VALPARAISO | Josh Shockley didn't know a few months ago if he wanted to keep fighting.
On Saturday night, he was no doubt glad he did — even if he may have spent a minute or so with Mike Cannon trying to convince him otherwise.
Shockley (10-2) submitted Cannon (5-2) with a rear-naked choke 3:22 into the first round, but only after having survived a lengthy choke from Cannon early in the fight. The lightweights fought in the main event of Hoosier Fight Club 13 at Porter County Expo Center in Valparaiso.
The win got Shockley, a Lake Station graduate who fights out of Duneland Vale Tudo in Hobart, back in the win column after a loss in May for Bellator Fighting Championships. Shockley, one of the region's most promising fighters, considered walking away from the sport after that setback. But he stuck with it, and now looks to build off the momentum of Saturday's victory — his eighth stoppage in 10 career wins.
"Hats off to Mike; he's tough," Shockley said. "We'll see what's next."
Shockley went for an early takedown attempt, but he shot right into a guillotine choke that Cannon took to the ground. Cannon appeared to have the choke sunk in tightly as Shockley worked to free his neck.
When he finally did, he had both the advantage of being in top position on the ground as well as an opponent beneath him whose arms may have been burned out from squeezing on the choke for so long.
Shockley composed himself on top, and the ground scramble eventually moved the two fighters off one cage wall to another. When Cannon tried to escape Shockley's dominant position and ground-and-pound, he was forced to give up his back.
From there, Shockley's rear-naked choke was academic for a comeback win.
In the co-main event, Ryan Storey landed a big right hand that caught Frank Sloan flush and put him on the canvas for a first-round knockout. Storey, a former welterweight, had a rough cut to make 155 pounds, but it may have been worth it.
"I was a big 170-pounder, but I felt really good," he said. "I've got hard hands and I've got to start using them. Bellator, the UFC — I'm going to keep working till I get there."
Also on the card, Kevin Nowaczyk returned for the first time since a knockout loss on the Season 16 premiere of "The Ultimate Fighter" on FX that kept him out of the "TUF" house. He submitted Darryl Madison in the first round. And Terry House pounded out Henry Goonen in the first.
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