THE FIGHT CLUB 10 (3/19/10)

This is from Canadian TV ported over to Comcast Sportsnet something or other. Dustin Nielson and Kris Labelle are announcing. Tim Hague is apparently on this show, as is Victor Valimaki. Unified rules are in order, and we've got a cage. Oddly, none of these bouts are on Sherdog or MMA.tv's fightfinders. Event was held in Edmonton, Alberta.

1) Brandon MacArthur vs. Mitch Clarke: Welterweights. Clarke is 5-0, his opponent 5-14. Oy vey. Oh, MacArthur is bald too.

FIGHT: Clarke Submission Rnd 2. Clarke dominant the entire fight. MacArthur was unable to do anything on the mat other than regain guard as far as defense goes, absorbed a lot of punches, and was taken down multiple times by Clarke. Eventually ends with RNC. (0)

Clarke: Looks uncomfortable standing, to be honest. Kinda reminiscent of Shields standing and striking in that lots of thought is done before anything happens. I don't buy into a guy with no appreciable wrestling background being a great prospect with that style.

MacArthur: Made Clarke work hard for the first takedown. Threw a hail mary spinning back elbow that almost landed. That's all.

2) Tim Smith vs. Sheldon Wescott: More local boys from Canada. Middleweight bout, Smith has the much more extensive pro record, but is clearly smaller.

FIGHT: Smith TKO 1. Kinda a lame stoppage. Wescott rushes Smith with nervous energy, takes down Smith, lands a lot of shots to the gloves, and the ref stops it after a short period of ground strikes. Not much to report on here other than that Wescott bumrushed his opponent and got an early stoppage by the refs that made his strategy look genius. (0)

3) Victor Bachmann vs. Markhaile Wedderburn: Unbelievable prefight video shows the immensely nerdy Bachmann getting verbally crapped on. Wedderburn dances a lot during the entrance. I can't take these dudes seriously if they can't fight. Both mediocre records.

FIGHT: Bachmann Submission Rnd 1. Simple deal; Wedderburn is a striker with no takedown defense and no submissions. He gets taken down twice in the fight, lands nothing beyond a low kick, and eventually just turns over and lets Bachmann try and put the arm under the chin. Looked like he basically quit after the second takedown. Bachmann did do one smart thing; he used the point of his elbow to sort of force Wedderburn to release his grip. (0)

Tim Hague appears, says he can't fight because his opponent pulled out a couple hours ago. His opponent was supposed to be Ed Carpenter, whoever the fuck that is. Okay, so this is the Japanese Wargodz, great.

4) Victor Valimaki vs. Martin Desilets: Valimaki has fought for KOTC, M-1, and UFC in the past. He's okay. Desilets was a TKO regular with a loss to Travis Galbraith. This is for some sort of title belt in the promotion.

FIGHT: Desilets TKO 1. Some of the worst announcing in the history of MMA as "Another low blow! What a great fight!" becomes an actual soundbyte. Dudes throwing leather and throwing a lot of illegal blows is the story here. There's actually a pair of low blows thrown at one point by Desilets and then a hammerfist rabbit punch as a combination. (1)

Desilets: Throws a lot of body shots when the ref is on the right side while pulling the head down with the right arm. When he isn't, he throws directly to the junk. Also threw headbutts. Also threw rabbit punches. Gilbert Yvel would be like "holy shit". This is a huge black mark on how Yves Lavigne does his job, as replays show some low blows being right in Lavigne's face.

Valimaki: Blames the low blows. Also didn't fight his fight at all, allowing Desilets to get right in his wheelhouse and throw wild shots. Ugly slugfest.

5) Jeff Ford vs. Tommy Speer: Yes, Tommy Speer is BACK from the farm. Why? I don't know. Jeff Ford is an old ass kickboxer seen on MFC shows in wars with Pete Spratt (a win) and a pair of losses to Pat Healy.

FIGHT: Ford Submission Rnd 1. Speer's biggest plus as a fighter is that he outsizes almost any welter. Ford is big enough to not get thrown around, and that's a big issue here for him. All his takedown attempts end with Ford on top, and that's not gonna end well for Speer. (2)

Speer: He goes for a leglock in the fight that makes me think that he's learned something appreciable. Later, he ends up defending a botched RNC attempt and gets side control. But that's the end of Speer; Elite Grappler. Ford eventually overpowers Speer and starts battering him. The battering turns into Speer flipping over and then tapping to a choke.

Ford: Losses to gatekeeper Healy still hurt him plenty, but beating a big wrestler like Speer is good for Ford to prove that he has something for grapplers at this stage of his career. I have to say; I was impressed to see him dispatch with Speer like that. Now, getting your leg trapped briefly for a heelhook attempt by Tommy Speer is not great, but he defended well. Crowd really happy.

FIGHT OF THE NIGHT: Desilets/Valimaki

KO OF THE NIGHT: Desilets/Valimaki

SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT: Ford/Speer

OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: 4 out of 10. Lots of fast-forwarding in this two hour broadcast with not a single fight making it to the 3rd. Ford/Speer makes Ford look like a potentially decent fighter at 170, so that's really the only positive on the show. But its a pretty good positive.

D&R Rating: 12% (3/25)