While I work on other reviews and finish them up, another review from the KOTC OF THE DAY series.
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Usual KOTC stuff here. We’re back to the beloved Soboba. Should be full of the usual KOTC formula bouts: either untalented dude gets tooled on the ground (Formula A) or the fight ends 15 seconds in by KO (Formula B). Erik Apple is rocking the mic along with John Alessio.
1) PAT WHITE vs. LAWRENCE GANT: Dudes that fight. Each weighs about 170. Gant rocks the rashguard.
Pat White sucks. He is taken down immediately and mounted before 5 seconds pass. He hugs Gant for awhile, then Gant punches him a couple times. White turns over and then gets submitted with an RNC.
2) KEN CADOY vs. MIKE GUYMON: Cadoy is from 808 making his debut, Guymon is from somewhere, I wasn’t paying attention. He calls himself “The Joker” and hangs out with Tapout Crew. Guess who I want to win?
Guymon rushes the shot, gets him down, Cadoy tries to get up, and Cadoy gets caught in a guillotine. Fight over. I read later that Guymon was in the IFL for a cup of coffee. Go fig.
3) BUCKLEY ACOSTA vs. DICK DELAWARE: Aaron Brink lives the life many of DVDVR’s lesser posters dream of. Acosta is some dude who is making his pro debut.
Fight lasts 10 seconds. Brink walks forward, throws a couple punches, Acosta throws him down, they scramble up, Brink walks into a right hand, its over. Acosta beats a dude who people know well in his debut.
4) RUBIN TAGLE vs. BRIAN WARREN: No idea who these guys are.
Warren wins via Formula A. GNP stoppage after a couple takedowns and Tagle gets mounted in Rnd 1. Cecil Peoples waits until Tagle as begged for a good 10 seconds to stop it. Maybe there were no verbal submissions in those karate styled kickboxing events in the 70s?
5) SHAWN BIAS vs. THOMAS KENNY: This isn’t a bad fight on paper, really. Kenny is clearly the much larger man. He also wears a shirt.
This is a shockingly good fight. Shawn Bias and Thomas Kenny slug it out through the early part of the second and then roll a plenty for the second half of the round. Round two opens with Bias almost knocking Kenny out with a right hand, but falls into Kenny’s half guard and somehow, Kenny gets a head and arm choke to win the fight. Bias taps and Herb just looks at it. And then he taps against and Herb seems confused and goes over to look. Eventually he goes out and its kinda ugly from there.
6) ALEX ZUNNER vs. MIKE BOURKE: Holy shit. Mike Bourke sighting! What else would he fight but some fat ass? I cheated and looked ahead and I will be able to share lots of moments for Alex Zunner moments with you.
Bourke and Zunner kinda swing at each other, hug, Zunner gets a takedown and side control, Bourke rolls him over, and then chokes him out Smith/Cikatic style. Wow.
7) FERNANDO ARREOLA vs. CUB SWANSON: Hahahahahahaha.
Arreola puts up some attempts at something and fails at all of it. He ends up being dropped by a right hand and then a series of kicks to the legs follow and Cecil runs in for a verbal submission a little over 3 minutes in. Swanson was way past this guy in skill and he must have known in early on.
8) GABE RIVAS vs. ROB MCCULLOUGH: Everyone and their mom has seen a hundred Gabe Rivas fights. Rob McCullough is another future WEC talent, champion in fact, who is in a fairly interesting match here on this disc.
You know, what made KOTC 7 unique is that it was the only MMA event in the wet ever done. Not intentionally, mind you, its just that they apparently ran an open air show without thinking it was a possibility. So, years later, here I am watching a KOTC show from late in ’05 and, whaddya know, it starts raining. The fight was controlled by McCullough standing and on the ground, but in Round 2 the rain starts coming down and Rivas is tripping all over himself, taking a leg kick that knocks him to the ground because he has no traction. When Rivas is knocked down for the last time, was it the right hand that did it or the fact that he was falling everywhere on a wet wrestling mat? How fucking bush league do you have to be to have rain and then not think about preventing it as an issue in the future?
9) MANNY TAPIA vs. ED NEWALU: Krazy Horse is on the mic! YES. Too bad he doesn’t really care that he’s here or supposed to entertain me, the viewer. Tapia is their 145lb champion and now is in the WEC. He’s really quite good. Newalu I’ve seen fight Ryan Diaz awhile back. They fought before in KOTC but no mention of it is ever made.
Fight goes the distance (first in a long time) and while decent is hardly the best thing ever. Some decent standup, Newalu looks capable on the ground, Tapia is good all the way around with his wrestling and standup, Newalu guarantees a loss in Round 2 by losing a point throwing a four point knee, and Tapia retains. I started to nod off during this and had to really work hard to stay conscious, honestly.
10) THOMAS DENNY vs. JAMES FANSHIER: I first mentioned Fanshier on the first show covered, and Thomas Denny is a dude who has fought on every B show there is, and thus not really needing an introduction. There’s a little highlight package that screams “XPW” and has Fanshier in the cage talking a ton of shit.
Round 1 sees Denny channel Tim Sylvia and push Fanshier into the cage. That’s pretty much all 5 minutes. Second round Denny lands a big right hand, Fanshier goes down, Denny follows with strikes, fight over.
11) KEVIN “Q-TIP” DONNELLY vs. NAM PHAN: Donnelly is listed as being from the “streets of Hisperia, California” instead of a school. He’s a white kid making his debut and he’s dyed his hair blonde. Nam Pham is a dude who has lost to all the good fighters he’s faced and beaten all the shitty fighters he’s been in with. Since many are like Donnelly, there’s a lot more Ws than Ls.
Donnelly shoots in, Phan takes guard, he gets the armbar, Donnelly taps out. 12 seconds officially. Maybe 6 in reality. They don’t even do any play by play for this.
12) BETTO CORNITA vs. BILLY BEARMAN: Cornita is coming from martial arts academy and this is his debut. Its also Bearman’s. Its also the only fight either will ever have in their careers. Obviously we’re into swing bouts here, and I’m debating why I should even watch it. Like, this is as unimportant as any match ever held. There’s episodes of I Love Lucy that are lost to time and shit like that, but this will be committed to tape forever and ever.
Then, this is all saved. Bearman wears a rashguard and Cornita is chubby, the fight ends by triangle choke for Bearman in round 1, and it doesn’t matter because Rampage has replaced Apple to do announcing. “I told you he was going to sleep. He ‘gon dream about training.”
13) AARON WETHERSPOON vs. VAL LEEDY: Aaron Wetherspoon is a bad dude and you know who he is. Leedy is a kickboxer, and Rampage says he fought him once and said he kicks hard and shit. I think I’ve seen this fight before, actually.
Fight is short and all clinch. Wetherspoon gets in close and gets underhooks, but isn’t able to take down Leedy. After a separation because of low blows, they clinch up again and a knee to the head drops Leedy a just short of 1:30 of round 1.
14) KEITH BERRY vs. JOHNNY VASQUES: Rampage almost leaves, and then apparently decides to stay, which is good, because without him, this shit becomes totally unwatchable. This is at 205. Vasques wears a shirt. Berry is a white dude who looks like someone I went to high school with.
Retardedly low level stuff with Berry winning by KO after some standup clubberin’ in short order. Rampage talks some shit about some unnamed shitty fight, and then gets a cell phone call and has to leave. You can hear him momentarily on the phone, in fact.
15) JOEY ALVARADO vs. JASON WHEAT: Alvarado comes out, and he has a shaved head and bad tattoos on his arms. SHOCKAH. CRAZY HORSE joins the crew. Alvarado wins by armbar and I'm barely paying attention.
16) LUCAS TABER vs. ROBERT DRIMI: Drimi looks way dorky. Taber looks like a high school JV football player. Drimi throws some lame sidekicks and Taber scissors the leg and gets an ankle lock. Crazy Horse and Rampage are commentating and there’s no way I can communicate how good it is.
17) ROBERT ZUNNER vs. ANTHONY MENDEZ: This fight is so awesome, its not even listed on the match list included with the DVD. Rampage regarding Zunner: “He so big, his weight isn’t even listed. He look like Bam Bam Bigelow!…If people gonna be wearing rashguards, he shoulda been one of them. He so fat, he got stretchmarks on his nipples!” Mendez wins by KO in a fight in which no talent is shown. Rampage and Crazy Horse continue talking shit about how fat Zunner is.
After the match, they continue to talk for like 3 minutes and its all gold. They’re still talking when the screen fades out and goes to credits. Rampage: “Join us next time at King Of The Cage. You get like, 20-30 fights, and from that, like, 18 good ones.”
FIGHT OF THE NIGHT: Rivas/McCullough - Decent midlevel stuff here with a developing McCullough and a vet in Rivas, plus weird circumstances and displays of skill from both.
KO OF THE NIGHT: Acosta/Brink - Sudden and surprising. I was taken aback.
SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT: Zunner/Bourke - You don't see "forearm to throat" everyday.
OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: pre Rampage/Bennett announcing: 6, during Rampage/Bennett announcing: 10. If I were a money mark running an MMA show, my crew is now lined up.
1) PAT WHITE vs. LAWRENCE GANT: Dudes that fight. Each weighs about 170. Gant rocks the rashguard.
Pat White sucks. He is taken down immediately and mounted before 5 seconds pass. He hugs Gant for awhile, then Gant punches him a couple times. White turns over and then gets submitted with an RNC.
2) KEN CADOY vs. MIKE GUYMON: Cadoy is from 808 making his debut, Guymon is from somewhere, I wasn’t paying attention. He calls himself “The Joker” and hangs out with Tapout Crew. Guess who I want to win?
Guymon rushes the shot, gets him down, Cadoy tries to get up, and Cadoy gets caught in a guillotine. Fight over. I read later that Guymon was in the IFL for a cup of coffee. Go fig.
3) BUCKLEY ACOSTA vs. DICK DELAWARE: Aaron Brink lives the life many of DVDVR’s lesser posters dream of. Acosta is some dude who is making his pro debut.
Fight lasts 10 seconds. Brink walks forward, throws a couple punches, Acosta throws him down, they scramble up, Brink walks into a right hand, its over. Acosta beats a dude who people know well in his debut.
4) RUBIN TAGLE vs. BRIAN WARREN: No idea who these guys are.
Warren wins via Formula A. GNP stoppage after a couple takedowns and Tagle gets mounted in Rnd 1. Cecil Peoples waits until Tagle as begged for a good 10 seconds to stop it. Maybe there were no verbal submissions in those karate styled kickboxing events in the 70s?
5) SHAWN BIAS vs. THOMAS KENNY: This isn’t a bad fight on paper, really. Kenny is clearly the much larger man. He also wears a shirt.
This is a shockingly good fight. Shawn Bias and Thomas Kenny slug it out through the early part of the second and then roll a plenty for the second half of the round. Round two opens with Bias almost knocking Kenny out with a right hand, but falls into Kenny’s half guard and somehow, Kenny gets a head and arm choke to win the fight. Bias taps and Herb just looks at it. And then he taps against and Herb seems confused and goes over to look. Eventually he goes out and its kinda ugly from there.
6) ALEX ZUNNER vs. MIKE BOURKE: Holy shit. Mike Bourke sighting! What else would he fight but some fat ass? I cheated and looked ahead and I will be able to share lots of moments for Alex Zunner moments with you.
Bourke and Zunner kinda swing at each other, hug, Zunner gets a takedown and side control, Bourke rolls him over, and then chokes him out Smith/Cikatic style. Wow.
7) FERNANDO ARREOLA vs. CUB SWANSON: Hahahahahahaha.
Arreola puts up some attempts at something and fails at all of it. He ends up being dropped by a right hand and then a series of kicks to the legs follow and Cecil runs in for a verbal submission a little over 3 minutes in. Swanson was way past this guy in skill and he must have known in early on.
8) GABE RIVAS vs. ROB MCCULLOUGH: Everyone and their mom has seen a hundred Gabe Rivas fights. Rob McCullough is another future WEC talent, champion in fact, who is in a fairly interesting match here on this disc.
You know, what made KOTC 7 unique is that it was the only MMA event in the wet ever done. Not intentionally, mind you, its just that they apparently ran an open air show without thinking it was a possibility. So, years later, here I am watching a KOTC show from late in ’05 and, whaddya know, it starts raining. The fight was controlled by McCullough standing and on the ground, but in Round 2 the rain starts coming down and Rivas is tripping all over himself, taking a leg kick that knocks him to the ground because he has no traction. When Rivas is knocked down for the last time, was it the right hand that did it or the fact that he was falling everywhere on a wet wrestling mat? How fucking bush league do you have to be to have rain and then not think about preventing it as an issue in the future?
9) MANNY TAPIA vs. ED NEWALU: Krazy Horse is on the mic! YES. Too bad he doesn’t really care that he’s here or supposed to entertain me, the viewer. Tapia is their 145lb champion and now is in the WEC. He’s really quite good. Newalu I’ve seen fight Ryan Diaz awhile back. They fought before in KOTC but no mention of it is ever made.
Fight goes the distance (first in a long time) and while decent is hardly the best thing ever. Some decent standup, Newalu looks capable on the ground, Tapia is good all the way around with his wrestling and standup, Newalu guarantees a loss in Round 2 by losing a point throwing a four point knee, and Tapia retains. I started to nod off during this and had to really work hard to stay conscious, honestly.
10) THOMAS DENNY vs. JAMES FANSHIER: I first mentioned Fanshier on the first show covered, and Thomas Denny is a dude who has fought on every B show there is, and thus not really needing an introduction. There’s a little highlight package that screams “XPW” and has Fanshier in the cage talking a ton of shit.
Round 1 sees Denny channel Tim Sylvia and push Fanshier into the cage. That’s pretty much all 5 minutes. Second round Denny lands a big right hand, Fanshier goes down, Denny follows with strikes, fight over.
11) KEVIN “Q-TIP” DONNELLY vs. NAM PHAN: Donnelly is listed as being from the “streets of Hisperia, California” instead of a school. He’s a white kid making his debut and he’s dyed his hair blonde. Nam Pham is a dude who has lost to all the good fighters he’s faced and beaten all the shitty fighters he’s been in with. Since many are like Donnelly, there’s a lot more Ws than Ls.
Donnelly shoots in, Phan takes guard, he gets the armbar, Donnelly taps out. 12 seconds officially. Maybe 6 in reality. They don’t even do any play by play for this.
12) BETTO CORNITA vs. BILLY BEARMAN: Cornita is coming from martial arts academy and this is his debut. Its also Bearman’s. Its also the only fight either will ever have in their careers. Obviously we’re into swing bouts here, and I’m debating why I should even watch it. Like, this is as unimportant as any match ever held. There’s episodes of I Love Lucy that are lost to time and shit like that, but this will be committed to tape forever and ever.
Then, this is all saved. Bearman wears a rashguard and Cornita is chubby, the fight ends by triangle choke for Bearman in round 1, and it doesn’t matter because Rampage has replaced Apple to do announcing. “I told you he was going to sleep. He ‘gon dream about training.”
13) AARON WETHERSPOON vs. VAL LEEDY: Aaron Wetherspoon is a bad dude and you know who he is. Leedy is a kickboxer, and Rampage says he fought him once and said he kicks hard and shit. I think I’ve seen this fight before, actually.
Fight is short and all clinch. Wetherspoon gets in close and gets underhooks, but isn’t able to take down Leedy. After a separation because of low blows, they clinch up again and a knee to the head drops Leedy a just short of 1:30 of round 1.
14) KEITH BERRY vs. JOHNNY VASQUES: Rampage almost leaves, and then apparently decides to stay, which is good, because without him, this shit becomes totally unwatchable. This is at 205. Vasques wears a shirt. Berry is a white dude who looks like someone I went to high school with.
Retardedly low level stuff with Berry winning by KO after some standup clubberin’ in short order. Rampage talks some shit about some unnamed shitty fight, and then gets a cell phone call and has to leave. You can hear him momentarily on the phone, in fact.
15) JOEY ALVARADO vs. JASON WHEAT: Alvarado comes out, and he has a shaved head and bad tattoos on his arms. SHOCKAH. CRAZY HORSE joins the crew. Alvarado wins by armbar and I'm barely paying attention.
16) LUCAS TABER vs. ROBERT DRIMI: Drimi looks way dorky. Taber looks like a high school JV football player. Drimi throws some lame sidekicks and Taber scissors the leg and gets an ankle lock. Crazy Horse and Rampage are commentating and there’s no way I can communicate how good it is.
17) ROBERT ZUNNER vs. ANTHONY MENDEZ: This fight is so awesome, its not even listed on the match list included with the DVD. Rampage regarding Zunner: “He so big, his weight isn’t even listed. He look like Bam Bam Bigelow!…If people gonna be wearing rashguards, he shoulda been one of them. He so fat, he got stretchmarks on his nipples!” Mendez wins by KO in a fight in which no talent is shown. Rampage and Crazy Horse continue talking shit about how fat Zunner is.
After the match, they continue to talk for like 3 minutes and its all gold. They’re still talking when the screen fades out and goes to credits. Rampage: “Join us next time at King Of The Cage. You get like, 20-30 fights, and from that, like, 18 good ones.”
FIGHT OF THE NIGHT: Rivas/McCullough - Decent midlevel stuff here with a developing McCullough and a vet in Rivas, plus weird circumstances and displays of skill from both.
KO OF THE NIGHT: Acosta/Brink - Sudden and surprising. I was taken aback.
SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT: Zunner/Bourke - You don't see "forearm to throat" everyday.
OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: pre Rampage/Bennett announcing: 6, during Rampage/Bennett announcing: 10. If I were a money mark running an MMA show, my crew is now lined up.
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POSTSCRIPT:
Nam Pham has somehow found his way to the UFC. For now, at least.
Keith Berry lost a setup fight on ShoXC and has been in collapse since then.
Rob McCullough was brought into Bellator...and promptly took a beating.
Thomas Denny got ripped off at the last Mark Pavelich promoted event.
Mike Bourke beat Ken Shamrock. Yes.
Mike Guymon went to the UFC, got a bunch of undeserved chances, and finally retired.
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