1) TRAVIS HAVEN vs. ERIC HAKALA: Lightweights?
Haven with wrestling shoes on. Guess what he does? He's in mount before you know it and there's an RNC. (0)
2) GEORGI KARAKHANYAN vs. JUAN CARLOS HUERTA: More lightweights. Huerta is apparently a wrestler. Other dude is probably Armenian. This looks even on paper.
First round of this one is actually really good. Karakhanyan is a very capable grappler standing and off his back, and Huerta is a solid wrestler who is able to successfully defend a umber of good submission attempts. Lots of activity. No one really hurt though.
Wild punches from Karakhanyan, sweet takedowns by Huerta and Karkhanyan counters that with some excellent armbar attempts. A final standup with merely 15 seconds remaining and Karakhanyan gets not only the takedown but moves to mount and nearly stops Huerta with punches. Fight is declared a draw. Karakhanyan is 11-1-1 now. (2)
3) GUNNAR HINSON vs. CHRIS CULLY: Featherweights. Cully trains with Omar Luv and Hindson is from Wildman's camp.
Good action early on with Cully looking for standup and Hinson trying to take it to the mat. Cully's pretty decent on the ground as well and does a stout job defending both an armbar and a heel hook. Cully in fact goes for a gullotine and Hinson is in deep, but slams his way out. The best strike of the round standing is a elbow thrown by Hinson in the clinch, and after a failed superman punch, Cully gets a takedown. More trading of leg locks with Gunnar getting an inverted heel hook and forcing a tap. Good fight. Culley is 3-3 now, and Hinson is 2-0 as a pro and, oh yeah, he's not even 18. He was 15 years old here.(2)
4) NICK AVARADO vs. MATT WILBURN: Another 145 lb bout. Shad Smith is in Wilburn's corner.
Avarado has a tramp stamp and resembles a poor imitation of Clay Guida facially and stylistically. He is just going for wrestling and tries to thrash him with strikes on the mat. Wilburn is pretty decent and can survive these volleys. Avarado has this fantastic slam about midway through the round, but he doesn't do anything with it, and Wilburn ends up taking the mount and his back. However, Avarado can defend the RNC and survives till the end of the first shockingly interesting round.
Wild striking from both on the feet. Avarado gets a takedown and really pushes hard with the GnP. Wilburn scrambles to his feet not long after, and he's gassed. Even totally out of energy, he scores a takedown, but gets flipped over before he's able to create any damage. Both men are gassed as the round begins to finish up, and after some brief standup, another takedown by Avarado and he lands some shots to end the round. The decision goes to Avarado. Good fight. (1)
5) ANDY JEWETT vs. KACEY ROBERTS: Jewett trains at Team Wildman and is a mere 140. Kacey Roberts is training with Buckley Acosta, same weight.
Roberts comes out swinging, and Jewett gets a takedown. Roberts isn't inept, though, and can eventually scramble back up. After some standup that Jewitt also wins, there's another takedown and Jewett tools Roberts from the top. He gains the back and pounds him out with about 15 seconds left in the round. (0)
6) MELVIN COSTA vs. ROBERT DOUCET: Light Heavyweights. Costa is, yes, the Nazi dude. Doucet is a mexican. KOTC: Race War is on.
Wild brawl. Doucet is hit with everything and is a bloody mess, but Doucet gasses, is dragged to the floor and instantly mountet. Costa drops blows and gets a stop. Crazy fight. (1)
7) TIM HUMPHREY vs. PJ ROGOWOSKI: Welters. Rogowoski is a trainee of Todd Medina, who is compared to Pat Militech by the announcers.
Humphrey's got decent grappling but better boxing. Once he establishes that he controls the frame where the fight is going on, Rogowoski is in huge trouble. Combination punching ruins Rogowoski drops him and gets the stop. It wasn't the best striking ever, but it was adequate and decent for this level of the sport. His official pro record is 1-0, but he lost an amateur bout 2 months later and never came back. (0)
8) ANTHONY MENDEZ vs. DUANE HARRISON: Heavyweights. Mendez was seen fighting at KOTC Final Conflict, and I did not have high opinions of him at that point. He won a fight against a dude that Rampage thought looked like Bam Bam Bigelow. Harrison is from AKA? He, apparently, has really unorthodox standup.
For unorthodox standup, Harrison is in a classic boxing stance to start. Oh, he's wearing a shirt AND shoes. Oh, Soboba. Mendez gets a takedown and lands a bunch of shots on top. Easy win for Mendez. (0), as Mendez still went nowhere, but I'll admit that he looked a LOT better than he had in 2005.
9) RUBEN TAGLE vs. SEAN LOEFFLER: Middleweight bout. Tagle is HORRIBLE. I have seen him fight 4 times previously on KOTC cards and he was never good. Loeffler is actually a decent fighter. Maybe not world class, but just below that level.
Loeffler gets a bodylock takedown, Americana, snap crackle pop. (0)
10) CRYSTAL HARRIS vs. THRICIA POOVEY: WOMEN'S MMA~
Decent fight in the first. Harris goes for striking on the ground, and Poovey is constantly working for submissions, transitioning from one to another pretty well. However, when she goes for leg locks, it oftens ends badly. Harris has her best offense at that point, attaining mount or half guard and landing blows. Poovey is unable to continue after round one due to injury and Harris is the winner. (0)
11) DAVE CRYER vs. UBER GALLEGOS vs: Middleweights. Crier has a dude on bagpipes and a dude playing snare drum for his entrance during his pro debut. He's a blue belt in BJJ. Gallegos is apparently a former boxer, though nothing on boxrec about him.
Cryer stands and trades for not long, then goes to the clinch and tries to get him down. The fight is against the cage for awhile, with not much happening. Cryer does get the fight down eventuall and when there, he's clearly better. Lots of good armbar attempts, sweeping to mount with one. Gallegos isn't bad himself and forces the fight back standing by sweeping Cryer and standing out of the guard. When on the feet, Cryer lands some solid knees and Gallegos handles them.
Round 2 opens with some standup and Cryer lands way more knees in clinch and a right hand. Gallegos' standup isn't superior. Cryer gets a takedown and Gallegos is bloody. On the mat, its all Cryer, blasting with punches and forcing Gallegos to his back. RNC, Cryer wins against a decent fighter in his debut. Cryer is 6-1, his lone loss coming by KO in 9 seconds. (1)
12) CODY BOLLINGER vs. CHAD WALTERS: Featherweights. Bollinger is a second generation MMA fighter. Walters is 1-0 but has a win over Jewett, seen earlier in the show.
Walters is the wrestler but he's taken down really early. Bollinger spends virtually all 5 minutes on top of him throwing blows and trying to get a better position. All Bollinger in that round, but he's pretty tired at the end. Second starts the same way, with both cautious, circling, and then Bollinger jabs and shoots. More Bollinger domination, eventually Bollinger gets the back and a RNC. Apparently he trains with Joe Stevenson and it looks that way in his style. (1) He lost his next fight, but he was only 17 or so. He'll be an interesting lightweight prospect in a year or so.
13) DON SHEA vs. THOMAS DENNY: The Wildman needs no introduction. Shea is an "indepenent fighter" who the announcers say must be tough because he has a shirt that says both "Iowa" and "wrestling" on it.
Denny gets the back almost instantly and start pounding him. He's helpless as Denny looks for an armbar and then transitions out to stand. Shea just flops around and is KOed as Denny has the back again. (0) these days. Denny has fallen from fringe contender to basically nothing, sadly.
14) JAY DIAMOND vs. THOMAS KENNY: Kenny is known for having a name close to the guy who fought before him. Who is Diamond? Who knows? He is not Team Diamond, Malapeit, that I know for sure.
Kenny with a takedown immediately. He ends up rolling Diamond over into his own half guard and straightens out the arm. Tapout follows soon after. (0)
15) KYLE MCCLAUGHLIN vs. DANIEL GIBBONS: Featherweights wearing the SAME TRUNKS.
I can't even tell these guys apart. Two white dudes with bad tattoos and camo trunks. On guy takes the other one down and the guy who is taken down tries to reverse position with a side headlock and the guy who has the takedown instead goes for an armbar and then doesn't get it and they roll around some more. This is so bad. Daniel Gibbons is on the bottom and hammerfists the dude out of side control and into his guard. How does that even happen?
Gibbons is a guy with submissions but he can't really pull them off. McClaughlin just bullrushes. There's a stand up from full mount. This is such a waste of time. McClaughlin won the decision. (0)
16) AIKI CAVANAUGH vs. ANGELO MCELROY: Light heavyweights? Cavanaugh lost to Keith Berry in 4 seconds once at KOTC Mangler.
Cavanaugh is the kind of guy who runs backwards with his right hand all the way back like he's gonna throw a baseball. He is the better of the two technically. McElroy lands a left high kick right in the face and Cavanaugh goes down HARD. (0)
17) JAMES COLLINS vs. JOHN BROCK: Heavyweights.
Takedown early by Collins, but Brock is a lot better on the mat and ends up reversing position, punching him a lot, and taking his back. Collins has no idea what to do. Somehow he is not choked out and just keeps getting rolled on instead. Brock wins with a guillotine. (0)
18) SHANE HOUSER vs. VICTOR RODARTE: I didn't pay attention to weights.
Final fight of the night. Wild "striking" and there's a takedown. Rodarte is on top, mounts, punches, gets the back, tapout. (0)
FIGHT OF THE NIGHT: Karakhanyan/Huerta
KO OF THE NIGHT: McElroy/Cavanaugh
SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT: Kenny/Diamond
OVERALL FOR EVENT: 4 out of 10: Some really fun fights on this one. Big negatives are too many bouts, mismatches with the big names, and length. Three hours long and maybe one good hour in the whole thing. On the other hand, eliminate 9 of those fights and I'd complain.
D&R Rating: 9% (8/90 )
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