PBP Commentary

Coming up we have a bantamweight MMA rules bout between Rick Rickerson (ranked 4306 p4p, 6120 weight class) and Bob Balch (ranked 0 p4p, 0 weight class). The atmosphere really building for this one as we go over to our ring announcer for the fighter introductions!

Rickerson
vs
Balch

180 cm
22
140
0 - 0 - 0

190 cm
18
130
0 - 2 - 0

BJJ Blue Belt
Solid Muay Thai
Good chin

BJJ Blue Belt
Brawler
Granite chin

Ladies and gentlemen. This fight is 3 rounds, in the bantamweight division.
Introducing the fighter to my left, fighting out of the red corner.
With a record of 0 - 0 - 0, fighting out of Tokyo, Rick Rickerson!
And introducing the fighter to my right, fighting out of the blue corner.
With a record of 0 - 2 - 0, fighting out of Tokyo, Bob Balch!
The judges for this bout are Yuuki Gou, Shirou Masuda and Yukihiro Yamamoto.

The bell rings for round one and we are underway!
Rickerson will have to do better than that with his takedown attempts.
Rickerson slaps away a takedown attempt from Balch, before circling back to the center of the mat.

Rickerson gets in close and instigates a clinch.

Rickerson pushes off and circles away, back to the middle of the mat.
Balch darts in looking for a takedown but Rickerson gets double underhooks and turns Balch into the cage.

Rickerson dives in and scores a takedown into Balch's guard.
Rickerson looking to control the position here, rather than advance.
Balch lands with a heel strike from the guard.
We've had a slow start to the round here - hopefully the action picks up.
Rickerson is frustrating his opponent with some stalling tactics from top position.
Balch lands a good elbow from the bottom.

That's one minute gone in the round.
Balch thows some rabbit punches from the bottom but they don't do any damage.
Balch striking off his back but it's not causing Rickerson any problems.
Rickerson passes into half guard under a barage of strikes.

Rickerson escapes and gets back to his feet.

Rickerson moves into the clinch.
Rickerson lands a knee to the head there! That was nasty!
Rickerson lands with a left to the head.

Rickerson breaks the clinch and we're back to striking at distance.

Rickerson shoots in and bounces Balch off the cage to secure the takedown into guard.
Rickerson engaging in some classic timewasting tactics.

That's two minutes gone in the round.
Rickerson slips nicely into half guard, despite the strikes coming from Balch.
Rickerson content to sit in half guard and control for a moment.
The fighters are starting to get a bit slippery now, which will make submissions a bit more difficult.
Balch missing with punches from the bottom.
Balch wants to improve his position but Rickerson is controlling well.

That's three minutes gone in the round.

Rickerson is looking for a kimura here.
Rickerson passes to side control.
Rickerson moves into full mount!
Rickerson tucks in and makes sure he doesn't lose the dominant position.
Rickerson takes Balch's back, avoiding a couple of desperation strikes from the bottom.
The ref warns both fighters not to hold the cage as they work up against the meshing.
Rickerson slows the pace down here. Having a little breather whilst he's in a dominant position, looking to rest and regain some energy, ready to go for the finish.
Rickerson really does look like a pencil wearing a pair of gloves. Let's hope he has a gameplan to suit that ridiculous body shape.

Rickerson is working for a rear naked choke. Balch is not defending it well and Rickerson has tightened it up quickly! This could be all over! Balch refuses to tap and goes to sleep, forcing the referee to intervene. A little trickle of blood came out of Balch's nose as his head slumped to the floor. That is naaaasty!

Ladies and gentlemen, after 4:59 of round 1, we have a winner by way of Submission (RNC). Rick Rickerson!