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 On June the 20th of 2015, The original Global Association of MMA™, managed by Mentor Corleone (3503), presented GAMMA#489 Steigelmann v Tamias (830871) for the 91, 576 GAMMA fans in attendance at the LA Memorial Colossuseum, as well as the hundreds of thousands of fans watching from all over the world. GAMMA#489 was proudly sponsored by GREEN!160, providing nutritional products from Las Vegas.
The evening’s main event featured a rematch between Gunnar Steigelmann and Tamias Poochyena, only this time the Open Weight Championship was on the line. The card was dominated with Open Weight bouts, featuring the likes of other great fighters including Lan Mandragon, Fat Gorilla and Kieron Radebe. I’m Nick James, and this is your review of GAMMA#489 Steigelmann v Tamias. Full details can be found at http://www.mmatycoon.com/orgeventpublic.php?EvID=830871
Undercard
Open Weight Bout - Leeroy Russo (84056) [LEGION OF DOOM] Def. Brian "Bad" Mason (206606) [DomiNation] via Unanimous Decision
The evening was kicked off with a bout between Leeroy Russo and Brian Mason. Striker Russo made his GAMMA debut in this fight and was looking to start his GAMMA career with a bang, to get the attention of the higher powers and with a record of 32-20 coming in, it was a definite possibility. His opponent Mason made his second GAMMA appearance after losing his debut to Zeus Leonidas. The tactics of each fighter were obvious within the first few minutes, with Russo wanting to stand and Bang and Mason wanting to wrestle. Russo prepared well for the wrestling ability of Mason and displayed some great escapes as well as a sweep. Russo’s dominance on the feet and defensive wrestling was more than enough to earn him a unanimous decision victory.
Light Heavyweight Bout - Harry Punani (105478) [GRABTHE.INFO] Def. Henry Olonga (157683) [LEGION OF DOOM]
The second bout of the evening marked the GAMMA debuts of two light heavyweights in Harry Punani and Henry Olonga. Punani, a wrestling stand out, made his 60th professional appearance in this bout after losing 4 of his last 5 fights. His opponent, Olonga, came in making only his 10th professional appearance after winning his first 9 fights, with this fight being under a new manager in Gale Hawthorne (22636). He had not, however, fought since 2013, so there was definitely some ring rust on his part coming in. Punani put in a dominant wrestling performance which Olonga really had no answer for, setting up a well-earned unanimous decision victory for Punani. Olonga’s loss sends him back to the drawing board with a loss for the first time, so it will be interesting to see how he recovers from this.
Lightweight Bout - Augustus "The Last Prince" Belvedere IV (123199) [LEGION OF DOOM] Def. Vasiliy "Khozyain" Khrapov (202931) via Round 2 TKO (3:48)
The next fight featured yet another fighter making his GAMMA debut in Vasiliy Khrapov who faced Augustus Belvedere IV. Belvedere IV, unlike his opponent, can be considered a veteran of sorts here at GAMMA as he came in with 11 previous GAMMA fights and a win streak 3 fights long. After slugging it out in minor organisations for a lengthy amount of time, wrestler Vasiliy Khrapov was finally given an opportunity to fight in GAMMA at 36 years old, bringing with him a decent 19-11 record. After a first round dominated by Belvedere IV’s striking, he managed to land a heavy head kick and right hand midway through the second round, before finishing Khrapov with strikes and delivering his usual offensive and misguided speech regarding the Islamic faith, fuelled by his blind hatred and prejudice. After a poor GAMMA debut, Khrapov has found himself unsigned and low on cash.
Middleweight Bout – Ava "Q" Noel (181965) [LEGION OF DOOM] Def. Luca "scrapatutti" Turilli (131893) [Steel Penn Alliance] via Round 1 KO (3:44)
The next bout took place at 185 and featured Ava Noel and Luca Turilli. Noel came into the fight with a record of 19-13 and was looking to come back from defeat against Arthur Curry in what would be his third GAMMA fight. His opponent Turilli has been around GAMMA much longer, but was also coming off the back of a defeat. Both men are tremendous strikers and always look to finish fights, so there was no doubt that their fight would be a stand up war and would probably end with one of the men seeing stars. The fight was quite even with both men being cut in the first round and landing a decent amount of strikes. Towards the end of the round, Noel hit Turilli with a hard cross which rocked him. Noel didn’t need a second invitation and stormed Turilli, eventually hitting him with another hard cross which sent Turilli’s lights out and his mouth guard into the crowd, giving Turillo his second loss in a row.
Open Weight Bout - Iivana "Miltei" Jalo (191173) [FinnFighters] Def. Curtly Ambrose (144959) [LEGION OF DOOM] via Round 2 TKO (3:28)
The fifth fight of the evening pitted Iivana Jalo against Curtly Ambrose. Boxer Jalo came into the fight with a record of 27-17, but was coming off the back of a loss to Fat Gorilla in his very first GAMMA appearance. His opponent Ambrose, while older than Jalo, had a much smaller record of 11-3-1, partly due to having not competed since 2013. This fight marked his first GAMMA fight, which is by no means an easy way to come back from a large lay-off, especiall against an opponent like Jalo. Ambrose showed no sign of ring rust in the first round and dominated Jalo from both distance as well as in the clinch. The second round started much the same until the fourth minute, where Jalo ducked under a hook and landed a brutal uppercut which sent him staggering into the cage and the ref running between the fighters to prevent further damage. Not the MMA return Ambrose was hoping for, but he did look very good up until the TKO.
Light Heavyweight Bout - Yorick "The Last Man" Brown (178737) [LEGION OF DOOM] Def. Marko Torturo (54639) [LEGION OF DOOM] via Round 2 TKO (0:44)
The final bout of the undercard was a fight between strikers Yorick Brown and Marko Torturo. Brown, with a record of 25-12 and a 2 fight win streak, is a fighter right near the top of the pack in GAMMA’s Light Heavyweight division. His opponent Torturo is a true veteran of the sport, he has had over 75 professional fights and with a win streak of five fights coming into this bout, the 41 year old is showing no signs of slowing down. Brown put on a striking clinic in round 1, completely out striking Torturo, which he continued into the second round, landing an early combination which dropped Torturo. Brown let him stand back up before swarming him with strikes until the referee had no choice but to award Brown with win number 26.
Main Card
Open Weight Bout - Kieron "The Chief" Radebe (183758) [LEGION OF DOOM] Def. Billy "Danzinie" Danze (149908) via Unanimous Decision
The first fight of the main card saw striker Kieron Radebe go up against Billy Danze. This fight marked Radebe’s 5th fight at GAMMA, having won 3 of his previous 4. Those 4 fights were also under a new manager, Gerbert Bryant (84742), a partnership which has been quite a success thus far. The Englishman, Radebe, has an outstanding skill set, particularly in the striking department, but has never held gold in any organisation and at 31 years old, there is still plenty of time for him to do it here at GAMMA. His opponent is quite the opposite of Radebe. Danze is an elite grappler from the US and has an extensive championship history, holding various championships at other organisations, including the Steel Penn belt which he still holds. Upon entering GAMMA, the 34 year old had a record of 30-11 and a win streak 10 fights long. This was enough to warrant him an instant title figts against Tamias Poochyena and Patrick Bateman, both of which he lost. Coming into the bout with Radebe, both he and his manager Walt Heisenberg (50814), had to prepare for a 3 round non-title fight for the first time in 9 fights and were both desperate to get a win on the board against a very tough opponent.
Right at the beginning of the first round, the fight nearly came to an end with Radebe eating some huge shots while being pressed against the cage, one of which cut him. Radebe worked out of the position and the fight returned to distance where he immediately found himself defending takedowns. He defended four takedowns and began to dominate the striking exchanges before cutting Danze, and then clinching up with him against the cage. Danze, a BJJ black belt decided to pull guard and instantly began looking for submissions, all of which were defended well by Radebe until he closed off a dominant round in the guard of Danze.
Round 2 commenced with Radebe dominating the stand up and landing some stellar leg kicks, which really slowed down Danze and made it even harder for him to score takedowns on Radebe. Radebe defended takedown after takedown, both in the clinch and from distance and closed off a dominant round with a spinning back kick.
Round 3 started very much the same until Radebe scored a heavy head kick which knocked Danze down and rocked him. Radebe called him back to the feet and continued to chip away at him, looking for a finish. Against the flow of the match, Danze finally scored with a takedown, but Radebe defended well until the referee returned the fight to the feet, where Radebe would re-enter the clinch and dominate the rest of the round.
Radabe was handed a unanimous decision victory after an impressive performance, with two of the judges going as far as to score round 2 as 10-8 in favour of Radebe, bringing him closer to his dream of wearing GAMMA gold. In his post-fight interview, he gave a very heartfelt thank you to his fans for all they do for him. With loses in all 3 of his GAMMA bouts, Danze has learnt the hard way that competition here at GAMMA is like no other organisation and he will need to come up with something else in order to start picking up wins here.
Middleweight Bout - Bobby "The Black Knight" Bishop (186392) [LooHoo Crew] Def. Diego "Nightmare" Sanchez (142862) [LEGION OF DOOM] via Unanimous Decision
The second fight of the main card was a bout between Bobby Bishop and Diego Sanchez, which had big implications for the top of the middleweight division. At 31 years olf, Northern Ireland’s Bobby Bishop came into what was his second GAMMA fight with a record of 24-9-1, after picking up a win against Luca Turilli in his GAMMA debut at GAMMA#482. All of Bishop’s fights have been under the management of Cause McDubree (17807) who has lead him to several title fights and becoming the champion at RYZE: New York. His opponent Diego Sanchez had a much more extensive GAMMA record coming into the fight with 18 previous GAMMA fights. Although he did not begin his career with current manager Gale Hawthorne (22636), they have been working together since 2012 and the majority of his 60 fights have come under his management. As well as an extensive GAMMA history, Sanchez brought with him to the fight, a 40-18-2 record and an extensive championship history. At 35 years old the Mexican, Sanchez, has had plenty of time to fight in various organisations and has taken part in 27 chapionship fights, holding the titles of 3 organisations including GAMMA 3 times. It is interesting to note that he has held belts at 135, 145 and 155, but is now fighting in the 185 pound division here at GAMMA. Another interesting statistic is that while under Hawthorne’s management, he has never successfully defended a title more than once. Coming into the fight, Sanchez knew a win against Bishop could set him up with title fight number 28, so he was desperate for the win.
Both fighters are known for their striking ability and were more than happy to slug it out at distance for the duration of the battle. It became obvious in the first round that the two strikers were very evenly matched as they both threw a high volumes of strikes at their opponents, trying to inflict some damage on not only the face of their opponent, but also the body and legs. The round was very even, but Diego Sanchez was seemingly getting the better of the exchanges throughout the round.
Round 2 was very much the same, with the two strikers banging from distance. Despite being cut and falling victim to a nasty groin shot, Bishop showed his class and took round 2 from Diego, making the third round the decider.
Sanchez, a Mixed Martial Arts veteran, knew the importance of the final round and was ready to pull out a match winning performance. Bishop simply could not keep up with the output of Sanchez as Sanchez put in the most dominant round of either fighter, landing a large number of strikes, which was more than enough to take the final round.
Going into the judges’ decision, most people in the arena and at home would have been thinking Diego Sanchez would get the nod, but when the judges’ decision was rendered, that was not the case. Bishop was awarded the split decision victory, much to the disgust of fans, Gale Hawthorne and most of all Diego Sanchez, Bobby Bishop didn’t seem to mind though, as he hyped himself after the fight, before being awarded with an opportunity to fight for the belt. The statistics released after the fight showed that Sanchez did indeed land more strikes in rounds 1 and 3 and should probably have been given the decision, but it just goes to show that there are no guarantees when you leave a fight in the hands of the judges.
Open Weight Bout - Lan "Aanallein" Mandragoran (169650) [LEGION OF DOOM] Def. Fat Gorrila (204973) via Round 1 KO (0:52) Knockout of the Night
The co-main event of the evening was a Open Weight bout between elite finishers Lan Mandragon and Fat Gorilla. As well as being finishers, both fighters have a lot in common in that they have both been fighting at the top of GAMMA for a long time and are both former champions. They have also headlined an event together in which Mandragon beat Gorilla via TKO to claim his Open Weight title, a loss Gorilla has been itching to avenge for some time. Indian striker Lan Mandragon is yet another Gale Hawthorne (22636) fighter, who is currently 32 years old and brought a record of 30-15 into the Gorilla fight. He is a two time GAMMA champion, but came into the fight of the back of a loss to Gunnar Steigelmann for the championship. His opponent Fat Gorilla hails from Madagascar and is four years younger than his opponent. The 28 year old BJJ black belt went into the fight with a record of 15-10 with all of his fights being managed by Igor Psycho (6994). He came into the fight as a one-time GAMMA champion and would be hoping to carry the momentum of his last fight, a TKO victory over Iivana Jalo, all the way to a second championship reign, but first he needed to get through Mandragon.
We were all expecting fireworks, but I don’t think anybody was quite expecting what happened in the fight. The round started with both guys throwing a few strikes, trying to feel each other out, until Mandragon hit a crazy flying knee to the temple of Gorilla, knocking him out.
Mandragon, stoked with his incredible victory, left the cage without saying anything. His brutal knockout made the KO of a night decision pretty straight forward and was enough to earn him the next title shot in the Open Weight division.
Open Weight Title Fight - Tamias Poochyena (135965) [GRABTHE.INFO] Def. Gunnar Steigelmann (196145) [Milwaukee’s Best] via Split Decision Fight of the Night
The main event of the evening was a thrilling battle between Tamias Poochyena and Gunnar Steigelmann for the GAMMA Open Weight title. Coming into the fight Poochyena had won eight of his last nine fights, including a win over his opponent Steigelmann in 2014. A win in this fight would also mark the start of his second run as GAMMA champion, after losing the belt to Lan Mandragon in his only GAMMA loss. Poochyena and his manager, Seppo Koskinen (2820), are looking to make this championship run more memorable and at 36 years old, the Finland native still has some time to make that happen, but it all needed to start with a victory over Steigelmann. The records of Poochyena and Steigelmann were 37-16-3 and 20-10 respectively, highlighting the fact that German fighter Gunnar Steigelmann is 6 years younger than his opponent. Steigelmann had been on an absolute tear leading into the fight, with a win streak of 6 including his most recent victory over the man who beat Poochyena for the belt. Steigelmann and his manager, Dom Jaehnke (20196), were surely impressed with the form of Steigelmann coming into the fight, but would have both been relishing the opportunity to get a win back over Poochyena. It is interesting to note that Poochyena is 26cm taller than Steigelmann, leading to a prominent reach advantage which could have definitely affected the outcome of the match.
Both men being strikers had no interest in taking the fight to the ground or clinching, leaving the fans with a stand up war to keep them entertained. At the beginning of the first round, Steigelmann was instantly the more aggressive fighter, throwing a much greater volume of strikes, but despite this, he was having a lot of trouble landing his punches due to his heavy reach disadvantage. He was however, landing a lot of leg kicks to the long limbs of Poochyena perhaps in the hope that they would eventually begin to slow him down. Against the flow of action, Poochyena opened a cut on Steigelmann with a right hand. The round continued the way it had been going after that, leading to Steigelmann clearly winning the round.
In the second round, Poochyena seemed to be more awake and began throwing and landing some more strikes, particularly leg kicks of his own. This lead to a very close second round, but Poochyena seemed to take it.
In round 3, Poochyena had definitely found his range, or perhaps his leg kicks were beginning to take a toll on Steigelmann. Poochyena dominated the round, completely out striking his opponent. This lead to Steigelmann’s cut being worsened, something which worried his corner as they did not want to see their fighter lose on the basis of a cut. Poochyna continued to dominate the round until the buzzer went.
Poochyena came alive in the fourth round, scoring an early knockdown from a counter combination which rocked Steigelmann. Poochyena waved him back to his feet only to score a second knockdown with a big right hand. About a minute later poochyena hit the same counter combination, knocking Steigelmann down a third time. Around two minutes after that, Poochyena landed a counter head kick scoring a fourth knockdown in the space of a single round. Steigelmann showed a tremendous chin and undying heart to stay in the fight despite being rocked and knocked down four times in the space of five minutes, but clearly lost round 4, meaning he needed a finish in round 5.
In round 5, Steigelmann tried to make a comeback, but was struggling to land anything on Poochyena. The round was however, much more even than the previous two, but Poochyena seemed to get the better of Steigelmann in the final round. It was certainly a much closer round than the previous two, however.
As the judges rendered their decision, it seemed like a pretty clear win for Poochyena, as he had most likely won four of the rounds, with round 4 possibly being a 10-8 round. One of the judges, however, gave the fight to Steigelmann. I am not sure what fight he was watching, but it didn’t matter in the end as Tamias Poochyena took the split decision victory. Following the fight Poochyena gave a terribly incoherent speech, trying to hype himself, which marked a good time for the fans to start heading out after a spectacular night of fights.
Stay tuned for GAMMA#490!
Review by Nick James (104699)
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