Art of Fighting 9: Apocalypse (9/4/2010)

We're in Tampa again with Ben Glossup, Ron Yacovetti, and Tom Lawlor announcing this fight card filled with, uh, fights.

1) Ryan Smiley vs. Joe Johnson: Johnson trains at ULTIMATE FIGHTING SCHOOL and is nicknamed "puncher". Inventive, no? Smiley is a 1-2 big boy. These are heavyweights.

FIGHT: Smiley TKO Rnd 1. Smiley wins slugfest that is not fun to watch. Johnson looks like he has a boxing background but paws with the jab, moves straight back, and doesn't throw combinations, plus he can't block kicks and all that combines to equal him getting KOed. In between bad standup, Smiley is taken down a couple of times and laid on. Neither guy can do anything on the mat. (0)

2) Tiffany Connell vs. Angelica Brotherton: Featherweight (which is 120 or something) women's bout.

FIGHT: Brotherton Submission Rnd 2. Honestly this is not a good fight. Lots of sloppy grappling as the larger Connell pushes Brotherton into the cage and tries to smother her. Brotherton eventually drops for the takedown and proves a far superior grappler both on top and on the bottom, going for a number of submissions and locking in an armbar that forces a tap out just as the bell rings for the end of the second round. Both of these girls are so far away from contending that I can't really have an opinion on their futures in the sport. (0)

3) Charles Blanchard vs. David Hulett: Blanchard lost to Jamie Yager on TUF 11. Hulett is a journeyman.

FIGHT: Blanchard TKO Rnd 1. Blanchard beats the living hell out of Hulett, taking him down early and just laying in with elbows and punches, cutting up Hulett and turning his face into a crimson mask, Fight is stopped between rounds. Blanchard looks good, but its a fight against limited competition. (1)

4) Delson Heleno vs. Waachim Spiritwolf: Oh man, this could be awesome. Some sort of title is up for grabs.

FIGHT: Heleno Unanimous Decision. Boring, boring fight. Heleno squashes Spiritwolf against the cage and occasionally gets the takedown and lays in half guard. Nearly unwatchable. Announcers complain that the fans don't like it, of course. (1)

FIGHT OF THE NIGHT: Connell/Brotherton

KO OF THE NIGHT: Smiley/Johnson

SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT: Brotherton/Connell

OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: 2.5 out of 10. Cruddy show that is completely skippable. No offense to Delson Heleno, who is a good fighter, but he needs to markedly improve his all around game before he becomes appealing to the major promotions at this point.

D&R RATING: 10% (2/20)

NAAFS Cage Fighting (2/6/2011)

Another episode of NAAFS from Night of Champions 12/4/2011.

1) Clint Musselman vs. Justin Steave: Featherweight bout.

FIGHT: Steave Submission Rnd 2. Musselman is a one dimensional top control grappler with middling takedown defense and who seems to react to being in the active guard by turning into a blanket. Standing he is barely comfortable either and just backs up and hopes for an opening to shoot. Steave's wrestling isn't that great, but he's got good active BJJ and he seems passable standing, though he does the same sort of "drop your hands and stand up square" thing that a lot of guys do when swinging. He tags Musselman hard at the bell in Round 1 thanks to the ref being late to come in (which also happened in the prior week's episode with what looks to be the same ref), but the rest of the fight is fought on the mat. Eventually Steaves gets an armbar locked up after a couple strong attempts. He doesn't even have both legs across the body of Musselman and yet gets extension. (0)

2) Jessica Zomcik vs. Tamikka Brents: I sorta remember the first fight and that it wasn't very good. This is a rematch in which Brents is the #2 fighter in the division by having beaten the #1 fighter (Zomcik) in their first encounter. What? 155 lb amateur title on the line.

FIGHT: Brents TKO Rnd 1. What I didn't expect was Brents pulling a KOTC special. Easy takedown, easy pass to mount, beats on Zomcik like a drum for a minute solid. Beatdown City, population Zomcik. (0)

3) Daniel Head vs. Nick Duell: Head is a late replacement for Steve Berger for this "big big fight". Duell holds the NAAFS welterweight title for whatever it is worth. Head lost to Jeff Lentz in the prelim rounds of the last TUF.

FIGHT: Duell Submission Rnd 2. Again, its a bit problematic watching this fight to sit here and talk about what it is that you see. Head is overwhelmed in general. Yes, he gets a takedown to start round two, but he's swept off an armbar attempt and this in turn leads to him taking a whomping the rest of the round. Plus he is beaten down comprehensively in round 2. Duell again has the problem that he is a strong, athletic guy who's wrestling technique lacks and tries to make up for some of that with his ability to go for submissions as well as to sweep and beat on people.

Against Daniel Head, hey, OK, you can do that. Against Mike Pyle? Against Brock Larson? Carlo Prater? I need to see a lot more that what I did here. (0)

FIGHT OF THE SHOW: Duell/Head

OVERALL FOR THE SHOW: 4 out of 10. You see some more one sided fights here, but at least that comes with the positive of fighters with more appreciable talent competing.

NAAFS Cage Fighting (1/30/2011)

Okay, I've not been around like I used to be. I know. I am bad. But now its back to business, and the business of watching MMA is good.

This is another NAAFS show, original telvision date as above. John Strmac and Greg Kalikas are announcing and reveal that these fights are from NIGHT OF CHAMPIONS~ from 12/4/2010.

1) Brett Gruber vs. Isaiah Chapman: Amateur bout for the National Amateur NAAFS Bantamweight Title. Chapman looks, to me, to be obviously about to win. He's larger and has a far better record.

FIGHT: Chapman Unanimous Decision. This was no surprise. Gruber's game plan was basically to try and get the fight down and go for submissions by any means necessary, including pulling guard. Chapman was willing to do that because he was capable of defending submissions and was more athletic and physically capable of doing more things than Gruber. Gruber almost had an armbar locked in during the second, but aside from that, this was all Chapman. Frankly, the fight should have been over Chapman had Gruber unconscious after the bell rang in round 1 from a rear naked choke.

Most of the bout was spent with Chapman on top in a dominant position - whether he had the back or was in half guard, he was in control. Standing both guys looked uncomfortable, like they were debating throwing the low kick as they threw it. (0)

2) Rick Day vs. Nelson Best: Day has a ridiculous mustache, is undefeated as a prospect, and has a BJJ/karate background. Best is 7 inches shorter. SEVEN. But he weighs the same.

FIGHT: Best TKO Rnd 1. Day and Best are feeling each other out, and you can sense inside that Day is not doing the best job of setting up distance. He's getting cornered and squared up repeatedly, and eventually Best catches Day moving left off the cage with his chin in the air. Fight is over with one punch. (0)

3) Billy Vaughan vs. Donny Walker: Featherweight title for pros. Interesting factoid dropped; no one in NAAFS has ever defended a title successfully. Ever. Walker has past losses to the likes of Jeff Curran and Cub Swanson. Vaughan has a win over Tony Hervey.

FIGHT: Walker Submission Rnd 1. Vaughan comes out completely wild, square, throwing arm shots. Just crazy wild. Vaughan just covers up and survives it until there's a takedown by Vaughan and then that leads to a leg lock. Apparently this is how Vaughan always fights, and Walker came prepared. Vaughan is gassed out totally, gives up the lock, goes back for the single as Walker stands, and eats punches and elbows to the head before dropping to all fours. He's choked out soon after. (0)

Anyhow, analyzing the two men - oh, god, why bother? Vaughan isn't very good and Walker is just OK.

FIGHT OF THE SHOW: Walker/Vaughan

OVERALL FOR THE SHOW: 3.5 out of 10. Kinda boring. Vaughan wants a UFC contract. Uhhh.

Titan Fighting Championships 16 (1/29/2011)

HDNet brings us this card of fun headlined by Tim Sylvia vs. Abe Wagner. The Voice and Trigg are announcing. Ring announcer has jowels and a ridiculous ponytail.

1) Alonzo Martinez vs. Deryck Ripley: Why is this on TV? Live TV? Martinez is a journeyman of a higher caliber than Ripley. Its downright obvious, actually. The records say it: 11-18 vs. 28-12-2.

FIGHT: Martinez Submission Rnd 2. Squash that went longer than it should have because the guy doing the squash isn't quite good enough to make it really short. Ripley's stand up isn't very good and he eats repeated hard punches that put him down. On the mat, Ripley has "really good technical jiujitsu" in so much as he is able to roll from position to position and not get finished while he's totally dominated. Eventually we get a rear naked choke that should have happened 90 seconds in. (0)

2) Jacob Aiken vs. Anthony Gutierrez: Another fight that I'm baffled by being on TV. Two bantams making debuts. Gutierrez apparently is training with Faber though, so, yeah.

FIGHT: Gutierrez TKO Rnd 1. Aiken likes leg locks! This I know for certain. He gets stacked going for one in the early going after getting a takedown (which he's swept immediately after) and loses it. Aiken keeps going for armbars and gets the CATCH and then gets slammed out over and over again. After another desperation leg lock attempt goes wrong, Gutierrez continues to take control on top and pounds him out with elbows from side control. (1)

3) Bobby Cooper vs. Drew Dober: Who?

FIGHT: Dober Unanimous Decision. Its a simple equation - Dober gets takedowns, Cooper isn't that good working off his back. If you spend the overwhelming majority of the fight on your back, you don't win. Neither guy had particularly notable standup or setups and Dober seemed a little small in this, a catchweight fight of sorts around welterweight. (1)

4) Drew McFedries vs. Gary Tapuosa: Tapuosa is a last minute replacement and is clearly a much smaller man. What he brings to the table is a southpaw stance and Samoan blood.

FIGHT: McFedries TKO Rnd 3. Tapuosa actually confuses McFedries with his stance and we get the worst McFedries fight possible. They stand at distance and jab at one another and occasionally step forward with power shots that miss the target. Tapuosa actually lands one of the strongest shots in the fight during round two, and Drew is shook up. As round 3 drags on, Tapuosa is increasingly tired and taking shots. He eventually turns his back standing and forces the ref to step in. (1)

5) Aaron Derrow vs. Rich Clementi: Another head scratcher. Derrow is a bigger man and this is a fight that was thrown together last minute.

FIGHT: Derrow Submission Rnd 3. A strange bout that shows the hubris of Clementi. He completely dominates Derrow and shows off constantly - throws spinning back fists, kisses his hand before throwing punches through the guard, tossing Derrow around, spending time gesturing to the ref and crowd during submission attempts. You know, stupid things that can cause you to lose. Derrow jumps and pulls guard in the third round (which he had done before in the fight) and Clementi leaves his arm in too long. He gets caught in a triangle choke and doesn't tap, leading to unconsciousness. Derrow admits in the post fight interview that he sucked and got a come from behind win. (1)

6) Jason High vs. Rudy Bears: Bears is a journeyman and High is a guy who has had big wins in Japan as well as crushing defeats.

FIGHT: High Submission Rnd 1. Not much of a fight. High gets an early double, postures up, and Bears scrambles right into an arm in guillotine that he taps to. (2)

7) Abe Wagner vs. Tim Sylvia: The main event. And what a main event it was. Abe Wagner was in one of the worst televised heavyweight fights ever. Tim Sylvia was a former two time UFC champion who talked about his comeback trail extensively entering...and he weighs over 310lbs.

FIGHT: Wagner TKO Rnd 1. Sylvia comes straight at Wagner and has his chin up and hands down. Wagner returns fire and Sylvia is hurt, then dropped, then face plants. The ref stops it and basically has to hold Sylvia up. Embarassing. Abe Wagner maybe punches a ticket somewhere else. (3)

FIGHT OF THE NIGHT: Derrow/Clementi

KO OF THE NIGHT: Wagner/Sylvia

SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT: Derrow/Clementi

OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: 3 out of 10. There's a notable main event upset in a 30 second fight, Clementi showboating and losing, and lots of stuff that doesn't matter or isn't good. I fell asleep trying to watch this 4 times.

D&R RATING: 26% (9/35)