Tons of legit fighters appear at the booth - Matt Hughes, Chuck Liddell, Jens Pulver, Pat Militech, among others.
1) Bao Quach vs. Jeff Curran: Wow, now that is an opener! Both guys were at featherweight here and have risen and dropped since. Curran fought in WEC at 135, and Quach was at 140 with EXC and may be a bantamweight now. Both regularly fought at LW.
FIGHT: Curran Decision. Its not stated that its a unanimous or split decision, so, uhh, "decision". Good competitive fight. By the time the bout is over, 45 minutes has passed from the start of the show to that point.
Quach: Quach is really flat footed here and quite the boxing robot. His grappling though is very strong. He repeatedly gets Curran down with his shot from the outside, but does very little with the position. Curran's active guard prevents him from doing any real damage, and Curran lands better and more stuff while standing. He also gets dominated a bit in the clinch should Curran be able to defend takedowns or initiate it. I think its fair to say that Quach is smaller than Curran also.
Curran: Big Frog is a decent fighter and looks somewhat put together here. He's a master of nothing, but skilled at most everything to some degree, which in 2002 was very rare at any weight class. He gets a thunderous slam on Quach in the second that's pretty impressive and also goes for several submission and sweeps him in a move that probably earns him the victory all the way back in the middle of round 1. (3)
2) Mike Swick vs. James Gabert: Middleweight contest featuring a future welterweight contender and some guy.
FIGHT: Swick Unanimous Decision. You see one of Swick's long time flaws here - reaching with punches. Gabert doesn't go down for anything. Seriously, Swick beats him upside the head forever and he doesn't go down once. He does cut Gabert on the skull with a high kick in the second but that's about the worst it gets. Gabert, for his credit, may be the much shorter man, but he comes forward constantly, does get inside some of the punches, and lands his own right hands on occasion. He also forces Swick against the cage, though when they clinch, often Swick is able to turn him and start throwing knees. Decent performance early in Swick's career. (2)
3) Jason Jones vs. Randall "Randy" Rowe: This Jason Jones isn't black and dutch; rather, he's bald and fights with Rico Chipparelli. Rowe is from the "Dog Pound" and hails from Middletown, CT, an old mill town that has very little going for it except a nice Tibetan restaurant. Oh, and that college that Hillary Clinton went to.
FIGHT: Rowe DQ. Rowe actually gets a takedown on a much larger, much better (on paper) wrestler and stays there the whole first round. Jones at the end of the first has a triangle choke on and he damn near finishes the fight when the bell rings. The ref breaks them and Rowe is laying down looking basically out. Jones stands over him and waits for him to sit up well after the round is over, then throws a punch. Why? No idea. Just stupid shit. Jones never won a professional MMA bout according to Sherdog, losing 7 times in the seminal Utah promotion Ultimate Combat Experience.
4) Eric Mainiai vs. John Rallo: Mainiai's pro debut against some guy.
FIGHT: Rallo TKO Rnd 1. Fun fight for how long it lasted. Rallo rocks Mainiai, who has a terrible stance for striking, then slams him to the mat with a huge bodyslam. He loses top position going for an armbar but gets the fight back to standing after rolling out when Mainiai goes to north/south and shows the world he has no idea really what he's doing. Standing, more right hands come in from Rallo and a couple knees, and Mainiai turns and runs and the ref stops it. He then complains because, hey, he was gonna mount some real offense and defense from that position! (0)
5) Christian Wellisch vs. Jay White: Man, two journeymen of today locking horns when they were young bucks of yesterday.
FIGHT: Wellisch TKO Rnd 3. This is the sort of fight Dana White loves - cheap, mildly skilled guys throwing leather on top of leather for 3 rounds, landing punches squarely and rocking each other. Both guys are grapplers who robobox and that's fine, particularly in 2002. Wellisch is the better wrestler and White is the better guy in terms of getting submissions on the bottom, so we see Wellisch get the majority of the takedowns and spend the majority of the time on the mat in top control dodging submission attempts and landing shots. Standing though is where most of the fighting takes place, and there they have hands down and wing bombs for the better part of 3 rounds.
Two key events take place - in the first round White drops Wellisch with a punch, and Wellisch curls into fetal and gets hit in the back of the head, as its the only thing he offers as a target. It initally looks like this will be a TKO in the first for White, but after a couple minutes of discussion, its decided to restart the bout and penalize White for the rabbit punch. Absolutely absurd. The second key moment is the final takedown in the third round. Wellisch seems to hang back in the round reserving what energy he has left for a double from way outside, and he gets White down. He stacks White up when there's an attempt at a heel hook, and Wellisch ends up in mount raining bombs and White verbally quits due to strikes. White is carried out on a stretcher. (1)
In between fights, we are joined by CHUCK LIDDELL, who says he is trying to stay busy.
6) Zack Light vs. Tony Fryklund: Light is with Team Punishment and moving up to 185 against the long time MFS product.
FIGHT: Fryklund Submission Rnd 1. Another epic ref fuckup - Light gets repeated takedowns on Fryklund and at one point looks for the heel hook. Then after having taken top control inside the guard, Light ends up in a kimura from the bottom and Fryklund cranks the arm. Then, for reasons we can only guess at, the ref stops the bout. He claims he heard a verbal tap, but the fighter immediately disagrees and its a whole mess with the crowd chanting "You Suck" to the ref. This is like the 4th botched fight in 6 on this card. (2)
FRANK SHAMROCK does an interview in the ring, states that he was hoping to fight Ricardo Almedia and broke his leg. States he will be fighting again soon or never again. Not sure. States he will fight in Mohegan Sun in January/February of 2002.
7) Kurt Pellegrino vs. Mac Danzig: Oh, the good old days! When high level prospects fought other high level prospects at a very early stage of their careers!
FIGHT: The second round was good MMA - guys going for submissions, changing positions, striking, everything. The first and the third rounds; Well, it represented an imposition of Pellegrino's will, essentially. You see him work for takedowns early in both, get them, and get to half guard and do not much. The ref occasionally stands it up, but its lather, rinse, repeat. The second changes this as Pellegrino rushes in with strikes and Danzig counters with his own successful double and he operates out of the full guard of Kurt for awhile. All the chains of attempted submissions and strikes come out of that. Easy decision for Batman Pellegrino, as he shows his strengths and not much more. Both guys are clearly very green. (3)
8) Richard Crunkilton vs. Luciano Oliveira: Crunkilton is seen these days trying out for TUF like, every season. Oliveira no one knows about.
FIGHT: Crunkilton Submission Rnd 1. Crunkilton gets stuck in the clinch early by Oliveira, and instead gets tossed down, goes for a triangle choke out of the mount, and then rolls over and forces the submission. Takes like 10 minutes to do the post fight interview for the new WEC lightweight champion as the mic barely works. Crunkilton looks like he's 19 here. (1)
9) Jeremy Horn vs. Aaron Brink: Brink has gone on to fame as a porn star and drug addict. Jeremy Horn has gone between three weight classes (here as a heavyweight) and fought about 1,000,000 times.
FIGHT: Horn Submission Rnd 1. KOTC special - Horn with the single, immediately takes the back, RNC. Like 1 minute in length. OK, internet says 54 seconds. Horn gets a title belt and says nice things. (2)
FIGHT OF THE NIGHT: Quach/Curran
KO OF THE NIGHT: Wellisch/White
SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT: Crunkilton/Oliveira
OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: 5.5 out of 10. There's some clunkers on the show but some good prospect vs. prospect fights that now look pretty interesting to the average Joe. Like the WEF and the WFA, these were times when high profile prospects and aging stars could find themselves on cards of this caliber. Today, the only elite fighters on similar shows weigh 125 lbs, regardless of their sex.
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