This Saturday Long Island MMA fighter and trainer “The Menace” Dennis Bermudez defeated Tom
Hayden via Guillotine choke in round one of their featherweight fight.

The fight between Dennis Bermudez and Tom Hayden was action packed from start to finish (much
like all of The Menaces fights). The beginning of the fight had a very brief feeling out process. Hayden
looked to establish a clinch which Bermudez quickly shook off, and responded with a nearly landed
hook. Dennis was able to secure a single leg take-down on Hayden, and after a brief scramble of
strikes and positioning on the ground, Hayden was able to find his way back to his feet. After a brief
exchange on the feet from both fighters, Tom Hayden decided to go for a takedown of his own; “The
Menace” had other ideas and easily stuffed Hayden’s attempt to get on top by sprawling and going into
a front headlock. Bermudez looked to take advantage of his front headlock by spinning to the back of
his opponent and Hayden rolled for a leg lock. Both fighters go back to their feet and Hayden catches
Dennis with a big knee, which briefly stunned Bermudez. Smelling blood and looking to take advantage
of the big knee he just hit Dennis with, Hayden looks to take Dennis’s back and go for a rear naked
choke. Although Dennis is stunned at this moment he has the ability to defend Hayden’s submission
attempt, and takes advantage of his opponent’s high back mount which he uses to his advantage to
escape. Tom Hayden switches to an arm-lock which in turn gets him slammed on his head. Once again
both guys scramble back to their feet and Bermudez delivers a beautiful front kick to Hayden that rocks
him. Hayden looks for a desperation takedown which Dennis easily defends and in the process locks
up a guillotine choke. The choke is deep and Dennis walks Hayden over to the cage to limit his escape
and movement options. Hayden taps to the choke with seconds left in the round; Dennis wins this UFC
featherweight fight and tops off the win with his customary victory back-flip!

In Dennis Bermudez interview with Joe Rogan, the Long Island based MMA fighter admitted not
remembering much about the knee landed by Hayden until his corner discussed it with him after the
fight was over. Dennis even joked about his teammates back home telling him to start the fight by
getting hit, as he does with many of his previous MMA fights.

The submission victory by Dennis also won him the highly coveted “Submission of the night” bonus by
Dana White and the UFC. This is the third bonus earned by Dennis in his UFC career, in total he has two
submission of the night bonuses and one fight of the night bonus.

Big thanks to Dennis’s striking Coach Keith Trimble from Bellmore Kickboxing and MMA for doing an
amazing job with his training and helping corner Dennis during his fight.