RING OF COMBAT~! 18 (3/7/08)

Another HDNet exclusive featuring guys that don't matter in large part in bouts that often were not good. Kenny Rice and Frank Trigg are announcing from Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City in front of about 5 people. Rules are effectively IFL rules but with 5 minute rounds.

1) RANDY DURANT vs. RICARDO ROMERO: No idea about these guys. Romero is 3-0 coming in, Durant 2-3.

Short bout. Romero lands a left hook and drops Durant. He pounds him out in side control. Romero is now 5-0, so (1).

2) MIKE MEDRANO vs. RICH ASHKAR: Another fight where I have heard of neither participant. Ashkar is 3-0, Medrano 0-1.

Medrano lands a right hand under 20 seconds in and Ashkar just falls to the floor face first. (0)

INTERVIEW TIME WITH RENZO GRACIE. Nothing is learned. He will fight again. Hopefully this time he does not bitch out.

3) AL BUCK vs. JAMES "BINKY" JONES: Binky just fought on the undercard of the Elite XC Primetime show. Buck has done a good job losing to guys that are mediocre at best.

Buck goes for a guillotine standing very early on, but Jones pulls guard and get out of that. Buck tries to throw punches, Binky goes for an armbar which he transitions into a kimura and rolls him with. Buck tries to roll his way out of it and just gets deeper. Tap out early in round 1. (0)

4) IGOR GRACIE vs. TOM GALLICCHIO: A new Gracie! He is making his pro debut. Gallicchio is a solid 7-3 with his best win coming against IFL "vet" Nate Lamotte, who I reviewed fighting Chris Horodecki not long ago.

Round 1 was an impressive showing of the ol' Gracie zhoo-zhit-su but Gallicchio is skilled enough to escape everything and even ends up on top at the end of the round. Gracie is never the same, having gassed himself out going for fancy chokes and stuff. Gallicchio wins a very dull Round 2 by laying on Gracie in the guard for virtually the entire round. Round 3 copies that except with a short standup portion in which Gracie is nearly KOed. Gallicchio wins on every single card and picks up a surprising decision. (0), simply because the fight was not enjoyable to watch and I don't know that I see Gallicchio making inroads anywhere.

5) MIKE GEURIN vs. DAN MILLER: Miller is a WORLD CHAMPION now. Amazing. Geurin is a nobody still. Go figure. How did this titanic struggle go?

Some standup, Guerin and Miller's heads collide, ref stops the fight, NC. (0)

FRANKIE EDGAR INTERVIEW. Not that informative.

6) JOSE RODRIGUEZ vs. JOHN "DOOMSDAY" HOWARD: Howard was robbed at ROC 17 against Dan Miller. Even Sherdog called it a bullshit decision! His trainer told me so. Oddly, nothing on the ol' Fightfinder about "BS decision". Rodriguez is a 5-3 fighter from who knows where.

Howard is shit on by the announcers early on here as being a guy who is a lay and pray fighter. Ouch. After all, he's all decisions and submissions, no KOs, and that's not really worthy of the nickname "Doomsday", which the announcers also refuse to call him. Trigg says something about it not being as catchy as "Babalu". Early on, their remarks make sense. Howard with a takedown, some control, some more control, then he takes the back and nearly sinks in a choke. Rodriguez spins into it and then stands out of the guard, taking this back to the place Howard apparently hates or something. Then Howard throws a combination of shots and Rodriguez is hella unconscious and then the announcers are like "nah dogg we was playing that's a good nickname." Rodriguez goes out on a backboard, Miller/Howard for the IFL title now doesn't happen. (1)

7) ALEXIS AQUINO vs. LYMAN GOOD: There are some serious ass expectations with a name like "Good". Plus he has a perfect record and beat Mike Dolce. Aquino's loss is to Dante Rivera, who Trigg notes he trains with and is on Ultimate Fighter. Somewhere, Zach Arnold is totally upset because HDNet isn't protecting DA BRAND.

Another fight that was conceptually interesting but lacked in actuality. The fight begins really with a high kick by Good that nearly KOs Aquino, and that's really it for interesting offense. Good and Aquino mostly stand, and when they do Aquino has the idea that by throwing a hundred spinning back kicks, he is sure to land one fight ender. No such thing happens. When they "box" each other, its pretty sloppy most of the time with Good getting in more shots because of his hand speed advantage. Aquino is a gamer though and refuses to lay down for any shots in this fight. Seeing as he was KOed in his next fight in under one round, probably not a good sign of future things for Good. Most interesting moment: Aquino shoots in and both men nearly tumble out to the floor. The ring has its pluses for the fans, but not for the competitors. Good by UD. (1)

8) DOUG GORDON vs. GREGOR GRACIE: Gracie is 2-0 and Gordon is a paltry 6-4.

Gracie immediately goes for a take down and ends up in mount as soon as he succeeds. Oh, great, another Gracie exhibition. The world didn't have enough of these in 1994. Gracie in and out of mount, goes for a guillotine that Gordon reverses and stands up out of, but he gets taken down again. The bell for the second rings, and you can guess what happens. Gracie takedown, on top, however he's not nearly as active. Just like the other family member on the card, Gracie sucks at cardio. Gordon at least put in road work and is able to fight his way back into this, even if from the bottom. Still lost round 2. Third and final stanza begins, Gordon walks out, throws a right high kick, and Gregor is immediately KOed. So this is why the Gracies never get calls to the UFC anymore. (0)

9) KRYSTOF SOSZYNSKI vs. ALEX ANDRADE: Andrade returned for three fights with his ol' Lions Den buddy's promotion Art of War, and now he's here in NJ to take on the ex-IFL heavyweight "contender". Soszynski lost so much weight he looks like he got AIDS.

This fight is absolute trash. Totally unwatchable. Amazingly, a lower moment in Andrade's career than even being DQed that one time in the UFC for ignoring the "no kicking with shoes" rule they had back when you could wear shoes. Andrade rushes forward, they clinch, that's it. It is Yasuda/Saatake USA, but with only one consolation: Andrade's strikes all land dead in the cup. Every fucking time he throws a low kick or knee, straight in the balls. After 4 stoppages for low blows, he is DQed. (0)

10) CHRIS LIGOURI vs. JIM MILLER: When I realized this was the main event, there was some horror to note how much the last IFL show ever was like a Ring of Combat event. I guess then that its spirit will live forever in NJ. Miller's only loss is to Frankie Edgar, and he's beaten Muhsin Corbbrey, Nuri Shakir, Chris Ligouri previously (by cut) and a month later was victorious over Bart Palaszewski. Ligouri I've seen fight for MFC thanks to Bodog (against Erik Oganov) and has a whole bunch of losses to good fighters like Pete Sell and also Pete Sell. Apparently rematches against guys that beat you is no big thing for him. He's even a UFC vet, fighting at UFC 45! He lost to Keith Rockel, so I guess he had octagon shock.

Not an awful first round with some back and forth action. Miller gets a takedown early but Ligouri is able to stand out of that and lands some straight right hands against his southpaw foe. Miller gets desperate and keeps trying for takedowns, all of which get stopped. He just gives up on that and pulls guard to get the fight off the feet, and when Ligouri tries to stand out, he goes for a single. Finally, he finds success and gets on top. Ligouri seems to have some BJJ skills and is scooting the legs up when the round ends.

Round two kicks off with lots of takedown attempts, lots of Ligouri defending, lots of Ligouri forgetting what worked in round one and what should obviously work and gets lulled into fighting Miller's fight. They trade low kicks and it forces Ligouri into the corner. That powerful left of Miller lands dead on his chin and a hurt Ligouri goes to try and take down Miller. The single puts his head right into a guillotine attempt. A couple taps later, fight's over, Miller wins. (2)

FIGHT OF THE NIGHT(S): Ligouri/Miller. The best on a not very good show.

KO OF THE NIGHT(S): Gordon/Gracie

SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT(S): Jones/Buck

OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: 2 out of 10: If you like to see the Gracie family get shitted on, this is your show. Otherwise, so many boring fights. So many nothing fighters.

D&R RATING: 10% (5/50)

INTERNATIONAL FIGHT LEAGUE 4/4/08

I went to what was, apparently, the final IFL show in existence a few weeks back. It was a sort of weird feeling show but it seemed that they were totally gung ho about the August event, even if many of the internet hardcore fans (myself included) were less enthusiastic about their chances. It was odd that they picked a 4 month gap between events when there was a 6 week gap between this April show and that May event, in my book. So, as a bit of a tribute to the likely fallen organization, here is a review of their (probable) next to last event. HDNet is televising, and Bas and Kruk are announcing.

1) CHRIS HORODECKI vs. NATE LAMOTTE: Horodecki recieved a lot of publicity from the company after his exciting fight with Shad Lierley and the fact that he was undefeated. He made it all the way to the Grand Prix finals before luck ran out. Ryan Schultz pounded him into dust and became the IFL's lightweight champ, further crippling one of the few stars they had managed to make. Lamotte was chosen as his comeback fight.

Round 1 shows the two approaches at play here. Lamotte wants takedowns and ground and pound. Horodecki wants to be standing and delivering punches and kicks. He reminds me a significant amount of Sam Stout, perhaps without the one punch KO ability. He does do a decent job early on of preventing the takedown and pummeling for the underhooks. When there's separation, he's clearly the class of the two. Right hands and low kicks are especially valuable here. Lamotte's best chance for offense comes at the end of the round as he nearly gets a takedown, but Horodecki blatantly holds the ropes to prevent it. Miragliotta, BTW, is the ref here. Start the conspiracy theories now!

Round 2 continues in much the same vein. Lamotte is able to secure a takedown by grabbing a low kick and forcing forwards, but its short lived as Horodecki is able to get his feet on the hips and push off, returning this fight to standing. Horodecki continues the assault of low kicks, with the sole next moment of offense being a feinted shot by Lamotte that Horodecki buys into, sprawls with the air, and then nearly gets spun on by Lamotte. Horodecki is enough of an athlete to prevent getting his back taken or even being flipped onto the bottom though, and the fight stays on its feet, even with a knee landing to the mush of Lamotte in the clinch before the two separate.

Round 3 opens the same way as all the others. Lamotte wants that take down but won't string together enough shots to get inside and take a dominant position. He's probably never fought anyone good enough to actually prevent his stuff and so he's been lazy about improving how to actually get the fight where he wants it. After eating a bunch more kicks, he finally gets the fight down for an extended period of time with only 1:30 remaining in the fight, and he really only lands anything substantial from a ground and pound perspective in the last 30 seconds. I gave Horodecki the round for having won the first 2:30 and having denied any real offense for another minute, but the judges let Lamotte steal that one. UD, 29-28 all around. (2)

2) BART PALASZEWSKI vs. JIM MILLER: Miller's brothers fight. Bartimus trains with Total-MMA writer Bill Thompson totally trains with him. Or trained. Or something. I remember he talked about it a lot. But anywho, THE FIGHT.

Round 1, much like the last fight, is this fight in a nutshell. Palaszewski wants to stay standing because his standup is crisper. Miller wants to go on the mat because his wrestling is better. Unlike the TV opener, Miller's wrestling is better than Palaszewski's takedown defense, and so it ends up on the mat primarily. Miller nearly locks in an anaconda early in round 1, but Bart is able to get out of that and bring it back to the feet. Well, at least until he decides to bodylock and slam Miller. That doesn't work all that well, what with Miller being better on the mat, and Miller ends up getting the fight up, landing a crisp right hand, and then clinching up again with Bartimus. Palaszewski gets taken down right into side control, but goes for a leg. He is punished for his efforts. Easy round for Miller.

Miller shoots early in round 2 and Palaszewski's early success with the sprawl doesn't last, as he gets taken down anyhow and put in side control. He gains half guard on a poor attempt to pass to mount by Miller, which is helpful for a few moments. Miller passes again and goes for a guillotine, gets put back in half guard, and a sweep by Palaszewski puts this on the feet again. Palaszewski's offense for the round is a right hand that lands while standing, which he follows with a shot that fails miserably and leads to him being on the bottom in, you guessed it, half guard.

Final round begins with a Miller take down attempt. Palaszewski actually blocks it and decides to go for a standing kimura. He is not Sakuraba, unfortunately, and Miller spins around to the back and basically rides Palaszewski down. The next 3 minutes are Miller riding Palaszewski's back and trying to get a rear naked choke while Palaszewski looks around as if he is confused and attempts some toeholds that Miller uses as opportunities to make everyone believe he's really gonna finish the fight. Doesn't happen. Palaszewski eventually realizes that when Miller loosens his hooks, he should probably spin around and try to stand up, since there's no other way he can win. This doesn't connect in his brain until there's about 30 seconds left in the fight. Miller rides this out standing by not getting hit with anything stupid and wins a unanimous decision on all 3 cards of 30-27. (3)

3) BRAD BLACKBURN vs. DELSON HELENO: Heleno was the IFL's favorite to win the middleweight title, and whoops! He failed, and that belt was never successfully defended. Blackburn is a journeyman fighter with losses to Roger Huerta and Rory Markham and wins over Jay Hieron and Chris Wilson. Very inconsistent to say the least.

Round 1 has the usual halfhearted standup to start leading into the opening takedown attempt by Heleno. He gets the fight down and is in half guard, Blackburn regains guard and uses that to put himself back on his feet. Heleno doesn't want it there and takes him down again. Heleno is doing his damnedest to get through the guard of Blackburn, and his mediocre hammerfists aren't really doing the job of distracting Blackburn. Needing something else, Heleno thinks the eternal question of "What would Sakuraba do?," gets up out of the open guard, and then tries a leaping guard pass with punch. Pretty much all Heleno.

Second stanza starts much the same. Heleno is obviously not looking for a punch or kick to get him the win, and that's Blackburn's only real chance. He's not getting any luck teeing off, with another takedown from Heleno that sees most of the round being a positional battle with Blackburn trying to not get mounted for very long and Heleno trying to constantly pass guard/half guard. Heleno goes for the leaping punch/pass again here. Blackburn does get an opening during this to try a toehold, but Heleno quickly reverses and mounts him to end the round.

As the final round starts, the fight looks pretty noncompetitive. Heleno has controlled the whole fight and in doing so provided little action. Blackburn decides in round 3 that he wants to be on top and actually goes for the takedown himself, which he is easily denied. Interesting tactic though, probably well late in the fight. Heleno surprises no one by then shooting for another double leg. This time Blackburn is more prepared to defend, having given himself more distance. He easily stuffs the halfassed shot and then throws a whistling right hand at Heleno, connecting dead on the temple. Heleno is done. Blackburn jumps on him and throws some more punches, and the ref stops the bout. Kruk had said just 10 seconds before that Blackburn needed something spectacular, and that was it. (2)

4) VLADIMIR MATYUSHENKO vs. JAMAL PATTERSON: I'm a big fan of Matyushenko, but I'm also cognizant that he's not one hundred percent what he was in the late 1990s. Still, he's rebounded beautifully from the KO loss to Arlovski to get legitimate wins over Tim Boetsch, Justin Levins, and Alex Schonenauer. He's argurably a top ten fighter, and I posed that question at the Total-MMA forums some time ago. I really haven't gotten a chance to watch him of late, and so this was a pretty key bout to watch on the card. This is, of course, scheduled for 5.

Round 1 is actually a Patterson round. Matyushenko looked very slow in against Barretto until Carlos' knee exploded, and he's still very slow of hand here. Maybe slower. Patterson actually puts together several punches that land, and one early in the round hurt Matyushenko. VMAT doesn't get his act together until late in the round, as he begins to throw the push kick to set up the double, which he's somewhat successful in obtaining (I say somewhat since Patterson actually tried to get a guillotine and was willing to go down to the mat). Unfortunately, he does little with it once he has control and rides out the final 30 seconds of the round.

Round 2 is a completely different story. Maty throws the hard right looping shot and follows it with a takedown. Passes guard with a fair amount of ease and keeps going for that Matt Hughes tactic of trapping the arm while pounding. Patterson is defenseless under Matyushenko and gets rolled on. The ref finally jumps in to stop it after what was a classic GNP performance. (3)

5) WAGNNEY FABIANO vs. SHAD LIERLEY: Lierley was in the best IFL fight ever and Fabiano is a monster 145 lb fighter who will probably not be in a great deal of trouble when it comes to getting a contract elsewhere. This is scheduled for 5 for Fabiano's title.

Fabiano comes out throwing low kicks and they are absolutely vicious. Lierley drops his hands and Fabiano plants a right hand on Lierley. Lierley is absolutely stone cold out. (3)

6) MARK MILLER vs. JAY HIERON: And here we've got the main event of the night. Mark Miller is a decent fighter and Jay Hieron is a chronically underrated fighter in my book. Hieron has less than spectacular results in the UFC, but he's training at Extreme Couture now and the IFL title he won is a big boost in confidence.

One short but sweet round. Hieron gets the takedown with a legtrip early and just punishes Miller with strikes from full guard. Miller just really not able to defend them at all and the fight is stopped after about 2 minutes or so. Coleman-like ground and pound is so awesome to watch on TV. (2)

Luckily, HDNET doesn't go off the air quite yet. Prelims!

7) EMYR BUSSADE vs. JESSE LENNOX: Bussade just was featured in the review I did of Ring of Fire 3, so its nice and actually surprising to see him again so soon. Lennox is some young buck training at MFS.

Lennox has horrible striking, probably because there are no decent boxing trainers in Iowa. He is, here's a shock, a good wrestler. He goes for the clinch early in the fight and Bussade tries to drag him down by pulling guard. The problem is that Lennox has some of that vaunted "farm strength" and holds him up in the air before slamming him and then standing up again. Okay, so he can't strike and he's afraid of getting subbed, so, uh, how is he gonna win? They trade punches in an amateurish fashion, with whomever decides to throw straight landing and the other guy who throws in a looping fashion getting his punches somewhat nullified. Bussade pulls guard again, and Lennox is all HULK SMASH and tries to land punches. Bussade goes for a leg, Lennox defends well and punches some more. Bussade gets out of the position and brings it back to standing, and more punching exchanges. 10-9 to Lennox.

Round 2 again goes the same way. Lennox this time displays a low kick that almost sweeps Bussade off his feet, and then they punch some more. Then circle, punch more. Bussade pulls guard and Lennox wants it back up for more clubberin'. Bussade is not stupid and instead of agreeing to that subconsciously, he uses Lennox's ignorance as to how to protect himself when trying to escape to grab his leg and turns into a kneebar. Lennox is clueless and just tries to pull straight out with his leg, but its figure four'ed and in super tight. As one could expect, there is a lot of screaming from Jesse Lennox, as he is in such severe pain he doesn't even think to tap out. The ref is smart enough to interpret the cries as a submission and breaks it up. This is good because I do like to do a "submission of the night" and there wasn't one in the whole show other than this. (1) because neither is a top contender, but it is a pretty gnarly kneebar.

8) CARMELO MARRERO vs. MIKE CIESNOLEVICZ: This is a pretty interesting fight between a IFL product and a UFC washout. Marrero infamously ruined Dana White's day at UFC 64 by beating Chieck Kongo, thus (for at least a little while) taking a heavyweight hopeful out of contention.

Marrero shoots in for a takedown and gets a chin to the top of the head that causes a geyser of blood. Marrero is all over Ciesnolevicz and tries to just beat him down and out before the ref stops it, but no use. Worst of all, Ciesnolevicz is initally ruled the winner because its claimed that a high kick caused the cut, though watching the fight itself and replays, its obvious no part of his leg or foot was anywhere near Marrero's head and that their skulls collided hard. Later on, it was changed to a NC. As with all no contests: (0)

FIGHT OF THE NIGHT(S): Heleno/Blackburn. Really, its tough to give it to any bout but this. Blackburn made it all worthwhile with a sudden turn of events.

KO OF THE NIGHT(S): Fabiano/Lierley

SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT(S): Lennox/Bussade

OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: 4.5 out of 10. A bit on the dull side, particularly early on. Some decent performances in the title fights, however.

D&R RATING: 40% (16/40)

USMMA Ring of Fire 3 (5/3/2003)

Okay, time to finish this stupid DVD off so I can move on with my life. This is the second side, and you’re blessed to get another great MMA event on paper that will probably be edited to shit. Osborne again is announcing.

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1) BOBBY DIAZ vs. KEVIN BURKES: Never heard of either in my life. I’m not holding out much hope for this 185lb contest.

Less than impressive standup exchanges lead to grappling that is dominated by Diaz. Diaz ends up going for the rear naked choke a few times and can’t get it, but even with Burkes’ chin in, he taps in the first round to one. Diaz subsequently lost to the dorky Tamdan McCrory and mediocre Bobby McMasters. (0)

2) JOEL BLANTON vs. DAVID GARCIA: Garcia is listed as being “Freelance” so this will probably not be good.

Garcia has a humongous height advantage. Seriously, this looks like a classic UFC with no weight classes. He lands some decent strikes on Blanton, who just rushes in with his hands down over and over. Blanton takes a right hand to the face that chops up his left eye and then gets JUDOWNED to the mat. The ref stops it and has the doctor look for a minute or two, then we get back under way. Same exact thing happens, except instead of taking a minute to develop, it takes 15 seconds. Blanton is able to get up from the second throw and pushes Garcia into the corner while clinching with him, but he’s cut so badly the ref again pulls them apart and this time the doctor calls the fight. Garcia has since lost to Thomas Denny and Chris Wilson, and since the card with the Wilson fight is an FFC show that Sherdog sells, I will probably end up owning it. (0) It should be noted that it becomes obvious that Osborne is doing commentary in post production because the sound of the fight is totally on about a 3 second delay to the video, whereas he is on point.

3) LEO SYLVEST vs. EMYR BUSSADE: I’ve seen Sylvest fight a couple times and he sucks, to be honest. Bussade has fought in a number of shows no one has ever seen.

Sylvest and Bussade go to the clinch early and Sylvest pulls guard and locks in a guillotine. Bussade defends by staying standing and this lasts for awhile, with Sylvest smiling to the crowd. Its nowhere near in though, and eventually Bussade puts him down and pops his head out. Then a wonderful EDIT that brings us to later in round 1, where Bussade passes the guard and then gets an armbar from knee on belly that was set up and executed well. Still, totally a (0).

4) DAVION PETERSON vs. JAY THOMAS: I remember Davion Peterson from his Bodogfight appearance and loss to Nick Thompson. Seems like too nice of a guy to be a real fighter. No edge. Jay Thomas I’m not familiar with.

Jay Thomas is a fat fuck and Davion Peterson knocks him out super early with right hands thrown from within the clinch. It’s a bit difficult to call Peterson any sort of modern contender. (0)

5) KEITH WISNIEWSKI vs. NURI SHAKIR: This DVD leads off with video of the national anthem being sung inside the Avalon nightclub in Boston where this event is taking place. It is literally a club show, and yet they have a national anthem being sung. Oh, and that takes up time on a program recorded to be just under an hour long. If this goes more than two minutes, I’m sure I won’t get to see much more of it than that.

The brevity of the bout prevents me from ranting, which I’m sure will occur later. Wisniewski and Shakur meet at center ring very quickly, and Wisniewski gets the thai plumb almost without effort. A couple knees to the body soften up Shakir, and Wisniewski gets a takedown and half guard. Shakir is good enough to force himself out of that position and try and get it stood up, but he is stuck in a guillotine for his efforts and taps. Again, like Wisniewski’s prior bout in USMMA, neither man is really world class. However, Shakir has never risen to being involved with national/international promotions like Lee has. He’s never been on a show as big as the Playboy Mansion show or the Boardwalk Hall MFC show. He’s a regional fighter in the northeast and nothing more. This is a (0) as a result.

6) ANGELA WILSON vs. SHELBY WALKER: I know fuck all about women’s fighting. Shelby Walker I somewhat recognize from boxing exploits.

Walker throws a right hand and Wilson catches it with her face. She is hurt. Then this happens again. She falls down. Apparently it was the fastest KO in women’s MMA history. I also did my research on Walker afterwards and was reminded that she was the fiancee of Denis Kang and had died from a painkiller overdose. Strangely, knowing a couple people who have such addictions and looking at what has happened to Kang since, watching the fight seems very bizarre. I give it a (1). Realistically, it is a footnote in the history of the sport for a few reasons.

7) MARCUS AURELIO vs. DAVE GARDNER: Well, after that slightly depressing footnote, a match that is SURE to be edited down.

First, Marcus at this point is like a skinny kid. “Maximus” looks like he’s been training with TOM of Total-MMA rankings fame. Secondly, it is, as expected, edited. Heavily so. Basically, it looks like a Marcus Aurelio highlight reel because whenever Gardner does anything, that’s edited out and Osborne merely tells us the fight is close afterwards. Take the first round, where roughly half is shown, and then when Gardiner is able to shake off back control and get in top position in Aurelio’s guard, it cuts the entire rest of the round. Aurelio wins by a triangle armbar he spends forever setting up in round 3 of this USMMA lightweight title fight. Because of Aurelio’s place in the division, I give this a (1). He’s a top thirty fighter who’s been as high as the top 5 in the last 3 years. Again, though, there’s severe editing done here that causes what appears on the screen to be nothing like what is being announced. That is not good.

8) DENIS KANG vs. KEITH ROCKEL: Best fight on paper for the card.

Round 1 is edited, but that seems to not necessarily be the worst thing ever because Rockel just lays in Kang’s guard. Round 2 is not edited, miraculously. It’s a very different round, with Kang jumping in and taking down Rockel following a low kick. Rockel scrambles up but Kang goes around to his back and ends up slamming him to the mat. Rockel regains guard and Kang lays there for a good bit of time until the ref stands them up. Kang is happy about this and claps, whereas Rockel is slightly tired. Rockel walks forward straight into a Denis Kang right hand and he is unconscious before he hits the mat. I give this a (1) because Denis Kang has fallen off greatly in recent years, but it’s a mightily impressive KO that previews his performance in the Superbrawl one night tourney that was held merely a month or so later, and because the editing in round 1 removes a lot of video that could be valuable in reading Kang’s skills.

Still, watching this asks a lot of questions. They go out of their way to include fighter entrances, which are a total fucking joke when the camera crew consists of two guys with hand cams on the ring apron and the show is in a night club. Meanwhile, there's a fight that lasts 8 minutes and you absolutely need to trim 2 minutes off that? Fuck

9) JORGE RIVERA vs. SOLOMON HUTCHERSON: This is the only fight on the show I’ve previously seen.

This fight is a clusterfuck. Rivera is taken down at the very start as Hutcherson rushes in and slams him. Rivera gets up and gets slammed again. He maneuvers his way into an armbar, which he has, but the ref inexplicably breaks it up and restarts it standing. Rivera then spends much of the rest of the round exchanging punches with Rivera and the two pummeling in clinches. Rivera lands a right hand that knocks Hutcherson out hard and the fight is over in round 1. (2)

FIGHT OF THE NIGHT(S): Kang/Rockel. Rockel controlled round 1 (I think) and then gets KOed super hard in round 2.

KO OF THE NIGHT(S): Kang/Rockel

SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT(S): Aurelio/Gardner

OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: 2.5 out of 10: Again, the editing bug hits hard with the two best current fighters rankings wise on the show having heavy edits to their bouts. Its unacceptable. KOTC can release whole shows on two sided DVDs.

D&R RATING: 11% (5/45)

USMMA 2: Ring Of Fury (9/21/2002)

Tsongas Arena was home to this terrific MMA event an astounding 6 years ago, but it wasn’t until relatively recently that it was commercially available. I bought this on DVD about 2 years ago but have never watched it, as it instead ended up sitting on top of the TV all that time. That time is about to finally end. This show had some sort of co-promotional deal with Hook N’ Shoot or something. Massachusetts MMA rules make it so that every contest is an amateur MMA bout or something like that. Rules are effectively IFL rule with the addition of no knees to the head in standup. Fights are mostly, if not all, 2 rounds in length. Jeff Osborne is here providing commentary.

1) SOLOMON HUTCHINSON vs. JOE NYE: Nye is a lumpy white guy from Massachusetts, and this is Hutchinson pre-DAGGER.

Nye wants the fight on the ground. Unfortunately, he gets there by being pushed down and mounted. While he regains guard, his offense off his back is nonexistent, and his defense not much more apparent. Hutchinson just lays into him with GnP, and when the fight is slowed down, the ref stands it up. Nye is terrible standing and gets dropped with a jab and slides under the bottom rope. The ref calls the fight and Hutchinson gets a first round stoppage. I loved Hutchinson on TUF, but its merely a (1).

2) MATT LEE vs. KEITH WISNIEWSKI: Well, to the benefit of all, Wisniewski was actually legal age to fight here. Matt Lee’s career has been strange, to say the least.

Good first round that was clearly controlled by Wisniewski. Some decently technical ground work by Lee early on that was nullified by Wisniewski, and Wisniewski was able to reverse positions and control the standup with a fair amount of ease, along with having the only serious submission attempt of the fight. Second round sees Lee being more effective standing but ultimately outclassed again, as both men are susceptible to the right hand, but Wisniewski’s hand speed is such that Lee can’t deal with it. The fight ends up on the ground once more and this time its Wisniewski in mount raining punches. After about a minute or more of ground and pound the ref steps in to save Lee. Looking at each man’s career path since, they’ve been everywhere and fought a wide assortment of top names. Lee is the far lesser known, and yet has fought Edson Berto, Vladimir Zenin (a fight I saw this week, matter of fact), Eddie Alvarez, and Jorge Masvidal, often on cards that made it to broadcast in some format. Both are journeymen and both are fringe contenders at best, but they are names that have some value. The fight itself is largely a dominant performance by Wisniewski, so I go with a (1) here.

3) MIKE LITTLEFIELD vs. JEREMY BENNETT: Never seen either. Bennett’s done a few other smaller shows, and was coming off a win against Matt Lee.

This fight has clearly been clipped at least a full minute (the audio even reflects it), and I fucking HATE clipped fights. Who does that shit in the US? Seriously, the DVD has lots of room. Fill it. Bennett and Littlefield are really tenative on the ground and Littlefield pulls guard. Bennett lays on him a lot, throws the occasional punch, stands out of the guard, throws some punches, round ends. What was seen is an obvious Bennett round. Round two sees Bennett get a take down and easily avoiding some Littlefield punches with head movement, and hey, a big cutaway edit that looks like its from a cable access show to bring us to a standup. Hey, Dana didn’t invent the “standup is more exciting” MMA meme. Bennett’s sole moment that’s shown where he isn’t in control is when he fucks up an armbar attempt and Littlefield is able to roll into his guard. Doesn’t last that long though, and Bennett gets the sweep and just pulverizes him with strikes from mount until the ref stops it as he’s going for an armbar. TKO win for Bennett. Neither fighter has had any significant wins since. (0)

4) TOM JONES vs. RICH O’CONNOR: Neither man did anything, but to Jones’credit for entertaining me, he’s from the Tulsa affiliate of Lion’s Den.

More fantastic amateur video editing here knocks off half the round. What was seen had Rich O’Connor on top in half guard most of the time. Tom Jones’ offense came with dirty boxing in the clinch and a horrible kimura attempt that he turned into a failed sweep. Same thing happens in round 2, except much of the round then featurs Jones laying in guard. I have no idea what a legit score in this fight would be, but O’Connor gets a unanimous decision. (0)

5) JIM DESOUSA vs. JASON RIGSBY: DeSousa fought embryonic versions of Alvin Robinson and Eric Schafer.

Edited to shit. Seriously, it looks like a fairly entertaining fight and DeSousa wins, being dominant on his feet and on the ground, but there’s so many edits here 10 minutes of fighting is dropped to about 5. Additionally, neither man is meaningful. I wish I gave negative points (0)

6) TODD CARNEY vs. KEITH ROCKEL: Rockel had a pair of fights in the UFC, however, both were losses. Carney has been all over the country as well and even had a short stint in Bodog.

Good action fight with both men throwing going through all sorts of transitions, competent striking, constant action on the mat, and so on. Rockel wins with a rear naked choke as Carney just didn’t seem to be prepared for the pace of the contest. While neither is a major contender right now (Rockel hasn’t fought since ’06), this was competitive and at a high level. At the time, it was even a semi important bout. (1)

7) BEN ROTHWELL vs. JOHNATHAN IVEY: Who on earth could have guessed that the one guy who would be a top ten talent on this card was Ben Rothwell? Jonathan Ivey is a fat journeyman from the midwest who’s greatest moment came when he used a People’s Elbow in an MMA contest.

Not much to say here. Ivey bounces off the ropes and then shoots for a takedown, which is defended and Rothwell punches him while in side mount. Somehow, on the way down, some part of Rothwell that’s not his skull makes contact with Ivey’s face and cuts his eye. No biggie, after some peering by the doctor, fight continues. Same thing happens again, but this time Ivey tries to roll into a leg lock (which he has a shocking number of wins by) and Rothwell again defends it and again ends up in dominant position. He throws some punches and cuts Ivey again, this time far worse. The ref jumps in to stop it and he lands a late blow, causing the ref to yell at him and he clearly states he will “fucking disqualify you (Rothwell)”. That doesn’t happen though and Rothwell is given a TKO win off the cut. Hilariously, Rothwell is in far better shape working with Strasser than he is now with MFS. (2), which is a helluva rating given what it is, and how quickly a single Andrei Arlovski right hand could change it.

Its worth noting that this was a title bout, and apparently title fights (which the next two are) will be three round fights.

8) NURI SHAKIR vs. STEVE BERGER: Both men have an enormous number of fights and both are near .500 records. There is simply no way Berger is not a personal friend of Osborne’s, because wherever Osborne has gone, he gets a fight. He even got fights in the UFC during Osborne’s tenure there.

This was only one round, but boy oh boy, what a round. Berger goes for the clinch early in round 1 and gets a takedown, but hardly does a thing with it. Shakur is able to scramble his way back to his feet after some time, and the standup bout begins. Shakur lands some hard punches that drop Berger and bust up his nose. Shakir follows him to the mat and continues the assault from within Berger’s guard. Berger is able to absorb a surprising number of shots and eventually gets back on his feet, but with merely seconds left in the fight. With time running out, Berger rushes Shakir for the clinch, grabs a guillotine and pulls guard. Shakir taps just as the horn sounds to end round 1. Good fight that pits guys at the same talent leve against one another to the benefit of all. (1)

9) JORGE RIVERA vs. TRAVIS LUTTER: Needs no introduction. Lutter is wearing wrestling shoes, and that makes it look like he has chicken legs. Fight is at 205 lbs, actually.

First round has a minute of it missing. Rivera is significantly better standing, though there are occasions where Lutter gets him down. Of course, guess what parts are cut out? Round 2 is edited in bizarre fashion as Lutter and Rivera are edited early on but there’s a solid two minutes of Lutter laying in side control left over. Lutter had gotten there shooting a single and passing Rivera’s guard without even tossing a strike, but rather by just maneuvering himself like it was ADCC. Once in side control, nothing happened for a good long time until Lutter set up for a armbar, which he then transitioned to a triangle choke. Rivera was able to turn his way out of that and take Lutter’s back for the final 5 seconds or so. Round 3 starts and Lutter is dead fucking tired. So tired. Rivera moves his hands and Lutter looks like any shot will decapitate him. In spite of how obviously shitty he is, Rivera’s takedown defense is awful and Lutter is consistently able to get a single. USMMA also displays that they will let a fight that is inactive stay so for as long as possible, as both Lutter takedowns in round 3 feature no action on his part to do anything at all afterwards. After being stood up following his second takedown, Rivera lands some more strong punches and this time Lutter crumbles rather than going for a desperation freestyle takedown. Lutter just turtles up as much as a guy who looks almost comatose can and Rivera wins by stoppage. Crowd goes wild and all that.

Now while this is a bout with a pair of fairly well known and upper echelon middleweights, the fact is that the editing of the fight makes it impossible to determine what actually happens for a good chunk of the bout, and that will always affect the rating. While in full its probably a (2), I have to give it a (1) due to the fashion in which it is presented.

FIGHT OF THE NIGHT(S): Shakir/Berger. Very good fight, and one of the few that is presented in an unedited format.

KO OF THE NIGHT(S): Lutter/Rivera

SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT(S): Carney/Rockel

OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: 2 out of 10: I had no choice but to give it such a low ranking. Editing fights is literally the worst thing one can possibly do when releasing/televising bouts, and I can’t honestly count edited fights towards a DVD’s rating. Morally, I would consider it reprehensible on my part to do otherwise. With that being said, I do think there’s some interesting stuff here in between the high school production levels for hardcore fans.

D&R RATING: 15.5% (7/45)

CAGE WARRIORS 7: 5/9/04

Well, this is the spiritual successor to the KOTC of the Day thread over at DVDVR that I spent way, way too many hours working on. I have the odd compulsion to have, you know, everything ever in the fighting world, and watching it is a serious chore sometimes. So to give me reason to actually do so and to have something typed out for the memory bank, well, could there be any more important a reason to do this?

We start somewhat randomly with the rather small MMA promotion known as Cage Warriors Fighting Championship, whom are based in the UK. The television is provided in this case by British cable/satellite network The Wrestling Channel, and it doesn't seem to be that low rent, but roughly about equal with your average Gladiator's Challenge show. The ring announcer tells us we have THREEEEE exciting title fights to come, plus caged kickboxing, as if anyone on earth ultimately gives a shit about that. He goes on to introduce Dougy Truman (the promoter), the ring girl (yes, singular), and our ref, Grant Waterman. The judges are announced, and then a short fade out brings us to IN RING INTRODUCTIONS. No kids, you don't get any long ring walks here, at least early on. It should be noted that the venue looks like a high school gymnasium, and the cage CWFC uses has a very tight material making the fence up. It looks like vinyl covered steel, but rather than being in a chain link fence configuration, its almost like a beefed up chicken wire that has very little give.

Before we go talking about the fights, let's talk about the patented D&R ratings system. I don't rate fights based on the action in them solely, and sometimes don't even bother so much with that. What matters to me in reviewing these are how relevant the bouts are to the big shows and the world scene. A show with a ton of scraps between low level dudes with no skills does nothing to impress me. I can go to the local boxing gym and see that for free when they hold smokers. I want to see world class athletes go all out and show their skills. Henceforth, here's how it works:

0: Fights of no value. Feature no one who went anywhere or will go anywhere. Had no real skill. Apathy is as bad as being actively awful.
1: Fights of minimal value. Fun but brief fights between nobodies and early and nonessential fights from fringe contenders and future/past reality stars who never really rise above that platform.
2: Fights of some substantial value: Fights featuring legitimate top 40-50 contenders at any stage of their career. Also, prospects deemed ones to “watch out for”. Also, all out wars featuring technical skill between fighters of any level.
3: Fights of major value: Entertaining fights between top 40-50 contenders at any stage of their alloted career. Early/developmental fights for elite talent.
4: Fights of critical value: On a KOTC level, think Jorge Santiago/Diego Sanchez.
5: The absolute best. Stuff that not only reaches the skill levels seen in the top 4 promotions (UFC, EliteXC, DREAM, K-1), but that often exceeds it. In recent history, Miguel Torres/Yoshiro Maeda or, going backwards, Joachim Hansen fighting Gomi and JZ Calvan in Shooto.

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1) FREDERICK FERNANDES vs. MARK CHEN: Fernandez hails from the all important French Top Team. BTW, there needs to be a 10 year moratorium on naming your fight team "_____ Top Team".

Round one tells me a lot about the promotion, not so much about the fighters. Chen sort of flails, pushing his punches without planting his feet, and Fernandez pulls guard. This occurs twice. It only occurs twice because while there's rarely any sort of serious submission attempt going on from Fernandez, nor significant effort from Chen to pass guard or deliver blows, Fernandez is quite active bucking his hips and trying to set up things, and that is enough for the referee to justify allowing Chen to essentially lay and pray. One might complain about such a thing, but I would vehemently disagree with them. If anything, it indicates that there will be far fewer of the awful standups seen in most US based promotions to force "action" (the combat sports code word for "guys throwing bombs without pretense of defense).

Round 2 follows the lead of round 1 until roughly midway through, when Fernandez sweeps Chen off of being in high mount and gets inside his guard. Apparently London Pancrase isn't getting the job done about teaching dudes how to competently go for armbars and whatnot, and Fernandez is able to take advantage, landing a lot of punches in this position. Inevitably, Chen is able to force the fight back standing, but Fernandez again pulls guard and starts bucking the hips, throwing punches from his back, and so on. Chen merely lays there in a prone position waiting for time to run out.

Round 3 starts with, you guessed it, poorly thrown punches from Chen and Fernandez cliinching with him. However, perhaps sensing some fatigue, Fernandez instead decides to attempt some judo throws and actually succeeds with something I can't name because, well, I'm not a judoka. Fernandez kinda lays there, ends up passing to half guard eventually, and then the pattern that all the other rounds ended up eventually becoming returns. Its the classic battle of activity versus positioning here, and the judges all see it for Fernandez. Really, a good job, as he was more active on top when there and was far more active when on the bottom than when Chen had the dominant position. Neither man really went anywhere, and this was no classic ground battle. (0)

2) LEE DOSKI vs. ANDY WALKER: Walker apparently showboated a lot before his prior fight, doing hand stands and stuff. Doski is "good," so the announcers say.

Doski gets this down fast, nearly gets Walker's back inside the first minute or so, but Walker is able to get this reversed and he is in Doski's guard. Doski is still pretty capable from that position, and Walker ends up armbarred. Slight confusion as he taps or submits or something and the lock is broken, but the fight isn't stopped and everyone just looks at each other. Neither fighter is pertinent on the world scene. (0)

3) DAVE ROCHE vs. GAVIN BRADLEY: No real familiarity with these guys.

Roche takes down Bradley immediately and tries to go for a guillotine. Doesn't really work. The announcers make great strides in pretending that Gavin Bradley is succeeding at something here in spite of having his guard passed. Roche ends up back in Bradley's guard after a short period of time and he fires a number of shots. Bradley springs up to try and get the double, but gets caught in a guillotine. Roche just presses Bradley's back into the fence and Bradley taps out. Roche has the better career winning percentage at 3-0, but has not fought in 3 years. (0)

4) MATT EWIN vs. GREGORY BOUCHALEGHAM: Ewin is still a regular on MMA shows in the UK (his best wins being against Professor X and Mark Epstein) and Bouchalegham actually has an appearance in PRIDE. This is also a title fight, and will be contested (theoretically) over 5 5 minute rounds.

First round sees some tenative standup that ends with a high kick by Bouchalegham. He attains the mount on Ewin and throws the occasional shots, forcing Ewin on his stomach. Repeated attempts for the RNC are defended well, and Ewin forces Bouchalegham on his back at the end of the round. The announcers open the second round discussing Bouchalegham's 5 inch height advantage and talk badly about his wrestling, though it turns out mere moments later that he takes down Ewin straight into mount. The first round begins to repeat itself, however after the RNC attempt fails, Ewin begins the slowest back door escape in history. Once finally getting Bouchalegham off his back, he fires a number of shots, but again ends up in the guard. Some more scrambling ensues and Bouchalegham ends the fight mounted. Ewin actually has a sort of reverse mount and is facing Ewin's legs, giving him the ability to throw numerous punches to the stomach.

As we enter round 3, patterns begin to develop establishing both men's weaknesses. Bouchalegham is clearly better standing, and wins all the limited exchanges on the feet. Ewin uses the push kick early to set up the double leg, which he gets and takes top position in guard in. However, when in guard, Bouchalegham twice in the course of round three sweeps Ewin by going for the arm, pretending to set up the kimura, and then toppling over Ewin into the mount. Alternately, Bouchalegham displays that his mount is hardly all that and a bag of chips. As he first attains mount in round 3, Ewin escapes out the backdoor quite easily. When he gets the position again later, his attempt to get space between himself and Ewin results in Ewin bucking him off and getting top position in guard once again. At the end of the round, Ewin does seem to find that squashing Bouchalegham against the cage reduces his ability to go for submissions and makes him a far better target for elbows and punches. Not that everyone in the sport didn't already know, but hey, some are slow at learning.

Entering round 4, its clear that Bouchalegham is dead tired. He's barely able to make the bell, and he's no longer active in any way standing. Ewin clinches and Bouchalegham pulls guard immediately, attempting a desperation guillotine. Ewin has his arm in and easily pulls apart Bouchalegham's hands, and its totally academic from here. Ewin gets separation in the guard from Bouchalegham and rains in some punches, to which there is no answer and no intelligent defense. Ewin retains his title. As much as I honestly liked this fight, its a 2 on the scale. Ewin is a fun regional fighter but is clearly not a world class middleweight, and Bouchalegham's wins against Ross Pointon and Andre Semenov don't make up for having not fought in 18 months or having lost his last 3 (to Mousasi, Carniero, and of course Filho). Like many of the recent IFL title fights, I do think its an endorsement of 5 rounders at the developmental level.

5) RESSO MORADI vs. PAUL "SEMTEX" DALEY (K-1 RULES): Oh lord. This is a kickboxing match between motherfucking Paul Daley and some poor karate kid who is fresh off the boat from Iraq. I know there's a lot of people who criticize Daley's MMA skills because he's not Superman on the ground, but given that this is kickboxing rules, that goes flying out the window.

Moradi shows some skill in there but a flying knee from Daley causes a cut the camera never actually catches, and apparently its bad enough to end the fight in round one. Given that this isn't even MMA: (0)

6) GERALD STREBENDT vs. DAVE ELLIOT: Strebendt is the very definition of a fringe contender, and apparently his time in KOTC is so notable its referenced. Also odd about this fight: The announcer calls out each man's sponsors. Ain't that nice.

Strebendt shoots for the single immediately and gets the take down. He hustles himself around Elliot, gaining a crucifix style position and...wait....he's going for the twister? AND HE GETS IT. This gets a (1) solely for being providing one of the rarest submissions in MMA during a combat period.

Gerald Strebendt then gets a mic, and it so happens that he's gonna fight Jean Silva for the lightweight title in a couple weeks. Well, isn't that convenient? Well, Silva is there and there's a pull apart thing and it looks kinda fake. So maybe the twister was a work. That's sad.

7) TENGIZ TEDORADZE vs. ANDY RYAN: Main event (or at least PENTAULTIMATE BOUT OF THE EVENING so I am told by the announcer) and its a heavyweight title fight! I guess I should pretend to be excited. Tedoradze is the best damn heavyweight MMA fighter or boxer ever in pro fighting history to come from the nation state of Georgia, which is a fact that reminds you constantly about just how great Georgian fighters are. Ryan is a 7 time Irish Judo Champ making his pro MMA debut.

Tedoradze beats the living shit out of Ryan. Seriously, Ryan has no offense and spends the entire fight just flopping around taking punches to the dome until the ref comes to stop it about a minute late. (0)

8) EMMANUEL FERNANDEZ vs. IAN BUTLIN: I have heard of neither. Fernandez is brother to Frederick. This is for the featherweight title and is also apparently the finals to a featherweight tournament that they held.

Butlin corners Fernandez and forces Fernandez to shoot. Apparently Butlin's game plan is to defend the takedown and stay standing, but he fails miserably at this. Fernandez actually turns the tables, gets a takedown and then rides in Butlin's guard for the rest of the first round. While Butlin tries some submissions and to spin off the cage, Fernandez keeps trying to pass or throw shots, and the ref obliges both men by not stupidly standing them up. A series of strikes by Fernandez forces Butlin's guard open and he passes. He goes for a pretty acrobatic armbar but is thwarted by the fence. As Butlin attempts to end up on top he falls into a triangle attempt by Fernandez that is masterfully set. Butlin taps just as the horn sounds for the end of the round, but Fernandez is given the submission win.

Neither man has really ever gone beyond the local level since the fight, but the action deserves a (1).

FINAL AWARDS (these are chiefly based on the UFC's system of post event awards)

FIGHT OF THE NIGHT(S): Ewin/Bouchalegham. Really good stuff.

KO OF THE NIGHT(S): Tedoradze/Ryan.

SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT(S): Strebendt/Elliot. Does this demand discussion?

OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: 6.5 out of 10: Honestly, this isn't the most important show in the history of MMA or anywhere near it, but I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. It doesn't show in the rating, but really if someone says "hey check this out" it is seriously okay for human consumption.

D&R RATING: 10% (4/40)