Sean Santella: “There’s nobody left for me to fight, I cleared out the division”
Sean Santella successfully defended his Cage Fury Fighting Championships flyweight title once again on Saturday afternoon. With the unanimous decision win over Blaine Shutt at Parx Casino, “Shorty Rock” advances his professional mixed martial arts record to 23-7-1.
Although Santella was dominant, he was not overly impressed with his performance.
“It’s hard to finish someone whose only goal is to not get finished,” Santella told MyMMANews following the fight.
As the scorecards were read following the one-sided 15-minute fight, Santella can be seen shaking his head, upset he was not able to pull over a submission win.
Santella fought most of the first round off of his back as the aggressor from the bottom. In the second frame the champion rode Shutt’s back, working to lock up a rear-naked choke, but once again, the challenger denied him the opportunity. The third and final round was a repeat of the second as Santella was focused on looking for a way to finish the fight, while Shutt played more of a defensive role.
In the end it was Santella whose hand was raised, making it three straight fights for the jiu jitsu black belt.
“There’s nobody left for me to fight,” Santella said. “I cleared out the division. It’s time for me to move on and let my teammates to start clearing it out.”
When asked what exactly “moving on” meant, Santella said, “Hopefully move on to a bigger promotion, unless I get paid more. Maybe back to Brave.”
Santella signed a multi-fight agreement with Brave Combat Federation in 2018, but has only competed once for the promotion. The New Jersey native would drop a unanimous decision to Velimurad Alkhasov at Brave CF 14 in Tangier, Morocco.
We spoke with Brave CF officials who told us that they would speak with Santella following the CFFC 78 fight.
Could Sean “Shorty Rock” Santella be headed back overseas or will he finally get that UFC call?
With the resurgence of the UFC’s flyweight division, now could be the time that Santella finally gets that long-awaited opportunity to compete in the octagon.
