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 Good evening and welcome back to the Liberty Dome here in New York City where tonight we will be witnessing SPNY 142, a 10 fight MMA card headed up by the first Heavyweight title defence of Felipezoom Insano up against veteran knockout specialist Adam Kemp. The undercard features two fights I’m especially interested in watching with the Welterweight match up between the versatile Abaka Khan and former title challenger Bradley Boston, and the Featherweight rematch between former champion Tony Frank and the recent unsuccessful title challenger Simon GM. Steel Penn NY Bookmakers are on board as always offering odds on all 10 fights.
Main Event: Heavyweight Title
Felipezoom Insano (c) 26-8 (5-0 SPNY) vs Adam Kemp 34-13 (1-0 SPNY)
Insano is the newly crowned Heavyweight champ after his huge Fight of the Night knockout of Roger Freedman at SPNY 135. Insano has been very active in the press in the lead up to this fight, warning Kemp that he will win by knockout, and of course in his highly publicised calling out of Richie McCaw. As I understand Insano will meet McCaw next regardless of the outcome of this fight, however, should Insano win tonight I am under the impression that with McCaw’s loss to Austin Anderson at SPNY 140 that fight will not be a non-title meeting. In terms of tonight’s meeting I don’t think I’ve seen a match up with two more similar styles in recent times. Insano is a boxer who has very good defence, a near perfect record of knocking out opponents in his wins, and uses the clinch very well; Kemp’s offence is almost identical, however, Kemp uses the clinch far less.
Kemp earned his shot at the title tonight by an amazing first round TKO of former champ and org pound for pound king Shane Waitzel. At 39 his is approaching the twilight of his career, however, he has won 4 of his last 5 fights and has knocked out his opponent in 32 of his 34 career wins. To win tonight Kemp will need to use his 3 inch reach advantage to counteract the more accurate striking of Insano and hold the range to keep Insano out of the clinch.
My pick is Insano to defend his title by KO as he himself predicted.
2: Welterweight
Abaka Khan 16-10-1 (3-1 SPNY) vs Bradley Boston 16-10-2 (4-2 SPNY)
These two Welterweights have almost identical career records and have had similar fortunes since joini SPNY. Khan has a 3 pronged attack with a very good Muay Thai clinch, solid ground & pound, and decent submission skills. Predicting how Khan will win a fight is one of the toughest jobs as an MMA pundit because he can use any of these three techniques to secure a victory. I’m not sure that Khan will have the wrestling skills to control Boston on the ground so I’m expecting his clinch to be his primary offensive tactic in this fight.
Some of you may remember leading into SPNY 136 I questioned Boston’s mental ability to compete at this level after he followed up his title loss with a shock loss to the underdog Darrell Miles. Boston indeed trailed after the 1st round but came out and stopped Sonny Boom in dramatic style midway through the second. Walking back to the dressing room he made sure to stop by the press box and with a wry smile asked me if I still thought he couldn’t compete at this level. Boston has a very solid chin that I think can take anything Khan throws at it, in the past Boston has been known for outworking his opponents and grinding out a win which may well work against Khan tonight once we take into account Boston’s slight reach advantage and stronger wrestling skills.
Whoever wins this fight will find himself ranked amongst the contenders in this division, and tonight I think Khan might just be able to scrape through with a decision win.
3: Welterweight
Conan Cross 13-6-1 (1-0 SPNY) vs Toby Jay Wadenah 20-8-3 (2-1-1 SPNY)
To me this is a risky fight for Cross with Wadenah ranked significantly lower than him in the Welterweight division. Should Cross win he will remain a contender without any real ground being made, but should Wadenah achieve an upset Cross’ ranking will tumble. I’d like to see Cross use his grappling to win this fight, Cross was a very successful amateur wrestler and has a black belt in BJJ but generally relies on his boxing and kick boxing to win his fights. Wadenah may well be able to match him on his feet so I’d like to see Cross take this down and dominate.
A poor run of form before signing with SPNY destroyed Wadenah’s credibility, and while his last few results have started to win back the reputation he once enjoyed he is still a long way off achieving the level of success he had earlier in his career. A win over Cross tonight however may be enough to finally break back through. Wadenah’s inability to finish many of his fights has seen him fail to win over the crowd here at SPNY and tonight despite his longer tenure here I expect the crowd to be firmly is Cross’ corner.
I think Cross grappling his way to a submission victory is the ideal outcome of this fight, but I’m not sure that’s how Cross wants to fight.
4: Welterweight
Adam Rabago 11-4 (4-2 SPNY) vs Darrell Miles 12-14-1 (8-10-1 SPNY)
Rabago beat Miles with a TKO seconds into the 3rd round of their first meeting in a fight of the night performance at SPNY 100. From there he has gone 2-2 as he had continued to meet fellow top contenders and been unable to secure a shot at the title. Miles is an SPNY original fighter and tonight will enter the cage for the 20th time with the org. While he has always lacked consistency and rarely been ranked as a contender, his recent back to back upset wins over Bradley Boston and Abaka Khan threw the Welterweight rankings into a shambles. Rabago is a heavy hitting kick boxer and Miles a gritty but unspectacular wrestler with a questionable chin. As long as Rabago keeps this standing he should finish it by KO, but if Miles can use his 4 inch reach advantage to keep Rabago away from him or score the takedown to control on the ground he could cause some problems.
Rabago by KO still seems the likely outcome to me.
5: Heavyweight
Andy Chick 9-2 (3-1 SPNY) vs Jukka Omena 9-4 (2-3 SPNY)
Chick will have a huge size disadvantage in this match up giving away 3 inches height and reach and almost 70lbs weight. A natural Light Heavyweight Chick made the decision to fight in the Heavyweight division when he arrived at SPNY, and despite a loss in his debut has now strung together 3 straight wins and will be hoping that a 4th straight win tonight will finally win the crowd over to his cause. Omena arrived at SPNY with a formidable record but has failed to develop further in his career and occasional periods of inactivity have further hurt his reputation with the SPNY fans.
Chick has shown the ability and willingness to out work his opponents to take the score cards, while Omena prefers to aim for an early finish. I think Chick will be more successful with his strategy tonight; Chick by decision.
6: Welterweight
Calvin McCork 11-17-1 (0-4 SPNY) vs Tony Hendricks 13-13-2 (7-6-2 SPNY)
This should have been an interesting battle between two submission grapplers, but sadly some people never learn and I’m bitterly disappointed to yet again have to say that here we are 48 hours from fight time, and McCork is again not in fighting shape and struggling to make weight. Hendricks has been an honest mid level fighter with SPNY for a long time and tonight it appears will have the chance to make a statement by stopping McCork by submission for just the second time in his career.
Hendricks by submission.
7: Featherweight
Tony Frank 4-2 (4-1 SPNY) vs Simon GM 3-2 (3-2 SPNY)
These two first met at SPNY 113 with GM tapping out to strikes late in the first round. Frank wasn’t shy about pointing out during the lead up to this fight that he doesn’t stop anyone but still managed to stop GM. Frank is a very good wrestler who has worked hard to improve his stand up and has utilised his training to become less predictable about when the takedown is coming. GM is a boxer and continues to be predictable and one dimensional, however, as long as he can stuff the takedown will have a massive edge over Frank in the stand up especially with his 4 inch reach advantage. The danger is of course that when Frank took him down at SPNY 113 GM looked helpless beneath Frank.
One takedown will be enough for Frank to dominate GM on the ground, Frank by TKO.
8: Lightweight
Gabriel Fenili 14-12 (0-1 SPNY) vs Amazing Game 11-11-1 (1-1-1 SPNY)
Fenili is a very one dimensional submission grappler; while his submission skills are very strong he lacks the versatility to be a threat if his opponent can control the location of the fight. While Boston was quick to remind me I had egg on my face by declaring him not up to the standard in the Welterweight division at SPNY 136, Game was furious at my declaring him a boring fighter. Anyone who saw him win a dour 3 round decision of Brij Khali will have see the evidence of how “exciting” Game feels himself to be where his 3 strikes per minute were enough to win purely because Khali seemed unwilling to fight back. What surprised me is that Game is usually a very active fighter winning decisions based on the number of punches he lands rather than the power, but seemed determined for 15 minutes to only counter even though Khali wasn’t throwing any thing. The biggest strength Game has is his takedown defence, and against a fighter like Fenili who relies entirely on his submissions to win Game may very well be able to grind out a win here purely by keeping the fight standing.
I feel Game should have the edge but his inability to finish fights will leave him vulnerable throughout the entire fight because it will only take one takedown for Fenili to have the chance to finish this. Fenili by submission is probably the best bet.
9: Featherweight
Tomas Alderbaran 0-2 (0-1 SPNY) vs Peter Smith 1-0 (1-0 SPNY)
Despite his amateur experience being almost entirely in boxing Alderbaran has tried unsuccessfully to get his fights to ground exhausting himself and leaving him wide open to counters. Tonight he can expect a different type of opponent with Smith showing himself to be a grappler who will try hard to finish this fight by submission. Smith showed a solid strategy that was well backed by his skill set and is training at a very good facility under world class coaches. Alderbaran on the other hand has fought with a questionable strategy while receiving nothing more than the most basic level of instruction which makes me think he will struggle to compete with Smith.
Smith by submission.
10: Featherweight
Arnost Paskalev 1-0 (SPNY Debut) vs Thomas Untaka 1-0 (SPNY Debut)
Two unbeaten youngsters make their SPNY debut tonight in what should be an interesting match up. Paskalev is an Eastern European wrestler with big wraps on him and has linked up with one of the most prestigious training camps in the world at his new base in Hilo. Untaka on the other hand does not have the martial arts grounding of Paskalev or the exclusive training camp, but what he does have is enormous knockout power as seen in all 24 seconds of his debut fight.
Paskalev should have the ability to control and dominate this fight, but he may well have his chin tested. Paskalev by decision is the smart money, but backing Untaka for a knockout wouldn’t be a bad investment either.
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