Cagesport XXI made for an exciting Saturday night at the Emerald Queen Casino Sept 29th, with ten pro fights being recorded for television for the first time in CageSport history. The broadcast team for the Root Sports airing was an all-star trio consisting of former Strikeforce World Champ Miesha Tate, longtime MMA broadcaster Jeff Osborne, & celebrity superstar/KZOK talk show host Danny Bonaduce.

AMC's Brent "Mankill" Knopp (2-0) faced off with Brandon Pitts (2-1) from Team Quest in the 185 lb main event. In the first round, both fighters worked in close, feeling each other out. Knopp landed some painful heel strikes and knees to Pitts legs in the clinch. Knopp kept working the inside Muay Thai game while Pitt worked in some punches and knees of his own. When they broke apart from the clinch, Knopp landed a nice flurry on Pitt and wrapped the clinch back up. In round two the fight changed as Knopp began to let his hands loose on Pitt. Pitt fought back but couldn't seem to land the combos that Knopp was scoring. Pitts stepped back to the inside of Knopp and drove him to the cage wall where Knopp slid in the wizzer and began to fire off the devasting hands he's known for. Pitts tried to turn away from the onslaught but couldn't escape with the ref stepping in and declaring a TKO at 1:13 of the second round.

The Co-Main Event between local favorite Brandon Dudley (3-0) from AMC and the equally skilled Emmanuel Sanchez (3-0) from NW Martial Arts turned into Fight of The Night. The absolute back and forth of these two talented fighters had the crowd roaring. Sanchez worked at closing in on Dudley's impressive footwork, landing some great jabs. When Sanchez went for a kick, Dudley caught it and leveraged the takedown. Sanchez bounced back up and shot in for the double leg on Dudley, who was able to quickly regain his feet. From that point on, Dudley walked Sanchez down. The rest of the first round was extremely close with both fighters displaying excellent range control and equally excellent defense by blocking punches and defending submissions on the ground. In the second round, Sanchez worked the takedowns and Dudley worked the submissions, including an impressive standing arm triangle and kneebar attempt. Sanchez defended well and landed several elbow strikes to the head. In round three, Sanchez delivered a well-placed straight right that had Dudley stumbling backwards. They traded combos standing and wowed the crowd with their escapes on the ground. The judges had their work cut out for them and the bout ended up a split decision in favor of Sanchez.

Submission of the night went to Ryan Mulvihill, representing Team Spokane, with his 3rd round guillotine of Jacob Boysen from Ivan Salaverry MMA. Boysen was relentless with his takedowns but couldn't secure a submission on the wiley Mulvihill. To begin round two, Mulvihill leapt across the ring in a flying knee attempt that Boysen ruined by catching him around the waist and taking him down. The pair bobbed up and down from ground to standing the entire round, with well-matched grappling on the canvas. Mulvihill decided to change things up in round three and kept to a clinch, working the inside until he was able to sneak in a tight guillotine and jump guard. Boysen rolled through when they hit the ground, but the choke was too deep to slip out of and Boysen had to tap at 1:46.

Knockout of the night honors went to Yakima MMA's Julian Erosa, with the KO win moving him to 9-0 as a pro. Jason Gybels of Desert Dogs MMA wanted the fight on the ground, but Erosa worked hard to keep him to one takedown. Erosa made good use of his heavy jab, working it in single punches on Gybels. Gybels anwsered with a clean right hand and a right leg kick to the head, rocking Erosa. Once recovered, Erosa settled in to the fight and timed out a powerful one-two combo that knocked Gybels out 4:36 into round 1.

CageSport XXI will be rebroadcast on Root Sports October 5th (10-11pm), October 12th (12-1am), and October 21st (11pm-1am). Halquist Productions switches back to Boxing with the all-pro Battle at the Boat 89 on November 3rd in the Emerald Queen Casino's I-5 Showroom. MMA returns to the EQC with CageSport XXII December 1st. More info at HalquistProductions.com.