PBP Commentary

Coming up we have a light heavyweight MMA rules bout between Ricky Shopionus (ranked 0 p4p, 0 weight class) and Iain Reilly (ranked 0 p4p, 0 weight class). Shopionus comes into the arena with Truck stop - Baja maja blaring out of the sound system. Reilly has chosen Dubliners - Fields of Athenry as his entrance music, which hasn't gone down very well with the crowd. Over to our ring announcer for the fighter introductions!

Shopionus
vs
Reilly

186 cm
28
215 lbs
4 - 4 - 0

186 cm
21
218 lbs
2 - 5 - 0

Good wrestling
World class boxer
Cardio machine

BJJ Purple Belt
Excellent boxer
Powerful

Bad Man Clothing (Nothing Over $40)

Ladies and gentlemen. This fight is 3 rounds, in the light heavyweight division.
Introducing the fighter to my left, fighting out of the red corner.
With a record of 4 - 4 - 0, fighting out of Helsinki, Ricky Shopionus!
And introducing the fighter to my right, fighting out of the blue corner.
With a record of 2 - 5 - 0, fighting out of New York, Iain Reilly!
The judges for this bout are Russell Pearce, Steve Montenegro and Reed Andrews.

The bell rings for round one and we are underway!

Shopionus gets taken down but at least he's managed to land in guard.
Reilly throwing strikes from guard but Shopionus blocks nicely.
Reilly working some ground and pound from guard but it's not doing any damage.
Reilly has the superior BJJ but he's also working some ground strikes into his gameplan.
Reilly with a couple of shots to the head there. Not particularly brutal.
Shopionus is doing well to control the posture of his opponent and prevent any damage.
Shopionus working the defensive guard well to avoid strikes from Reilly.
We've had a slow start to the round here - hopefully the action picks up.
Shopionus is avoiding any damage by keeping wrist control.
A big thud reverberates around the arena there as Reilly accidentally thumps the mat. Hopefully he's not broken his hand.
Reilly scoring with some ground and pound.
Shopionus trying to keep a closed guard but Reilly is proving a slippery customer.

That's one minute gone in the round.
Reilly trying to control but Shopionus is working from the bottom.
Reilly postures up and lands a big shot to Shopionus's brow.
Shopionus looking to control.
A real slowdown in the pace of the fight for a moment, as Shopionus holds on and takes a little breather.
Shopionus utilising some decent striking defenses from the guard, preventing the ground and pound.
Shopionus preventing the ground and pound from doing any damage.
Reilly throwing strikes but missing.
Shopionus looking to control the pace of the fight rather than finish it.

The referee decides to stand the fighters back up.
A big right from Reilly misses.
Shopionus is looking to counter punch.

That's two minutes gone in the round.
The crowd are starting to boo a lack of action.
Reilly throws a right and a left that both miss.
Shopionus looks to have improved his striking defense since last time we saw him fight.
Reilly misses with a looping left.
Reilly has his takedown stuffed
and Shopionus counters with a nice uppercut.

It looks like Iain Reilly has been cut.
Shopionus keeping a good distance there, avoiding the body shot.
Iain Reilly seems to be the more aggressive standup fighter in this bout.
Reilly swings and misses with a shot to the body
and Shopionus connects with a straight left hand counter down the middle.
Shopionus connects with a hook to the side of his opponent's head.
Reilly tests Shopionus's chin there with a solid looking shot.
Shopionus uses good head movement to avoid the hook from Reilly.
Shopionus was looking to counter that move with a punch but didn't quite pull the trigger.
Reilly throws a series of punches but Shopionus avoids them all with ease.

Shopionus sends Reilly crashing to the mat with a devastating uppercut! Shopionus is motioning to the referee to let Reilly up. He wants to try and finish this one on the feet!

Reilly is rocked!
Shopionus lands hard precision jab right on the jaw that stiffens Reilly up and sends him tumbling to the mat! The ref grabs Shopionus from behind before he can pounce. Some folks in the crowd didn't like that stoppage, but I saw Reilly's eyes roll way back in his head, he was done.

Ladies and gentlemen, after 2:47 of round 1, we have a winner by way of KO (Punch). Ricky Shopionus!
Ricky Shopionus spent the whole post fight interview bigging himself up. It didn't go down that well with the fans after a while as they thought it was a bit arrogant.