2014-06-02
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Newton vs Koothrappali 3

Editorial by Pedro Fernandes

The highly anticipated bout between Christopher Newton and Rajesh Koothrappali happens today. These two men have met on two occasions before, with one of the fights ending a draw, and the other a decision victory for Newton. Both of the fights were subject to controversy in regards to the judging, and both of them earned Fight of the Night honours. In an attempt to remove all doubt on who is the better fighter, Newton will have to overcome the difficulties he faced in the first two fights, and that is facing a superior wrestler.

Rajesh has had 9 bouts in his career, 5 victories, 3 defeats and 1 draw. Coming into the first Newton fight, he was highly regarded as a brilliant wrestler with slick submissions. He had two prior victories, both of them coming by submission - kimura and RNC. Following the announcement that there would be a four man Barbarian Fight Club welterweight tournament, there was one fight to make to determine the fourth participant - Newton vs Koothrappali 1. At the time of the announcement, Koothrappali was 2-0 while Newton was 1-0, having won one bout by submission in the first round. Koothrappali was the better wrestler, but Newton had a slight edge in striking, even though unpolished at the time. The first fight was contested on the ground during most of the fight. Koothrappali initiated with the takedowns, while Newton worked on his sweeps and position control. None of the fighters were able to sink in a submission even with the 39 combined attempts. The fight was judged as a draw, with one judge scoring it for Newton, one scoring it for Koothrappali and one scoring it as a draw.

Following the fight, there was still uncertainty as to whom would the 4th participant go to. Fans of Newton believed he earned it by superior positioning, while Koothrappali's fans believed that his submission attempts won him the fight. Fernandes, the organisation owner, decided that only a rematch would remove all doubt, and thus he arranged Newton vs Koothrappali 2 at Barbarian FC 6. 

Coming into the fight, both fighters were confident that they would win it. While 'Raj' had worked on improving his grappling, Newton had taken a different approach and worked on his striking. The fight was to be part of the BFC 6 main card, just two fights off the main event, contested by Saintclair and Mies. The fight started with a bullrush from Raj who took Newton down in the beginning minute of the fight. Until the very last minute, Newton was on his back and defending submission attempts from Raj, who tried everything, kimuras, forearm chokes, rear-naked chokes, armbars and more. The round ended with Newton on top, but only for the briefest of moments. The first round was judged to have been a clear one for Raj. During the one-minute break, Newton was told to feint a right-hand straight, back out and then hit Raj with a one-two combination.

The second round started with Newton executing his corner's instructions, he hit Rajesh with a jab and then followed with a hook which knocked Raj down. Newton followed and tried to submit him, but was unsuccessful. The fight was then contested again on the ground, with Newton controlling most of the round with superior position, back control and mount. However, during the round, Raj regained his senses and was able to reverse the position twice. The round was a clear one for Newton.

The third and decisive round started with a quick double leg takedown onto Newton's guard. Koothrappali was careless, went for a kneebar and was reversed, putting Newton on the top. Newton would advance to mount and look to control, while Raj was going for submissions. He was unable to mount any significant offence, and lost the third round. The scorecard had Newton winning unanimously.

The two men faced different paths after that fight with Newton going on to win the BFC tournament as a heavy underdog, beating Andokuhle and Chiamaka Congo en route to winning the BFC 170lbs title. Rajesh on the other hand, rebounded quickly with submission victories over Jared Gracie and Dustin Clare, but would then lose a title-eliminator match against Chiamaka Congo.

In their last fights, Newton defended the title against Chiamaka Congo with a first round submission, but then lost his title by the same way to Marcelo Aurelio, the black belt twenty year old prodigy. Rajesh had already lost to Aurelio at that point, but he rebounded against Matt Brown with a close contested decision victory. 

On Saturday the 31st, the record will be settled. It is the perfect time for this grudge match, and there is no better place than Barbarian Fight Club to host this fight. Tune in tomorrow as our live play-by-play coverage begins at 10pm local time.

 

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