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Jake Hagger, popularly known as Jack Swagger to the pro wrestling faithful, began the MMA chapter of career with a quick submission win over J.W. Kiser at the recently concluded Bellator 214.
The former pro wrestler quit WWE in March 2017 and had been training out of Dave Batista's Ybor City Jiu-Jitsu Club in preparation for his fight against the Kiser.
While Swagger was the favourite going into the fight, there were doubts whether he would be able to take a real punch, considering he comes from a combat sports entertainment entity where the results are predetermined.
Even though Brock Lesnar and Bobby Lashley made successful transitions from the squared circle to the cage, CM Punk's embarrassing failures have always been used as counter-arguments to dither pro wrestlers from making the jump to MMA.
Nonetheless, the former WWE World Heavyweight Champion silenced all critics by using his amateur wrestling background to dominate the proceedings his MMA debut outing.
Swagger was accompanied to the cage by current WWE SmackDown Superstar R-Truth in an entrance that was reminiscent of his days from WWE which also included a 'We the People' audio sample to begin with.
All the theatrics aside, Swagger put on a solid performance once the bell rang as he took down Kiser with relative ease.
Once on the ground, the 36-year-old former All-American looked to finish the fight as he first attempted a Kimura. The failed Kimura attempt was followed by a host of well-placed elbows which opened up Kiser to an arm-triangle choke.
Swagger pounced on the opportunity from half guard and locked in a firm arm-triangle until referee Mike Beltran stepped in to stop the fight.
Swagger even sent a message to Vince McMahon in his post-fight interview and said that he plans on devoting his life to MMA and Bellator for the next ten years.
The impressive showing encouraged a wide range of reactions on Twitter, the best of which have been listed down below:
Check out what WWE superstars had to say about Swagger's stunning MMA debut.
