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Rio Chain Gang held it's fourth event this past Saturday at Hard Knocks arena in Rio with over 2200 in attendance. The event was sponsored by merchandise partner Victory! Sports Nutrition, based out of New York. It was a very exciting night of fights, although a couple of fighters did look like they were "hungover."
The undercard began with a light heavyweight match up between Mr "HaHAhAhaHA" Joker (0-0) and George Chuvalo (4-3).
Mr Joker, who recently relocated from Gotham City to Rio, was making his MMA professional debut. Chuvalo was making his RCG debut after posting a respectable 4-3 record. Chuvalo is a very talented boxer, but is still lacking in ground skills. Mr Joker is the type of ground and pound specialist that most stand up fighters fear. Mr Joker come out aggressively and was able to take the fight to the mat almost immediately, neutralizing any advantage Chuvalo might have had. Mr Joker began mercilessly beating Chuvalo and the ref was forced to dive in and save Chuvalo after only 37 seconds. A very nice TKO victory that won Mr Joker the KO of the Night honors.
The next fight on the undercard is a heavyweight fight between Zander Givens (1-0) and Edison Arantes (9-11).
The crowd, thirsty for more action after Mr Joker's brutal first round KO, responded well when Givens came out swinging. It looked like Arantes took his New Years party a little too seriously and looked tired and "hungover" before this one even started. Givens was unsympathetic to Arantes and continued to work his magic. Givens punished him with shot after shot before a big right uppercut put him to sleep and that's the end of that. Beautiful KO for Givens.
Next was a middleweight fight between Kendal "The Terror" Thomas (3-2) and Riki "Monstrous Reprisal" Maru (1-1).
Thomas, who holds the edge in stand up, had been expected to keep this fight standing. However, Thomas' manager John Tazz, had instructed Kendal to fight this one on the ground. This proved to be a fatal mistake for Thomas. He successfully brought the fight to the mat and started his ground and pound strategy. After landing a nice elbow Thomas postured up and out of nowhere Maru grabbed his arm threw his legs into position to lock onto an armbar and force Thomas to tap after only 22 seconds. A brilliant display of Jiu Jitsu, gaining Maru submission of the night honors.
We capped off the undercard with a light heavyweight bout between Babadou Barry (2-0) and TJ Hearts (1-0).
In this classic boxer vs wrestler match up, Berry knew he would have to keep it standing to win. Likewise, Hearts knew he needed to take it to the mat. Hearts was able to immediately take this one to the ground, but due to inactivity the ref stood them back up a little over a minute in. Berry landed some good shots but again, with just over a minute left in the round, Hearts was able to take it to the ground and start working his ground and pound. After winning a close first round, Hearts was able to land a takedown early in the second and continue his ground and pound until the ref was forced to rush in and save Berry from any extra punishment at 1:37.
We started the main card off with a welterweight fight between Elvis "Wrecking Ball(s)" Forsythe (1-0) and Jordan Gracie (1-1).
Jordan Gracie struggled to make weight for this fight. He only made it down to 171.5lbs at the first attempt and had to take the additional two hours to make the official bout weight. Gracie did manage to make the cut at the second weigh in but it did appear to take something out of him. Gracie appeared "hungover" as the fight began. Forsythe had his way in this fight, dominating in all aspects. Gracie, who looked winded after three failed takedown attempts, was in no condition to withstand the onslaught that Forsythe was dishing out. And Forsythe finished this one at 1:36 via TKO. A quality knockout for Forsythe but one wonders what Gracie could have done if he didn't expend all that energy making weight.
We follow that bout with a middleweight match up between Jakob "The Viking" Filby (7-4) and Roderick Solo (5-0).
This fight ended in a bloody mess. Filby came out aggressive but ineffective as he missed the majority of his strikes. Meanwhile, Solo was landing almost everything. Solo's first punch gave Filby a nasty cut over his eye and Solo seized every opportunity to pound on that eye. Filby's cut just got worse and worse as Solo pounded away. Late in the first round, Solo dropped and rocked Filby and was looking for the knockout when the doctor was called in and put a stop to this fight at 4:38 of the first round.
The next fight on the maincard was in the heavyweight division as Jumbo "Grizzies" Mambo (4-0) went up against Paddy "Monster" McGuiness (9-10).
There's a lot of bad blood between these fighters, at RCG 1, Mambo's car was completely destroyed in a car bombing which he blames on McGuiness. Mambo came to the cage looking like he had something to prove. He looked like he wanted to not just win but to destroy McGuiness. Although, each fighter only landed three punches, three was all it took as Mambo scored a first round KO in what turned out to be the Fight of the Night.
Last fight on the maincard was a middleweight bout featuring two Muay Thai specialists, Wybrant De Houtman (13-5) and Daniel "Buzzkill" Midas (5-2).
Midas came out aggressively but ineffective as De Houtman was able to block or counter most of his shots. De Houtman took it into the clinch early, after a few shots, Midas was able to break the clinch but only for a few seconds, as De Houtman took it right back into the clinch. De Houtman worked aggressively landing shot after shot until finally a big right hand dropped Midas. De Houtman pounced on Midas and landed a series of strikes from mount. The ref was forced to step in and save a semi-conscious Midas.
The first main event was a banthamweight fight between "The Little Dragon" Li Kong Ho (9-1) and Fred "The Natural Born Killer" Alsop (13-3).
This fight was billed as a standup vs ground fighter but Alsop surprised the crowd by only going for two takedown attempts the entire fight. After feeling each other out for the first half of the first round, Ho began to go to work with his leg kicks trying to slow Alsop down. While, Alsop worked the jab trying to use his height advantage. Alsop worked the jabs and clinch to his advantage to narrowly win the first round. The second and third round Alsop began to shine as he worked the jab and clinchwork strategy to easily outscore Ho in the final two rounds. Alsop took home an easy decision victory.
The main event finished the evening off with a welterweight fight. Tupa Dufu (10-4) squared off with Charlie "Morbo" Morbolev (7-5).
Dufu, trying to put himself into position for another title shot, looked like a madman possessed coming into the cage. He came out punching hard and punching often, landing a good percentage of his shots. Morbolev seemed dumbfounded by this approach and was unable to mount any offense. After gauging his opponent for a few moments, Dufu took the fight into the clinch and really went to work. Almost flawless in the clinch, Dufu continued working over his opponent on his way to a 2:49 first round TKO.
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