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)
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