Friday, July 15, 2011

Blackeye Promotions: Rise of the Champions

Okay, another one from Fightzone TV. We've got Jay Adams and Greg Flowers calling this night of fights and I know nothing about it except it looks like it's in a really scummy locale. Okay, so its North Carolina. Greg Flowers just told me so.

1) Wesley Evans vs. Vinny Alberico: Amateur welterweights.

FIGHT: Alberico TKO Rnd 1. Super fast fight. Evans is out from a short right that he walks into and gets pounded out along the cage. Sorta shameful. Looked like he was almost hit with a jab.

2) Matt Tran vs. Shane Tyner: Pro debuts for both at 135. Tran is 5'10''.

FIGHT: Tran Unanimous Decision. Not much of a fight - Tyner gets put on his back over and over, his wrestling being largely ineffective. When it does work in the second, he's still doing nothing but trying to escape kimuras and triangles. Tran's wrestling isn't bad but its not great either. Sorta a decent BJJ guy but not much beyond that. (0)

3) Chris Cain vs. Justin Marks: Bantamweight pro bout. Cain is a guy they want to push, it would seem.

FIGHT: Marks Unanimous Decision. Rashad basically says at the start that he thinks Marks is better than his 4-3 record - he's right. Marks is a submission guy all the way and he's tying up Marks in pretzels. He's not finishing, sure, but he's constantly in dominant positions and putting him in danger. Not much of a wrestler, no striking, Marks is straight BJJ all the way and admits it afterwards; "If that was a jiujitsu tournament, I don't even know how many points that was...if he didn't respect it before, he does now." (0)

4) Dustin Center vs. Jacob Allman: Dudes. Undefeated dudes. Lightweight dudes.

FIGHT: Allman Submission Rnd 1. Allman is a wrestler and that makes him good at guillotines. That's what Joe Rogan told me. Center just gave up the neck in the saddest fashion while inside the guard of Allman after catching a kick and pushing him down. (0)

5) Frank Waszut vs. Johnny Buck: 175lb catchweight main event. Waszut is the GINGER SAMURAI.

FIGHT: Buck TKO Rnd 3. Every round, its the same thing - clinch, Waszut gets taken down/thrown, Buck takes dominant position and punches the shit out of him. This continues until about 2:15 is left in the third and the ref stops it. (0)

FIGHT OF THE NIGHT: Cain/Marks

SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT: Allman/Center

KO OF THE NIGHT: Alberico/Evans

OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: 2.5 out of 10. Should be renamed "Rise of the Journeymen". Completely skippable.

D&R Rating: 0%


Friday, July 1, 2011

NAAFS Cage Fighting (6/12/2011)

Skipping a couple episodes to come back to eventually.

1) Chandra Engle vs. Rachel Dovidio:Women's Amateur 135lb fight. Engle is from the dutch enclave of East Grand Rapids, MI. Dovidio is from North Carolina. Pretty amazing that NAAFS is attracting lots of out of state fighters for amateur bouts. Apparently Rachel is also a Marine.

FIGHT: Dovidio . Not a bad showing. Again, with the low amount of talent here in women's MMA, Dovidio kinda runs over Engle and forces her on the defensive at all times. You see better women's fighters (Jessica Eye or Rhonda Rousey, who may be announcing here on color) basically pulling KOTC specials on this level of card. Dovidio can't finish, gets flipped, and even gets taken down in the second. She's better in every way but doesn't show a clear difference in physical talents. Maybe Engle is just a tough, seasoned amateur MMA fighter who's gone through the fires of Michigan nightclub fights. But I feel like this is a fight Dovidio should have dominated. (0)

2) Bill Algeo vs. Aaron Bartow: Lightweight bout. Ammy fight.

FIGHT: Algeo Submission Rnd 1. Just ran over Bartow. Lands looping right hands over the lazy striking of Bartow, gets him down, beats him up, KOTC special with the RNC finish. (0)

3) Chris Lozano vs. Gerric Hayes: Bounce back fight for Lozano. Seems to be a catchweight around 175.

FIGHT: Lozano TKO Rnd 1. Still not a great showing from Lozano, who at one point gives his back and has his belly down on the mat defending a RNC about 30 seconds in. But he keeps himself out of big problems, gets on top, gets the fight stood up, hurts Hayes with a rabbit punch (unintentional) caused by Hayes bending over, and as Hayes tries to duck and stumble away he eats a high kick to the head and is out cold. (1)

OVERALL FOR THE SHOW: 4 out of 10. Bounce fight for a mid level guy and some prospect amateur fights that aren't offensively bad. Flat out comical horror response from the Algeo win when the crowd obviously was behind the other guy and went silent.