Another King of the Cage classic. Maybe. I did review a Shooto event from 1995 but the paperwork is still in my storage stuff so until I find it, some KOTCs I've watched recently and committed to a lawyer's notepad left behind by the professor who lived in this home prior to me.
First, a big secret! This is not actually a KOTC show. No sir, its a Gladiator Challenge show in a KOTC boxset. What cheats! But it is okay. Its about as good as most KOTC shows if not better. We are in Tahoe, so that means real unified rules. And given that there are two title fights, well, that's a big deal. The poster shows that Shawn Bias/Josh Rabedeaux and Emanuel Newton/Buckley Acosta were supposed to happen, but never did. Inman and Sean Kanoda (???) announcing.
1) JOSHUA TURNER vs. DANIEL SCHMITT: Turner is a Gracie trainee.
Round 1 has Turner seeking and getting the takedown, laying on top, throwing occasional shots, not doing anything else. That is the entire round. Round 2? More of the same. Josh Rosenthal does stand the fight up this time, and Turner throws some bad punches and gets another TD. There is another ref standup near the end of the round, but it is meaningless. Turner wins by UD. Neither man has fought again. (0)
2) CHRIS DAVID vs. WALTER PATTERSON: Patterson is a trainee with Faber.
David goes for a TD right away, Patterson sprawls, spins, and takes side control. David turns, gives his back, Patterson goes for a RNC but only gets one hook in, allowing David to escape out the backdoor and get into Patterson's guard. David gets in some GnP, Patterson pushes off with his legs, gets the fight to the standing position, and David again clinches immediately. David has a big slam here putting him immediately into side control, but opts to go inside the guard again and throw elbows and punches. Good first round.
Second round see David throwing some low kicks early on before the inevitable shot. Patterson defends by leaning on the cage, but David eventually gets a double and is inside the guard of Patterson most of the round in a somewhat inactive fashion. Another late standup by Rosenthal to give Patterson one last chance, but David drops in for a double. Patterson defends, but its still pretty simple to figure out who wins here. David by unanimous decision. (1) - Neither man is particularly great, but this was an entertaining fight.
3) NASSOR LEWIS vs. JUSTIN SAMPSON: Sampson is a Gracie guy but he lurves his karate.
Sampson with some fast side and high kicks, Lewis takes him down for the trouble. Sampson is good enough to get full guard but gets pushed into the cage and worked over. Sampson tries to stand up and fails, as Lewis gets his back and wins by rear naked choke. (0)
4) TOMAS ROSSER vs. RICK CHEEK: Cheek has a claimed boxing background. Rosser is a claimed 3-1, but Sherdog shows him as 0-0 coming in.
Cheek eats a bunch of jabs, tries to rush in for a clinch, and Cheek pushes off. Left hooks landed cleanly for Cheek, and he drops Rosser with a 1-2 and hammerfists him into oblivion. Ehhh. Cheek looked impressive but against a nobody and has gone nowhere special since. (0)
5) JOSH RABEDEAUX vs. GIGO JARA: Gigo is the brother of Jamie Jara, but not as good.
Rabedeaux goes for a double and Gigo defends. Josh tries to throw him, Gigo defends that too, takes his back, and pounds him a little. Rabedeaux turns over, tries for the triangle, Jara just pulls himself out of it and pounds out Rabedeaux. (0)
6) BRYSON KAMAKA vs. JAMIE JARA: This is for the GC middleweight title. Jara is also the LHW champ of GC at the same time. P4P candidate! Kamaka is a dude who has been beaten up in prior reviews.
Kamaka throws a not too shabby one-two, clinches, and Jara pushes him off. Same thing happens again. Jara clinches and third time and gets a trip TD into half guard. Jara easily passes on the hapless hawaiian, and gets some really bizarre can opener from side control and turns Kamaka onto his shoulders, making him totally helpless. Tapout from Kamaka and Jara with a submission of the year candidate. (2)
7) RONALD JHUN vs. JEREMIAH METCALF: I have no problem with Strikeforce, but who thought it would be a good idea to take a guy who was GC champ to fight the "Michael Jordan of the WCL"? Metcalf is perfectly adequate as far as fighters go. Here he defends against Jhun, who is an old school legend.
Metcalf opens the fight by going to clinch immediately, and Jhun fires punches back. Nothing hits solid. Clinch fighting for most of the round ensues, and Metcalf is getting the better of it. Eventually both push off and we are back to standup at distance. Jhun lands a nice body kick and Metcalf catches it and drops Jhun. Metcalf spends the final minute on top inside of the guard.
Second round sees Jhun stuck in the clinch again after an early punching exchange and lots of dirty boxing. Jhun does get separation momentarily and lands a nice right hand, but is back in the clinch and on the mat by the end of the round. Metcalf changes strategy for the opening of round three, throwing low kicks and using them to set up a combination of punches before scoring a takedown. The fight stays on the mat with Jhun controlling Metcalf to some degree inside the guard, and is able to force a scramble that gets it back to the standing position. Metcalf does score another takedown, however.
We enter round 4 of this, a welterweight title fight, and Jhun starts off well with some decent strikes. Metcalf with another takedown, but Jhun tries for a kneebar. Metcalf is too good to get caught like that, stacks up, and drops shots on Jhun. Metcalf takes a mount position, Jhun is exhausted and gives up the back, and the ending is fundamental. (2) for a solid midlevel title fight.
8) DAVID HUCKABA vs. BO CANTRELL: Oh man. This is for the GC Heavyweight title Cantrell holds. Huckaba is a dead ringer for Mick Foley and was in a joke of a fight on a ShoXC card last year. Cantrell? Well.
Huckaba punches as Cantrell charges, and then gets a takedown. Cantrell quits for no reason. We've seen that before, haven't we? What's amazing is that there was a rematch and Huckaba won in 5 seconds. (0)
FIGHT OF THE NIGHT(S): David/Patterson. Jhun/Metcalf wasn't bad and I liked the length, but David and Patterson fighting had more action throughout.
KO OF THE NIGHT(S): Rosser/Cheek
SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT(S): Jara/Kamaka
OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: 3.5 out of 10. Inoffensive, had a decent title fight between two guys who aren't bad. The bouts that were meaningless were either fun to watch or over fast.
D&R RATING: 12.5% (5/40)
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