Kirkland’s Knopp captures middleweight champion title

Halquist Productions’ CageSport XXIII featured a combo of highly anticipated debuts along with co-main events that displayed the best cage fighters in the Northwest on Sunday.

The Emerald Queen Casino had a full house on hand as tickets were sold out a week in advance leading to a release of 100 standing room only tickets Saturday morning that were quickly snatched up.

The event featured nine fights throughout the night and local fight fans came away pleased with the results as western Washington residents, Drew Brokenshire and Kirkland resident Brent Knopp left the showroom as CageSport champions.

The first co-main of the night featured Brent “Mankill” Knopp (3-0) pitted up against Oregon’s Darrio Mobley (2-2) in a showdown for the CageSport Middleweight title.

Numerous fans throughout the showroom could be seen wearing their “Mankill” T-shirts as they showed their support for Knopp and his training facility, AMC Pankration.

Knopp and Mobley previously fought each other at CageSport XX, which resulted in a comeback 2nd round TKO victory for Knopp.

The two middleweights featured lots of power in their rematch as Knopp put constant pressure on Mobley from the opening bell. Midway through the 1st, Mankill fans were holding their breath as Knopp was put in a deep rear naked choke that looked like it had the potential to end the fight.

Knopp was able to escape and immediately continued to press and landed a hard jab that knocked Mobley down leading to a merciless ground and pound session that caused the referee to stop the fight 4:14 into the 1st round.

The victory kept Knopp’s record flawless, improving to 4-0 while becoming the new CageSport Middleweight champion.