NAAFS Cage Fighting (3/20/2011)

Yet another show from NAAFS graces my screen. Tonight's main event for TV - John Hawk vs. Josh Watson at 205.

1) Tony Hodges vs. Tommy Deroia: Deroia looks like he aspires to be James Irvin.

FIGHT: Deroia Submission Rnd 1. Fast stuff as he jumps in with a push kick and punch and clinches, and Jesus, was that out of the Royce Gracie textbook? He gets this to the mat and gets the back very quickly and the choke. Not even really under the chin and hooks not really in, but still impressive as he goes to 5-0 as an amateur. No striking prowess really displayed. (0)

2) Ronda Gale vs. Holly Powell: 15 year age difference in favor of the 20 year old Powell. 115lb bout.

FIGHT: Ronda Gale. Ridiculous scoring has Gale winning 30-27 on one card and losing 29-28 on another. Solid who cares sorta fight between amateur women going nowhere fast. Powell just looks to close distance and get the clinch and stay there the entire time. Snore. The video had some choppiness to it, probably due to weather in the area. (0)

3) Josh Watson vs. John Hawk: Ridiculous hair as Watson is wearing the Roadkill/Amish beard and Hawk has a pink mohawk. I've seen Watson before elsewhere.

FIGHT: Hawk TKO Rnd 1. Again, I had some lousy video here but what I did see was an ass beating on Watson. Watson dropped his hands constantly. On defense, on offense, whenever. As soon as he'd move his hands, they would drop dramatically almost to waist level. Hawk comes out looking as sleek as he'll ever be at this weight and lands with his generic boxing, pushes Watson up against the cage, and delivers an elbow that actually fells the big goofy looking fella. A lot of GNP later and the ref steps in, way late, to call a halt to this bout. (1)

OVERALL FOR THE SHOW: 3.5 out of 10. I liked the John Hawk fight - not often I've said that statement in the last year or two. Deroia playing a hyper athletic version of undersized, nonathletic Gracie family member was interesting, but I don't think its a wise career path. The women's fight I've already forgotten.

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.

BIG SHOW REVIEW WEEK OF 4/4

RECAP:

Strikeforce Challengers got it's own review. Check that here.

Bellator 39:

I don't do biz talk, but Bellator is spending about $1-2 per fan watching at home on TV per show. And this isn't pay cable where the network is getting $5-7 from that fan to get the channel. The network gets about .10-.2o per subscription (if that, may be free) plus ads. Odd that no one has mentioned this.

-I called Imada getting laid out. Terrible fight for that guy. Freire is now on everyone's mind as being a top independent and being a serious challenger for Alvarez. Note: Alvarez is a whole different hill of beans than is Imada. I'm not at all convinced he's a real challenge for him.

-I called Good beating Hawn. Just one problem - the judges didn't see it that way. The takedown at the end of the third probably won Hawn the fight, as everyone knows. The fight itself was nothing special - Good was very aware and afraid of Hawn's clinch and takedowns and yet Hawn was hardly all that successful with them. Instead he pushed Good to the cage and held him there trying to pummel while Good threw pitty pat punches. The fight as abjectly terrible. What was with Good's wild combination that he got taken down off of in round 2? Why didn't he jab more? He should have recognized the situation early on and skipped out on the leg kicks, pumped the jab, and stayed as far away as possible, making sure to continuously move to Hawn's left. Instead, he generally stayed in front of Hawn and his squared up figure made it easy to be grabbed onto for the body lock.

-Ben Saunders beating up Matt Lee isn't a bad thing. He did what he needed to and cut the hell out of Lee and stopped him. But Saunders looked tired after the first and he left legs out there for a much, much smaller man to grab and pick up. Everyone talks about his clinch fighting - Why is a 6'3'' welterweight specializing in the clinch? And that is why he's never going to amount to a real contender, people.

-I only ended up seeing Alvarez/Curran for about the first two rounds thanks to the show going long and me having a couple programs to record at the same time at 11PM. Oh well. Curran hangs on to survive and wasn't trying to win. Supposedly he may have taken the 5th round. I'll tell you one of these days if I get another chance to watch it.

ULTIMATE FIGHTER WITH BLAHHHHHHH:

Uhhh, fight shown this week was a somewhat interesting battle of positioning between Chris Cope and Javier Torres. Torres was claimed to be perhaps the most or second most talented guy on Team Dos Santos, which makes me very worried for the rest of the year. Chris Cope is a mildly talented brawler in the mold of TUF 9 star Frank Lester. He's a part time fighter who has a little bit of wrestling from probably high school and his time at Team Quest as well as some brawlriffic striking. Torres is obviously a BJJ guy with some kickboxing. For the record, I think Torres clearly won rounds one and two by pushing the fight where he wanted it (against the cage) and landing the better blows in the standup exchanges and in the clinch. Feeling bad or something for Cope, instead he was given the second by a couple judges and we were off to sudden death. There, Torres, dead tired, continued his same sort of wall and stall strategy only to keep losing position in the pummel and even get his back taken briefly. He was just outworked that round, and lost the fight. Torres has zero wrestling. Zero.

PREDICTIONS PREDICTIONS PREDICTIONS:

Last Week: 3-1

Overall for the year: 21-7

MFC 29:

-Douglas Lima against Terry Martin is almost a cruel joke of a fight. Martin epitomizes wasted potential. Lima is just mildly interesting as far as potential goes. Martin has zero chin, but Lima is no great striker. In fact, having watched Lima before, I still have no idea if he can strike. At all. Martin is a decent wrestler, but he is terrible at game plans. Alternately, he's never been submitted. Jesus. I hate fights like this. I gotta go with Martin. Bigger guy, stronger guy, better wrestler, should be able to control where the fight is, and clearly a better striker based on the evidence that exists.

Strikeforce:

-Nick Diaz vs. Paul Daley is an interesting matchup for a great number of reasons. Diaz has largely owned guys standing for sometime, but Daley is not a brawler who relies entirely on pressure. He's a solid technical guy. Daley has suspect takedown defense - he seems to know what he's doing against Jake Shields at times, then gets taken down by Jorge Masvidal other times. Diaz is, frankly, not a great wrestler, and that's gonna be a problem for him. At least, it would be if I had any expectation that this fight was going there. Truth be told, Nick Diaz loses to fighters of Paul Daley's level, and I think that's precisely what happens here. With five rounds and Daley being a punching monster, I think Diaz gets the lights turned out on him here. I can see Diaz winning by submission should he get dropped and Daley follow him to the mat, but if I'm gonna suggest a winner, I'm picking Paul Daley around round 3.

-Mousasi and Jardine is an interesting fight for a great many reasons, but not the least of which is the fact that Mousasi admits to not training in a cage for this bout. All but admits he's anticipating standing and banging. And with Jardine, that is a legitimate possibility. Mousasi is probably a strong enough grappler to fight off Jardine's clinch and takedown attempts, should he bother with them, and as far as them trading punches and kicks goes - would you want to pick Jardine to win a standup fight in light of losing to an old middleweight wrestler from South Africa? I thought not. Mousasi looks good here and rebounds in his career. Jardine continues the spiral into irrelevance.

-Lyle Beerbohm was lucky to get a decision win over Vitor Riberio, who stylistically is very similar to Shinya Aoki but not as good from the bottom. Aoki is a better overall grappler and even if he sucks standing, Beerbohm is no killer. Clear difference in skills, Aoki wins by submission, possibly a leg lock.

-I want to analyze Melendez/Kawajiri, but I don't have the time to do it properly. I think Melendez wins because even though he is a naturally smaller man, he's gotten better technique wise, grown more as a fighter, and the general momentum is on his side.

Strikeforce Challengers 15 (4/1/2011)

April Fools! I'm watching this show because, uhhh, yeah. I was gonna watch it for the Big Show Review and decided instead that it deserved its own entry instead of going back 2-3 years from now and watching it again. This was at the Stockton Arena in, you guessed it, Stockton CA. Headlining the show is ex prospect Rodrigo Damm and Justin Wilcox.

1) Damion Douglas vs. Wayne Phillips: David "Tarzan" Douglas' brother against some guy who is apparently a stablemate of Wilcox.

FIGHT: Douglas Split Decision. I'm not doing a serious breakdown here because this was low level stuff. Douglas was blown up 3 minutes in and still got a W on the cards. I can't say it was entirely undeserved. He won the first 4 minutes of round 1- where the problem was there was that he lost the 5th minute by nearly getting choked out in an RNC as the bell rings. He lost the second in my book (Phillips controlled standing and on the mat) and won the third by outlanding a seemingly catatonic Phillips. But so what? Hands were at his waste and he was flat on with Phillips early. Phillips has no takedowns and Douglas' singles and doubles were barely present. Neither guy could effectively control position on the mat. This was Douglas' first fight in 30 months and it looked it. (0)

2) James Terry vs. Josh Thornburg: 165lb catchweight.

FIGHT: Terry TKO Rnd 1. Whole round is about Terry setting up the right hand. He keeps throwing it and throwing it and Thornburg really isn't doing a good job at all in mitigating it or neutralizing the striking attack. Thornburg eventually eats a low kick and he drops the hand. That happens, Terry throws the right hand, and its all over instantly. (1)

3) Lorenz Larkin vs. Scott Lighty: Once upon a time, Lighty was in K1. He was actually a lot better than the midget heavyweight the UFC has, but hell if you'll get anyone to admit that. Larkin is an undefeated prospect who replaced Satoshi Ishii. Ishii apparently lost his visa or forgot to apply or something. He's a moron. Larkin is not so dumb.

FIGHT: Larkin TKO Rnd 2. Good performance from Larkin who comes in late against a guy brought in to be a can. What can you take from that? Good question I suppose. Larkin demolished Lighty standing, where he should have had the clear advantage. That's a positive. Larkin often followed around Lighty in the ring and threw hooks and kicks, even a flying side kick. Speed wise, it wasn't competitive. Larkin was a much better athlete and fought very well. I'd like to see him fight a bunch more, of course. One thing that I thought was funny was that Larkin would start to dance and move around on the balls of his feet, and do nothing then. And eventually he'd stop and go back to being flatfooted and stalk his man. (1)

4) David Douglas vs. Caros Fodor: Tarzan is one of the best bad fighters ever. Who is Fodor? Uhhhh, no idea.

FIGHT: Fodor TKO Rnd 3. Douglas and Fodor re-enact the opening round of Damion Douglas' fight earlier in the night as Douglas forces it down, takes Fodor's back, Fodor gets out, and ends up controlling the fight standing and then on the mat over the last 2 minutes. From that point though, unlike Damion Douglas, David never starts to stick and move. Never lands the harder shots. Fodor is at least decent standing and pretty OK on the mat, and so he ends up getting takedowns and landing hard shots in the clinch and on the occasions that they are at range. Douglas is blown up early (like his brother) and ends up against the cage getting hit with knees and punches as the ref calls it off in the early part of the third. (1)

5) Rodrigo Damm vs. Justin Wilcox: This is a good fight. Wilcox was a teammate of Koscheck in college I'm told by the announcers. Damm is a solid grappler, but not in the same league as Wilcox's last win (Vitor Riberio). Wilcox is still a small lightweight...kinda like a second tier Sean Sherk.

FIGHT: Wilcox TKO Rnd 1. Wilcox basically follows around Damm, who is running for him, eventually catching him with a leaping right hand that drops Damm and cuts him badly. The rest of the round is GNP and Damm can't get off his stool in th first. Wilcox is a strong guy, no doubt about it, but he's not a big guy like I said. I still think he's too small to make big noise in MMA at lightweight. Featherweight might be a different deal, but he may not want to cut. Besides, there's nothing in Strikeforce to do at 145. (2)

FIGHT OF THE NIGHT: Lighty/Larkin

KO OF THE NIGHT: Thornburg/Terry

OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: 6 out of 10. Not the worst show, not the best. Some prospects that are sorta interesting but who are super embryonic and may end up being nothing.

D&R Rating: 20% (5/25)

Ultimate Glory 13: 2010-2011 World Series Second Round (3/19/2011)

1) Hidouche Lahoucine vs. Allan Gozdizky: Kickboxing bout. Very evenly matched fight with both guys doing some wild stuff (Lahoucine throws a leaping spinning roundhouse in the first!) though it gets real sloppy in the third and Gozdizky gets a yellow card for rough play and gets kneed in the balls shortly thereafter. The yellow card is the deciding factor in the close fight.

2) Nicky Covin vs. Uriel Albamonte: Dudes. Covin is the crowd favorite.

FIGHT: Albamonte Submission Rnd 1. Not much to tell about this fight - Covin comes out swinging, grabs Albamonte, and slams him down. When there, Albamonte has full guard, closes it, and goes for a guillotine. Covin taps, and the fight is over in 45 seconds. (0)

3) Filip Verlinden vs. Frederic Sinistra: Kickboxing bout at heavyweight. Filip Verlinden outworks Sinistra and actually does a decent job keeping distance. Sinistra comes out with the heavy punching style that you expect from a Samoan in K-1 style competition and basically never even attempts to check kicks. Instead, he moves his head and comes forward looking to catch Verlinden moving straight back with punches. Even when Verlinden gets against the ropes, he never allows the big punch to land.

4) Omar Samb vs. Kriss Larcin: Another MMA bout. Both guys are local.

FIGHT: Larcin TKO Rnd 1. Basic KOTC special with Larcin beating the hell out of Samb in the mount until he turns over and gives up the RNC. (0)

5) David Kyrya vs. Robin Van Roosmalen: Kickboxing bout I sorta paid some attention to. Roosmalen wins a decision and basically works over Kyrya with combinations and such, though none of the blows were really devastating. Just decent surgical kickboxing. Kyrya wasn't that bad either.

6) Nicolaj Falin vs. Nathan an't Hoft: More kickboxers. Falin wins a decision and basically beat the hell out of Hoft. Not a bad fight or anything. Just not great.

7) Danny Covyn vs. Sebastian Thirion: MMA bout! Yay!

FIGHT: Thirion Submission Rnd 1. Covyn jumps for a guillotine after about 6 seconds if standup action. He doesn't get it, Thirion gets out of the full guard, and works with strikes to get separation. Once he does, he goes for a leg lock and switches from a heel hook to knee bar to get the tap. (0)

8) Errol Zimmerman vs. Zinedine Hameur Lain: Kickboxing contest. Zimmerman breaks Lain with a high kick that he tries to check with the arm, and Lain just lays across the top rope and waits for the ref to stop it. Beatdown. Not even competitive.

9) Frederic Hainni vs. Bob Van Boxmeer: More kickboxing. Hainni wins a kickboxing contest that was kinda awkward with both guys pushing a lot and that ends with a decision following a headbutt.

10) Nicky Holzen vs. Carlos Tavares: Kickboxing match. Holzen works head and body, and Tavares ends up leaving his hands low and gets KOed hard.

11) Brice Guidon vs. Mourad Bouzidi: Semi finals of the heavyweight kickboxing tournament. Bouzidi is a gatekeeper of a lower level than Guidon. Decent matchup on paper that favors the larger Guidon and he delivers with a surprising show of power from a guy known for arm punching and decisions. He lands a strong right hand to a overly aggressive Bouzidi and drops, leading to the end of the fight in the second.

12) John Alessio vs. Siyar Bahadurzada: Welterweight tournament in MMA, round 2. Bas Rutten and mystery announcer make note of a serious difference in size.

FIGHT: Bahadurzada TKO Rnd 1. Alessio never really shoots the whole fight, getting tagged by Siyar behind the ear about a minute in and being on retreat from that point forwards. He takes a lot of knees to the head and arms but never thinks to take a knee or a point down just to get out of it. Poor guy. Bahadurzada is in tears and misses his recently deceased coach. (2)

13) Tommy Depret vs. Roan Carniero: Depret and Carniero should be on different levels, but Depret is the company boy. What happens here?

FIGHT: Depret Submission Rnd 1. Carniero has no respect for Depret's guard and pays with a straight armbar. There's not a lot to it aside from that. Carniero wants the ground, gets it, and loses. Oops. Depret some how makes it to the finals in spite of being the worst fighter on paper in the entire tournament. Well, aside from the last minute replacement of Derrick Noble. (2)

14) Wendell Roche vs. Gokhan Saki: MAIN EVENT. Also a HW semifinal.

FIGHT: Saki Unanimous Decision. Basically, Saki lands a ton of stuff on Roche, who plays the part of sparring partner. Excitement comes very late when something (what precisely, is not discovered) causes Saki's right eye to swell shut in about 5 seconds. Roche responds by not doing anything, especially not throwing left hand punches that might win him the fight. Did I mention above that this event was held in Belgium because Dutch authorities don't like the ties with organized crime the promotion may have? So yeah.

FIGHT OF THE NIGHT: Lahoucine/Gozdizky

KO OF THE NIGHT: Bahadurzada/Alessio

SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT: Depret/Carniero

OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: 3.5 out of 10. If you are really hyped about kickboxing, you may get something out of this show. Its not the most important kickboxing show ever, but....uhh...okay, its not the most important kickboxing show ever. As far as MMA is concerned, not really any can't miss fights. Bahadurzada got most of the coverage afterwards and that was deserved, but as far as MMA action goes, yeah, you can do better elsewhere.

D&R Rating (MMA bouts only): 16% (4/25)

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.

BIG SHOW REVIEW WEEK OF 3/28

For M-1 and Titan FC, see the individual reviews.

UFC FIGHT NIGHT 24:

-Noguiera defended the takedown! What a job Mark Munoz did in camp for him! I mean, Rodrigo Noguiera did previously beat another strong wrestler in Matyushenko, but I considered him possibly washed up at that time. Still, Noguiera didn't win the fight. After stuffing the doubles in the first, Davis eventually starts working for single and gets those and controls the second and third rounds. His striking is still a bit shaky and robotic. The high kicks are especially uncomfortable looking coming from him. The shot is not super fast - maybe he works on it more now, but a pure power wrestler in the vein of V-Mat, Bader, or Tito isn't gonna get the job done to beat Jon Jones. Not no way, not no how. Noguiera meanwhile regresses to gatekeeper status again. Another fight with Shogun makes sense, as does a Tito fight, a rematch with Bader, a rematch with Brilz, and hell, lots of other fights. He's a good all purpose dude to have around.

-Dan Hardy can't stop the double. That is the story of the fight with Anthony Johnson, who remembered that he was a wrestler first. Joe Rogan specifically points to the grazing high kick in round 1 and resulting top control for Johnson as when he thinks the lightbulb went off in Johnson's head. Do I agree? I dunno. Probably not. Johnson doesn't even set up the shot with strikes - Hardy comes forward, Johnson is bouncing around on his toes, and then he just shoots and gets deep penetration with the shot. Hardy comes away looking just as one dimensional as everyone supposed he was coming in. Anthony Johnson, meanwhile, is like the black Mike Swick. Too small to be an effective middleweight at an elite level, not talented enough to really run with top welterweights but more effective at 170 so long as he can make weight by overpowering lesser guys. Where does he go now? A Koscheck rematch?

-Amir Sadollah is the MMA version of a pressure fighter in boxing. Pressure fighters come forward, throwing combinations, never hurt guys with one shot, and just break you down with the assault. Sadollah was helped in this by Damarques Johnson's poor ability to control the action on the mat when on top. Seriously, Johnson's attempts to pass guard were some of the most poorly suggested ever imaginable. He could have laid in half guard and ground down some of Amir's energy and landed some shots. Instead he lost dominant position twice looking to try and improve on it. Foolish. Amir can't break eggs with his shots, but they do accumulate, and if your opponent isn't that well conditioned, he will fold. Amir also has another problem - he can't wrestle. Still. Don't think he ever will at this point. UFC is giving him good development fights right now but how long will they be willing to keep this up when almost no one remembers Sadollah or what season he's from? I don't remember what season he's from.

-Korean Zombie lands a twister against a guy who's grappling is...uhh....questionable. Oh who cares. Neither one will make a mark in the elite tiers. This was for fun and Jung proved to have changed his approach.

-I tried to watch Hathaway/McCray but got bored and my mind would drift. Hathaway still can't wrestle and McCray is just too generic and mediocre to take advantage of dominant positions or to bang out Hathaway standing (where he was superior to Hathaway). Hathaway gets a couple trips and some sweeps and wins a competitive fight. Problem here is that McCray isn't really a competitive guy at 170 and frankly, Hathaway sorta isn't either. The momentum of the Sanchez fight is long gone now. What we have in the welterweight division is the UFC attempting to manufacture another contender out of the morass of second tier fighters by not matching these guys against one another, and instead putting them in with weaker gatekeeper style fighters. This has led to Anthony Johnson and Carlos Condit sticking their heads up above the rest of the group for right now, wrong or right. IMO wrong and Kampmann is better than either. But who cares about my opinion when most MMA fans are blithering idiots who can't see actual star potential or look at pro fighters rationally as to what they offer? Condit makes for exciting fights against not so good fighters and so he is deserving of skipping over all the guys who actually have beaten people at his level or above, and that's too bad for people like me, who want to see fights that aren't a wash. Oh well. More Koscheck style jab fests, ahoy! At least these guys who will get the shit kicked out of them are white and speak english, so the UFC won't waffle about booking the fights.

I know it sounds like complaining, but really, the UFC should and does know better than this. Maybe its all they can think of doing with the pool of guys from #7-#27?

ULTIMATE FIGHTER:

-Did I really see this shit correctly? This is the list of fighters? Shamar Bailey is who I'm most familiar with and he won the opening bout of the show by laying on German kickboxer Nordin Asrih for two rounds in side control or half guard. His shots were basically uncontested and this was an easy, easy fight. Bailey lost to the son of legendary dirt track racer Steve Kinser and Justin Wilcox in the cage. To be blunt, he's a strong guy and a good wrestler but not much else. Certainly no one to get excited about in the UFC. The rest of the cast, as best I can give opinions on:

Ramsey Nijem: DII/DIII wrestler for Utah Valley, beat a legitimate fighter in Scott Casey.

Len Bentley: Southern fighter. Lost to a McKenzietine. Made it to the M1 Selection Finals and lost.

Charlie Rader: 14-4 Pro record features no meaningful wins. Oddly, he has a meaningful win listed as an amateur bout against Josh Rafferty in Bellator from 2009. Did as well with Adrien Miles as did Dave Menne.

Anthony Ferguson: Win over David Gardner by what appears to be GNP, as well as a W against James Fanshier. Also has lost to Karen Darabedyan.

Ryan McGillvray: Lots of experience against good fighters, unfortunately he's lost to most all of them. Still, experience counts when so many guys totally lack it. BTW, he's serving a suspension from the NSAC. So, yeah. He probably doesn't win.

Mick Bowman: British.

Keon Caldwell: Southern fighter who suffered a submission loss to one of the Lima brothers. Notable in that there's not a lot of BJJ masters on this show.

Clay Harvison, Chris Cope, Chuck O'Neil, Javier Torres, Zack Davis: No notable things to be said at this moment.

Its a crap shoot as far as who wins. Gun to my head, I pick Bailey, I guess. I think Nijem and Rader are the most interesting to see otherwise. I feel like Bowman wouldn't be here if he couldn't fight a little bit, so he should be interesting to see. Cope and O'Neil come from good schools and that may make them better prepared.

BELLATOR:

-M'Pumbu got exposed terribly last year and here in the states it can be expected to happen against. Chris Davis, his opposition for his first US fight, was basically unknown and had suffered losses to modern Jeremy Horn and Vinny Magahales. He got some decent GNP in the first round but as the fight dragged, M'Pumbu was able to generally go for decent submission attempts and totally controlled the third round. He got down Davis after landing some punches, and then beat him up from riding the back landing punch after punch until Davis slumps from a shot to the temple, forcing a stoppage. He's got some decent striking (though his chin is often up while he throws) and his submission grappling is good. However, he is a lousy wrestler.

-Fekete and Hale - I know neither. But man, Hale is a big, big dude. Fekete is a serious wrestler and he's skilled, gets down Hale and looks to take him down again and slam him during a scramble from side control. What does Hale do? An inverted triangle. An inverted triangle. Holy crap. Fekete doesn't even tap, he goes out cold.

-DJ Linderman looks totally different as a light heavyweight. Smaller man as he was at heavyweight, but with the weight down, his cardio is up even more. Against Davis, who is the better wrestler, he again wears him down as he did against the much larger Mario Rinaldo and gets takedowns and lands strong punches at range. Davis is mouth open and gassed, leaning back into shots, and has to shoot in desperation after a particularly hard left hand shot in the second. Linderman still shows that like against Rinaldi, his ability to defend the shot and hold onto position isn't that great, but when the opposition is so tired as it is here, he can hang on. Linderman ultimately wins by TKO after landing lots of punches, takes Davis, throws him to the ground from Thai plumb, and crushes him with a right hand while Davis is on all 4's. Linderman is a sprawl and brawl guy from the days of 2003 and I admit being very surprised that he was successful here. I wouldn't rush to bet against him elsewhere in the tourney.

-Tim Carpenter's win over Daniel Gracie should be a surprise but I didn't really feel that way. Gracie never really adapted to MMA well and Carpenter, a BJJ black belt himself, actually controlled the grappling action and actively went for dominant positions and submissions. He had the mount and two armbar attempts in round 1 alone. On the feet, he tagged Daniel Gracie with punches and rocked him in the second and third. It wasn't a perfect fight, because honestly, he should have tapped him with all the positions he had. But it was solid. And he showed a gas tank that will be key in beating future opponents.

STUFF I MISSED AND CAUGHT UP ON:

Fight for the Troops 2!

Cole Miller vs. Matt Wiman: Cole Miller is a BJJ guy at heart and walks forward punching like one in this fight. The downside of doing that is Wiman counters him as he closes the distance, Miller sucks at infighting, and he gets taken down repeatedly. Wiman takes round after round after round as a result. You can't say that Wiman looks noticeably different in his approach - its just a terrible gameplan for Miller that negates his positives that leads him down the road to a big L.

Joey Beltran vs. Pat Barry: The most overrated striker in the recent history of heavyweight MMA fighting some brawler dude. How does it go? As you'd expect. What I found interesting about this fight was the complete absence of a game plan from Beltran. Apparently his idea was to stand at range from Barry and get kicked? Great idea, dude. He repeatedly finds success pushing Barry to the cage and beating him up with dirty boxing. So does he keep after it? No, because it won't get him a fight of the night bonus and will have him released if he does lose. Instead, he fights stupid and takes a billion leg kicks. Somehow he hangs on to the end of the fight, winning one round on some cards (likely the first) and then dropping the second and third. Barry still can't wrestle, is still small, and still depends on other guys being mediocre to beat up on them.

Joker Guymon vs. Damarques Johnson: Guys who got a UFC contract off of merchandising deals? Joker, of course. Oh, he has some OK wins too, but he didn't get the chance because of his skills. So what happens? Johnson takes him down, gets on top, and eventually transitions to back control. Then Joker taps out to a body triangle after getting straightened out. Joke is on me for watching!

Cody McKenzie vs. Yves Edwards: Still astounded this fight happened. Cody is really a featherweight and should drop. He still is a terrible athlete and is a one trick pony, but who knows. Featherweight sucks. Cody does the usual job of a Gracie BJJ guy and rushes with strikes to get a clinch. Yves is kinda good standing and so this begins to look like it will be a terrible beating. And that's basically what happens. If you are looking for positives from McKenzie, its that he is very tough and can take a hellified beating. He pulls down Yves Edwards and actually has back control for a significant period in the second. But he's not that strong, Yves is too crafty a grappler himself, and after being forced to keep scrambling for position, Edwards eventually reverses position and gets his own RNC. Fighter meets gatekeeper, doesn't pass.

George Roop vs. Mark Hominck: Another sure to be beatdown. Roop stands and bangs and he's fighting a guy who is a lot, lot better than him at that. And that's what we get. Roop doesn't know how to use height, leaves his chin up, and gets demolished. Right hands, left hooks, whatever. They land with impunity because Roop moves straight back, doesn't jab, doesn't throw front kicks, doesn't clinch.

Mike Brown vs. Rani Yahya: Brown is on the wrong side of his career fighting in a division seeing an influx of new talent from a weight class he got bounced out of. Yahya, a last minute replacement who was better suited for 135 than 145, should be a guy he walks through and dominates throughly by taking and holding down. Or by banging out standing where Yahya sucks. So what really happens? Brown lands a strong overhand right over the wild strikes of Yahya, and that's how its looking to go. But Yahya just keeps running and moving, throwing off Brown. That's not good. Then Yahya shoots a single. Brown defends it initially, but keeps getting dragged down and can't get separation. In the second, Brown again goes to strike with Yahya, but then does the astonishing and initiates the clinch. Why do that? Why put yourself at risk instead of strike? Brown is on top and does nothing there after nearly being guillotined. After the standup by the ref, same thing happens. Who is making Brown's gameplans for him? Is he just not capable of executing? Is he that ingrained to wrestle? With Yayha's decision to go to flail and shoot at the start, Brown is again on the defensive and now too tired to do anything about it. He gets taken down and slowly gives up position from full to half guard, then gives up the back, is flattened, and gets Brown beat the hell up with punches. Yamasaki gives Brown a reprieve due to shots to the mohawk area and again its another flail and shoot and Brown can't fight it off.

Hague was a good opponent for Mitrione and his development, wasn't he? Stand and bang guy who is smaller than Mitrione and less of an athlete. Mitrione's southpaw stance is something no one talks about. Hague never threw the straight right to counter and instead ate left hands over and over that he didn't see coming. Joe Silva is hella small too. I keep forgetting about that. And his hair! But back to Mitrione. This is a fairly soft touch intended to build up his record and confidence. Not much past that. He's not at the level that Schaub is but hey, that's expected. He has a long time in the game to get better.

Evan Dunham had no answers for Melvin Guillard's one-two. Never changed the speed up on his closing with Melvin, never came behind his own jab, never set the distance, didn't keep his chin down or use lateral movement. Got caught flat footed and was put out as a result. Melvin needs more wins against this level of competition before anyone can reasonably start to believe in him.

PREDICTIONS PREDICTIONS PREDICTIONS

RESULTS: 3-3

OVERALL FOR THE YEAR: 18-6

STRIKEFORCE:

Weird card with what looks like a Bodog headliner in Rodrigo Damm vs. Justin Wilcox. Damm has never been a great grappler from the bottom, and Wilcox is a pretty darn good one from the top. Put that together with Wilcox's superior wrestling and Damm's losses in 3 of his last 4 and its pretty clear that Wilcox is getting another W. Does he stop Damm? Nah. I don't think so. So he will in 2 rounds.

BELLATOR:

Is it really a newsflash that Pat Curran won't beat Eddie Alvarez? He's not a good enough BJJ guy to do it, and while I think Alvarez is actually getting wilder and more hittable in the standup now than he was 3 years ago, I don't think Curran is the guy to expose him. Alvarez by TKO, crowd goes wild.

Tournament Fights: Lyman Good may have not been able to stop the takedowns of Ben Askren, a potentially undersized grappler, but Askren was a great wrestler who is a ball of kinetic energy being unleashed in the cage and who seeks dominant positions and punches. Rick Hawn is an undersized welterweight who hasn't shown explosive shots and active grappling, but instead shows the game of a flat footed wrestleboxer. Can't bet against Good in this fight. I just can't do it. Good probably would be wise to go to the clinch early and test what precisely Hawn offers for throws and physical strength. See where his technique is or if he plans on overpowering him. If its the latter, then beat him mercilessly.

Toby Imada is everyone's favorite journeyman. Unfortunately, journeymen are journeymen for a reason: They aren't good enough to stay in one place and establish themselves as contenders. Patricky Friere is a lot like Thiago Alves to me. Maybe not as good - somewhere between Thiago Tavares and Thiago Alves in terms of doing similar things with grappling and being willing to look for KOs. Now, Toby Imada got robbed against Pat Curran, but otherwise since 2007 in MMA aside from the KO to Eddie Alvarez hasn't lost. I will agree to this, for whatever that statement means. He has even beaten a guy who I still think is a better fighter in him in Jorge Masvidal. Proof is on youtube! if Friere is willing to take down Imada, he deserves to get submitted, swept, or otherwise lose the fight. But if he plays the smart game and stands at a distance and beats him up, he should stop Imada. And that's a big win for the guy. Way better than Rob McCullough.