WEC 4: Rumble Under The Sun (8/31/2002)

EAST COAST VS. WEST COAST. Ryan Bennett and Jeff Cole (???) are the announcers for this event, coming straight from the Mohegan Sun Hotel/Casino in Uncasville, CT. Main event - Jeremy Horn vs. Aaron Brink. Pretty amazing! Production is...amazingly bad. Like, you hear lots of dudes at the desk talking to the truck and a lot of dead air. And this is the first 10 minutes! Place is just dead - barely anyone there. Takes like almost 15 minutes for anything appreciable to happen. Lots of pyro and Kid Rock: What a different era.

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.

WEC 22: The Hitmen (7/8/2006)

Ryan Bennett, the former announcer for WEC and the guy who started MMA Weekly, was killed in a car accident back in 2005. In turn, to celebrate the man's life, the WEC ran this show (pre-Zuffa of course) at Tachi Palace. Special rules sorta too; All fights are exhibitions and don't count on fighters records. Did they get paid? Sorta. Most gave their purses back to the family of Ryan Bennett Show opens with lots of guys talking about him. This was recorded by HDNet and distroed to help pay shit.

1) Robert Densley vs. Mike Joy: Lightweights. Densley is much less experienced than Joy.

FIGHT: Joy Submission Rnd 1. Man, really good fight actually. Well, a really good 1 round right. Joy looks like he was going to walk through Densley with a wild leg lock attempt that he rolled into out of the full guard, but Densley defends that and a subsequent triangle attempt. On the feet Joy is tagged with a right hand shooting in and then a left hook at distance that drops him - Densley rushes to finish and gets armbarred and taps with only two seconds left on the clock. Another highlight: Mike Joy goes for a flying guard pass/punch that he has named the "Jump For Joy". (0)

2) Jeff Terry vs. Doug Marshall: THE RHINO! Is he a racist? I keep wondering. So does a lot of the internet. Terry is debuting and shows sub wrestling and boxing as his style.

FIGHT: Marshall TKO Rnd 1. Doug rushes him, clinches, Terry goes for a guillotine and pulls guard, and it doesn't go well. He gets bombed out with punches from mount. (1)

3) JT Taylor vs. Drew Dimanlig: Middleweights, I think.

FIGHT: Taylor Submission Rnd 1. Dimanlig goes to the mat with Taylor and nearly gets submitted early, but escapes the armbar. Rather than step back and force Taylor to stand, he instead stands over him and kicks the legs before he jumps back into the guard. Less than 15 seconds after that, Dimanlig is swept over and tapped with an armbar. (0)

INTERVIEW WITH CHUCK LIDDELL~. This is prior to the second Babalu fight.

4) Jason Guida vs. Alex Stiebling: Its easy to forget that Stiebling was once fairly relevant. Hell, very relevant. Guida is one of the most famed TUF washouts. BTW: Want to see a crazy fight? Stiebling/Riggs was a great one.

FIGHT: Stiebling Unanimous Decision. Not much to break down - Guida is on the tail end of a lot of jabs and right hands that cut his face up and force him into desperation shots. He has some success in the second round with one, but aside from that, its all Stiebling. Odd aspect of the fight: Guida and Stiebling are stuck for about 1:30 of the final round to the bell in a weird reverse guard position where Stiebling is on top facing backwards and Guida has him wrapped up with both legs. Neither are doing much. Stiebling always had decent boxing - couldn't check or block kicks and left his chin out, but the combinations were at least pretty good. If you also pay attention, Jason Guida goes for a wedgie at one point. (1)

5) Wes Sims vs. Joel Suprenaut: I have seen this fight before. Shame we don't get the Wes Sims walkout. FACT: Wes Sims wanted so badly to be on this show he turned down fighting in the WFA against Bas Rutten.

FIGHT: Sims Submission Rnd 1. Wes Sims throws a dropkick, as promised in the interview before the event, and transitions into a triangle choke. Amazing. Wes Sims wanted to fight Tiny "Zeus" Lister apparently and also notes that he wants to train in the art of Dim Mak. (1)

This was called the "Main Event of the Evening". Except there are a lot more fights. And it becomes night at this point. HDNet must have split off this part for future airing.

6) Joel Thomas vs. Pat Murphy: Welterweight bout.

FIGHT: Murphy Unanimous Decision. Good meaningless scrap. (0)

Murphy: Big plus for Murphy - conditioning. If you don't have it, you can't win long fights, and Murphy comes to fight all 15 minutes. He's not the better wrestler in the fight I don't think, but he's definitely the better striker and his submission skills are better as well. He works well off his back, gets some sweeps, flattens out Thomas in the second and third, lands solid punches, etc. What he doesn't do is finish a guy waiting to be finished.

Thomas: Thinks shot more than anything. On top, he isn't necessarily an easy guy to shake, and he throws down Thomas with a big slam to start the fight. However, his submission defense is not very good, and that leads him to losing position that he shouldn't, and his defense to punches is middling at best.

7) Colley Bradford vs. Trevor Harris: Featherweight division before it mattered in the WEC. Harris is still taking amateur bouts. Bradford has disappeared.

FIGHT: Harris Submission Rnd 1. Bradford thinks wrestling and nothing but. He's cut shooting in in the first 9 seconds of the fight but continues to seek the blast double and control over and over and over. Harris bucks and sweeps him repeatedly, Bradford seems to start to run low on gas, and eventually he gets pushed down and taps to a RNC with no hooks in. (0)

8) JJ Mix vs. Mario Rivera: Welterweight attraction.

FIGHT: Mix Submission Rnd 3. Styles make fights - Mix has some OK BJJ and some OK striking and Rivera has neither of those two things but he's a strong wrestler. What happens as a result? Mix is taken down repeatedly but is able to stall out can cause standups. When that happens, Mix hurts Rivera very badly at least once a round with punches and head kicks. Those kicks become predictable then and Rivera gets takedowns. There's a huge slam by Rivera as he tries to take out Mix, but in the end, Mix has superior all around grappling skills, maneuvers to the back, and then locks in a RNC. (0)

9) Jack Morrison vs. Glover Teixeira: Teixeira is a strange story - he has some big wins like one over Sokoudjou circa 2006. And then he took two years off. Never fought in the big show, unless you count this or Bittetti Combat. Morrison is a former Toughman champ.

FIGHT: Teixeira Submission Rnd 1. KOTC Special in the other outdoor Cali Casino promotion - Teixeria finishes this with a RNC. (1)

10) Troy Miller vs. Poppies Martinez: Welterweight vs. a guy who is now a featherweight (or lighter, I think). Why is this a fight? Miller is a 1-2 TAE KWON DO FIGHTER.

FIGHT: Martinez Submission Rnd 1. Awesome suplex and an equally rad inside heel trip by Martinez, he follows that out by getting an armbar from back control. Poppies is so rad. (1)

11) Casey Olson vs. Alvan Cacdus: Lightweight bout. Olson moved down to featherweight since. Also noted on the program - Olson sold 500 tickets to this event. He's also trying to save Fresno State's wrestling program.

FIGHT: Olson TKO Rnd 1. Beatdown - Olson hurts Cacdus standing and then takes him down. No surprises here with Olson being a former collegiate wrestler. He squashes Cacdus into the cage and smashes him for about 2 minutes until forcing a stoppage. Not competitive. (0)

FIGHT OF THE NIGHT: Murphy/Thomas

KO OF THE NIGHT: Olson/Cacdus

SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT: Sims/Suprenaut

OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: 5 out of 10. Its a pretty slickly produced event and DVD, but as far as it being a necessity? Well, its mostly being sold through resalers and discount venues (how I got mine) but you can imagine that someone at some point got a little money out to the family. The web address for Ryan Bennett's family fund is down, and while there's an address to send a check to for him, I would guess his family hasn't received a whole lot of money in the last couple of years. In that sense, its pretty bizarre to watch and think about.

There's a bonuus disk as well that features stuff like a video montage from the Fight Network did regarding Bennett (who was their news director) and the local TV spot. That spot advertises that Jason Von Flue, Urijah Faber, Nick Thompson, Thomas Schulte, Rafael Del Real, Mikko Rupponen, Mike Whitehead and Jake O'Brien would all be fighting on the show; none of them did and Wes Sims slammed a lot of guys for no-showing or cancelling.

D&R Rating: 9% (5/55)

DEEP ClubDEEP (5/24/2008)

From earlier in the day at Shinjuku FACE where the Megaton GP would continue that evening.

1) Kazuya Hirose vs. Guy Delameau: Okay. Delameau I've seen but retained no knowledge about.

FIGHT: Hirose TKO Rnd 1. Delameau controls the fight early on, pressing with strikes and getting a takedown. He does nothing on the mat and the fight is stood up. As soon as its back on, Hirose throws a spinning back fist that drops Delameau, and the ref jumps in to stop it. Maybe a touch early but Delameau was in real trouble.

2) Yoshitomo Watanabe vs. Ryoji Suzuki: Watanabe I've seen try to block takedowns. I know nothing about Suzuki.

FIGHT: Majority Draw. Great fight, to be honest. Not much clipping. (1)

Suzuki: Comes out a house afire with strikes, dropping Watanabe and looking all the while like he's got this in the bag. He dodges an armbar attempt early in the bout and then lands some more solid strikes and knees and when it goes back to the mat...he starts to peter out. He wings mostly arm punches in the second round and gets clipped by Watanabe. On the mat, he's nothing special. That's an understatement.

Watanabe: Huge german suplex in Round 2, good takedowns otherwise, an unspectacular chin, and some submission skill from the back. That is Watanabe in this fight in a nutshell. Very vertical stance, not a great boxer/kickboxer but he does better as the fight goes on and his opponent withers under the pace. Grappling wise he's miles ahead of Suzuki and that nearly gets him the first round and definitely wins him the second.

3) Takafumi Otsuka vs. Isamu Sugiuchi: No idea who these guys are. 65KG.

FIGHT: Otsuka TKO Rnd 1. Otsuka shoots a single and takes down Sugiuchi. On the mat, Otsuka generally controls position, working shots inside the guard. He postures up, Sugiuchi closes the guard, and Otsuka picks him up by the neck and slams him down. Punches follow and its all over.

4) Sotaru Yamada vs. Yasushi Kitazaki: Yamada has shootboxing trunks. 76KG.

FIGHT: Kitazaki Split Decision. Good fight.

Yamada: Throws a flying armbar to start. That's a good sign! However he doesn't really lock it down, and spends much of the first round under Yamada, who is phyiscally stronger and gets takedowns. He does have standing back control for a time in the second round, but Kitizaki fends off choke attempts until the bell. Seems to be the better striker but never gets the range he wants.

Kitazaki: Rushes in with strikes to close the distance and get takedowns. Common wrestler-boxer MMA style. Stiff standing, but physically strong.

5) Toshiaki Kitada vs. Ippo Watanuki: Ippo looks to perhaps have some yakuza ties with the trunks and tats.

FIGHT: Draw. Not much to write about here in review. From the clipped footage shown, I would have certainly scored it for Watanuki, who stopped Kitada's shot and forced him to pull guard repeatedly. But I'm not a judge for DEEP and who knows what their system is. Kitada wasn't really any better standing, and on the mat he actually had fewer real submission attempts than Watanuki, who had a triangle attempt from bottom and rolled for lower limb locks twice (including a toehold!). I dunno. It looks like a Watanuki win to me.

6) Misaki Takamoto vs. Naoko Omuro: Female MMA. Who are they? Not the slightest clue.

FIGHT: Takamoto Unanimous Decision. Okay, so this is women's MMA at a higher level than what was typical of the NAAFS show shown a month + ago. Does that make it good? We've gone from abjectly bad women's fighting to mediocre women's fighting. Either way, I honestly don't care to watch it any more than I do mediocre or bad men's fighting solely because women are doing it. Takamoto is clearly a better all around competitor, and she displays submission skill from the guard position, slightly better standup, and can take her opponent down. Omuro looks like she is burning off all her energy bouncing up and down when standing at a distance. Her bob is just shimmying all over the place. Takamoto nearly stretches out the limb of Omuro for an armbar that she gets from side control. Let's be honest, those don't happen every day. No tap though.

FIGHT OF THE NIGHT: Watanabe/Suzuki

KO OF THE NIGHT: Sugiuchi/Otsuka

OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: 3 out of 10. Short, mediocre, clipped contests with one good clipped contest. Takes 45 minutes of your life as an upside. This sort of show is completely replaceable with generic pro MMA events in the US. Its easily eclipsed by most.

D&R Rating 3% (1/30)

ReMix World Cup (12/5/2000)

Once, long ago, there was no women's MMA. Or at least, like none other than Becky Levi beating up other ugly women on IFC cards. And then there was this: ReMix World Cup, a one night openweight women's MMA tourney. This is a really great bootleg I have, probably from some US commercial version of the DVD. There's Joshi wrestlers and all sorts of stuff. No idea on the rules, but I guess I'll find out? This was done at the Nippon Budokan, BTW. Apparently this promotion somehow became Smackgirl wikipedia says? OK.

This review was so long in the making. Tom Gentleman sent me the DVD requesting I review it over 2 years ago. I feel bad that it took this long. I hope I am rewarded.

1) Miwako Ishihara vs. Becky Levi: Ishihara does karate. That I can tell. Becky Levi I think is into women or trucking or both and trains with Dan Severn. She is also like twice the size of Ishihara.

FIGHT: Levi Split Decision: A slow motion version of Paul Varelans vs. Cal Worsham. worsham and Ishihara even punch the same way when presented with a tired version of their monstrous foe. Matter of fact, I started watching Barreto/Varelans while this was on my TV using youtube because, hey, that was an awesome thing when that happened. In case you've never seen that -

CARLOS BARRETO vs. PAUL VARELANS: From Brazil Vale Tudo Open 1997. Varelans tells us he is ready to rock and roll. Barreto just wants us to know that we're in for a great fight. They lock up in center ring almost immediately and Barreto gets a trip takedown on Varelans. The camera work is dreadful as it misses this and instead zooms in on some random dude on the crowd from through the cage before panning down to where the guys are on the mat. Barreto proceeds to mount and smash Varelans with punches until the ref stops it. Easy work for Barreto, who was awesome once.

Oh. Wait. This is a review of another fight. So anyways, back to Levi/other person. The Japanese fighter ends up being less tired than Becky Levi and actually begins to push back and put her in the corner in the end of the second round. Makes for a close but not wholly compelling fight. Levi wins a split decision as the judges apparently appreciate her Scott Ferozzoesque gameplan. (2)

2) Floor Holman vs. Junko Yagi: I have no idea who these girls are. Yagi has fancy yellow clothes with Junko across the ass. Junko in the trunk, if you will. Apparently Junko is a pro wrestler sez the internet.

FIGHT: Yagy TKO Rnd 2. Yagi punches like a girl. I know, I know. She fucking does, OK? I'm sorry. Somehow she bloodies Holman's nose with the hammerfist looking strikes, and Holman is obviously a kickboxer type given that she is dutch and can throw a body kick. In the second she does an awesome judo throw to Holman and is in side control and they stand them after like 5 seconds? Uhhh. I guess there's a limit to mat work. I think I read about that. The big issue in the fight is that Holman's wrist gets hurt punching in round 1. She like turns away and cringes and screams, but the ref allows the fight to be paused and continue. Huh? In the second it gives way again and this time he stops it. (0)

3) Erin Toughill vs. Rodina Irina: Toughill is batshit crazy and fighting some Russian Judoka that is like 50 lbs heavier than her.

FIGHT: Toughill Split Decision. Huh? Irina takes her down and works for subs THE ENTIRE FIGHT. Toughill basically doesn't do anything, but wins. Why? I have no idea. The 20 second max for ground work keeps Irina from winning. Too bad, honestly. (2)

4) Svetlana Goundarenko vs. Kyoko Inoue: Goundarenko is the easy favorite coming in because she is HUGE. Inoue is a big Joshi wrestler AND WEARING FACE PAINT, and still half the size.

FIGHT: Goundarenko Submission Rnd 1: The enormous russian MAULS Inoue, who resorts to running the ropes to get leverage but is generally tossed around and suplexed and shit. Some sort of warning is given to her for beating the shit out of this girl? Then Inoue shoots a single and gets rolled on top of because when Goundarenko lays around the house, bitch lays around the house. SHOOT URANGE from Goundarenko. She is screaming BECAUSE INOUE IS BITING HER. Yellow card given. Another takedown from Goundarenko and she wins with a side headlock/neck crank. That was absolutely the greatest thing I've seen in forever. (2)

5) Mika Harigai vs. Marloes Coenen: This is also a fight? Coenen is STILL relevant. Hell, wait, she's the SF 135lb champ, isn't she?

FIGHT: Coenen Submission Rnd 1. Complete domination. Harigai is dropped with punches early, Coenen clearly can't kick a downed foe because she wants to and stops herself, then runs around back and gets the rear naked choke. 33 seconds. (4)

6) Bambi Beroncello vs. Megumi Yabushita: Another Joshi star facing a random American.

FIGHT: Yabushita Submission Rnd 1. BACKDROP DRIVAHHHHHHH. Okay it wasn't but it was some crazy fucking slam as Beroncello goes over the head of Yabushita and then Yabushita puts her body into it to put her on the mat. After some uncomfortable standup, Yabushita goes for the double and immediately transitions into an armbar. Slick! (1)

7) Becky Levi vs. Junko Yagi: Becky Levi continues her march to assumed glory. Well, maybe not.

FIGHT: Levi Unanimous Decision. Yagi's sloppy striking isn't so effective against a much bigger foe looking to clinch and play her game. Leg trips? Not working on Becky Levi. Female Ferrozzo, meanwhile, plies her trade of dirty boxing and knees well. Levi is so arm weary at the end of this.

(2)

8) Svetlana Goundarenko vs. Erin Toughill: Oh my god. Yes. YES. YESSSSSSSS.

FIGHT: Goundarenko Submission Rnd 1. Another fight where Goundarenko wins with side head lock after throwing around Toughill and mauling her like a bear. She tries to suffocate Toughill with a standing side headlock using her fat. (3)

9) Marloes Coenen vs. Becky Levi: Weird way to do the tourney, but OK. I guess if you are bigger, you have to fight more.

FIGHT: Coenen Submission Rnd 1. Coenen is dominating the fight with kickboxing, then clinches with Levi. Why play that game, I mean HOLY SHIT SHE JUST THREW A FLYING ARMBAR AND LEVI VERBALLY SUBMITTED. (4)

10) Svetlana Goundarenko vs. Megumi Yabushita: I can't even speak.

FIGHT: Yabushita Unanimous Decision. Why break this fight down or try to do play by play? What is the point? Goundarenko often blocks takedowns with these pancake sprawls, but sometimes Yabushita like wriggles out of the rolls and then goes for heel hooks and punches and it is an incredible thing. Maybe the greatest thing. The Hackney/Yarborough of women's MMA. Maybe even better than Yarborough/Hackney. (3)

After the bout, we get lots of backstage stuff for the next fight. Apparently it is a super fight of some sort. Who is this?

11) Atsuko Sakuraba vs. Tatiana Kovochinova: No idea who either is. Tatiana says something about being Russian in the prefight hype video.

FIGHT: Kovochinova Submission Rnd 1. Sakuraba tries to outlast an armbar that Kovochinova puts on her by going the 20 seconds but cannot continue. Apparently Sakuraba is a TV personality who came to fight against a multitime Russian Judo champ. I think she still does color for stuff like K-1 Dynamite though. She looks really familiar. *INSERT RACIST STATEMENT HERE* (1)

12) Marloes Coenen vs. Megumi Yabushita: A worthy main event and final.

FIGHT: Coenen Unanimous Decision. Coenen is willing to work wherever and can. Yabushita, meanwhile, only really has one place she can do anything, which is the mat. She goes for takedowns and gets them with some frequency, but can't do anything inside of 20 seconds. Coenen also is generally more successful with submission attempts, but again; only 20 seconds means not enough time to really pull stuff off. (4)

FIGHT OF THE NIGHT: Yabushita/Goundarenko

SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT: Kovochinova/Sakuraba

OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: 7 out of 10. Look, this is all about the fat woman fights. And Coenen winning by flying armbar. Nothing else on the show is not that good. But my god, the fat woman fights. Epic.

D&R Rating: 50% (30/60)

ICF: Breakout (4/11/2009)

The internet is an amazing place. With all the DVDs I have and all the TV shows I record, I've actually churned through pretty much the entire DVD and what I've recorded, leaving only a scant two programs left to watch for the 'ol blog here. I do have lots and lots of Shooto, but I've decided to try something else for a changeup, just to see how it works. www.gofightlive.tv has been around for a little while and is known for streaming, at a price, lots of mid and lower tier boxing events, but also MMA shows as well. They also happen to archive all the streams, and an enormous number of them are free. That means shows like this happen to be easy for me to access. And so, a review of an Intimidation Cage Fighting show.

This show, from about 18 months ago, features a double main event of ex-UFC talent. In the heavyweight division, Marcio Cruz takes on Dan Christiansen, and in the welterweight division, we've got Forrest Petz fighting Victor O'Donnell. Really, those are pretty interesting fights on paper. Curtis Gunner and some other dude are announcing I guess. Event is held at US Bank Area in Cinci. 7 sided cage with a few different cameras. After this event, they never held a show with the kind of talent they had here again, and were shut down for almost a year following a show they held in Octover of 2009. They recently reopened under "new management".

1) Justin Hunt vs. Alex Suhonsonov: Welterweights. Hunt is 3-1, the guy with the slavic last name is debuting. Oh, but MMA.tv says something totally different. Like that Hunt is 3-3. Oh. He's also now 4-10.

FIGHT: Suhonsonov TKO Rnd 1. Not much of a fight TBH. Guys just swing wildly when striking and Alex rushes him at the very start. He eventually gets a takedown into half guard and pounds on Hunt with elbows to the body that open up a ground and pound attack to the head. (0)

2) Matt Egner vs. Steve Muldrow: Lightweight bout. Egner is shown as 4-0. Apparently this is an amateur bout too,

FIGHT: Muldrow Unanimous Decision. (0)

Egner: Seemed to want to stand up but never got the opportunity, because Muldrow wanted the takedown all the time. He had guillotine attempts that really didn't go anywhere in the first and second and then had a triangle/armbar attempt in the third. None really came that close to finishing Muldrow - he always had space left around Muldrow, arms in with the guillotine, etc.

Muldrow: Good takedowns, not the best submission defense on this planet. Aside from that, not much to write home about here.

3) Taylor Ruschin vs. Chris Curtis: Ruschin is a Gurgel fighter, and Rich Franklin comes to visit his boy. Curtis enters to Living La Vida Loca. This is an amateur fight.

FIGHT: Ruschin Unanimous Decision. (1)

Curtis: Obviously a standup fighter based on the reputation of being exciting and the fact that he had no takedown defense at all.

Ruschin: Looks like a mini Franklin at first. Body kicks look exactly the same, stance is the same, even wears copies of Franklin's trunks. But where the difference lies is wrestling. Franklin prefers to stand and bang but can throw his hips around if he needs to and can sprawl. Ruschin pursues the double leg with frequency and gets it, as well as shows that he can transition to more dominant positions. He's not terrifying with GNP but looks like a threat to submit guys with armbars out of mount and RNCs. Kinda a merger of that old school Cesar Gracie style BJJ with more modern striking and wrestling. I like him quite a bit. Also, he slams down Curtis in the first round with a huge, huge spinebuster style slam.

4) Marcus Finch vs. Tyler Johnson: ICF Middleweight title fight. Amateur bout though.

FIGHT: Finch Unanimous Decision. Well matched bout. Hilarious fact - they cut during the between rounds corner action to show some random 12 year olds with INTIMIDATION FIGHT GEAR. This sport, I swear. (0)

Finch: Finch loses the first round in my book because he gets taken down and pounded on with punches, but Finch defends a kneebar well and ends up drilling Johnson with a few shots of his own. In round 2, he gets down Johnson and is on top, but nearly loses the round as Johnson comes back with strikes. Round 3 see Finch throwing a healthy number of strikes and landing a lot of them. One thing I didn't like? His footwork. Lead leg is square and too far out there not to get kicked. Johnson doesn't recognize it until late in round 3 but when he does land, Finch was bothered.

Johnson: Decent grappler, not much of a wrestler to be honest, not much athletically (no real explosive speed or anything like that), and his striking leaves a lot to be desired. If he had properly secured a figure four before dropping back on Finch for a kneebar attempt in round one, he would have one. Same with recognizing Finch's lead leg. Same with just keeping after the strikes rather than trying to look flashy with a leglock. Lot went wrong for the guy. Just looks...okay. Not a terrible fighter or anything, but he's just a guy who will be .500 on a regional level and probably never get the call up.

5) Tiffany Johnson vs. Jami Miller: 125lb womens fight. Both are 0-0 says the ICF. Tiffany, says MMA.tv, trains at the Western Hills Kungfu Center. TRADITIONAL MARTIAL ARTS ARE FOREVER.

FIGHT: Miller Submission Rnd 1. The amazing thing about this fight is that MMA.tv has this totally wrong. Apparently all black people look the same to the Ohio Athletic Commission. Miller with a KOTC Special of takedown/pass/RNC. Johnson tried to scramble up and gave up her back, so its a little different than the old formula, but not by much. (0)

6) Rob Galloway vs. Ron Mitchell: ICF Heavyweight World Amateur title. Yeah. Galloway comes in to the Hurt cover done by Johnny Cash. Mitchell looks old.

FIGHT: Mitchell TKO Rnd 1. Galloway is spent after 20 seconds in this fight as he rushes Mitchell and tries to put weight on him. Mitchell turns him, eventually they separate and Mitchell lands a knee and some big right hands. It takes 4-5 but Galloway is asleep before the end of the round, well inside the distance. (0)

7) Kevin Barton vs. Thomas "T.J." Ball: Light heavyweights. Looks to be an amateur fight by the length of rounds. Ball is all sorts of ripped.

FIGHT: Kevin Barton Split Decision. Enormous, questionably cut up striker faces not so immense grappler. Ball is able to stop the takedown attempts with his raw strength late in the fight but is taken down repeatedly in the first and second round. Apparently one judge gave him what must have been round 2 based on a few seconds of missed arm punches prior to a Barton double leg. Ball is a smaller and less interesting Dave Yost, while Barton is some guy. (0)

8) Luke Zachrich vs. Robert Thompson: This was a pain in the ass to watch because the video kept timing out and and buffering and dying. Odd. But I watched pretty much the whole thing anyways.

FIGHT: Zachrich Submission Rnd 3. This was after Zachrich had been on TUF and was basically the lamest fighter in the house for the seventh season. Thompson really offers nothing aside from a jab/right hand combination the entire fight, blocking low kicks with his thigh and being forced to change stances, getting a busted nose in round 1 and gasping the rest of the way, and having no real apparent wrestling ability. Zachrich however is slow to do anything. He's thinking way too much - the old Teddy Atlas saying of "he takes a picture when he lands" is completely true. Combos aren't even forced out of him. He just doesn't do them. When he sweeps Thompson down in the third, he easily passes the half guard to side control and crucifixes him before getting a kimura that was waiting for him for a good 15 seconds. Fight didn't need to leave the first. Zachrich didn't really step up the comp again after the Cramer fight until he was signed by Bellator, losing in the first to Eric Schambari earlier this year. (1)

9) Carson Gainey vs. Jeremy Pender: Gainey is rocking dreds and coming out to Marley. This dude is awesome. Looks like a MMA bantamweight Howard Eastman. Pender's promo pic sees him wearing an Oscar The Grouch cap.

FIGHT: Pender Submission Rnd 2. It becomes very apparent very quickly who is going to win when both men stand next to each other, because Gainey looks like he can make 115. Gainey has no apparent wrestling ability and can't strike with anything other than looping haymakers that he slaps with. He seems to have some defensive grappling ability and gets out of back control from Pender, but that's the bright spot. Pender is better at everything though you can't tell if he's really good at anything. Gainey hurts himself taking down Pender as he basically falls backwards with Pender on top of him into mount and slams his head into the mat. Pender punches him a bunch while he tries to weakly cover and gets choked out in the second. Not much of a fight. (0)

10) Daniel Straus vs. Mike Baskis: Straus is a pretty legit prospect.

FIGHT: Straus Unanimous Decision. Straus shows some good takedowns in the fight, as well as a willingness to roll with punches rather than just jump straight back. The one thing I don't like is that while he makes Baskis miss sometimes, he also gets tagged when he starts to drop his hands thinking that Baskis has stopped throwing punches. Baskis is tough and comes forward but he doesn't have a lot in his punching repetoire or as a grappler - he goes for an armbar in round 1 but that's pretty much it, and Straus is able to defend and escape that with not a ton of difficulty. (1)

11) Marcio Cruz vs. Dan Christison: Interesting heavyweight bout. Christison is big and not a lot else. Cruz is a great grappler on the mat, but not much to talk about in terms of his takedowns or striking.

FIGHT: Cruz Unanimous Decision. Both guys are baked pies - nothing can be added. You can put a scoop of ice cream on the side I guess, but that's not really changing the pie, you know? Christison stops the slow shots of Cruz early on, but gets suckered to get on top and then finds himself getting swept and his energy sapped. As the second and third go on, Cruz shoots from far away and eventually gets the takedown he desires by sucking up Christison, even if he gets full extension on his sprawl. Cruz has no reason to stop pushing. What is Dan going to do about it? He throws some weak punches and high kicks and that goes nowhere. (2)

12) Forrest Petz vs. Victor O'Donnell: Interesting prospect vs. gatekeeper showdown.

FIGHT: O'Donnell Submission Rnd 2. They're pretty even standing, but its on the mat where O'Donnell takes over. He's just a better all around grappler than Petz, scoring takedowns and also getting sweeps on the occasions that Petz ends up on top. He pops the nose of Petz and that leads to panic even with Petz being a veteran. O'Donnell secures a rear naked choke as Petz turns over and gives the back. Its his signature win right now. (1)

FIGHT OF THE NIGHT: Finch/Johnson

SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT: Petz/O'Donnell

KO OF THE NIGHT: Mitchell/Galloway

OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: 4 out of 10. Announcing was bad, production so-so, but really, this is about fights. The fights? Not so good. Petz/O'Donnell wasn't bad and neither was Finch/Johnson, but neither means much.

D&R Rating: 10% (6/60)

SHOOTO (Disc 3): Professional Shooting 36 & 37: 9/26/95 & 11/7/95

Onward to disc three of Shooto: This is a pair of shows from 1995 featuring a mix of dudes important and not-so-important. Among them: Kazuo Sakurada (AKA Kendo Nagasaki of pro graz fame), Zane Frazier, Rumina Sato, and Erik Paulson. The english for this show is desperate: "BRUE COURNER" is listed for every fight. Really. This takes place at "Komazawa Arena", which I really think is Komazawa Gymnasium, home of volleyball in the 1964 Olympic games.

1) ISAMU OOSUGI vs. RUMINA SATO: Oosugi has thai shorts with an American Flag motif. Sato is awesome.

Oosugi catches a low kick and Sato goes for the leglock. As Oosugi attempts to defend, Sato goes for an inverted triangle. Oosugi stands and slams down Sato to try and escape, but Sato holds the triangle and sweeps over Oosugi. For the next minute or so he punches a lot to the body, even flexing his biceps, before Oosugi finally taps to the lock. Fantastic. (3)

2) KENDO NAGASAKI vs. ZANE FRAZIER: Oh dear. Old pro wrestler against bad kickboxer/MMA fighter.

Frazier starts throwing punches early and often, and Nagasaki doesn't like it. By "doesn't like it", I mean that he falls down. 6 count by the ref and they start again. It lasts maybe 2 seconds until a straight right pulverizes Nagasaki and he is down hard and not moving. Ref counts to 10 for no good reason; Nagasaki's back of his head hit the mat and bounced. He doesn't get up afterwards, needing to be stretchered out. Ugly. (1) for name value and viciousness.

3) LEONID ZASLAVASKY vs. KAZUHIRO SAKAMOTO: Zaslavasky didn't do that well last time I watched him fight. Here? Probably no better. Sakamoto is now a promoter in Japan, and this was his last bout.

Zaslavsky is shooting for takedowns even though he is landing the left hook. No idea why. The reasoning goes wrong early: Sakamoto sprawls to defend and spins to the back of Zaslavsky, puts in his hooks and a choke. (0)

4) YASUNORI OKUDA vs. ERIK PAULSON: Okuda I've never heard of, but he beat a young Akihiro Gono in 1994. Really!

Paulson slams him down from the clinch, goes to side control, works for a kimura, and Okuda taps. (3)

5) KUNIAKI KOBAYASHI vs. SATORU SAYAMA: Worked shoot time! I think. Well, they trade submissions harmlessly, and give up legs and stuff. Sayama forces a tapout by Kobayashi, and scores a point or something. Then he kicks Kobayashi in the face and he drops. And he's unconscious. And everyone is really surprised and Tiger Mask is almost crying. Yikes. Second stretcher of the night! No score.

6) YUKI NAKAI vs. JEAN JACQUES MACHADO: A BJJ match. Machado wins with an armbar. Who cares? Not me. No score.

7) ANTHONY LANGE vs. NOBORU ASAHI: Asahi is featherweight champ and Lange is the challenger, I think. He's another guy making a pro debut. 8 min rounds and 3 of them.

Asahi shoots for the takedown and its a "positioning battle" of dudes laying on each other. Lange reverses and gets caught in a triangle he has to slam out of. Asahi later goes for a guillotine, transitions to a triangle and then to a straight armbar to force Lange to tap. Impressive. (4) for being another title fight in the weight class.

-Afterwards, a backstage interview with Asahi, who wears dorky glasses and has a leopard print towel around his shoulders.

BUT WAIT! I didn't know this was a two-fer. Onward to Korakuen Hall and the future of November 1995.

8) ISAMU OOSUGI vs. TOMOAKI "SYNONAN" HAYAMA: No idea who they are. 3X3, 75KG limit.

Hayama keeps trying to pull guard and Oosugi won't let him. That is the story of round one and two. Eventually Oosugi can't fend them off anymore by holding up Hayama and has to tap. The end. (0)

9) KIMIHITO NONAKA vs. MASAHIRO "JACKAL" DOISHI: Who? The best part is that I saw Doishi fight in the K-1 Hero's 2007 Lithuania show and remember nothing.

Interesting grappling battle in the first and second, with Nonaka going for inverted triangle and armbars from all sorts of odd places as he's just trying to keep Doishi close to him and on the mat. He's generally open to pulling guard too. A turnbuckle breaks late in the first round. The highlight of the fight is a wild suplex Doishi pulls off from having overhooks in the clinch. I tried scoring it, but forgot Shooto has some insane 30 point system. Fight ends as a draw. (0)

10) TORU KOGA vs. KYUHEI UENO: Another Ueno appearance, this in a five rounder.

Insane head and arm suplex/tazplex by Koga, but like most pro wrestling moves, useless in MMA. Ueno keeps getting kicks caught and Koga is taking advantage. He might have a dorky bowl cut, but that was cool in '95. Maybe. And he's not a bad fighter. By the second round, Ueno has him figured out and should have gotten credit for two knockdowns. However, Koga dropped and looked like he was headed for a leg when he got hurt by the punches, letting him off the hook by the judges. Final round sees Koga and Ueno almost go out of the ring after some wild punching and clinch, but a body shot to Koga drops him. Ref calls it as a shot: Ueno takes the back and proceeds to beat him into giving up the RNC. Not too terrible, but not special either. (0)

FIGHT OF THE NIGHT(s): Doishi/Nonaka

KO OF THE NIGHT(s): Nagasaki/Frazier

SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT(s): Sato/Oosugi

OVERALL FOR THE EVENT (s): 5 out of 10. Totally down the middle average with a couple great performances by the best names on the show.

D&R Rating: 24% (11/45)

STRIKEFORCE: ONE NIGHT TOURNEY 11/16/07 (updated!)

This is a new version of an old review, thanks to 5 new fights falling into my lap that comprised the entire "dark" card. There's a little separation line between new and old stuff. One thing I did do? Change the ratings a little. Buentello/Overeem is now stunningly important and the tattoo artist guy isn't.

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Joe Riggs was supposed to fight in the tourney, but backed out due to some sort of family tragedy, I believe, bringing Sean Salmon from being an alternate to being in the event itself. Poor, poor, Sean Salmon. The tournament fights are 10 minute bouts of two 5 minute rounds.

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DARK MATCHES (reviewed 12/09):

1) DENNIS HALLMAN vs. JEREMIAH METCALF: Metcalf is a solid and loved journeyman. Hallman is a even more solid and more beloved journeyman.

Metcalf throws a superman punch and ends up getting in a guillotine attempt that goes down to the mat. Hallman sweeps him as Metcalf tries to stand and get away by grabbing the heel, they trade standing, Hallman ends up on his back, scissors a leg, and rolls Metcalf into a heel hook. Wow! So much fun. (2)

2) CHRIS DRUMM vs. EVAN ESGUERRA: This is at 145 and I have no idea who they are. 3x3 for rounds.

Its a back and forth grappling battle that ends, unfortunately, with Drumm getting hit in the back of the head and refusing to continue, thus winning a DQ. He has never fought since. (0)

3) ALEX CRISPIM vs. CLINT CORONEL: Coronel gave a good account of himself in a previous fight. Crispim isn't anything special.

Slow fight initally that never really speeds up and seems to show off Coronel's sparring partner mentality. Crispim is able to take him down with prolongued clinches, and Coronel is gassed out in the third as a result. Crispim wins and goes on to lose to John Gunderson. (0)

4) ANTHONY FIGUEROA vs. PETE SABALA: Figueroa I just watched on the Playboy Mansion show.

Exciting fight with Figueroa landing huge blows to Sabala, Sabala looking finished, but then randomly coming back, getting Figueroa down (huge slam in round 2), and so on in repetition. One of the best surprises in forever. I had it in favor of Figueroa and he got the split decision. Highly recommended. (1)

5) ERIC LAWSON vs. JOSH NEAL: Lawson still has a SF contract!

Lawson gets trapped in a triangle attempt very early in the round and ends up surviving it the entire 3 minutes. Neal probably could have forced a tap by transitioning to an armbar, but got greedy. Second round? Lawson drops Neal with a right hand right at the bell, takes his back and wins by rear naked choke. Wow. Really fun stuff too. (1)

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1) SEAN SALMON vs. JORGE SANTIAGO: This entire event was like the "Jorge Santiago Emerges From Obscurity Show." Salmon had been famous for getting leveled by a Rashad Evans high kick. He does not fare much better here, as I'm sure you know.

Not a whole lot to discuss that's not been brought up before everywhere else. Salmon and Santiago sorta throw strikes at long range and Santiago throws a flying knee. Sometime soon after, Salmon is in seizures and urinating himself. (3)

2) FALANIKO VITALE vs. TREVOR PRANGLEY: There was once a time in recent history where Niko still mattered. He has a win over Yushin Okami, even. But when Robbie Lawler obliterated him on the first Icon Sports card back in 2005, his run as a top middleweight ended. It was the first of three consecutive stoppage losses and began a run of 4 losses in 5 fights. Prangley was in a totally different situation, however. Prangley left the UFC after a losses to Chael Sonnen (deserved) and Jeremy Horn (not deserved), and ended up getting his checks written by Bodog. Fighting chiefly for them, Prangley beat a bunch of very solid fighters like Yuki Kondo, Kyacey Uscola, and Andrei Semenov to get him a spot in this tournament as the favorite.

One of the strangest fights you'll ever see for a variety of reasons. The bout itself was exceedingly close, with Vitale doing a good job landing right hands when there was some distance, but Prangley really doing a solid job in the clinch. There was even crisp body punching in what was an almost all standup affair. Midway through round 2, Prangley accidentally poked Vitale in the eye, causing a scratched cornea. The fight went to the judges, and they ruled it a majority draw, forcing ref Marcus Rosales to pick the winner. I felt Prangley was winning overall, and with Vitale unable to continue to the next round, Prangley was given the nod in the fight. (3)

3) LUKE STEWART vs. BRYSON KAMAKA: Kamaka is a Hawaiian Tomato Can. Stewart is another fighter that Strikeforce is being very careful with so as to build up a fanbase regionally for him.

Knee to head from thai clinch, fight over in less than a minute. Stewart is going from that to Riggs. (0)

4) ANTHONY RUIZ vs. BOBBY SOUTHWORTH: Non-title bullshit as Southworth is a champion of some sort for them. I remember Southworth being IFC champ and having fought in PRIDE and thinking, "wow this guy should totally win TUF" and boy that did not happen. I think he's in his late 30s now too.

The first round plays out as Southworth attempts for takedowns and ground control and Ruiz beats him up standing. Ruiz is hardly any sort of world beater, nor does he look the role, but Southworth looks uncoordinated and flat here. He falls down throwing a kick, for instance. Still, Southworth does enough on my card by pushing around Ruiz and holding top control against a guy with no bottom game to win the first round.

Second round is very short. In the standup, Ruiz starts landing shots and Southworth's face is apparently made of tissue paper. He cuts over and under both eyes and is flailing from being hurt. Ruiz takes him down, but the referee prompts a time out to check the cuts. The doctor thinks they are way too bad and Ruiz wins. (1)

5) LEMONT DAVIS vs. BRIAN SCHWARTZ: This is set for three three minute rounds. Schwartz is a popular local kickboxer making his debut.

Nothing about this fight excites or really interests. Schwartz has a history in TKD and likes sidekicks, which in MMA can get you taken down if they don't land. And that's what happens. His sprawl is mediocre at best and Davis, while clearly not any sort of high end fighter or legendary kickboxer, is able to match a lot of what Schwartz does on his feet and mixes in actual ground technique as well. Davis wins a 29-28 decision and most of the fight is booed. (0)

6) ALISTAR OVEREEM vs. PAUL BUENTELLO: I have been very hard on Buentello over the years, and its deserved. The one UFC I've gone to he fought in the main event of and lasted a whopping 15 seconds. He's never show that he's any better than being KOTC Heavyweight champion, which is a title I hope he was handed again. Overeem looks so huge here. I have no idea how he made 205 in PRIDE but he may actually be the naturally bigger man of the two, given how much of Buentello's weight is straight flab.

A beatdown of epic proportions. Buentello's best moment is towards the end of the first when he escapes a cool guillotine attempt with a nice little spin out. Otherwise he is utterly controlled and beaten on like he's a heavyweight punching bag. Overeem sinks a knee about a foot into his sternum and Buentello falls down and taps out in the second round. Overeem was always the best free agent on the market as far as heavyweights go since PRIDE went under, but this put the wax stamp on that. (4)

7) TOURNAMENT FINAL - TREVOR PRANGLEY vs. JORGE SANTIAGO: Prangley comes into the fight a little beat up for that fight with Vitale. Santiago is fresh as a daisy.

Prangley moves slow in the ring, just like a guy who fought two hard rounds would. Santiago pounds him with low kicks and right hands. You gotta set up shots, and Prangley wasn't able to tell where the next punch was gonna come from, leaving his arms out to defend neither. Santiago took full advantage of it and launched a flying knee that landed in Prangley's chest. He just crumbled. Santiago wins and you have to wonder why the UFC isn't interested in a guy knocking people out with flying knees and shit. He's a hell of a lot better a fighter than he was when he fought Belcher or Leben. (3)

8) CUNG LE vs. SAM MORGAN: Sammy Morgan's career highlight reel is like, him getting fucked up.

Ho hum, Cung Le squash match. Le throws a lot of stuff that lands clean and doesn't hurt much, making him like a really flashy version of Guy Mezger and has some cool takedowns and takedown defense. Morgan gets KOed by a body kick and lots of people waive the free Vietnamese flags they were given at the door. I guess I'll give it a (2), since I have no idea what to consider Cung Le internationally at 185.

FIGHT OF THE NIGHT(S): Overeem/Buentello. Glorious.

KO OF THE NIGHT(S): Santiago/Salmon. Your average card doesn't have this many impressive KOs by knee, but Santiago/Salmon was a KO of the year contender.

SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT(S): Hallman/Metcalf

OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: 7.5 out of 10. With the added bouts, there's a new depth to this show. Fun fights amongst the nobodies and monster KOs. This would be a card of the year contender if it was a UFN. Interesting note: The D&R rating went down appreciably with the change in number of fights. Oh well. Another thing I need to work out.

D&R RATING: 30% (20/65)

RUMBLE ON THE ROCK 6 (11/20/04)

Back to Hawaii, as I desperately try to get another boxed set out of the way. This time unlike ROTR 5 we get the opening sequence. This card? STACKKKKKED. More so than most UFNs, actually. A big opening ceremony with hula and conch shells ensues. Clearly they love their Japanese worship here. 

1) GILBERT MELENDEZ vs. KAYNAN KAKU: Kaku is a hot prospect. At this point, so is Melendez. 

Kaku's last fight saw him being all about take downs and this time Melendez is the better wrestler and submission artist. Not a good sign. Melendez with the shot and takedown, but Kaku keeps fighting to his feet until he is slammed pancake style, Melendez in the half guard. Kaku takes some shots but works his way back up and forces Melendez with strikes. Melendez gets this back down and Kaku is working for submissions in between the strikes on the mat. Good action.

Melendez comes in with right hands at the start of the round and Kaku is DOWN, but not hard. Melendez is throwing BOMBZ and passing, and then lands a mean knee to the dome. Kaku is getting raped here and you wonder what it would be like with unified rules. Kaku is constantly trying to improve his position but isn't able to do anything to stop the onslaught or provide offense of his own. Melendez eventually forces Landless to make the stop. Kaku went on to get beat up in Cage Force and Melendez is, well. (3)

2) DENNIS HALLMAN vs. ROSS EBANEZ: Both are journeymen, but on very different level.

Hallman ends up germaning Ross and locks in a RNC early. Kinda sucks that his last fight in the UFC was at middleweight to make Jorge Rivera look good. (2)

3) ANTONI HARDONK vs. WES SIMS: Oh man. SIMS. Kickboxer. This could be ugly.

Sims tries to stand up with Hardonk. Imagine how this goes. That's probably about right. Sims shoots in and he actually gets the fight down. I consider this a miracle. Even moves to half guard. Sims doesn't do that much and Hardonk sweeps him and mounts. Poor Wes Sims. Head and arm choke after a lot of punches. (2)

4) KRISTOF MIDOUX vs. MIKE MALONE: This I do not have the highest expectations for. What is with all these shitty heavyweights on this card?

Both men with FEARFUL STANDUP in the early going. Midoux is so outrageously fragile, so who knows what will happen. Big right hand after a low kick drops Malone. Sherdog has it at 34 seconds, its more like 2:00. Who cares though? (0)

5) AITOR CANUP vs. JUDA A'ALONA: Canup is from North Carolina, A'Alona is a fat Hawaiian sumo. This is listed as a light heavyweight fight and the Hawaiian is like 23o.

A'Alona tries to check a kick and gives up his back. Does that tell you what I'm watching here? A'Alona throws him off and does nothing with it. Canup starts landing knees standing and A'Alona can only sorta slap and push. He is tough and nothing else. Then there are uppercuts and then a guillotine and its over. (0)

6) SHUNGO OYAMA vs. SEAN O'HAIRE: Wow.

O'Haire obliterates Oyama with punches very quickly. Oustandingly pointless. (1)

7) YOSHIHIRO NAKAO vs. WESLEY CORREIRA: KISS VS. CABBAGE!

Nakao is looking for a takedown and Cabbage is is shoving him off early, only to suffer the indignity of a single leg takedown. I am horrified because I know this is going the distance. Nakao with some punches after a guard pass. Cabbage really isn't bothered apart from the cuts, which are multiple in number. Cabbage is taking a beating in round one by the superior Nakao: Knees are raining in and Cabbage somehow gets up. He's brought over to talk with the doctor, and the fight is restarted after he's cleaned up. Wouldn't want a riot. Nakao's mouth is open. Another single from Nakao and he drives down Cabbage. Nothing this time really and there's a standup. Nakao lands some looping right hands and Cabbage just laughs them off. Interesting tactic given that he has no offense in the entire round and both eyes are cut. 

Nakao with another takedown. Shock on my part. Not enough action for Landless and there's another standup. The corner for Nakao is pissed, and rightfully so, because he's throwing shots. Cabbage is throwing some bad leg kicks. Cabbage tries to throw punches and isn't landing anything. Nakao is actually the one landing shots. He shoots again, and Cabbage grabs the fence to stay up. He goes for a headlock and lands a knee. Another knee after a failed combination by Nakao. Nakao still throwing more punches and landing them. The crowd is going wild for Cabbage and he has only landed two knees the whole round. Everything else is bouncing off Nakao's arm. A couple punches and a knee right before the bell from Cabbage. Still, no way he won it.

Nakao shoots and Cabbage sprawls, but Nakao drives and gets it. Nakao passes to side control. The fight is stood up and we're back to what round 2 looked like: Nakao lands everything, throws almost everything, Cabbage throws one successful strike every 90 seconds and the crowd goes wild for it. Cabbage with a big knee and Nakao mocks him. Cabbage eats more right hands, his face is a mess, and you know where the scoring is going. Its a split decision, but surprising that Nakao wins for all the wrong reasons. (1)

8) KAZUYUKI MIYATA vs. ROYLER GRACIE: What a strange fight to have: Miyata is an Olympian, Royler is a legend. 

Royler with some cool leg kicks to start and then a head kick. Didn't expect that from Mr. Super Grappler. Miyata with a shot and, well, c'mon. Arm is locked by Royler, he starts moving for the triangle, and Miyata picks him up and slams him. Doesn't really escape though. Royler with an armbar attempt and another slam hurts Royler big time as he lands on his head. Royler survives and regains full guard. There's another short standup segment and then we're back to the mat as Miyata really only knows top control and Royler only really knows grappling. Another triangle attempt and Royler remembers to grab the leg to prevent the slam. Royler has the triangle in solidly by the horn sounds as he transitions into an armbar. 

Miyata tries to show off with some spinning back fist shit and eats a kick to the face. He shoots and every time it happens you laugh because you just know that sometime soon, he's gonna get caught. Finally there's a triangle and he makes sure to cheer for himself before actually releasing the hold. STAY CLASSY GRACIES. Watching stuff like this I really want to rewatch his shit getting caved in by Kid. (2)

9) TOM HOWARD vs. CARTER WILLIAMS: Williams was a K-1 fighter of some note and Howard is a pro wrestler. K-1 HERO'S USA? No, its Rumble On The Rock!

Howard goes for a takedown after Williams starts tooling him on the feet. Howard gets the takedown, mounts, and gets swept because he is crap. Williams starts landing 'dem bombs and Howard is all fucked up, groaning and shit. (1)

10) RODRIGO GRACIE vs. BJ PENN: A Gracie against fat BJ Penn. One of two such bouts to take place in Hawaii.

Clinch early and Gracie pins Penn against the cage. EXCITEMENT as the they throw knees and stuff. Gracie doing an epic job pinning Penn against the fence. Penn slips away. Rodrigo is terrible standing.  Another shot by Gracie and he is back to pushing him into the fence. Penn slips away again and throws some wild shots, but Rodrigo has the most effective blow of the right hand. Rodrigo gets tapped and pulls guard and Penn follows him down, landing some punches from half guard. Stupid move by Rodrigo that basically cancels out the round of domination with the Hawaiian judges. 

Gracie settles down a little and starts throwing a jab, but then goes for the desperate shot before pulling guard. Penn is not Oleg Taktarov and isn't KOed by followup upkicks. Right hand as Penn jumps in and he's in side control. Penn sure knows he has knees available to him: He made the rules! The camera pulls to the fights outside the cage. Gee, clearly this is more important than PENN/GRACIE IN THE CAGE. Penn pulls out of a submission attempt says the announcers and he stands and passes again. Another fight in the crowd! Still more important than the real fight! What the fuck is this? Announcers are still talking about the fight and there's apparently an amazing guard pass and WE DO NOT SEE IT. Fuck this shit.

Penn lands a short uppercut as Rodrigo shoots in and Penn is dominating with punches on the mat from dominant positions. Penn mocks him a bunch and even stands up as the round ends, taunting him to stand and trade before rushing him and trying a jumping stomp/pass. God bless BJ Penn. (5), even with the ridiculous fact that we only actually see half the second round. 

FIGHT OF THE NIGHT: Kaku/Melendez

KO OF THE NIGHT: Howard/Williams

SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT: Miyata/Gracie

OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: 7 out of 10 - Crappy fights were generally short and the good fights were pretty long and telling. Lame camera work in the best bout. 

D&R Rating: 42.5% (17/40): This event is tied for the second highest ranking I've ever handed out, alongside the Strikeforce one night tournament event in 2007.

KOTC: Point of No Return (10/7/07)

Soboba! Inman and Aaron Witherspoon announcing.

1) JASON WENDEH vs. ISSAC NEWMAN-GOMEZ: Wendeh is a heavyweight cornered by Mike Bourke. Gomez is 6'something big'', 265. 

Gomez isn't rushing out there and that's a good sign. I think Wendeh landed a right hand rushing in which isn't a great sign. Wendeh is getting tagged with the jab and walks into a left high kick. Ouch. Gomez throws a few punches and Herb Dean stops it. (1)

2) TIM HUMPHREY vs.  ROB ROSALES: Welterweights.

Humphrey with a takedown, some punches, fight's over in a minute or so. (0)

3) SAL FARNETTI vs. ANTHONY MENDEZ: Super heavyweights. Or not. Mendez is 240 and trains with Romie Aram.

Mendez goes for takedowns early and eats punches from the fatter Farnetti. When he does get a takedown, he does nothing with it and ends up losing position. After gassing and struggling with singles, Mendez ends up getting laid out woth looping fat man punches. (0)

4) MATT BUCKLEY vs. FRANKIE GUERRERO: Bantamweights. Buckley is an "independent fighter", Guerrero trains with Omar Luv and some other dudes that aren't great.

Guerrero with a takedown early, Buckley weakly goes for subs, and get hit a bunch. Then he is laid on. Repeat this scenario. It seems like this is going to be the whole fight, and then Buckley makes a huge comeback late in the 2nd, landing the foot with a high kick and Buckley even thumps him with some punches on top. Guerrero lands a big right hand and takes down the poorly prepared opponent in front of him, mounts him, does not much, and then wins. Well, he gets a split decision, but honestly Buckley didn't come close to deserving it. (0)

5) ALEX RICKARDS vs. JESUS MORALES: Rickards is nobody and he is old. I have no idea who the other guy is and he's not much younger.

Morales lands some shots, Rickards uselessly pushes his way in with his chin up but grabs a single. Takedown eventually. Morales gets up though because he is not totally horrible. Morales looks like he boxed...15 years ago or something. Rickards ends up absorbing a bunch of shots and then just collapses. My thinking is that he's gonna have a stroke, but he eventually rises. (0)

6) ROBERT DOUCET vs. RICK LEGERE: Middleweight fight.

Legere is way bigger and scores a full tilt body slam. Mount, punches, fight over. Impressive win. Legere has lost twice though recently. (0)

7) GREG GUZMAN vs. GUNNAR HINSON: Lightweights: Guzman is 19. Hinson? 15. I previously gave a fight of his a 2, so clearly I think highly of him.

Clinch early and Hinson takes a couple knees and punches. Guzman is trying to show off with his striking. Hinson is much more orthodox and is counterpunching effectively. Hinson is cut badly about midway through the first over his left eye, and Hinson is forced to take down Guzman. The fight is paused to check on the cut, and Hinson has to work fast when its restarted on the mat. Really impressive transition by Hinson as he goes from halfguard to an armbar (I didn't know you could do that) in mid pass. He straightens it out and gets the tap. (2) Gunnar Hinson is one of the best prospects in the world today, bar none.

8) RICK JONES vs.  FRANK PARK: More welters. Park is talked up in advance. Why? I have no idea. Jones trains with Shad Smith.

Park is wild and frankly awful standing. Miraculously, Jones is worse, as he lacks athleticism. Eventually, Park drops Jones with a hard right hand, and Herb Dean is late with the stop, with Jones absorbing some unnecessary shots. (0)

9) PAUL ARRAS vs. GREG LEINAN: Bout at middleweight.

Arras with some punches after Leinan shoots and gets stopped. Leinan gets stopped. Not even 20 seconds. Leinan tries to take down Herb. (0)

10) DAMIEN GOMEZ vs. JOHN LOBER: Gomez is a ninjitsu fighter with some MMA skills, supposedly. John Lober is a legend, so if you've been watching MMA, you know who this is.

Lober with a takedown into side control. Knees to head on the ground and he's an idiot. Point deduction for Lober and we move on. Sloooooow standup follows the restart. Lober with another takedown and side control and instead of wasting it, he gets a straight armbar. After he can't finish, he hammer strikes Gomez into oblivion, in part because he seems to have an injured arm. (0) because Lober is famous for the talent he never channelled.

11) ROCH WORTHY  vs.  DAVE CRYER: Middleweights again. Cryer I've liked in the past.

Worthy with a wild right hand and Cryer is out cold almost instantly. Cryer has rebounded. (1)

12) MELVIN COSTA vs. ANGELO MCLEROY: Oh man. Costa is rocking a SS shirt tonight. 

Costa is thrown by McElroy, but Costa is able to get position anyways and is in mount, then side control. He can't hold him there for long, and the fight is back standing. Costa ends up going for the back during a clinch position, and Mcelroy is able to turn around and get inside his guard. Costa is, of course, useless there, and so McElroy has a huge opportunity in front of him and he's simply not capitalizing as he should, standing up and basically letting Costa mount him. Its a sure thing then: Neither guy is any good. If McElroy was, this would be over already, because he's had great position and done nothing well. Costa outlasts McElroy and stops him with punches. (0)

13) CHAI SIRISUTE vs. WILLIAM SRIYAPAI: Sriyapai I could watch forever. Always a blast. Sirisute has some wild braids and is also a kickboxer.

There was apparently a lot of bad blood coming in, and you'd never know watching. Sriyapai is just putting on a clinic of technical, controlled striking. Sirisute shoots in desperation and gets turned back. Just excellent shot selection from Sriyapai. Sirisute actually gets a takedown and then mounts Sriyapai, and the entire fight has swung in merely a few seconds. Sirisute with some big ground and pound, especially with elbows, but Sriyapai does regain half guard just before the end of the round. With the fight vertical in the restart, Sriyapai again dominates with combinations and counter left hooks. Just as the previous round, Sirisute desperately goes for the takedown and gets mount, landing tons of blows and even going for an armbar, which Sriyapai just gets out of. Just a two rounder. Sriyapai wins the decision. (1) for an entertaining but somewhat slow clash of styles.

14) RICKY GUNZ vs. JEREMY BENNETT: Smallerish dudes.

Bennett just drags down Gunz at the start and punches him till Cecil stops it. (0)

15) TRAVIS HAVENS vs. DANIEL NOVA: Welters. Havens is 2-0, Nova is from Brazil.

Havens shoots early after some tenative standup from both men, and Nova clinches with him. Nova drops to the mat and goes for a heel hook. Havens KOs Nova cold while sitting on his ass. Can't say either impresses me. (0)

16) EDGAR IRIZARRY vs. ANDY JEWETT: Irizarry trains with Cecil Peoples. 

Jewett gets a big slam and Jewett is ruining Irizarry with stuff until he gets hit with a penalty for an illegal elbow. Doesn't matter: When the fight is restarted, he gets another take down and smashes him some more. (0)

17) GENO SALOMONE vs. FABIAN DIAZ: Final fight of the night! Phew, thank god. 

Geno with a takedown, Fabian gives up the back, and while Diaz defends that, he ends up caught with an armbar not long later. (0)

FIGHT OF THE NIGHT: Sriyapai/Sirisute

KO OF THE NIGHT: Havens/Nova

SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT: Hinson/Guzman

OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: 2 out of 10. Entertaining scrap between journeymen and a solid performance by a hot prospect. And lots of bad.

D&R RATING: 6% (5/85)

UWC Invasion (4/26/08)

Bloody Elbow's bigger names all have jobs with this promotion, operating out of the DC area. John Lewis is apparently matchmaker for this, and they made sure to fly in Frank Trigg to work with Jay Adams on the taped coverage. Jason Von Flue vs. Pete Spratt is the main event. This, by the way, is a promotion that dreams of being on par with Strikeforce, whilst their bloggers on staff talk shit about HDNet cards with appreciably better fights. Ridiculously stupid spoken word intro. Also, a special 2 hour episode of Fightzone for this bad boy. I have a feeling they paid for that extra 30 minutes, along with the massive lighting rig and the telescoping camera.

1) RESHAD WOODS vs. RON STALLINGS : Fight is at 185. One of maybe 4 black dude vs. black dude fights in MMA history. Yeah, there might be some issues with diversity in this sport.

Woods is rocking purple thai shorts. He is also pretty good standing. He cuts Stallings with an elbow and takes him down. Stallings tries for an armbar and he gets picked up and slammed on his dome. Stallings is out cold. Ref stands there shocked. Woods lands a sickening punch to Stallings, who is already shaking and bleeding everywhere. Seriously, if I were an MMA organization, I'd have burned that footage. If I were a boxing promoter, that would be the first thing I played at a hearing with athletic commissions. I'm not one to talk about barbarism, but holy shit. (1)

2) JOSH FELDMAN vs. JOHNNY CURTIS: Two heavyweights that are old.

Brief fight with both men throwing single shots and holding. Feldman lands a decent combination and drops Curtis, and then follows up on the mat. Who cares. (0)

3) GERALD LOVATO vs. MIKE EASTON: Dudes who happen to train in muay thai and BJJ at the same time! How novel. 145. Easton is trying the Wanderlei wrist rolls and the Shonie shorts to look tough. Lovato has a bit of a beer belly.

What I learn in the opening minute? Jay Adams likes Cher. Trigg has to defend it by mentioning that they're both married. Oh, the fight. They are in a slow kickboxing bout for most of this. Easton is clearly faster with his strikes and it becomes merely a matter of time before Lovato gets tagged with a punch. One punch KO. (1)

4) THIAGO MINU vs. AARON RILEY: Riley is a perfectly acceptable fighter. Minu is some guy from Brazil who is probably hella good at teh grapplez. Faceoffs for every fight BTW. Hate when they do that.

Minu can't strike. Not shocked there. He gets a trip takedown though and he's on top for a little while but Riley has been around forever. He's way too good for that shit. He actually is able to reverse position and controls much of the round. Minu lands a shockingly good knee in the clinch but has no idea how to follow up and is taken down. Goes for a solid armbar attempt but Riley is calm and stacks up. Minu lets it go. They're trying to make this a close round on the commentary, but really, Riley controlled the round. 

Minu lands his 2nd best shot of the fight right after touching gloves. Riley survives and gets a takedown, allowing him to lay on top and pound Minu for almost 4 minutes. Riley gets in a nice hiptoss when Minu decides to go to his feet and scrap the desperate sub attempts to put him on his back again when he doesn't want to be. Minu's best strikes are upkicks; not a good thing. Minu gets his unsuccessful armbar attempt in the last 30 seconds.

Aaron gets cut by an elbow at some point but the entire round is basically spent on the mat with Aaron on top. He wins a unanimous decision. Best part: He accidentally kicks Minu in the face trying to put his leg over for an armbar. (2)

Intermission with lots of dudes from various places like Rampage and Franca. Nothing really funny is said by anyone. 

5) TENYAH DIXON vs. MARCUS FORAN: Foran comes out to SPIN DOCTORS. I can't make this up. 185, no one has a good record, honestly.

There's a clinch that starts at the 4:55 mark and goes for a long, long, long time. Shades of Sylvia/Vera.  After half the round goes by, they break from each other only to come together again. Marcus gets a takedown finally and....listen, this is not a good fight. This is like watching Dan Severn circa 2002. Dixon gives up his back with a minute left after being taken down and easily passed, but Foran doesn't finish.

Foran is a second rate Ryan Bader. Too bad Dixon is a second rate Professor X. Not only is this a boring fight, its not a competitive one either. There's a tapout by armbar with about :35 seconds left in the second round and it couldn't be sooner. Foran is going nowhere. (0)

6) ZACH LIGHT vs. THOMAS SCHULTE: Lightweight fight between west coast fighters. No offense to the UWC guys, but if I was gonna run a promotion, people like this wouldn't be flown in. Light is 7-5. 

They go at each other, kinda grab each other and do a bunch of stuff that goes nowhere, then Light ends up on the bottom. Not long after, he tries for a triangle and transitions to armbar. Schulte taps out. Oh, Light has a record of 4-8, according to Sherdog. I like it when promotions lie about records. (0)

7) JASON VON FLUE vs. PETE SPRATT: Von Flue got OLD. I always hear about Spratt not having grappled enough or something, as if what makes you a good striker makes you a great grappler. I've been hearing about Spratt working on his submissions for years. YEARS. Fact is he is a kickboxer by nature and not going to become a top wrestler literally ever.

Spratt clinches with Von Flue and throws him around a little. Von Flue absorbs some punches and doesn't react all that well. He's dropped by an uppercut that grazes, and Von Flue is looking to try and drag him to the mat and doesn't really do it too well. Von Flue gets ruined with a single uppercut as Von Flue shoots in and he freezes up in an uncomfortable position. Von Flue has been KOed in similar fashion numerous times. Joe Silva is in attendance and Pete Spratt is begging for a job again. Spratt, of course, has lost his last two. That's 3 of his last 4. Could be worse: Von Flue is 2-7 in his last 9, 1-5 in his last 6. (1)

Fight Of The Night: Woods/Stallings

KO Of The Night: Woods/Stallings

Submission of the Night: Light/Schulte

OVERALL FOR THE NIGHT: 3 out of 10. Some interesting names on the show, some minor prospects I expect will go nowhere big but at least to a UFN/WEC level, and that's about it. 

D&R Rating: 14% (5/35)

MAINSTREAM MMA VIII: COLD WAR (1/26/08)

A middleweight title fight between Ryan Thomas vs. Jesse Lennox headlines this card that eminated from the Veterans Coliseum in Cedar Rapids, IA. Jay Adams and Justin Brown are doing the PBP.

1) ERIC WISLEY vs. MICAH WASHINGTON: Did you know that Micah is a horrible name? Horrible. Lightweight bout, BTW.

First round shows two well matched young competitors operating decently on the mat and in standup. Washington ends up on top for most of the second half of the round but was getting tagged by the occasional punch standing. Wisely is even a pretty solid BJJ artist off his back in addition to being competent standing. Pretty even.

Washington is able to get a takedown early in the round and throws some solid blows. Wisley is able to force the fight to a standing position and ends up taking down Washington with a trip takedown and moves immediately to mount where he bashes his head in with elbows. I like both guys, actually. Rare you see two fighters of this competency fighting each other on the b-shows in 2008. Wisley lost his last fight, but I think he can rebound. (1)

2) TRAVIS NATH vs. MARSHALL BLEVINS: Nath is very young, Blevins is holding a couple hilarious looking titles.

Monster belly to back suplex turned into an urange from Blevins puts Nath on the mat and gives him Nath's back. Nath tries to bridge out of that (!) and gets slammed down very hard by Blevins. He tries to go for the knees, doesn't really connect, and Blevins lands within the clinch with punches and then a big knee of his own. Nath crumples and Blevins rides his back and hammerfists him into oblivion. (0), as neither is really very good or moving forward.

3) SAM JACKSON vs. ROD MONTOYA: Catchweight fight around 160?

Jackson is able to put himself on top early but is cut by an elbow. Montoya tries to go to a high guard and....oh. Jackson picks him up Rampage style but cradles him on the rise, and then drives him in very, very hard. Like a combo power bomb/spine buster. Montoya is stone cold out as the shoulder drives itself deep into Montoya's face. (1) for the slam. Jackson's problem? He is not very good. Apparently this was a rematch that Montoya won the first bout of. Jackson is 5-18 as a pro/amateur combined with losses to Sam Morgan, John Halverson, Jason Black, Joe Jordan, Brian Gassaway, and Chase Beebe, among others.

4) ERIC POLING vs. KEN MCCLELLAND: Another McClelland fight? Oh jeez.

A brief exposition of clubberin'. McClelland may be fatter and older, but he is tougher. Poling is dropped with some punches and McClelland hurls more shots on the ground to earn his stoppage. (0)

5) TED WORTHINGTON vs. TOM GRUBB: I know who's gonna win this. Worthington possesses similar awful belts to another guy earlier in card.

Pearson points out how awesome Worthington is as he spends the opening 15 seconds throwing various strikes. Grubb just moves backwards, waits till after a missed high kick and gets a trip takedown. Hah. Worthington is solid off his back and can at least put himself in positions to perhaps get a submission. Grubb, though, is on offense and is able to defend all the subs while punching his foe. Strange standup late in the round as both were active. Worthington throws a nice flying knee standing but Grubb gets a takedown off it. 

Grubb has another nice takedown at the start of this round and lands some pretty beastly punches. Worthington nearly picks up the armbar and Grubb just pulls out of it. A standup (again, early) follows not long after. Worthington with a near home run leg kick, but again he's taken down afterwards. Horrible standups in this event as a second one comes up. Worthington with a desperation combo seems to stun Grubb, and he pulls guard. Not ten seconds passes and another standup? Ridiculous. I see more mat work in San Shou. Grubb gets another takedown, lands some more shots, and Worthington is tired. 

Some strikes start coming from Worthington and Grubb, believe it or not, shoots in for a double. Grubb really wants to pass and Worthington does a great job maintaining the guard. Right after that stops, a standup. Solid right hand from Worthington, clinch, and, lemme guess, a takedown by Grubb? Well, Worthington pulls guard. Same end result. Pretty vicious ground and pound from Grubb, as if he stops for a second, he is gonna get stood up. Doesn't really bother to try and pass as a result. Fucking ridiculous standup as Worthington's guard is passed. Oh, hey, Grubb gets a takedown. You know how this fight would be over already? If Grubb was allowed to just pulverize Grubb on the mat. Oh!, another standup! Oh, another takedown! Worthington goes for an armbar with merely seconds remaining and nearly sinks it. (1) because Grubb is a solid

prospect and because the fight was actually entertaining and competitive. Would have been a (2) with decent reffing.

6) RYAN THOMAS vs. JESSE LENNOX: "He's a superstar!" says Adams re: Lennox. Uh huh.

Thomas tries to get a throw and Lennox doesn't budge and ends up in mount. Ouch. Apparently, it may have been a "signature throw" for Thomas to boot. 4 5 minute rounds with a potential 5th round. Interesting. Lennox moves to side control and lays there. Oddly, this does not merit a standup for about a minute. When it happens, there's a clinch, some dancing, and then Jesse Lennox with a single leg shot into the slam. Thomas is clearly the larger man but is unable to do anything to stop Lennox. Lennox puts the exclamation mark on the round with a nearly successful guillotine.

Lennox is blasting with low kicks early and Thomas goes for the takedown. Nearly has success, but Lennox sprawls out and ends up trying to stand back up. Thomas lands a knee while there's a point down, so the ref jumps in. Short pause in the action and we're back to it. Lennox shoots for a body lock and uses that for a takedown of his own. Most of the round is then spent on the mat, with Lennox throwing occasional shots and going for some exotic chokes. There's a standup with about 20 seconds left that doesn't really push the fight in any direction.

Thomas is very wild with his punches. He reminds me of a wild Rick Cheek, which is an absurd statement to make for a hundred reasons. The standups are coming much faster in this final round also, and they do little to change the complexion of the bout until the final minute. Thomas gets a single leg takedown and is in half guard looking to try and steal the round with strikes. Lennox regains guard and then locks the arm up for an armbar. The submission comes with less than 3o seconds on the clock.

I liked how Lennox looked here against a serious grappler. Still, I will need to rewatch Adrenaline II to see how his striking has progressed. (1)

FIGHT OF THE NIGHT: Grubb/Worthington

KO OF THE NIGHT: Jackson/Montoya

SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT: Lennox/Thomas

OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: 6 out of 10. When things should have been bad, they were shockingly interesting. The main event was a bit of a bummer in that so much of it was dominating top game/borderline lay and pray, but that's a small caveat. For what the show had, it was worth watching.

D&R Rating: 13% (4/30)