Jon Kunneman walked into Dana White's Contender Series Season 10, Week 1 on August 11 with a perfect 10-0 record and a reputation for ending fights early -- 9 of his 10 wins had come in the first round. Joe Kropschot had other plans, and by the final seconds of round 3 he'd flipped the entire trajectory of the fight with one move.
Kunneman shot in for a takedown late in the third, but Kropschot scrambled into an armbar and cranked it. The submission attempt dislocated Kunneman's arm in real time, and the reaction from the Barstool corner watching at home was immediate.
Robbie Fox wasn't the only one horrified by the angle. DoubleVodkaDon watched the same replay and couldn't wrap his head around Kunneman not tapping to a joint that visibly wasn't supposed to bend that way.
Can’t believe he didn’t tap to that. Kunneman’s arm has to be fucked. That was insane.
Here's the wild part: Kunneman never tapped. The fight went the distance, and Kropschot took it by unanimous decision, 30-27, 30-27, 29-28, snapping Kunneman's undefeated streak in the process. Kropschot, who'd brought a 4-fight finish streak of his own into the cage, reportedly told Dana White afterward that his next fight would be a finish.
That was a dog fight. Had the choke slipped under the chin and said na I’m gonna just keep punching him in the head 😂
That's the tone DoubleVodkaDon put on the whole fight -- a straight-up dog fight, the kind where a guy eats a mangled arm and just keeps swinging instead of looking for an out. It's the exact refuse-to-quit mentality that gets fighters signed off Contender Series, and it's also exactly how careers get shortened. Kunneman's 10-0 run is over, but on toughness alone, he made the kind of impression that doesn't show up in the scorecards.