RETRO REVIEW: KOTC Redemption On The River (2/17/2006)

#7
Redemption On The River (2/17/06)

After another stinker, back to a PPV card. This time it eminates from the Mark Of The Quad Cities in Moline, where the IFL has run twice and is in a pretty serious MMA lovin' area. Lots of stupendous talent on this card to get excited for also and some realy intruiging matchups. Announcers are Eric Apple and JENS. Oh, and Terry Treblecock. Rounds are 3 minutes because we're in Illinois and it is February 2006.

1) BILLY AYASH vs. DENNIS REED: Ayash has a couple bullshit belts and trains with Franklin. Dennis Reed is cited as "growing all sorts of stuff in the background."

Reed gets the takedown and Pulver and Treblecock note that he's really good at getting takedowns and then gassing out after 45 seconds. This is exactly what happens. As he gasses, Ayash is able to get out from underneath, and as they scramble, Reed is plunked out with a right hand to the jaw.

2) MATT JAGGERS vs. JUSTIN ROBBINS: Robbins is 5-0 but naturally the smaller man in this 145lb bout to Jaggers, who is making his pro debut and looks about 12.

This is another short but glorious bout. Jaggers gets the take down and gets in side control. His attempt to move to mount is easily nullified and Robbins gets guard. Not long after comes a triangle attempt, and Jaggers fully elevates Robbins for a power bomb escape. It breaks the hold momentarily but he's so far in it Robbins is able to reapply the triangle before Jaggers can reassess his position and escape.

3) WAYNE WEEMS vs. BART PALASZEWSKI: Its hard to believe that of the two, Weems is the dude who was in UFC. Bartimus will eventually. Or the UFC will collapse like a house of cards. Who knows?

Weems lands a single right hand that breaks Palaszewski's nose. After that, Bartimus turns it up, takes down Weems and beats the living shit out of him as Weems gives up his back and does nothing to defend himself. Short, but its something.

4) JASON REINHARDT vs. MIKE LINDQUIST: Reinhardt was tooled badly in his UFC debut recently and is pretty old. Lindquist is said to be 10-4 coming in.

Reinhardt throws a knee to the nuts early in the fight and is pissed that Lindquist complained and got time, so he takes him down, beats on him a little, and then gets the choke out. Reinhardt is an intense competitor but ridiculously limited strategically. Lindquist has gone 2-11-1 since this fight.

5) CLAY GUIDA vs. TRISTEN YUNKER: Yunker is huge at 6'3'' and Guida is a dude you should damn well know already. Yunker has had a mixed bag of success since being on one of the IFO's shows (though I don't remember his bout with Rob Kimmons) and recently on HDNet Fights losing to Pete Spratt.

Another short fight, but not at all as expected for me, having not looked up the results ahead of time. Yunker goes for the single leg and gets it, picking up Guida and slamming him (though Guida almost pushes off the cage to get a reversal tornado DDT style). Yunker quickly gets the back and both hooks, and though Guida struggles with him for a few seconds, Yunker eventually gets under the chin and wins the fight. Wow.

6) JOHN STRAWN vs. JOE JORDAN: Both men have fought basically all over the place. They don't usually win when they're far from their hometowns though in the midwest.

Mediocre fight for the first two round with Jordan dominant in top position. Round three is a significant change of pace as Jordan decides, for whatever reason, not to engage Strawn for takedowns and control but rather in a Dana White favorite: the pier six standup brawl. Jordan eventually gets the win with a highlight reel KO via looping overhand right. Decent fight though, automatically FOTN thus far because it went past 1 minute.

7) JOEY CLARK vs. BRIAN GASSAWAY: Clark is a pretty experienced local fighter and Brian Gassaway has been in MMA since the dawn of time, initally appearing on awful IFC shows and shit like that.

First round is short but interesting with Joey Clark getting a Sashimi Ippon Mothra (or something) early on and then tries to get a north/south choke. Failing that, he lets it back up to the feet where they clinch up. Gassaway tries to suplex him but doesn't have enough strength and Clark lands back in side control. He holds on there until Gassaway somehow pulls around him and nearly gets a rear naked choke. Round ends pretty soon after.

Rounds 2 and 3 fall into a pattern in which Clark gets the takedown, gets mount, gets bucked off or moves to side control, and then back to mount, and then cycles again. Dull stuff. The crowd boos the end of the fight and Clark gets a unanimous decision. Andrei Arlovski is in the crowd.

8) GIDEON RAY vs. BRENDAN SEGUIN: Ray’s been in pretty much all the big shows and Seguin is making another appearance on these reviews.

First round sees Seguin get the takedown and take top position with Ray against the cage. Not a lot of offense gets put in by Seguin in the dominant position, and with the round winding down, Ray scissors the leg of Seguin and rolls for a kneebar. Seguin defends and Ray does it again, this time going for a heel hook and succeeding.

9) TREVOR BARRETT vs. TERRY MARTIN: Barrett is a career loser and Martin worships Mike Tyson in copying his nickname, towel, and black trunks.

Martin wins by KO in the first round. I’m shocked. He also does get a nice takedown/slam in also.

10) VICTOR MORENO vs. LAVERNE CLARK: Victor Moreno is a mediocre fighter and Laverne Clark is a name those watching for eons should know from the olden days of UFC as a “professional boxer” turned MMA fighter. FUN NOTE: Clark faced 5 future or past world champions as a boxer. He lost to all of them. In fact, he never went the distance with any.

This is actually a pretty fun fight that Clark largely controls. The first round is almost all standup but subsequent ground fighting is primarily consistent with Clark in control on top and Moreno largely ineffective with the guard. Clark also lands some wild shots at times. No worse than most of the UFC’s recent major fights, as Clark wins a 3 round decision.

11) CHARLES “CRAZY HORSE” BENNETT vs. JEFF CURRAN: Intros not necessary.

Short but immensely entertaining. Some decent standup with Bennett throwing body punches that surprised Curran and the two trading slams early with Bennett throwing a SHOOT BACKDROP DRIVER~! No real shock that Bennett gets tapped with an armbar in the first round but it was great while it lasted.

12) SHONIE CARTER vs. JASON BLACK: Another fight where no real introduction is necessary. That always rules.

Another short but unsatisfying fight. Carter and Black tussle in the clinch early, and Carter gets the takedown. In doing so, Black is injured and Carter gets a W. I have to admit in thinking about it that I’m shocked Carter isn’t in the UFC still. He could provide decent tests for young 170lb fighters and he’s someone the crowd can get into.

FIGHT OF THE NIGHT: Bennett/Curran - Fun fight, though short. Lots of great action throughout.

KO OF THE NIGHT: Jordan/Strawn - Brutal KO.

SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT: Ray/Seguin - I'm a sucker for leg locks when they actually happen.

OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: 7 out of 10. Probably the high water mark for these shows. Unfortunately there's 18 to go. Fuuuuuuuck.

RETRO REVIEW: KOTC Outlaws (1/21/2006)

Another new one.

------------------

We have moved closer to the future and into the wild and crazy world of 2006(!!!). Unfortunately for me, this is one of those 10,000,000 fights on one card deals and I must battle through, knowing that at the end of this disc, I will arrive at the promised land of Kyacey Uscola and Edwin Dewees beating up shitty fighters. It eminates from a casino in Arizona and Erik Apple is announcing.

1) BRYAN PARDOE vs. RYAN PRAY: Oh shit. This is gonna be bad. Pray is an lumpy independent fighter making his debut, and he sports some racist ink that some of the National Socialist sympathizers that gave that one Aryan Nations dude that fought in KOTC props would adore. Pardoe fought Frank Shamrock. He sucks, but not this bad. KOTC: getting the incredible mismatches started RIGHT AWAY.

The beating is swift. A trading of punches not unlike a junior high fist fight starts it off, and big shock, Pardoe causes Pray to be unsteady. Pardoe takes him down straight into mount, tries a weird toe hold, and eventually pounds him out. Maybe this would have been of value had a public service message been brought with it.

2) DAVID CARRASCO vs. KEITH DIXON: Carrasco is some lumpy looking kid that's like a 170lb version of Paul Buentello. Dixon knows he's not in a commission area so he has a rash guard AND shoes.

This is one of the first fights among no names that really interested me. Carrasco is able to grab takedowns twice off a single leg and an ankle pick and navigates Dixon's guard pretty well. Dixon at one point is able to scramble to his feet after an attempted slam and Carrasco gets the belly to belly and ends up in side control. He eventually takes the mount and rains down elbows until a missed swing actually gets him back in half guard. However, in the shift back, Dixon essentially gives up his right arm and Carrasco transitions into a kimura for the tap out win. He looks like a kid with some potential.

3) JOE CASTILLO vs. LEROY FORNOFF: Castillo supposedly had a previous MMA fight....in 1996, sez Mr. Apple. Fornof looks all of 17, but has apparently fought before. In fact, I've apparently seen him fight before. Damn.

Castillo's Kempo Karate hoodie doesn't fully express what he is. He's really more of a wrestler and goes for multiple takedowns on Fornoff. Fornoff responds with a multitude of submission attempts, all of which he just misses on (he slides off the side with hooks in on an RNC, Castillo pushes the legs off in a triangle choke, so on). Round 2 starts with more prodigious striking from Fornoff that leads to Castillo going down, Fornof getting on top in mount and raining down blows to win. Fornoff is a young kid who's clearly learning all the aspects at once, which is somewhat refreshing, but has come nowhere near close to mastering any of them.

4) JESSE MORENG vs. VICTOR HERNANDEZ: Hernandez' record is a joke. Moreng is a dude that's been on a bunch of KOTC cards.

Moreng basically beats him up, takes his back and chokes him out. Pretty pointless stuff.

5) TRAVIS HOOKE vs. JUSTIN SCOTT: Hooke is really fat and this is his debut. Justin Scott has two first names and thus can never be trusted.

Ghetto Fights level shit. Two totally untrained, untalented dudes throwing punches wildly and then stuff happens. Hooke wins via submission, in fact, with something approximating a rear naked choke. If I could give star ratings to legit contests, -***** here.

6) LUKE HODGES vs. JACOB CHAGOLLA: I think I heard of Hodges before, but who knows. Both guys come into the bout in good shape and that's always a positive thing. Perhaps an interesting bout is about to occur?

One thing I've not really needed to mention until here is the refereeing. Some dude with a slicked back cut is playing referee and he's abyssmal. The first round of this fight was great. Chagolla is a strong wrestler looking for GNP. Hodges is a good thai boxer with surprising submission skills. Chagolla gets a takedown right at the start and is nearly triangled. Lots of transitions and action in the fight, and with about 30 seconds left, Hodges secures an armbar from guard. Chagolla is in the midst of defending it when the referee inexplicably separates them for a standup. I was aghast. Chagolla is tired out now but had he prevented the armbar, he could have gotten Hodges back. Instead, Hodges takes his head and begins bashing knees into it up until the round ends.

The second round is marred by more horrible calls. Hodges again acquires the thai clinch and unloads shots, but in getting close is taken down by Chagolla. Chagolla ends up on top, Hodges against the cage, elevating himself and arm up to punch and then pass to side mount, when the ref again steps in to separate and stand the fighters up. Chagolla should have erased this dude's face with a right hand and gone out in infamy but instead he and Hodges continue to have a bout in which Hodges can ride his back for a minute and accomplish nothing but he gets on top and has about 5 seconds to throw a billion shots or be stood up. Hodges wins the decision in a fight that pissed me off in spite of actual skill being exhibited. I've wished harm in the form of decades of wheelchair bound gruel eating to many competitors in combat sports, however horrible that might be, and I think I've found a new candidate for such strong dislike.

7) GILBERT VELEZ vs. DANIEL MADRID: Dudes making their debut. I think Madrid is still fighting.

Fairly lame fight with Madrid constantly getting takedowns because he's way better on the ground and both guys are worthless standing. Madrid ultimately wins by RNC.

8) ESTEVEZ JONES vs. RYAN POTTER: Jones is some sort of standup fighter dude with a style that, uh, looks straight out of the SAFTA handbook. Potter is a wrestler who trains with Joe Riggs.

Imagine my surprise with this fight, which spent the first 7 minutes or so being an affront to everything I enjoy about MMA. Potter constantly takes down Jones, who is pretty chubby and not at all very good. Oddly, Jones will throw a strike once in awhile that catches the offguard Potter. Potter slams him hard, and Jones somehow hangs on through a ton of punches to get back to his feet and be slammed again. This repeats for the entire first round and most of the second. Until, miraculously, Jones bucks Potter off and stands up, landing a right hand as he does. Potter is badly dazed and a couple punches later, Jones somehow wins.

9) JON KESSLER vs. TONY ROYBAL: Kessler comes out with a black gi and Roybal is backed by David Carrasco.

Short fight. Bad standup at first, Kessler then grabs and gets a takedown, and from there he controls the rest of the fight. Eventually this leads to him getting mount and an armbar to win early in round 1.

10) CHANCE WILLIAMS vs. RON RUMPF: Rumpf is tomato can personified. Williams is the guy tomato cans beat so that they can keep getting fights.

The power of lard causes Williams to land looping shots on Rump and drop him for an early win. Somewhat surprising. At least it was brief.

11) EMANUEL NEWTON vs. JOHN LANSING: Newton has moved on to bigger and better things and Lansing is some dude you've likely not heard of.

Newton and Lansing clinch and Newton picks him up like a ragdoll and throws him to the mat. Lansing, who is clearly a naturally smaller fighter, is rolled on, eventually being stopped by strikes on the ground.

12) JONATHAN WESSON vs. PAUL O'KEEFE: Both men are making their debut. I have no idea on backgrounds of either, but Wesson is a teammate of Estevez Jones so I bet he sucks.

I was right. O'Keefe picks him up and slams the dude, then pounds him. Wesson eventually rolls a little and starts to stand up, but O'Keefe causes him to tap with what looked more like the Million Dollar Dream than an actual RNC. No hooks and both standing. Sad.

13) MATT DELL vs. SEAN CANOVA: Dell is ANOTHER pro debut. Canova is a conditioning coach from SoCal who works with Todd Medina. This bout is so important, the grave nature of the outcome demands it be the 155 POUND SUPERFIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP OF THE WORLD.

First round is dominated by Canova on the ground. Dell tried defending the takedowns well but Canova was just too good for him. Odd choice by Herb Dean, who is now the ref, to stand the fighters up while Canova had two hooks in on Dell. Canova is slightly winded (Apple talks about breathing problems he's had) and Dell is unable to capitalize because his standup is way behind technically. Second round has Dell shoot early, grab the take down, and he stays there. Eventually Herb Dean comes in to stand them up, but Canova is too tired to stand and the fight ends. Lame.

14) DEL HAWKINS vs. GABE BROCKMIER: Apple is even shocked that he's saying that a guy making his pro debut gets to fight Hawkins for the Gladiator Challenge Super Lightweight title. Yeah, MMA doesn't have a belt problem....

Hawkins laced him up with kicks to start, then picks Brockmier up, hoists around the ring, slams him, gets mount, beats him up. Brockmier is KTFO with elbows to the head from side mount.

15) KYACEY USCOLA vs. ROBERT SARKOZI: Ice Cold, a Bodogfight vet, takes on the relative of the French prime minister? Okay, maybe not. More interesting tag line though, right? Sarkozi's actually from Hungary and has been around awhile and lost to guys people have heard of like Phil Baroni. He also beat Uscola prior to this at a Gladiator Challenge show. REVENGE?

First round is almost all Uscola. Both guys are well rounded guys but Uscola is clearly the better wrestler in pedigree and in the ring and proves it by taking down Sarkozi twice and being almost unshakeable in mount. Second round is a reversal of fortune with a tired Uscola getting taken down, mounted, and beaten on until an unthinkable standup from Herb Dean breaks the action. Sarkozi responds by knocking down Uscola hard with a series of knees that nearly finishes the fight. The second round is all Sarkozi until about 20 seconds remain, when Uscola is able to hip throw Sarkozi and cuts him with an elbow just before the end of the fight. Judges decision goes to Uscola other than the obvious draw that it should have been. Blah.

16) EDWIN DEWEES vs. BUCKLEY ACOSTA: Dewees is a TUF alumni now, which is sorta weird to say. He also bled more than anyone ever on that show, probably. Acosta's bout that got him here with Aaron Brink is reviewed in detail just a couple posts ago in the look at Final Conflict (Show #4).

Acosta rocks Dewees early and drops him against the cage. Dewees is mutifaceted though and locks up an arm. Acosta is able to get out of the armbar attempt by spiking Dewees on his head, but then promptly runs into another submission attempts. This time, Dewees locks up the triangle choke and Acosta taps before the first minute is over.

FIGHT OF THE NIGHT: Hodges/Chagolla - It was marred by awful an awful ref, but so was everything else. Good fight though.

KO OF THE NIGHT: Hawkins/Brockmier - Expected in such a mismatch, but really brutal stuff.

SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT: Dewees/Acosta - Really slick armbar attempt gets beaten with a slam, so he follows it with the triangle choke and goes home a winner.

OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: 4.5 out ot 10. The fights were all covered in shitty reffing and there was so much crap I barely remember the good.

----------------------

POSTSCRIPT:

Kyacey Uscola made his way to TUF, got his dick bit by a pitbull, and lost his last two in nothing promotions.

David Carrasco hasn't fought since 2006.

Edwin Dewees has fought sporadically and won 2 of his last 6 in a span of 4 years.

RETRO REVIEW: KOTC Raging Bull (12/26/2005)

Yet another MMA event from the archive.

#5
Raging Bull (12/16/2005)

I started this last night and fell asleep during the second round of the Sean Salmon fight. Oops.

Production values go WAY downhill here with a two camera Handicam shoot in a nightclub. Erik Apple is announcing via overdub, the lighting sucks, Pappa Schanke or whatever that annoying dude's name is does ring announcing (GEE THANKS I NEED THE TWO MINUTES TO GO SIGN) and shit. Your refs are Rich Franklin and Matt Hughes.

1) LEREMY JOHNSON vs. ROB KERWIN: Not listed on the insert card. No background about the fighters given. No weightclass given. 4 minute rounds because we are in the Ohio of many moons ago, in fact in the Agora Ballroom, which is like where Motorhead would play in Cleveland.

Decent back and forth action as Johnson gets the takedown, Kerwin reverses it and gets in his guard, then Johnson locks up a triangle and holds on through a few attempted power bombs out of it to get the chokeout.

2) JOSH SHOCKMAN vs. KEITH MCINTOSH: This isn't listed either. No history on either. McIntosh is a fat kid and Shockman has a bad haircut.

As is a general standard for MMA, the white dude with the worst hair wins. McIntosh absorbs a ton of well placed wide arcing, unorthodox shots from what must be a top level kickboxer (with a Naseem Hamed fetish) in the midwest in about 20 seconds and falls down. Shockman ended up in the UFC not long after and lost to Jake O'Brien. Interestingly, I've heard nothing really about either one since. Does it matter?

3) LOREN BRADLEY vs. DOMINIC QURAZZO: Another super special bonus fight not listed! Bradley has a lame tribal tattoo across his shoulder blades. Not to be outdone, Qurazzo has a bootleg Punisher skull on his back and American flag trunks. I bet he drives a pickup truck.

This goes two rounds, is primarily standup, and what happens there is with all the grace of Rosier/Frazier. Eventually the sloppy punching downs Bradley and Dominic wins for AMERICA.

4) JOSH MARTIN vs. SESSHOURMARU TAMASHII: That is an outstanding name for that one dude. I bet he loses though.

Martin gets a clinch, lands a knee, and then a bunch of elbows and bunches and the fight is done within 20 seconds. Perhaps it was "OCTAGON SHOCK" or something.

5) SEAN SALMON vs. JERRY SPIEGEL: Salmon is now the losing part of two classic MMA knockouts. Spiegel isn't any good. He's 1-10-1 in his previous 12 coming in.

If you had shown me this prior to Salmon/Rashad and told me you thought he was gonna have a legit chance to win, as many here did, I would have laughed a lot. Salmon gets his takedowns and some decent ground and pound, but shows no ability whatsoever to take advantage of what is essentially a willing loser right in front of him. Two attempts to set up the armbar and kimura go wasted in side control. He can't finish twice having Spiegel's back. In all this, he even lets Spiegel gain confidence, sweep him, and take his back with both hooks in and so they go to round 2.

Round 2 is more of the same. Salmon gets the takedown from the start, gets mount almost immediately, doesn't throw much leather from the top position because he's already gassed, switches to side mount and spends a minute and a half going for a kimura and not even coming close. Then he gets back on top, rides Spiegel till he gets his back, and Spiegel defends the RNC until time runs out. Round 3 is 4 minutes more of Salmon in side control trying to hook up the kimura and failing. Salmon wins by decision and its way less than impressive.

6) TERRY MARTIN vs. RON FIELDS: Martin is now a UFC vet, but he's actually in better shape here than he was with Irvan. Fields is a journeyman who's fought a bunch of dudes and lost to pretty much all the good ones. Apparently its a rematch too.

Fields needs distance to strike with Martin and never gets it because he doesn't know how to move in the ring. Martin forces him back, throws right hands in close when he's smothered Fields' range, takes him down, punishes him, and so on. Not a particularly incredible fight but you can see some talent in Martin here. Martin ends up getting thai clinch and then instead of throwing knees is able to get Fields in a guillotine.

7) MIKE RUSSO vs. JIMMY BOYD: I was hoping this would be a misprint and really be Mike Russow, because then it would be sorta meaningful, what with Russow just beating a top 50 heavyweight a couple weeks back. It is not. Decent fight on the ground with Russo almost getting an armbar from the bottom on Boyd, and Boyd elevating him and somehow holding him in the air for about 10 seconds until Russo was forced to let go. Boyd was eventually able to get him against the cage following that and put enough strikes on his dome to end it in round 1 via GnP.

8) TREVOR GARRETT vs. BRENDAN SEGUIN: I've seen Seguin many times over the years, and this is my first exposure to Garrett, who is essentially a nobody. Garrett is wearing thai boxing shorts, which kinda telegraphs his background.

Seguin rushes in and gets the clinch immediately, and much of the round is spent there against the fence, with a couple takedowns by Seguin that Garrett is able to worm his way back to his feet following. A third takedown proves more difficult, and the final minute is pretty much Seguin laying in side control doing a whole lot of nothing. The second round falls into the same path, with Seguin shooting immediately and getting Garrett against the cage. Garrett is able to spin him and back him up, but falls into a guillotine attempt. He survives that, then gets swept. Somewhere in this, Seguin is cut. He continues to control the fight, but Hughes has the doctor take a look at it. When the fight is restarted, Seguin gets a double leg takedown and is in top control once more. In fact, this time he's punishing Garrett with strikes against the cage. Hughes decides that as Seguin is clearly in control and perhaps a minute from a stoppage win to end the fight due to the cut, and Garrett goes from being pounded to winning instantly. Either Hughes was on the take or is enormously inept. Your choice here.

9) DERECK KEASLEY vs. JEFF COX: Cox is wearing Aoki style pants and Keasley is some dude.

They trade sloppy punching early and Keasley falls down. Cox follows him there and ends up in a triangle choke. Thing is, Keasley can't quite lock it up and so this position stays the same for about 3 and a half minutes until Cox finally pulls his head up enough that Keasley can get his foot slotted behind his knee and complete it.

10) DAN BOBISH vs. JOEY SMITH: Bobish's second career in MMA will never cease to amaze me. Smith is some dude who sucks. Fight has Smith throwing punches, falling down on his belly for no real reason, and Bobish throwing strikes until its stopped 20 seconds in. The DVD then states: "Winner: Emerson Bobish". THANK YOU AND GOOD NIGHT.

FIGHT OF THE NIGHT: Terry Martin/Ron Fields: Pretty damn one sided because of Fields' various liabilites as a fighter, but as competitive as anything on the card and displayed some real skill

KO OF THE NIGHT: Shockman/McIntosh, I guess? No KO was really astounding or unexpected.

SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT: Leremy Johnson/Rob Kerwin - Easily wins. The only submission that went down that didn't seem to take an hour to materialize and which had serious resistance.

OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: 4 Horrible camera work, lots of ghosting on the long shot from the poor digital handcam being used, but some name fighters and it was thankfully short at 1:30. Brevity sometimes trumps sheer volume.

--------------------------

POSTSCRIPT:

Laverne Clark and Jake Ellenberger fought at this show, sayith the intarwebz, and it wasn't on here.

Dan Bobish is fat.

Terry Martin has no chin. Neither does S

Josh Shockman lost to Cale Yarborough at a Strikeforce show.

Josh Martin was with Bellator. then you blinked, and he wasn't any more.

RETRO REVIEW: KOTC Final Conflict (12/2/2005)

While I work on other reviews and finish them up, another review from the KOTC OF THE DAY series.

-----------------

Final Conflict (12/2/05)

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.

---------------------------------------------

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.

RETRO REVIEW: KOTC Execution Day (10/29/05)

Again, another one from the KOTC of the Day thread of yore.

1) STEPHEN THAMES vs. AARON JAMESON: Two dudes I have no familiarty with whatsoever. Jameson beats the dude up pretty bad and wins with a guillotine easily.

2) ADAM TORRES vs. PAT HEALY: Torres is some dude from a Gracie JJ dojo. Healy, of course, went on to some measure of fame being on Ken Shamrock’s Nevada Lions where he did okay. Serious ass staredown too. Healy is way taller.

Healy’s size advantage is a big factor. He slams Torres a couple times easily and uses it to gain dominant position. He eventually gets the armbar and surprises the announcers, ending before the first round passes.

3) PHIL GARCIA vs. DAN MOLINA: This is a heavyweight fight, and I’m kinda worried. Garcia is a Kerry Schall victim. Molina is from Lions Den and looks way blown up here. Like, the Baldwin brother on Celebrity Rehab blown up. Ken Shamrock is cornering him, and I’m sure this would already be Clown’s favorite bout.

Molina shoots in, Garcia is on the ground, but still sorta defending it, though he’s on his ass. Molina rolls him over, and in doing so, opens some space, enough to grab the left foot of Garcia. Garcia rolls back, essentially in a kneeling/sitting position, and when he does that, he traps his own leg in a toehold. Lions Den fighter by leglock. Sorta. Hey, a fitting tribute.

4) JOE COTA vs. JAMIE JARA: Jara is from CAL WORSHAM’S TEAM. WHAT. I didn’t know that. Worsham was a cop, right? Jara looks like a MS-13 member. How does that work? Joe Cota is a dude of a nondescript nature. This is a 185lb fight, BTW.

Good first round, really, Jara gets a takedown and a leg and gets to work submissions on it for a good minute, but never figures out what to do. Go figure that the trainer with a heavy background in TKD isn’t good teaching kneebars. Cota eventually gets his leg free and ends up in top position for awhile, though he’s not particularly effective with anything. Jara is able to force the fight to the feet and when it gets there, they throw down with a lot of looping bombs. Both men are poorly conditioned and with about :30 left in the round, they are breathing really heavy.

Second round is equally fun. Standup is brief and Jara ends up getting the takedown and controls Cota, beating him pretty heavily, attaining mount, and then getting Cota’s back. Cota, nearly being choked out, responds to the camera and perhaps Jara’s camp by giving the middle finger. Chin tucked in, Cota survives, is able to turn into Jara’s guard, and unleashes some shots of his own. Cota eventually leaves Jara’s open guard and stands up, forcing both men to their feet and a slow dance for the rest of the round as they stare at each other, both super winded. Third round is almost sleep inducing though. Cota’s all done and operating off just heart, and Jara has just fumes in the tank, but that’s more than Cota, and thus he wins a primarily slow standup final 5 and takes the decision. And now Jara has fought MMA on national television. What a world. Of course, so has Ray Steinbeiss, so it doesn’t really mean anything.

THIS IS THE MAIN CARD. A BIG VIDEO PACKAGE TELLS ME SO. The ring girls get introduced and shit and I just fast forward past it. Like I give a fuck about whatever local strippers they’re paying $300 to for the show.

5) TAKEFUMI HANAI vs. BUDDY CLINTON: Clinton shares his name with a dead ex-presidential dog, whereas Hanai fought in everyone’s favorite MMA organization with techno music and weird rules about closed guard.

Hanai attempts to channel Genki Sudo and does a weird sideways stance. Clinton takes a few seconds to analyze it, throws a solid leg kick, then takes down Hanai and beats him up. In fact, he’s pretty much totally dominant in the round. Hanai ends up on his feet and does nothing with it, at one point throwing a koppo kick looking thing.

Round 2 has Hanai faking the leaping Mongolian Chop on a standing Clinton and absorbing a right to the face. He clinches up and goes for a ride, with Clinton slamming him hard. Hanai locks up Clinton and gets the fight stood up. While there, he lands a hard right hand that so bothers Clinton that he backs up most of the rest of the round, even as Hanai turns away from him and expresses his discontent with the lack of action to the crowd. Towards the end of the round, Clinton shoots in and Hanai tries a guillotine. It doesn’t work though, and Clinton lays on him till the bell sounds.

Round 3 doesn’t last long. Takefumi lands a hard right hand and drops Clinton, and following punches cause Mazagatti as close to early as he’s ever been.

6) JASON WEISS vs. WARPATH: Warpath is the Gladiator Challenge Native American Champion of the World. Only in the world of combat sports, man. Jason Weiss is a pro boxer as well as MMA fighter, and was picked among Joe Mesi’s early comeback opponents when he got braindamaged. He’s also been knocked out by modern day Bigfoot Martin, sub .500 fighter Demetrice King.

Weiss pops the jab a little, shoots in for some reason, Warpath holds him in a front head lock and hits his back for about 2 minutes. Eventually Warpath gets him down and wins by GNP. Exciting stuff. Not really.

7) SHAWN BIAS vs. URIJAH FABER: There’s prefight segments with both men interviewed, so you know this one is extra important or something. Faber is then the KOTC Featherweight Champ.

Fight is a single round in length, chiefly controlled by (SHOCK) Faber. Bias does throw a kick right at the onset and uses it to get Faber down and take his back, but doesn’t get his hooks in and Faber ends up in his guard. From there, Bias never again puts forth any serious offense, nearly getting caught in a triangle in a weird sideways attempt by Faber and eventually submitting to a guillotine. Faber is now the WEC’s headline star and for good reason.

9) AARON BRINK vs. RICHARD MONTOYA: Montoya is some kid from Lion’s Den. Brink is a full time fighter, part time porn star who isn’t actively horrible, while one would expect Montoya to perhaps be given the place of Lion’s Den in the overall scene of MMA in 2007. Lots of prefight interview stuff for both.

Nothing fight. Montoya shoots at the very onset, gets Brink against the cage and eventually down. Brink is able to get back up but finds himself in a guillotine. Apparently unaware as to how to defend against it, he ends up tripping Montoya, putting himself in Montoya’s guard and has to tap.

10) MAC DANZIG vs. TAKUMI NAKAYAMA: Danzig is the Gladiator Challenge Lightweight champ, Nakayama the KOTC title holder. Nakayama is a fairly mediocre fighter from Japan who is an okay benchmark. Some more prefight interview blather.

I’ve seen this fight before and thus I wasn’t as intruiged by it as others. Nakayama is generally dominated by Danzig from the early going, as Danzig’s wrestling and strength is way too much for Nakayama. As the bout labors on, Danzig gets busy with a flurry on the feet, causes a massive gash on Nakayama with some knees from the thai clinch, and Herb is forced to stop it. Just another stop on the Mac Danzig Express.

FIGHT OF THE NIGHT: Jara/Cota in a landslide. Two dudes showing a modicum of skill in the cage against each other rather than against far inferior competition. Best matchmaking of all.

KO OF THE NIGHT: Warpath/Jason Weiss: Weiss is ruined by the assault on the ground, and while its not unexpected, the violent nature of it should create some sort of visceral "oh fuck" response.

SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT: Molina/Garcia. Toe hold FOREVER.

OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: 6.5 out of 10: Not a bad show per se, with nothing outwardly offensive in it and some guys who are decent names in the sport competing in bouts that helped develop their reputation and career. Decent production quality and nothing outlandishly dumb being said in commentary helps out. Honestly, Apple/Williams isn't any worse than a team involving Ranallo and a pro wrestler.

-----------------

POSTSCRIPT:

Jamie Jara can now be seen in Bellator.

Pat Healy beat the crap out of Lyle Beerbohm in the headlining position on a Strikeforce Challengers card.

Takefumi Hanai lost to future Shooto 167lb champ Katsuya Inoue and then to Keita Nakamura. He lost a third time in a row to a nondescript opponent in Pancrase then retired in 2008.

Warpath Villareal was last seen nearly beating Brett Rogers in the Canadian Maritime provinces.

Urijah Faber is Urijah Faber.

Shawn Bias has a face tattoo and last fought in 2009.

Takumi Nakayama last fought in December 2010 having transitioned to full bore gatekeeper status in Japan.

Aaron Brink is now well known for appearing on a TLC show about drug addiction.

Mac Danzig is still with the UFC after winning TUF 6.

RETRO REVIEW: KOTC Shock And Awe (10/1/2005)

The second review from the KOTC Of The Day series.

---------------------

This show is a massive upgrade. TSN does the production and it shows like a mothafucka. Your announcers include Mauro Ranallo (FUCK) and DICK ROUFUS.

1) JESSE LESSARD vs. DONNIE WALKER: Walker is from Jason Dent’s camp. Lessard represents JEET KUN DO and is 0-1 in MMA, having lost in a nondescript KOTC bout the last time they were in Edmonton (which I think is on another boxed set and has Brendan Seguin/Joe Doerkson as the main event or something).

Anyhow, Walker’s wins are all by submission, and I bet you can guess how this goes. Almost immediate takedown, Walker on top, guard pass, full mount, punches and elbows like WHAT, traps the left arm with the knee, and then takes the outstretched right arm for the armbar and a now bloody and regretful Lessard begs for mercy. We are all richer for it.

2) DAVID RODRIGUE vs. DEMARQUES JOHNSON: Massacre coming. Rodrique looks 45 and claims to be a disciple of JKD going on 14 years. Johnson trains with a real camp being trained and managed by Jeremy Horn, drops a bunch of names of dudes who beat him up, and its great. RAMPAGE is guesting on the announce team. I am so amped up. Rampage remarks that he thinks Bruce Lee would have done well in the cage. Luckily, no one saw this, and so there were no threads started as a result. Jeremy Horn is also briefly interviewed and says he has 10-15 years left of fighting. Whaaaa? I love Mike Naimark, but when he says that MMA fighters will never suffer the kind of encephalopathy that boxers have, I disagree to a point. The comparative safety of the sport will keep a lot of men fighting longer than they should, and punches in sparring may be lighter (16oz + headgear, after all), but still fuck up the head plenty. Keep doing it ‘till you’re fifty and shit is going down. Especially the Shooto guys. They have standing 8s!

The fight is similar to the one prior. Johnson gets the clinch, does some judo throw that probably has “ishii” and “gata” in the name and then beats the unholy shit out of him until Rodrigue verbally quits. “Would Bruce Lee turn his back like that?,” asks a philisophical Rampage Jackson. We may never know, Quinton. It will be the thing 1,000,000 posts on Sherdog are made of.

3) CHRIS PEAK vs. RON FIELDS: Before the fight starts, Joe Doerkson stops in to say hello. Joe reminds me of this chick that was pretty cool in high school, but had that same sorta scar on her lip, perhaps exascerbated. She got no love. Real shame and shit. Fields sucks, and I know nothing about Peak (other than his record blows), but they get pyro for some reason. I bet they throw shitty punches and shittier kicks!

This fight contains a few minutes of each man pawing the air before Peak shoots in and gets the takedown. Fields and Peak roll on the ground in a fashion that channels the magic ubershittiness of Laughing/Moskowitz in each other’s side control before Fields thinks it’s a good idea to shove his arm between Peak’s legs and trap himself. 30 seconds of hammerfists and elbows later, the ref pulls Peak off the defenseless Fields.

4) KEVIN MANDERSON vs. MIKE JERACE: Manderson is apparently a fighter trained by Doerkson, and Jerace is an ex-boxer (Boxrec shows him as 1-1 now, with his win in 1995 and his loss in 2006). Jerace was also responsible for the sole loss on Jesse Lessard’s ledger. Manderson is a former Canadian champion in Greco Roman or something and he doesn’t like to strike. He’s also way uncomfortable in prefight interview segments.

Here's another classic, as its the 3rd obvious lousy striker/good grappler bout. Manderson takes him down with a slam, then Jerace is actually able to recover and get up….only to suffer a pro wrestling style belly to back side suplex from Manderson. He prevents Manderson from instantly mounting after that, but gets pushed into the cage and beat up with elbows till Herb Dean steps in.

5) JIMMY BOYD vs. JOSH KYREJTO: Kyrejto is a former college football player in Canada and is a primary standup guy. Boyd trains out of Muncie and is primarily a wrestling. Boyd has several pro fights. Josh none. WHAT WILL HAPPEN.

If you're thinking, “Kyrejto gets taken down and figuratively raped”, you are pretty much on the money. The ex football player is able to tie up enough to make it through round 1 by getting stood up, taken down on multiple occasions, but a slam at the start of Round 2 and the subsequent beating ends it early there. Who says clash of styles is dead?

6) MAC DANZIG vs. FRANK KIRMSE: More pyro during the ring walks. Kirmse is a dude who has fought a bunch and isn’t all that good. Something tells me that you may be familiar with this Mac Danzig fellow. Jeremy Horn appears from the ether to co-announce.

Fight starts with Kirmse faking a front kick and Danzig, probably half in astonishment that someone would feint with THAT, throws a head kick that lands square, dropping Kirmse to a knee. Clinch up. As Roufus calls Horn “Gumby” and gets an audible groan, Danzig trips Kirmse and gets into side control. From there, its knee ride-mount-punches-Kirmse gives his back, more strikes, RNC, and Mac Danzig gets another easy paycheck. Dick Roufus goes, “That’s my favorite move in jiujitsu. I learned it first. Its great.” He followed this in depth analysis with a soliloquy about Spot and his travels.

7) “SLICK” RICK MCCORKELL vs. BILLY “THE” KIDD: Billy Kidd likes Chuck Liddell. That means he’ll probably lose. Rick McCorkell is trained by Alessio and Danzig. Dick Roufus loves wordplay about dudes being muscular also. “You need a bandaid, ‘cause this dude is cut!” Kidd is trained in Muncie at Team Wolfpack and has a superior record. They are both bantamweights and not named Beebe so no one knows who they are.

McCorkell shoots in with the takedown, gets it, Kidd scrambles back to his feet, McCorkell gets him down again, takes the back, rides him for a little while and then gets the choke. If this was my first MMA show, I’d have given up on the sport immediately. I mean, every single match is “dude gets takedown, other guy is inept, fight ends soon after”. Not only that, they throw the shitty locals in with like, good fighters rather than each other. Way to burn the town, guys.

8) DAVID MAH vs. KYLE CHEYNE: Mah did some kung fu when he was younger. Mah is apparently a grappler and Cheyne likes to stand. Another one? ANOTHER? Mah comes out dressed as Great Muta. Cheyne is 18 years old. He also outweighs Mah by 20 lbs (185lbs-166lbs). Rampage is interviewed again. He likes Edmonton because dudes say “eh”. He also says he wants to fight a couple more years and then act.

Guess what happens? Brief standup exchange, Mah takes down Cheyne, gets side control pounds on him, gets full mount, more pounding, Cheyne flips on his belly and gets choked out. Ranallo brings up Ultimo Dragon during the replays, because a dude really beating the dog shit out of another dude really makes me think of lucha trained japanese guys.

Oooh! A Terry Trebelcock interview! Just what we need now. He’s going to run Canada 40-50 times in the next 5 years so he says.

9) BRANDON GARNER vs. JASON DENT: Jason Dent is now a UFC vet well after this fight and already back on the club shows. Garner will probably get a contract from someone eventually if he’s still active.

Slight variation on the usual fomula for the night. Longer standup section where no one does anything. Garner shoots in, pulls guard, Dent follows him in with Garner using the butterfly guard and then transitioning to an open guard. Dent moves up to throw punches, gets caught in a triangle choke, elevates Garner in an attempt to escape and puts him against the fence, but Garner holds on and gets the win by tapout.

10) ELMER WHERHEN vs. MIKE NEWTON: Newton claims japanese shootwrestling, BJJ, and kickboxing. Uh-huh. The other dude is named Elmer. Who the fuck is named Elmer? I guess this dude and people who end up in my place of work with acute respiratory failure and a birthdate prior to 1930.

Brief standup battle ends with Elmer landing on Newton and Newton goes down. Then he starts the GNP and OH GOD huge hammerfist from the ceiling ends it all. I have a feeling there was no tear filled interview with Inoki afterwards where he expressed his sadness at the failure of pro wrestling.

11) JOHN ALESSIO vs. SAVANT YOUNG: I’m familiar with Young from his time in IFL, and he was pretty good, but this is two years before, so who knows what he’s like. BUT BEFORE THAT: JOHN ALESSIO vs. RONALD JHUN HIGHLIGHTS. And what an exciting package it is. I’m scared to ask…how was the UCC 12 bout with Jason Black?

I guess I should talk about this fight now. Jeremy Horn is back behind the desk. Dull as dishwater first round that is all standup. Alessio lands a nice knee and some okay jabs, Savant Young throws a bunch of low kicks and nothing else lands, much less lands effectively. Round 2 sees Young come out with a lot of punches, generally with a double jab followed by a straight right, and Alessio responds by getting the takedown and controlling Young. He almost subs Young at the end of the round, but in Round 3 he forces Young to pull guard almost immediately, beats him up, takes mount, forces Savant Young to give up his back and…well…guess.

FIGHT OF THE NIGHT(S): Alessio/Young. Rarely does John Alessio get such honors, but that is the case here in the sole actually competitive bout.

KO OF THE NIGHT(S): Boyd/Kyrejto. That dude's last name was tough and so I was glad he got rolled. Plus he wasn't old like most of the other guys who got KOed.

SUBMISSTION OF THE NIGHT(S): Dent/Garner. Most challenging one to get of the submissions, and the best attempt to get out of it. Plus Dent is a pretty good midlevel talent these days.

OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: 5 out of 10: From the perspective of it being a King Of The Cage show, maybe a 7, but I'm ranking it as an event independent of its origin. Most of these points go to Rampage's camera time and the decent production of the show.

-----------------------------------

POSTSCRIPT:

-Mac Danzig still fights for the UFC

-John Alessio is the odds on favorite to win the United Glory Welterweight tourney.

-Savant Young apparent retired after losing to Mark Hominick in Affliction's debut.

-DaMarques Johnson was a TUF 9 finalist and is still with the UFC as a prelim fighter.

-Donny Walker is now the NAAFS Featherweight Champion and his defense of the belt in his last fight (12/4/10) was recently reviewed here.

-Jason Dent went on TUF 9, did OK, eventually was re-released by the UFC and was seen taking a massive beating at the hands of Chris Lozano in NAAFS last year.

-Brandon Garner has been very inactive, notably picking up a draw when competing at HERO'S KAZAKHSTAN.

-Ron Fields retired in 2008 after a recorded 56 pro MMA bouts.

-Mike Jerace, like lots of broke old fighters, can't fully stop fighting. He again competed for KOTC in what was his 3rd pro MMA bout in may of 2010 after a 3 1/2 year layoff from the sport.

RETRO REVIEW: KOTC Oceania/Australia (2/4/2005+2/10/05+7/2/05)

I've been super busy recently and unable to finish any reviews. So in order to still have something up and slowly move the reviews I have DVDVR off of it, here's the first one I did for the KOTC of the Day series from January 2008. I'll be posting them all in time.

--------------------------------

Looks like a three camera shoot, all in digicam, two are camcorders at ring side and the other is a really, really cheap stationary cam. This event was done in Australia at some mystery venue. Eric Apple, shock of shocks, is doing an overdubbed commentary for it. Seems like rounds may be short. Don't know if its just a fantastic job of clipping, that they only got clearance for 3 minute rounds, or what.

1)TAMA TE HUNA vs. MAL FOKI: I have no idea who Te Huna is and Sherdog's Fight Finder says he hasn't fought in almost 3 years. He is pretty cut up though. Mal Foki of course fought in PRIDE and sucked ass. FUN MAL FOKI FACT: He had two professional boxing matches according to Boxrec, in which he went 0-1-1. His draw came to a fighter in his pro debut, and his loss to a 6-24-1 boxer who had lost to Biko Botowamungu. Biko was a Congolese boxer popular among German promoters as a tomato can in the late 90s/early 00s and lost to a young Wladimir Klitschko in 5. So he's like 3 steps from the best heavyweight boxer in the world, and of course just a couple links from Fedor. Interesting.

Anyhow, fight isn't as interesting as that. Foki throws a low kick and Te Huna comes over the top with a punch. Foki doesn't like it, circles out in retreat, Te Huna follows, and then blows him out with punches :16 in. Te Huna is the whitest looking dude with an islander name ever.

2) BRANDON BELL vs. JAMES FANSHEAR: I don't know who these dudes are. Fanshear is apparently from the US, lost to some names like Leben, Metcalf, and Villasenor, beat some names like Ritch, split series with Denny, and has flown under my radar. I've probably seen him before and will see him again. Bell is from Australia, I guess.

The fight is mildly interesting for a few seconds. Bell and Fanshear show off some kicks early on, then Bell gets thai clinch and those some decent knees inside. The problem is that he's clearly not well versed in any grappling, and Fanshear is able to get underhooks and belly to belly suplex the poor australian with the board shorts on his skullcap. Clearly having a tough time recovering, perhaps not knowing what to do, or a combination of both, Fanshear quickly gets the back, pounds him a little, flattens him out, then choke.

3) ANDREW GORTON vs. KYM ROBINSON: They are all foriegn and shit and I don't know who they are. I bet they stand and trade or one of them takes the other down and I go make some tea in the middle of it.

I was kinda right. This was actually really interesting. Gorton wasn't too skilled anything, and Robinson seemed like a guy training in a multitude of things and putting a lot of it almost altogether. He was standing like a euro amateur, throwing kicks like he was out of a Shotokan gym, rotating his hips and attempting submissions like he'd gone to BJJ classes for about 6 months, and had solid thai clinch skills. Gorton spent the first round trying to get a takedown but was beat up for his trouble. He got on the ground, but ended up in Robinson's mount and was on the recieving end of a botched armbar that almost finished him. Second round saw Gorton getting on top in Robinson's guard and escaping a pair of armbars (one that nearly swept him out and had Robinson on top) and a triangle choke to push Robinson to the cage wall for the last 20 seconds. It wasn't enough and Robinson won the decision.

4) MATT KNIGHT vs. JAMES TE HUNA: I'm gonna wager a guess and say that "Te Huna" is not the Samoan equivalent of "Smith". Te Huna almost ended up in PRIDE. Matt Knight is some dude.

This is really odd, given that everyone has it as a win for Knight by DQ. Te Huna overpowers Knight from the get go and though Knight has a moment of glory when he rolls for a leglock, Te Huna stacks and beats the shit out of his lumpy foe. Te Huna slaps Knight on the ass in a fashion that looks almost like a tapout, then KOs him with strikes while obviously holding the fence. Oh well. The lights also go on in the venue and it looks like a convention center without any elevated seating.

5) NATHAN WHITE vs. WARPATH: YESSSSSSS. Also, out of nowhere, we suddenly have a boom camera and a higher up stationary cam, both with way better video quality (4:3?). What the fuck? There's tables all around ringside, giving it the feel of a good ol' fashioned club venue. I figure it out later: The reason is that this side of the DVD is a combination of two shows run over a week, and I guess would be a "best of", if that can be believed. This is from "Gunfather" on 2/10.

The fight kinda sucks. White is fat and a wrestler and Warpath is Warpath, leading to them clinching against the cage a lot. White's lard reminds me of those McDonald's Playdoh sets where you'd shove in lots of the dough and make "fries" or something through a mold when he's pushed into the chainlink. Eventually Warpath throws an uppercut and White goes down. Warpath is confused and just looks at him a moment, as if to say, "you fall down after 4 of those, dumbass!" and then waits a few more before diving into the halfguard and finishing the fight with some halfassed hammer strikes. We all know Warpath would never be involved with a dive, no sir....

6) GORDON GRAFF vs. DYLAN SMITH: No idea who these dudes are.

They throw a lot of shots at one another and it goes the time limit. Both are squat, short guys who gassed early. In the end, Dylan Smith wins because he didn’t gas as bad as Graff, who had his hands by his sides and was doubled over breathing hard two minutes in.

7) “BIG” JIM YORK vs. BRAD MORRIS: York is some guy that I had seen on TOM’s lists for a long time, and Matt Morris is a guy with a surprisingly good record, featuring a win over Kristof Midoux.

The fight really tells me a ton about York. He’s all standup all the time, decent takedown defense against a guy who clearly doesn’t have the athleticism to change levels and bother him, slow hands, decent technique with the jab but never follows it, backs straight up, leaves his left low. In spite of the obvious flaws, he prevented being taken down and when Morris won the second off his overhand rights and clinch work, he was able to fire a uppercut while dirty boxing that dropped Morris and won him the fight in the third and tiebreaking round. He’s no worse than Eddie Sanchez.

8) JAMES TE HUNA vs. JAMES LEE: Lee is the one I’m interested most on this DVD by, particularly given that I’ve already seen Bonello fight (who comes up later, so it says). Lee’s from my future inescapable home state of Michigan and appeared on PRIDE’s second US show (beating Travis Wiuff), and I’ve already seen him before against Lister and White, though they weren’t memorable enough for me to remember particulars any of those fights. I just saw Te Huna like, a couple minutes ago.

Lee is way smaller but shoots in, gets underhooks, suplexes Te Huna, gets the back, wins by rear naked. Made Te Huna look foolish.

9) HARLEY CARILLO vs. MIKE JOHNSON: You know shit is tough when a fight doesn’t even show up in FCFightFinder or Sherdog’s database.

Johnson shoots in against Carillo, who telegraphs his capabilities with the Thai shorts. He pushes him into the cage, gets underhooks, throws him down, Carillo gets up, gives his back, Johnson pulls him back and chokes him out. Maybe 20 seconds. Maybe.

10) TAMA TE HUNA vs. JOE BRIGGS: Briggs is some dude who doesn’t show up on many databases and isn’t any good anyhow.

The fight is all sorts of trimmed for going two rounds. Te Huna throws wild punches, gets Briggs down, and then almost gets swept with the worst attempt I’ve ever seen. Te Huna gets off the ground, looks to throw some kicks to Briggs (who is in butt scoot), then attempts a somersault senton. He naturally misses this totally and Briggs is able to get top control, which he was probably in for 3 minutes that you did not see. Second round is fairly short with Te Huna throwing lousy punches, Briggs falling down, and then Te Huna throwing more lousy punches until the ref steps in.

11) BRAD MORRIS vs. HIRIWA TURANGI: MOAR MORRIS. On Sherdog, this is listed as part of Kumite 1 on 7/2/05. Also, some facts on Turangi: He’s a kickboxer and pro boxer. As a pro boxer, he’s ranked 9th in New Zealand at heavyweight, and sports an 0-10 pro record. He has two losses to Shane Cameron, a loss to THE FARKEN Bob Mirovic, David Izon’s brother Roger, one time Mike Tyson exhibition opponent candidate Lawrence Tauasa, and brother of top 10 light heavyweight Paul Briggs, Nathan.

This fight is a slaughter. Turangi gets taken down fast, Morris beats him up, he gets a head and arm choke from the full mount, game over.

12) JAMES TE HUNA vs. ADRIAN LEATUA: Another James Te Huna fight, again from 7/2/05.

This fight is all sorts of clipped up. Leatua taps out in the first round after the bell from a guillotine, Te Huna controls the action for most of the bout that’s seen, and at the end of the third (???) round, the horn goes, Eric Apple says, “that’s it!” and the show’s over folks. You don’t even know how it ends (Sherdog sez:: Te Huna by TKO???). Tony Bonello/Edwin Aguilar is advertised on the insert, and its not even on the disc. LOL.

FIGHT OF THE NIGHT(S): Robinson/Gorton wasn’t too badly clipped up and what was shown was actually pretty cool. Of all the dudes here, I want to see Kym Robinson the most again.

KO OF THE NIGHT(S): James Tehuna against Matt Knight, since it apparently never happened. Also, Mal Foki getting Koed is always cool.

SUBMISSTION OF THE NIGHT(S): Mike Johnson/Harley Carillo. High school shit, so it must be rewarded.

OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: 2.5 out of 10: This works on some level, like as a Warpath Career Set gap filler. The fights are all cut more than your typical Shooto TV program, and Mal Foki gets knocked out. The camera work is better than the video from some of the handcams Bad Breed TV would use, but you do lack the awesomeness of having like, 3 Kerry Schall fights on one disc.

---------------------------------

POSTSCRIPT:

James Lee has long since retired.

James Fanshear is still fighting on the local level.

James Te Huna somehow has a UFC contract, and Brad Morris got one for a second too.

Kym Robinson has losses to Perosh and James Te Huna.

Hiriwa Te Rangi lost 3 more pro boxing bouts.

Jim York went 1-3 in Sengoku, losing to Dave Herman, Bigfoot Silva, and Kiss Nakao. Since then he has defeated Brandon Cash and Peter Graham in local Aussie shows.