1) PAT MATSUDA vs. LEONARD CARTER: Matsuda is making his debut and was a California state greco champ. He's RIPPED. Carter is a Matt Hume trained fighter. Middleweight is defined as 198 and below, by the way
Pretty wild and entertaining fight. Clinches early on are punctuated by the knees and punches of Carter. Matsuda is able to get the fight down on occasion but does markedly little with it. When he's standing at distance, Carter is landing enormously hard shots. Highlight moment as Matsuda goes for a takedown and gets DDTed. As the fight goes on, Matsuda begins to take a horrific beating. The damage just keeps piling up as Carter lands multiple head kicks. Matsuda has occasional periods of success (this fight goes a full 15 minutes, after all), but its clear that Carter is doing way more damage. There is some ridiculous system in place here, might I add to determine the obvious. Seriously, fuck people who hate the 10 point must system when compared to this crap. (1) because it was entertaining. Matsuda's only MMA bout.
2) MAURICE TRAVIS vs. JASON PILI: Travis is 37 and apparently a kick boxer. Pili looks ridiculous.
Travis hurts Pili with some strikes early and then gets the fight down. He locks the arms up of Pili a few times and seems to have the fight wrapped up with subs, but Pili fights through them. He never really does anything to come close to winning but absorbs a lot of punishment. Eventually he gets choked out cold and takes awhile to wake up. (0) Pili's only MMA bout.
3) JOHN MATUA vs. BOB GILSTRAP: Guess what weight class this is? Matua is billed at 351.
Matua actually does okay in the opening couple of minutes before gassing out while trying to stay on top of Gilstrap. From that point on, Gilstrap takes over and ends up locking an arm for the armbar. (0) Matua's KOTC career loomed.
4) LANCE GIBSON vs. PETER MAUTAUTIA: I have no idea who these guys are. Moment of silence for Arnold Fuji?
Mauritius sprawls and throws a couple knees. That's about all he can do. Gibson ends up taking his back and choking him with no hooks in. (0) Mauritania's only MMA bout.
5) MAURICE TRAVIS vs. LEONARD CARTER: Carter is waaaaaay smaller.
Travis and Carter are both kickboxers and so the expectation is that this will be a flashy standup war. It is not. Travis is dominant standing, but much of the fight is on the mat where Carter actually gets top position and spends several minutes landing blows from within the guard. All of this is overshadowed by the end of the fight, as Travis is unceremoniously thrown over the top rope by Carter in the midst of a clinch, and in the resulting fall, Travis cuts his leg and elbow. The fight is stopped and Travis wins by technical decision or someting. (1) for a horrible fight with a bizarre ending. Carter's career went far longer in spite of only having something like 7 pro bouts, even fighting a young Kalib Starnes.
6) LANCE GIBSON vs. BOB GILSTRAP: Heavyweight finals.
Gibson surprises me and just seems to be running over Gilstrap in the early going, grinding him down on the mat with strikes, but Gilstrap shocks everyone in the crowd and myself by actually rolling for a leg lock and using it to sweep and land a ton of strikes in side control on Gibson. Gibson gives up the back and gets choked out. (1) Bob got to the UFC and lost to a debuting Carlos Newton, along with losses to other guys like Barnett and Monson. Gibson beat Jermaine Andre, Masanori Suda, and Akihiro Gono in his career.
7) DANNY BENNETT vs. JAY R. PALMER: An all time classic the first time around. Palmer started out "16-0" before being beaten. The record may have been inflated but he was well known coming into that KO loss at Superbrawl III.
Palmer is smart enough to take this one down ASAP and try and win with a submission. Failing that because he doesn't know what he is doing, he goes for punches. He gets rolled easily and Bennett is standing again. Palmer is giving him wide berth here, clearly more afraid of the standup this time than in the first bout. Bennett throws a kick that is caught by Palmer, and Bennett is actually more effective with offense while he is on one foot. Bennett defends anything on the mat and when they're standing, Palmer gets lit up with a left high kick. Fight over. (1)
FIGHT OF THE NIGHT: Matsuda/Carter
KO OF THE NIGHT: Bennett/Palmer
SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT: Gilstrap/Matua
OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: 3.5 out of 10. You can't go saying it was a vital event in MMA history because, well, it wasn't. What was there was fun to watch, sure, but it clearly didn't matter in the grand or small scheme of things. The biggest international superstar was Jay R. Palmer.
D&R Rating: 11% (4/35)
No comments:
Post a Comment