitioned to a deep armbar attempt off a guard-pass. Almarwai escaped and went back to attacking his opponent’s legs but he couldn’t get much going, while Alkatheeri was able to almost secure a guard-pass in the dying seconds of the match. That near-pass coupled with the armbar attempt was enough to earn Alkatheeri the results he wanted, as he earned the decision win at Pit Submission Series 4.
The event progressed into the second match between Kaynan Duarte and MMA veteran Pouya Rahmani, and Duarte pulled guard immediately. Rahmani was engaging pretty cautiously and the first half of the match alternated between him standing passing at a distance and pressuring into Duarte’s half guard. He did get stuck in closed guard a few times as the match wore on but he managed to break it open and return to standing each time. Neither man registered any submission attempts or got close to passing or sweeping and Rahmani won the decision in a huge upset, most likely because of he was seen as the aggressor in top position.
The main event of Pit Submission Series 4 was the only one that featured a competitor familiar with the pit, as Craig Jones was returning after getting the win at their second event. He was facing Rinat Fakhretdinov and after a little bit of wrestling, Jones decided to pull guard and eventually found his way to closed guard too. He briefly attempted a buggy choke from there but moved on when it didn’t work, and Fakhretdinov was doing a good job of staying low to pass. Jones attempted the buggy choke again and used it to sweep to mount this time, controlling from there for over a minute before Fakhretdinov could escape to standing.
Fakhretdinov started working to pass Jones’ guard again but he couldn’t find a way through at first, before he dived on a bodylock. Jones read the entry and built a little height so he could sprawl on top of Fakhretdinov, giving him the opportunity to try to take his back. Fakhretdinov defended but gave up mount in the process, with Jones controlling from there for a while again. Although he eventually escaped to standing again, Fakhretdinov got caught in a triangle choke in the process and Jones signals to the referee that he’s asleep. The referee stops the match but Fakhretdinov argues that he was fine and they restart in the triangle choke, only for Jones to finish it from mount and definitely put him to sleep this tiem around.
Pit Submission Series 4 Full Results
Craig Jones defeats Rinat Fakhretdinov via Submission – Triangle Choke
Pouya Rahmani defeats Kaynan Duarte via Decision – Unanimous
Zayed Alkatheeri defeats Osamah Almarwai via Decision – Unanimous
The full Pit Submission Series 4 event replay, including all of the above results, is available to watch as the preliminary card to Karate Combat 45 on the promotion’s official YouTube channel:
