2013-07-28
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REVO 4 - Review

Editorial by Jolon Williams

 

REVO 4 - Review

Jolon Williams Camp Presents ...


Robert Urban versus Kevin Pappas

 

 

The Williams' camp opener turned out to be one hell of a slobberknocker, as Pappas left nobody in doubt of his striking ability, absolutely dominating Urban on his path to his second professional victory, his first in REVO, all whilst the unfortunate Robert Urban would fall to a less than impressive 0-6 record. Pappas came out of the gate swinging, and swinging hard, and despite Urban's best attempts to take the fight to the ground where he had an advantage, Pappas simply could not be stopped. Urban did have several chances during the fight where Pappas was displaying some clear balance problems, but unfortunately for him, he would be far too disoriented to take advantage. One can't blame him. When you eat the fists Pappas was firing off, it's hard to maintain clear brain function. The power behind those things were even causing Pappas to fall to the mat ... several times ... at least, that's all I can assume it could have possibly been, as he kept trying to stand up immediately afterwards. To Urban's credit, he took a lot of punishment, albeit in a short amount of time, and didn't go down as easily as one might have thought, but fortunately for Pappas, he only managed to stay in the fight, and could never find the opportunity to take advantage of Pappas' own mistakes in the fight long enough to have any hope of victory.

 

Owner Gradings

 

Kevin Pappas - B-

 

Pappas came into this fight motivated and prepared, and when he started swinging, he was swinging to decapitate. I love it, extremely entertaining to watch, it was fantastic. However, I have to deduct points for the sheer carelessness in his technique, he was putting himself into extremely vulnerable positions against a superior grappler and could have very well cost himself the victory, had Urban been able to keep his wits about him long enough to make him regret it. Fortunately for Pappas, this wasn't the case, and he came out of REVO - 4 with a solid victory.

 

Robert Urban - C-

 

Urban started the fight alright, mixing his strikes in with his takedown attempts, as he tried to drop the action down to the mat where he knew he had the advantage. Unfortunately, he simply wasn't counting on Pappas' power, and as such, he found himself going down hard. Have to give him credit though, once he started taking blows, he took a lot of them, but kept getting up regardless. That shows a helluva lot of heart on his part, and nobody can take that away from him. Unfortunately, nobody can take away that six loss, no victory record he's got going so far either. It's a shame, with tenacity like that, you want to cheer for him. Then you look at his record and wonder if it's worth it. Still though, he's the clear underdog at this stage, and everyone loves an underdog, right?

 

 



Edmund Dorrance versus Reuben Del Rocio

 

 

Dorrance and Del Rocio rounded up the second fight for the Williams' camp at REVO - 4, and this one also ended in a relatively swift knockout. The heartbreaking part of it for Del Rocio's fans is that the fight actually started off well for him. Instigating a quick clinch attempt practically right off the bell, he would then manage to pull Dorrance down to the mat along with him after a couple of attempts and, as we stated prior to the fight, the mat was where Del Rocio's advantage could have very clearly established itself. Yet, perhaps it was pressure, perhaps it was the difference in experience, but once down there, Del Rocio would attempt to impose his dominance, but would fail to connect with any relevant ground and pound, or catch Dorrance in any truly dangerous submission attempts. With Dorrance preventing Del Rocio's best attempts, the referee would seal the grappler's fate when he would make an executive decision to stand the fighters back up. Del Rocio would try to take the fight back down there, but this time, Dorrance would be ready for him. With Del Rocio tiring from numerous failed attempts, it would be Dorrance's turn to step up. Aggressively striking at his hapless opponent, Dorrance would connect with a massive uppercut that would send Del Rocio crumpling to the mat for a convincing three minute KO.

 

Owner Gradings

 

Edmund Dorrance - B+

 

That was definitely a pretty damn exciting fight to watch, even considering it's length ... or lack thereof. For a minute, it seemed like Dorrance had been caught out, but he managed to keep his calm on the ground, control Del Rocio and convince the referee that the fight was going nowhere on the mat. Going off the old adage of fool me once, fool me twice, Dorrance accordingly refused to fall for the same tactic twice, and bided his time, picked his mark and let loose at the perfect moment, a definite and deserving knockout victory. The only thing that concerned me was that Dorrance was supposed to be the clear cut superior striker, but he seemed to be having some trouble landing his strikes, just as Del Rocio had trouble on the ground in his own right. He got the victory today, but he might want to look on improving his accuracy, so he doesn't get caught flat footed again.

 

Reuben Del Rocio - C

 

Hard to mark Del Rocio down either, to be honest. He knew where he needed the fight, he got it there ... he just couldn't keep it there. Honestly, if he had been a bit more aggressive and worked towards convincing the referee that the fight deserved to stay on the mat, the fight might have had a different result. Unfortunately for Del Rocio, his caution didn't pay off, in fact, it ended up costing him. I'd say it was definitely the difference of experience that made it's mark here tonight.

 



Mirko Filipovic versus Brice Bulk

 

 

Filipovic would make it three in a row for the Williams' camp in terms of quick knockouts, as he dispatched of the grappler Bulk with minimal difficulties. Despite his grappling prowess, Bulk would find himself utterly unable to unbalance Filipovic, perhaps in part due to an over zealous predictability. Filipovic, on the other hand, would display an excellently honed Muay Thai prowess, connecting with a multitude of nasty looking head kicks which would play a large part in sending Bulk to dreamland. A very large part. Early on, Filipovic would connect with his first head kick, a slicer that would open Bulk up instantly ... perhaps in itself, playing a factor in Bulk's lack of effective grappling. A cut on the head is certainly not going to do anything to aid vision. Bulk would attempt to shake it off, but with a second, a third and a fourth landing all in a short space of time, he would find himself unable to even catch his breath, being taken off his feet himself twice before finally being caught by a nasty looking right hook which would just prove to be one too many blows to the head.

 

Owner Gradings

 

Mirko Filipovic - A -

 

A plethora of missed punches would serve as smokescreen that would effectively set up those nasty, game changing head kicks. Keeping unpredictability on his side, Filipovic outplay and outwit his opponent to score this victory. The fact that it would actually be one of those less effective punches as opposed to the kicks that played such a large part for him in this fight, was just a little bit of comedic icing on the cake.

 

Brice Bulk - D -


Perhaps he's not completely too blame, given the fact that his vision was quickly impaired after being busted open by those afore mentioned kicks, but Bulk's poor gameplan was what ultimately failed him. If he had adopted a more cautious strategy on stand-up, rather than simply bull rushing his opponent, he might have successfully initiated a grappling battle, one in which he had a considerable advantage. Unfortunately for him, said bull rushing left him an easy target for Filipovic to land some high damage strikes with little risk, and with no payoff for Bulk himself.

 



Jack Ovaltrades versus Stanley Stuus

 

 

The co main event was a bout that featured some mildly surprising fight tactics from Stanley Stuus. As is well known, Ovaltrades was considered to be the highly superior grappler in the fight and, being a black belt, there are very few who would even wish to tangle with him on the mat. Yet, for Stuus, this was no issue whatsoever. First round, barely even waiting, Stuus would immediately charge in for the takedown, an attempt which Ovaltrades would not even attempt to prevent, but rather, simply go a long with it whilst negotiating a favourable position. Something at which, given his prowess on the mat, he would succeed in, causing the fans to question all the more as to why Stuus would even favour this odd course of action to begin with. Yet Stuus would continue on with this tack, taking the fight to the ground twice more through the fight, where Ovaltrades would stubbornly keep it through to a decision victory on his part, due to his sheer dominance of Stuus on the mat. To give him credit, Stuus did manage to evade a submission loss, however, why he would instigate the mat game in the first place will forever remain a complete mystery in this writer's mind.

 

Owner Gradings

 

Jack Ovaltrades - C

 

Honestly, I wasn't sure what to make of this fight. However, what I do know is what I saw, and if Ovaltrades had not been so lucky as to have an opponent who was willing to take the fight into his domain, then he may very well have not emerged the victor tonight. Given his experience, one might think he would know better, but his predictable attempt of takedown after takedown lead to sheer predictability on his part, and Stuus was easily able to evade attempt after attempt, with Ovaltrades landing only one of his ten attempts overall. Once on the ground, Ovaltrades controlled the action, but the inability to finish the fight where he is strongest and at a clear advantage, drops his grade significantly.

 

Stanley Stuus - F

 

Is there anything really to say, that hasn't already been said? Stuus made a huge mistake. If he had kept this fight standing, he was the definite favourite, and when he did decide to throw strikes as opposed to grapple, he had Ovaltrade's number. He was also more than able to avoid Ovaltrades' own attempts to instigate a mat battle, which makes one think that, had he planned for this fight properly, it might have ended on a very different note. It's a shame, it really is.

 



Kaiohun Rayo versus Max Jacks

 

 

Quick knockouts seemed to be the theme of the night for the Williams' camp, with the main event making it four out of the five camp fights to not even make it out of the first round. Jacks would bullrush out of his corner with the clear intent to take the fight down to the mat, but Rayo was two steps ahead of him, and had already quite clearly gameplanned for that exact scenario. With Jacks blindly charging him in a desperate attempt to instigate a more grappling oriented contest, Rayo opted to pick his spots more concisely. Three carefully placed blows to Jacks' head were all that he needed, as Rayo's monstrous KO power would once again surface, notching his record up to 9-6, with all nine of said victories coming in some form of knockout or the other.

 

Owner Gradings

Kaiohun Rayo - A+

 

Nothing bad can even be said about his gameplan. He planned for the scenario he knew Jacks was most likely to come out with, and countered the strategy flawlessly, executing it ... and Jacks, in a swift and convincing fashion.

 

Max Jacks - D-

 

Unfortunately for Jacks, he was outplanned and outplayed. Rayo knew what he was going to do, and Jacks simply didn't have time to even realise it before he was face down on the mat. I can appreciate wanting the fight on the ground, but given his own striking prowess, he probably might have wanted to mix it up a little with some punches and kicks of his own, rather than being so predictable and making things that much easier for his opponent.

 

REVO - 4 is over, but Camp Wars is right around the corner! Visit REVO Betting today, and place your bets for the month's most publicised MMA event!

 

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