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 Bhola Djin Djin (2-1) Vs Terrell Miller (2-1) – Lightweight
Bhola is absolutely determined to become the Lightweight Champion in Highland Games. Since joining, the Mali native has finished both of his opponents in the very first round and he wants to make it three straight on Friday night.
Terrell Miller suffered his first career defeat in his last outing, which was subsequently his Highland Games debut. Miller, a BJJ Brown Belt, will try his best to take the fight to the ground and slap on some form of hold as soon as possible.
Valentin Shovkovskyj (5-2-1) Vs Jack Sock (4-3) – Middleweight
Shovkovskyj has had a up and down career. On the independent circuit, Valentin went 4-2-1 with most of his fights going the distance. When he fought on Highland Games 31, he edged out a razor close majority decision over Francisco Henandez.
Jack Sock has been fighting for HG since the 4th show. Two early victories were halted after Sock went head to head with the future champion Razor MuayThai. Coming off of a Submission of the Night win over Wyatt Earp, Jack Sock wants a second consecutive win to build some momentum.
Joel Nicola (5-4) Vs Akau Umaga (2-2) – Light Heavyweight
It seems pretty crazy that Joel Nicola is only the third fight on the card. Nicola, a two time main eventer, has hit a major slump in his career as of late. After earning Knockout of the Night in his Highland Games debut, Joel Nicola took on Jake Theodorou in what could well have been a title clash. Jake managed to do what he does, take Nicola down and beat him up. Bouncing back with two straight stoppages, Nicola looked like he was still at the top, but losses to LightHeavy Weight, Skunk Asap and hanjong Mc Vetrol has seen him crumble to the bottom of the division. If he loses this fight, I’m afraid that Joel is going to be looking at finding a new promotion to fight under.
While this is just a chance to keep himself employed for Nicola, Akau Umaga sees his fight as so much more. Back in September 2014, both Nicola and Umaga debuted as professional mixed martial artists. They competed against each other and Umaga lost in just one minute. In his last two fights, Umaga has finished Juan Rico with relative ease and looks at this chance for redemption as the biggest opportunity of his career.
George Moshington (3-0) Vs Eniar Enkeltmann (2-0) – Lightweight
“Circle Pit President” is 3-0 in mixed martial arts, winning all 3 fights by first round stoppage. Not only are his hands so dangerous, but if an opponent tries to take him to the ground, he can fall back on a very impressive Brazilian Jiu Jitsu purple belt. In addition to his natural abilities, George Moshington is also a gigantic Lightweight, cutting 19lbs to make weight. As a promoter, that kind of cut makes me very nervous but his manager Parker Lewis has assured me that not Moshington nor the rest of his stable will ever miss weight for a scheduled contest.
Eniar Enkeltmann wants to fight as often as possible, vowing to become the new 155 champion before the end of the Island season. Going 2 straight, both being inside Highland Games, Enkeltmann brings some top notch jiu jitsu that could give even the most experienced grappler a heavy test. The 19 year old Norwegian’s previous victories include Bobby Hughes and Mouser TwoPoint0.
Mitchel Thompson (5-2) Vs Keijo Virtanen (4-1) – Heavyweight
Mitchel Thompson is the self-titled “Island Cowboy”. Thompson wants to fight in the cage, on the way to the cage, on his way out of the cage and in Pizza Hut when he’s quickly bloating himself up to reach Super Heavyweight. Thompson’s manager, Bjorn O’Donnel, considered cutting his fighter following an uncompetitive loss to Nelson Frazier Jr. After me and him spoke, he thought that it was time to give Thompson another shot to prove himself, and did he ever. Just ask Theros Staal and Henry Williams, both of whom have been stopped by the wave of momentum that Mitchel Thompson is bringing into this fight.
On the other side of the scale is Keijo Virtanen, who had his momentum stolen from him in a contest against Pedro Lazaro. His 4 fight winning streak was scuppered over 15 minutes where he was unable to prevent the clinch. Previous to this fight, Keijo had won 3 straight fights by submission, with the one before that being a Unanimous Decision over Prince Rowland. With 2 Submission of the Night merits to his name, Keijo is absolutely rapid at taking control of an opportunity and Mitchel Thompson will have to be totally vigilant to avoid tapping the mat before the fight is finished.
Jomlong Kiapoity (4-1) Vs Jacob Naankuse (4-0) – Bantamweight
Tonight will be the night of top class jiu jitsu as yet another two ground masters go head to head.
First is Jomlong Kiapoity whom is coming off of the biggest win of his career with a first round Kimura victory over Wid Ing. 3 of 3 of Kiapoity’s submission victories have been through armlocks, a different one every time. It’s actually strange how Jomlong is so focused on his jiu jitsu considering he is from Thailand. Breaking the mould of Thai fighters, Jomlong will be looking for a submission win in this contest.
These two fighter’s careers have been almost identical, with one main difference, Jacob Naankuse has yet to taste defeat. In his last contest, Naankuse scored an upset victory over Dan Sten. The win earned him both Submission of the Night and Fight of the Night. For the San Man, going 5-0 would put him in an extremely advantageous position with the opportunity to compete against Serge Ibaka or whoever holds the title for that Bantamweight strap.
Hanjong Mc Vetrol (4-3) Vs Dieter Von Sprockets (4-0) – Light Heavyweight
If anything could make Hanjong’s name more embarrassing, the addition of the nickname “Fudada” is really the icing on the cake. What isn’t embarrassing is the knockout power that Mc Vetrol hols in his hands. Knockout victories over Antonio The Sparta, Nuno Alvarez Pereira and Joel Nicola really tell the story. For all the power he possesses, unfortunately Hanjong isn’t blessed with the best chin in the world. Knockout losses to Eirikur Adalsteinn and Wo Fi have prevented Mc Vetrol from capitalizing on his natural given talents.
“The Monkey Man” has been steadily rising through the Highland Games ranks since his debut at HG 28. A gifted wrestler, the German Sprockets has been able to take the fight to the mat and have his way with everyone who’s stepped across the cage from him. His typical fighting style is to reign down shots on his opponents until they begin making mistakes. From there, Sprockets will utilize his precision jiu jitsu to take his opponent out of the fight.
Diamond Andy (6-3) Vs Amine Nesquik (6-3) – Heavyweight
Like Nicola, at one stage Diamond Andy was on the chopping block. Back to back losses to Christian Long and Alexey Juralev, with Andy being cut badly in both contests, saw him put in a last chance scenario. The fight was set, Diamond Andy Vs Chris Dotson. Over the 2 rounds, Dotson was dropped 3 times and Andy proved to everyone that he was far from done. To further this, he stopped Jacek Trzebiatowski in the very first round of their contest. Andy is back, and if he makes it three straight then he will be somewhere within earshot of a rematch against Barney Gumble, this time with gold on the line.
Amine Nesquik’s Highland Games career has been less than impressive. At 4-0 before his debut, he was a highly touted prospect who everyone thought would rip through the opposition. Despite a great first fight against Jose Juarez, losses to Andrei Alexeyev, Alexey Juralev and Clinton Offley have put prevented him from living up to the hype. If Nesquik loses this fight, it might be a foregone conclusion that Nesquik will never get his hands on that elusive Highland Games Heavyweight belt.
Nelson Frazier Jr (6-2) Vs Andrei Alexeyev (7-1) – Heavyweight
It’s good to see Nelson Frazier Jr back on winning ways. Back to back losses to Richard Riddick and champion Barney Gumble saw Nelson involved in the first rough patch of his career. In his last fight, Nelson took on rising star Ali Mouba. Nelson destroyed Mouba, proving that he’s not only one of the elite contenders in the division, but one of the best fighters on The Island. His manager, Troid owner GBK, is confident that Nelson Frazier Jr is destined to defeat Barney Gumble and become the brand new champion, but standing in his way is one of his toughest tests.
Andrei Alexeyev has just one loss; to the Heavyweight Champion. Outside of this blemish, Andrei has been absolutely stunning thus far in his career. Head kick knockouts over both Potter Dunn ad Amine Nesquik recently have demonstrated the stellar kickboxing that 26 year old Russian has at his disposal. It’s not clear where Alexeyev will go either either a win or a loss. It would be devastating for him to fall down the division again, but having fought for the title so recently it might be a fight or two away for him to be back in that contender’s seat. One thing is for sure, anyone who fights The Anarchist is in for a hell of a night.
LightHeavy Weight (8-1) Vs Eirikur Adalsteinn (7-2) – LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP
And now it’s the moment everyone has been waiting for.
In his third outing as the 205 champion, LightHeavy Weight will take on Eirikur Adalsteinn in a mega-rematch.
First, let’s take a look at the history between these two competitors. It November 6th. The lights came on; it was Highland Games 12. We had already seen rising start Ludko Struja stop Pedro Sauer. Rodrigo Rojas was fresh off of his submission of Momo La Brute. It was time; the co main event.
First out was Eirikur Adalsteinn. “GoldBeard” was 1-1 in Highland Games and had just earned Knockout of the Night when he destroyed David Zawadzki in just 37 seconds.
Next to the cage was LightHeavy Weight. LHW was 3-0, with all of his fights being inside Highland Games. Three straight stoppages had LHW as the number 1 contender, all he had to do was get past Eirikur and the title shot was his.
Instantly, LHW secured the clinch. Within seconds, Eirikur was already sporting a nasty gash, LHW’s specialty. Everything was going according to plan. Just before the 3rd round, Adalsteinn was rocked hard by a trademark elbow. GoldBeard proved to be tough however and survived until the end of the round.
The cornermen worked hard on Eirikur’s cut but his future in the fight seemed bleak. To set up his clinch, LHW was working his striking early in the second round. With every shot he threw, it appeared that Adalsteinn was able to counter him. 50 seconds passed in the round, then BOOM. Adalsteinn landed a devastating hook and LHW was on dream street. The undefeated contender tried to back off, but a flurry of huge shots from Eirikur landed and the fight was over. Eirkur Adalsteinn had won, LightHeavy Weight’s hopes were crushed. The fight earned both men $1000 in bonuses, earning Fight of the Night. Adalsteinn pocketed an extra G for KOTN.
Adalsteinn was handed the title shot. He went out against Rodrigo Rojas but unfortunately he lasted just 22 seconds before being submitted.
LightHeavy Weight bounced back with stoppaged over Joel Nicola and Wo Fi, putting him back in a number 1 contendership position. In the fight, LHW needed just the opening round to dispatch Rice Aroni, achieving his dream of becoming the Highland Games 205 Champion.
After losing his shot, Adalsteinn bounced back with stoppage victories over Jaymz Hetfield, Scott Mcginty and Momo La Brute.
Now, with their history covered, let’s talk about this fight. Adalsteinn can KO anyone at any time, which LHW knows well. This fight all comes down to one factor, can Adalsteinn avoid the clinch? If he can, then his outstanding power will let him walk home with the gold. However, the bookies are favouring LHW to avenge his loss, and it’s not hard to see why.
No matter who wins this fight, one thing is for sure; both men’s Highland Games story will have a new chapter after tonight.
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