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 Another exciting night is in the books as the 205 division is one step closer to crowning their first ever champion! And, that future champion is one step closer to becoming $1 million richer!! Not only did those tournament fights show out, but we had some other great fights and great finishes on the card this night.
Fight of the Night
Santino Cabal vs Curly Bill Brocius
This was a hell of a fight. There were several fights to consider for this award, but what ultimately made the decision to award this fight the award was simple. Brocius rocked Cabal and Cabal recovered only to turn the tables and finish the fight by TKO in the next round. That's the ultimate "back and forth" as far as I'm concerned.
KO of the Night
Kane Thoupos
This award had several nominations too as 5 of our fights ended in TKO victory. Unfortunately, none were actual KO victories as our judges were being over protective, but a good TKO is just as good as a KO... usually. None of these 5 TKO's were particularly special, so the KotN award went to the fighter who performed the finish on the big stage under the brightest lights. With this TKO, Thoupos locked himself into the title fight against Cabal next month.
Sub of the Night
Woodie Maykit
There were two submission victories so it was a 50/50 chance on who would win this award. Neither one really jumped out at us when watching live, but when a guy gets to take your back and lock in a RNC, it shows he outworked his opponent and had the "show no mercy" attitude it takes. Woodie won this award for his effort and ruthlessness.
We're going to try doing this a little different this time. Normally, I start off with the Main and Co-Main events followed by the rest of the card in reverse order of the fights. But, we're going to mix this up and go in order of the fights, saving the best for last.
Undercard:
Carey Bolden DEF Jonathan Jimenez Jimenez via Unanimous Decision
Our opening fight of the evening had two fighters struggling to get started in their careers as they both were searching for their first win. Bolden got the early takedown and started spamming submission attempts on JJJ that had the crowd booing to close out the first round. Not exactly how we want to start off an event, but it is what it is. In the 2nd round, JJJ initiated a clinch in which didn't slow down Bolden from getting another takedown. JJJ got a nice reversal but I'm not sure anyone even noticed while hearing the announcement from back stage that JJJ had eaten all the pies! What in the hell? We had 15 pies on hand... At least in this round, it was a bit more of a balanced fight and the crowed stopped booing, but still nothing exciting. The third and final round, however we got to see something new! JJJ came running across the cage and got a shoot takedown on Bolden! Of course, Bolden didn't seem to mind as he fell into a submission attempt and they started doing their typical sweaty man hugging from the ground. The fight went to the score card where all three judges scored the lop sided victory for Bolden. Just to note, the only point JJJ scored the entire fight was his takedown. He didn't score another point the entire fight. Bolden, however, mixed things up on the ground and scored several points.
Mike Barnes DEF John Puckett via TKO (Strikes)
Our second fight of the evening should have been the one to kick the night off. This fight had the fans on their feet and jumping and they were talking about it after the event was over. Not even making it to the one minute mark, Barnes beat the snot out of Puckett with a good mix of strikes. He was super aggressive and Puckett wasn't able to get a single shot off and failed at his only two takedown attempts. Barnes, however, was a perfect 100% accurate with his strikes and he mixed them up well. Only 56 seconds into the round, an overhand right dropped Puckett and Barnes showed that killer instinct and no mercy to finish off the fight.
Woodie Maykit DEF Kritoff Ajer via Submission (RNC) - SotN
And how do you follow up a quick fight like that? Well, you don't.. not really.. but Maykit did his best to follow that up by showing what the first fight should have brought to the table on the ground. Just over a minute into the round, Maykit lands his takedown into side control and quickly took Ajer's back. In one of the quickest takedown to transition to submissions you'll ever see, Maykit locked in the RNC and made quick work of his hapless opponent!
Fookin Bum DEF Devon Flee via TKO (Strikes)
This fight started off with Flee showing some aggressiveness from range and working some jabs towards Bum's head. Only landing one, however, before Bum took the fight into the clinch, it was all over from there. Once in the clinch, Flee tried to work the body and go heavy on the elbows, but he looked like he was throwing them at ghosts as Bum was able to avoid all 16 elbow attempts. On the flip side, Bum landed 17 of 27 strikes to Flees head which did it's job and finished flee off just over 2 minutes into the first round.
Darius Morgandorffer DEF Luke Menzies via TKO (Strikes)
Another in this stretch of first round finishes, this fight had a few impressive moves and a beautiful finish that was runner up for KO of the night. After a missed head kick, Morgandorffer countered with a takedown into side control, but was unable to do anything with it as his opponent quickly escaped to hsi feet. So, if at first you don't succeed, try try again.. and seconds later, Morgandorffer countered into another takedown, this time into guard. Unable to escape, Menzies instead attempted a triangle and almost locked it up until Morgandorffer did his best Khabib impression and picked him up and slammed him back into the mat to break the hold! A little more wrestling between these two until Morgandorffer took mount and started dropping bombs and rocked Menzies. After a huge elbow landed and had the whole crowd gasp, the ref quickly jumped in to stop Menzies from getting brain damage.
Finlay McShane DEF Khabib Nurmagomedov via Submission (Triangle Choke)
One thing I've noticed is that fans don't have an appreciate for grappling in the MMA as much as they do in Catch Wrestling. McShane came out of this fight with a gameplan and wasted no time putting it into play as by the 3rd ring of the bell he was already across the cage and into Nurmagomedov's half guard. He started working every angle to lock in a submission but Nurmagomedov did a great job fighting off the attempts... until he didn't. At the 3 minute mark, McShane locked in a triangle that Khabib couldn't get out of this time and tapped out before going to sleep.
Main Card:
Muenster Romano DEF Doug Sims via Unanimous Decision
And our main card starts off with another 3 round fight between Romano and Simms. Coming into this fight, it was reported that Romano had been working on his cardio and was a cardio machine, so I guess he was ready for the duration. Simms obviously wanted to keep the fight in the clinch, as did Romano, as all fight long he kept going back to it, but once in the clinch all he did was try to spam takedown attempts. Romano was having none of it and landed a perfect 100% of his punches from clinch, but didn't manage to land any elbows or knees . After 3 rounds, we went to the judges for the unanimous decision victory for Romano. A dominating victory for the youngster.
Rock Lester DEF Bartlomiej Brett via Unanimous Decision
Oh, look! Another decision! I kid, I kid.. it is what it is. If you can't lay the pipe down, then do your best to score points and bribe judges! The first round was ack and forth with Lester dominating the round in points. The second started off with a bang as Brett was rocked by a combination from Lester, but Brett was able to recover.. probably due to Lester's non stop combination attempts instead of waiting to land the big finishing blow. Brett, after recovering his senses, did manage a takedown attempt that kept the fight on the ground for a couple of minutes, but at the end of the round a huge combo knocked down Brett, but instead of finishing the fighter off he waited a few seconds for the bell to ring and end the round. Not sure if that was strategy or fear of going to the ground with Brett again, but no way a championship quality fighter would let that opportunity go to waste. These guys are still young though, and this will be a learning experience. The 3rd round got to the point where you start to wonder if Lester was just playing with Brett. Opening up a cut and throwing a ton of combinations like he was working over a wall mounted punching bag. Bouncing in and out of the clinch throughout the final round, combo after combo, the judges had an easy time awarding the decision to Rock Lester.
Co-Main Event:
Santino Cabal DEF Curly Bill Brocius via TKO (Strikes) - FotN
And now, onto our co-main event! This whole event was put together for these final two fights as the next two fights will set up the upcoming title fight and tournament finale next month! Enter Cabal and Brocius, where only one man can advance. This fight won the Fight of the Night award and both of these warriors came at it with everything they had. Just over 3 minutes into the opening round, Brocius scored a nice counter jab that rocked Cabal. He then attempted to move into the clinch but Cabal was able to push him away while staying offensive. Somehow, he bought himself enough time to regain his senses. Another in and out stint in the clinch and that was the end of the round. Despite Cabal being rocked, he was the more aggressive fighter that opening round and the judges had him scored as a dominating round. The second started the same way, Brocius taking the fight into the clinch for a couple of minutes before breaking. Back and forth these two warriors traded blows until just before the end of the 2nd round, Cabal landed a counter punch that rocked Brocius and put him on his heels. Brocius attempted to stay aggressive but Cabal was able to dance around and keep throwing counters until a big right put Brocius in real trouble as the ref jumped in to end the fight. Great TKO victory for Cabal, and an absolute war between these two gladiators!
Main Event:
Kane Thoupos DEF Big Slice via TKO (Strikes) - KotN
And our main event of the evening! The other fight to award the other contender for next months title fight! The granite chinned Slice taking on the heavy handed Thoupos, and this one lived up to the billing as well! It's worth noting that Thoupos has already declared himself the eventual winner of this tournament and upcoming champion, and he's put himself in position to do exactly that. You would have thought this was Abu Dhabi as this fight lived in the clinch. Each fighter had the desire to push the fight into the clinch and that's where 95% of the fight took place. More of a dirty boxing match than a Muay Thai match though.
Thoupos was no doubt the more effective fighter in the clinch working the head and body over with punches while Slice was head hunting with both punches and elbows. unfortunately for him, he was only able to land 2 elbows and an underwhelming 9 of 28 strikes on head. On the flip side, Thoupos dominated with just over 50% strikes landed with 43 of 81 strikes landed from clinch.
Just over the 1 minute mark into the 2nd round, Thoupos landed a huge right that dropped slice. And, as the commentators said it best, that killer instinct kicked in and Thoupos finished off his opponent with a barrage of strikes from mount. An absolutely dominating finish for Thoupos which earned him the KO of the Night award and a ticked punched to the title fight next month in the finale against Cabal!
I'll be looking forward to setting up next months card and booking this title fight. Some of these fighters are already chomping at the bit to get a 2nd chance at this and will continue to fight for that #1 contender fight. But, our first ever title fight at 205 has been set and it will be Kane Thoupos taking on Santino Cabal for the $1 million cash prize and that gold strap around his belt, and the right to call himself king of the mountain!
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