Cagewarriors 9 (12/18/04)

I return to the UK and The Wrestling Channel for this slightly abridged version of CW9. Frederic Fernandes fought on this card but was not televised. For shame.

At some point soon I will come up with a way to make the rating system look more sane. Its just too tough to have anything above a 50% for an entire card, so I'll fudge with it a little. For right now? I am lazy.

1) BJJ SUPERFIGHT! ANDY ROBERTS vs. YANJA ABYANEH: There was some grappling between two guys I have ever heard of in a cage and no one won after 7 minutes. (0)

2) AARON BARROW vs. DAN HARDY: Hardy is now in the UFC after almost winning the Cage Force tourney. Barrow? I dunno.

Hardy comes out and head kicks Barrow. Fight over. Seriously. It went :13. (2)

3) TOM NIINIMAKI vs. ANDRE SOARES: Soares recently got a chance to lose on a fight no one saw on the EliteXC under card. Niinimaki has fought a bunch of places and isn't that successful in any of them.

Round 1 has Niinimaki with the takedown against the vaunted BJJ guy in Soares. They stand up after some time with no action. Soares then shoots in, and Niinimaki defends it and ends up on top. Soares has his best moment of the fight with a triangle attempt Niinimaki defends, and he again stands up out of Soares' open guard. From this point forward throughout round 2, a pattern develops: Soares goes for a takedown, fails, pulls guard, Niinimaki goes down on top of him, doesn't do anything, fight stands, repeat over and over and over. As time goes on through the end of round 2 and into round 3, Soares just falls on his ass in butt scoot and Niinimaki is more effective landing shots from inside his guard. Pretty lousy fight, Niinimaki wins a decision. (0)

4) MICHAEL HOBBS vs. IAN JONES: I know nothing about either. Judging by Fightfinder, there is good reason.

Clinch at the start, Hobbs, gets a takedown, and postures up to strike inside the guard. He goes for a leglock, Jones prevents it and stands and ends up back on the ground, this time on top in half guard. Hobbs regains the full guard, goes for a triangle, Jones throws it off and passes, and Hobbs goes for a single in the scramble. As he does so, Jones locks in a tight guillotine, winning the fight. This was Hobbs' last fight, and Jones didn't have the best streak of luck afterwards. (0)

5) CENGIZ DANA vs. JZ CALVAN: JZ! Now here is a surprise I can get behind.

Right hand from Calvan drops Dana, he passes immediately to side control, and I'm excited because it appears this is just about over already. He ends up in the mount but in reverse and tries for a kneebar. Dana escapes, sadly, and we are treated to more. He tries to take JZ's back and gets taken down again. Calvan goes for a guillotine from the mount at the end but fails.

Round 2 opens with both men weakly striking and, surprise surprise, JZ Calvan with a takedown off a leg kick from Dana. Some ground and pound for most of the round, eventually the fight is stood up. Same thing happens as before, Calvan grinds out the round in the 1/2 guard of Dana.

Third round is Dana's best, as he is somewhat effective with leg kicks in the early going. JZ jumps in and clinches up, getting a big slam as he takes down Dana. Dana really just defends against JZ here and tries to force a standup, but gets the guard passed and eventually he's mounted. Calvan again goes for the guillotine in mount and gets it the second time to finish this inside the distance. (3)

6) PAUL "SEMTEX" DALEY vs. ABDUL MOHAMED: Jess Liaudin and Jean Silva have both lost to Mohamed. Daley has wins over guys like Professor X and Duane Ludwig. Looks interesting! Abdul Mohamed has a fucking bandage all around his head though. Huh?

Clinch early as Mohamed wants the takedown. He does get it, but very little happens there and Daley is able to get back on his feet. A staring contest ensues, which ends with Daley throwing punches wildly and landing a few on the head of Mohamed. Abdul is hurt and is on spaghetti legs for a little while, going for takedowns trying to hold on. At the very end of the round he is successful, but its a clear Daley round in my book.

Round 2 opens with Daley throwing punches and kicks, very little landing, and the strikes are few and far between. Abdul with a shot and takedown, and he's on top for most of the round. Daley uses the cage wall to climb his way up to his feet, but really isn't able to do anything standing. Abdul gets another takedown and this is a 19-19 fight.

Round 3 is a boring ass round. No action early on as they are both too afraid of the other to try anything. Daley breaks the monotony with a flurry of punches, none of which solidly connect. Abdul is going for the takedown and nothing else. Daley is able to fend them all off and land some punches, winning him round 3.

Daley starts throwing leg kicks in round 4, sensing that Mohamed is tiring. Abdul does nothing the entire round but grab a takedown with less than 20 seconds left. Otherwise, it is all Daley with strikes. Its 3-1 with Daley pulling ahead into the final round of a not enthralling fight.

Abdul is able to get a takedown fairly early in the final round and tries to ride it out without doing anything in the less than impressive guard of Daley. Daley gets the fight back on his feet and throws some leg kicks. Theoretically, Mohamed's round. And so we go to the scorecards: one card for each and one card a draw. I have no idea how Mohamed won 3 rounds, or hell, drew in two and won two others. (3)

7) TENGIZ TEDORADZE vs. JEFF MONSON: Who isn't happy to see TENGIZ? His opponent is everyone's favorite socio-anarchist, Jeff Monson.

Clinch is immediate, and Tengiz gets an awesome belly to belly suplex on Monson. Monson absorbs punches but spins around and gets a double. Tengiz almost immediately gives up his back, and, yeah. Bad idea with Monson. Tedoradze defends for awhile but is eventually choked out. (3)

FIGHT OF THE NIGHT(S): Calvan/Dana. I suppose. All the fights kinda sucked.

KO OF THE NIGHT(S):Hardy/Barrow

SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT(S): Calvan/Dana

OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: 2 out of 10. Even with Tengiz, Calvan, Hardy, and Daley, this was a shitty show to watch. Daley/Mohamad was just embarassingly bad, and Calvan/Dana not much better. Watching two minutes of Monson with his hooks in wasn't much better.

D&R RATING: 15% (11/70)

RUMBLE ON THE ROCK 4 (10/10/2003)

It seems almost amazing in retrospect that this show was five years ago. Not that it feels like it was yesterday: it seems more like it was 100 years ago in an alternate dimension. Announcing the fights are Mike Onozuka(?) and Phil Baroni.

1) ANTONIO BANUELOS vs. YOBIE SONG: Banuelos was not particularly well known here, whereas Song was a local product whom even less was known about.

First round has the usual feel out process followed by Banuelos pummeling Song. Song is slammed to the mat, then german suplexed to the mat, and gets punched and elbowed a ton. Song has an armbar attempt and is able to scramble to his feet towards the end of the round, but otherwise this looks like a squash. Banuelos swings wildly at the bell for round 2 and slams Song again. More and more ground and pound from Banuelos is just ruining Song for the entirety of the round, with Song not even competent or athletic enough to do anything about it. Somehow, the fight is allowed to go to round three, where Song is taken down and elbowed until cuts that resemble a prison shivving end the bout. Banuelos got into the WEC and has been a decent competitor at 135 since. (1)

2) DESHAWN JOHNSON vs. SANTINO DEFRANCO: Johnson is a tall striker, Defranco a wrestler.

This is mostly a grappling based fight. Johnson fends off Defranco's attempts at getting the fight down, so Defranco pulls guard to force the matter. Johnson is able to stand out of it, and back to the feet. Defranco goes for a single as Johnson throws a right, and Johnson defends by just dropping his knee onto Defranco's face as pretty much all four points are down. Defranco turns over and taps out, but its overruled as a submission loss, give why he tapped. Johnson loses by DQ. There was never a rematch, and Defranco is at best a fringe contender. (0)

3) GABE CASTILLAS vs. ROSS EBANEZ: Ross has appeared on numerous EliteXC cosponsored events of late. Castillas had a short tenure in the IFL with an 0-2 record there.

Ross is cut early, assumed to be from a strike of some sort. Other than that, its mostly Ebanez on top with elbows and punches and stuff like that. A standup late in the round produced a knockdown of Castillas from a combination of punches that followed a pretty solid knee to the noggin of Castillas. In the second round, Ebanez gets the top position after Castillas falls from trying to throw a kick, and decides to try and wipe out Ebanez from that position with elbows and punches. There's some weird rule where the ref counts to 4 then stops the fight with unanswered strikes on the ground, and that's used as the justification for hometown fighter Ebanez to be given a TKO win as Castillas rolls for a kneebar. (1)

4) GILBERT MELENDEZ vs. STEPHEN PALLING: Palling was actually really good at this point. He had just drawn with Pequeno Noguiera and prior to that had wins over Mark Hominick and some guy named Norifumi Yamamoto. I guess he's a big deal or something.

Melendez, as everyone expected, sorta rushes out for the clinch. He even gets a double leg and slams Palling. Melendez rains a lot of shots and is looking really good in there, which catches the crowd and announcers off guard. Palling is able to force the fight standing and get a trip takedown of his own, but Melendez pushes him off. Palling goes for Melendez's back as he stands and Melendez counters with a single leg takedown that puts him back on top. He cuts Palling pretty nice with an elbow.

Next round begins as the last did, but Palling times Melendez and lands a hard uppercut. Melendez isn't stopped by this and continues to work for the double, and just like in round 1, is successful in his efforts. This is classic Gilbert Melendez, as he does nothing more than ground and pound Palling into hamburger. Melendez passes guard and Palling is desperate to change position, allowing north/south as he tries to stand. Melendez just shoves Palling back and mounts him. Eventually, the fight is stopped due to strikes. Melendez makes a huge splash with this fight, and Palling was retired a year later. (4)

5) SEAN TAYLOR vs. RONALD JHUN: Jhun has become a living testament to the way the sport has evolved. He's a vet of pretty much everything imaginable, but has been reduced to tomato can from "strong vet" in recent years. Taylor was 0-2-1. Not much expected.

Both men do not move any aspect of their body when punching, even their hips. Jhun is better with landing punches and gets the takedown. Jhun just hangs out in the guard or half guard of Taylor for the rest of round 1 and hits him a lot. Another poorly defended takedown for Jhun, more elbows, and the ref stops the fight at about the same time Taylor's corner throws in the towel. (0)

6) GIL CASTILLO vs. RENATO VERISSIMO: Castillo had a undulating record that shifted from day to day and week to week. He's officially listed on most fight finders as having had less than 10 pro wins, but he generally claimed between 16-20, depending on the day. Verissimo was a young gun here, Castillo already quite aged for an elite athlete at 36.

Castillo wants the clinch early, and that shocks no one that ever watched the man fight before. Verissimo shows he can prevent takedowns well though and throws some nice punches and knees while preventing the takedown. A lot of borderline low blows occuring during this inital period, too. Verissimo is eventually able to get distance, and Castillo lands a nice right hand which Verissimo answers with a high kick. Castillo has been cut somewhere along the way, though not heavily. Verissimo starts landing some right hands after a brief interruption for ref Larry Landless to stare at some of the cage padding and then decide not to fix it, and Castillo responds with (what else?) a takedown attempt. In getting it, he absorbs a punch that breaks his nose and turns the cage into a murder scene. Not nice. Close round goes to Verissimo, however.

Round 2 starts with Castillo complaining that vasoline is in his eye. Oh god. Maybe people would buy it if he hadn't pulled that stunt at UFC 40....but I digress. Landless decides to let him get it cleaned up, and we start the round, albeit about a minute late. Verissimo lands a lot of strikes, Castillo clinches, there's a knee somewhere around the groin area, and Castillo needs 5 minutes. Its kinda odd that he gets it, because Landless says he "didn't see it". News flash: If you are a ref, and someone turns to you complaining of a foul you did not see, you do not stop the fight.

So after a long ass delay, Castillo is willing to restart and jumps in with a hard right punch, his best strike of the bout. Verissimo absorbs it and continues on leading the striking overall. Castillo goes to squash Verissimo into the cage again, stalls, ref breaks it, repeat. Second time, Verissimo is all like "fuck this" and gets a trip takedown. He lands some decent shots but lets Castillo get up at the end of the round and even throw a punch. Castillo promptly quits between rounds. Blah. Still, its a fight between guys who fought for titles in the UFC, even if both are now irrelevant. (3)

7) PAUL BUENTELLO vs. ANDY MONTANA: I'm not really excited about this.

Montana is a kickboxer, and like Carter Williams 4 years later, he decides to be a wrestler. Buentello brushes off his shitty wrestling and ends up kicking him in the head. This is the coolest thing Buentello ever did. (2)

INTERMISSION! There is an uncomfortable Falaniko Vitale/Phil Baroni hype thing here for a fight they would never have at UFC 45 or ever, in fact.

8) DENNIS HALLMAN vs. RAY COOPER: I am giddy about Dennis Hallman fights in the same way I assume millions are giddy to get back positive STD testing.

Cooper goes for a takedown immediately and Hallman secures a guillotine. It is over! So much earlier and better than I could have hoped. Hallman calls Frank Trigg a "fairy" and Hughes a "pussy". (2)

9) TAKANORI GOMI vs. BJ PENN: Oh yeah, this is the main event. You may recognize Penn and Gomi as being the best lightweights in the world. Probably the best lightweights ever, actually. Penn had failed to get the 155lb UFC title twice by this bout and Gomi had just lost the Shooto championship, so while they were both top 5, neither was really "the man", so to speak. Well, at least at this point.

BJ takes down Gomi right away and gets the mount and back control. Gomi does a lot to try and shake BJ for the first two minutes and finally succeeds to get in BJ's guard, which is still not the best place in the world to be. Gomi decides to stand instead and BJ just takes him down again, again getting the back, again with a body triangle, again throwing strikes. All BJ in round one.

Different story with the beginning of round two. BJ decides to stand with Gomi a little and actually gets the better of the Fireball Kid. Gomi is hurt by a three punch combo and Penn again tries for a judo throw. Gomi actually defends it and gets on top, but as in the prior round, is ineffective against Penn's rubber guard and defense. Gomi's nose has also been broken and his right eye has a mouse under it. Penn stalls enough to force the standup, and again controls Gomi there. Gomi does lands some jabs every once inawhile, but its nothing nearly as damaging as Penn holding his head and going to town hockey goon style. BJ starts pushing to get a takedown in the final 30 seconds and pulls one off just moments before the bell.

Round 3 starts and both are exhaused. Penn grabs a single and Gomi actually tries to submit Penn with a guillotine. Not smart. Penn gets out very quickly and in the process of mounting, Gomi again gives up the back. Gomi's mouthpiece falls out as he desperately tries to get in air, but Penn is all over him in the worst position possible. The inevitable occurs: BJ Penn gets the arm under Gomi's chin and Gomi goes out. Post fight interviews are nothing special: BJ Penn doesn't talk much and he knows it, Gomi just wants people to say "hi" to him the next day. (5)

FIGHT OF THE NIGHT(S): Gomi/Penn

KO OF THE NIGHT(S): Buentello/Montana

SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT(S): Hallman/Cooper

OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: 7 out of 10. This is a two fight card, really, though at the time it was much, much more. Still, as impressive as any North American outlet in years has ever done.

D&R RATING: 40% (15/45) Its worth noting that this is almost unfair a ranking. If you were to do this same ranking in 2004, my guess is it probably would have been about a 47-49%. The Penn/Gomi fight is among the most important ever outside a major promotion, and certainly the most important to the modern day. For the $9-10 you can find this boxed set for, its worth it for that alone. And hey, they're gonna release a bunch of Cage Rage shows on a 5 event DVD set also soon...I'm way stoked about that.

ShoXC/KOTC 7/27/07

I ended up doing these totally out of order from their boxed set, but whatever. I got a new KOTC boxed set about a week ago and I'm already attempting to run through it. There's a total of 9 shows and a Thomas Denny documentary, of all things. This "show" is actually the Proelite.com streamed undercard to the ShoEX show from 7/27. Gary Shaw's kid is doing color and I have no idea who is announcing.

1) SHAYNA BASZLER vs. JEN FINNEY: Baszler is a pretty good fighter that Elite XC has invested some money into. Finney I know nothing about.

Finney wants the clinch and to Tim Sylvia the bout early on by pushing Baszler into the cage and squashing her offense with mere endless holding. The ref breaks it up, and then they return to action and the same thing happens. However, Baszler expects it, drops from the clinch for a single, gets the takedown, and Finney is helpless on her back. Baszler eventually grabs an armbar for a submission win. (1)

2) JOSH NEAL vs. ERIC BEONDO: Neither one is a fighter I've heard of. Beondo is a wrestler and is quite a bit older.

Beondo likes to go for takedowns and Neal wants to KO Beondo standing. Beondo's gas tank fails him miserably, as by the halfway mark of round one, it is clear that Beondo has no real plan to bypass the striking of Neal. There's some okay groundwork in this one, with a series that sees Neal reversing an armbar attempt of Beondo's and getting in mount, followed by a bunch of scrambling that leads to a big knee in the face of Beondo. As I said before, Beondo gasses and as he flails uselessly to get inside, he's caught with another big knee and Cecil Peoples stops it. Both are not contenders at any level presently. (0)

3) ANTHONY RUIZ vs. JASON GERIS: Ruiz just fought in an awful 5 rounder for Strikeforce.

Geris, like Southworth was against Ruiz, is all about takedowns. Unfortunately for him, he has Cecil Peoples in the ring as the third man, and so when he gets side control in round one and is landing a ton of elbows with Ruiz pinned against the cage, of course the fight is stood up. Somewhere along the way down to the mat, Geris ended up with a nice abrasion in the center of his forehead, between the eyes. Doesn't really bleed or anything, but it makes for a nice target for Ruiz, who given the opportunity to work his superior standup by Peoples, takes advantage. Geris is, as Beondo was in the last bout, pretty gassed by the mid point of the round, and Ruiz is able to control the action even as he attempts repeatedly to just jump in for the clinch. At the end of the round, Ruiz ends up dropping for a single leg takedown that Geris defends, but as the bell sounds, Geris tweaks his knee. He's unable to continue and Ruiz is given a TKO win. (1)

4) DREW MONTGOMERY vs. TONY RUBALCAVA: This is Rubalcava's debut. Montgomery is 3-1.

All Rubalcava. He clinches early in the round, takes down Montgomery, and pounds him out from full guard. A pretty impressive performance, and in spite of having lost since, I'll give this a (1), as he's a fairly interesting prospect at 205.

5) BRIAN COBB vs. JOHN REEDY: This is apparently the third fight between these two. Cobb won the first two, so why another fight between them, I don't know.

Cobb gets an early takedown after catching a kick from Reedy, and goes for an armbar. Reedy gets out and tries to throw shots to Cobb's face from inside his guard, and has to dodge repeated submission attempts in doing so. Reedy shows some skill and passes the guard after a triangle attempt, goes to north/south, and Cobb takes it as an opportunity to stand, switch to Reedy's back and get a rear naked choke. For the third time in Reedy's career, he taps to Cobb's RNC. (1), all for Cobb.

6) JEREMIAH METCALF vs. JAMIE JARA: Change in announcers as Mauro and Quadros take the mics. This is a Gladiator Challenge Middleweight title bout. Jara is a late replacement for Aaron Witherspoon, who was supposed to unify the GC and KOTC welterweight belts against GC champ Metcalf. Jara is instead putting up his title.

Mostly striking, which surprises everyone. That is to Jara's advantage, and yet Metcalf finds a consistent home for his straight right. Jara is naturally a much larger man, having competed as high as heavyweight, and when he lands cleanly on Metcalf, the difference is noticeable. Metcalf is KOed with a single left hand from Jara in an entertaining slugfest. (2)

FIGHT OF THE NIGHT(S): Metcalf/Jara

KO OF THE NIGHT(S): Beondo/Neal

SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT(S): Cobb/Reedy

OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: 4 out of 10: Not abyssmal, some okayish fighters, nice and short at 1:06 for everything.

D&R RATING: 20% (6/30)