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)