1) Frank Carabello vs. Daniel Straus: Carabello is an middling alphabet lightweight champ holding a title never successfully defended. Straus is a fairly legitimate prospect. Jason Dent is on a mic because he's scheduled to fight Straus in June. Well, he was. Then Straus signed to Bellator.
FIGHT: Straus Submission Rnd 5. (2)
Straus: Straus learns in this fight. I mean, he learns a lot. Not just how not to get caught in a lock again, because honestly guys don't tend to learn from that. If they did, Gilbert Yvel would be an all time great champion. Not how to avoid eating a right hand to the face, because no one learns to keep hands up when they get KOed. For real, name someone who did. Nah, this is a real learning experience. Straus learns to not rely on just the cool looking things like that sweet ass sweep from a standing arm triangle, but to do basics - double leg, pass guard, trap the arm, punch punch punch. Why trade when you can get hit with a 4oz glove in the mush you don't see? Especially when you don't have to?
Straus figures "it" out in round 3 and begins to totally take over. Just dominates Carabello on the mat, moving to dominat position after dominant position, basically looking to squash distance and keep grinding on his man. Eventually, Carabello breaks and quits.
Carabello: Has fought 16 times for the NAAFS. Was paid for like 3 of those fights. Who got the better end of the deal? Yeah. So this fight - Carabello isn't a great fighter. I can know that without even admiring all the tape. But he's a solid fighter who can test kids at the really shallow ends of the sport before they run into some real monsters. He's not that athletic, and he's not that technical, but he has heart and some skill. I mean, he turns the tables briefly in round 3 by throwing a combination that ends with a spinning back fist. Really sweet stuff.
But when you're so outgunned as he is here, you don't win. Miracles just don't happen in this sport unless you're named Matt Serra. So when you're at a deficit at everything, you're gonna take a beating while making your opponent work for it. Against other guys, when Straus mounts them or does that Gary Goodridge thing from the first fight with Yatsu and holds the wrist behind the back while he throttles you, most guys end up getting taken out. Carabello hangs on. He regains full guard. He arches and bucks. He throws front kicks to lead into straight rights. But its never going to be enough.
OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: 7.5 out of 10. I mean, its one fight, but this is what you want to see when you see prospects fight and come up. Not the greatest fight of all time but I enjoyed it and paid attention. Straus might not be a world champion, but he's a pretty good little fighter.
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