2018-03-15
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RISE - 17 Ray vs. Jones

Event Review: RISE 17 - Ray vs Jones
Demolition MMA 325k+
2018-03-03, Los Angeles, Hyashi's Lounge - Los Angeles
Attendance:1,993, Event Rating:121
Author:Brunno Falcone

[The opening sequence starts and the theme music for MMAAddict.com fades in. Ricky Warner can be seen behind his well-appointed desk shuffling some papers]

Ricky Warner: Welcome back to another episode of MMAAddict.com’s MMA vlogs. Tonight, I will be doing a review of Rise – 17 Ray vs. Jones. This event was held Saturday night, in a packed Hyashi’s Lounge in Los Angeles. It was an action-packed fight card with a little something for everyone. Half the card ended via (T)KO and there was even a submission, in the main event, no less. A more than a few of the fights were barn-burners that went to the final bell. Let’s start at the opening fight on the card and we’ll work our way through from there.

The card opened with Bill Harwick vs. Pedro Changggg at Welterweight. Harwick came into this fight off a TKO win over A.J. Daniels back on Rise – 11 with a 1-1 record. His opponent for this fight was one of what are seemingly clones or something from the Pedro Chang camp (dare I say Chang Prime). Changggg only had one fight prior to this bout; a decision win over Dodgy Thrower way back on Rise – 7. Harwick was quick to take the fight into the clinch where he worked his opponent over against the cage. He scored a late round takedown and finshed Changggg off with some ground and pound. First round TKO for Bill Harwick.

The next fight saw undefeated Niudu Kakka taking on the winless Randell Miranda. Both men had been in the cage twice before one looking to advance ever closer to title contention, while the other was just trying to get that first W. They met in the middle of the cage and exchanged blows. In the end the skill and power of Kakka were just too much for Miranda as he succumbed to a succession of blows, culminating in a brutal KO via uppercut in the first round.

Carlos Anderson and Herbert Fliegknecht fought to a razor thin decision in the next fight. In my opinion this was a better candidate for fight of the night then the Quincy vs. Phaneuf fight, but I am not consulted on these things. Fliegknecht continually brought the fight into the clinch where he scored well but was unable to prevent Anderson from taking the fight to the ground where he was able to eek out the decision win by staying active and making plenty of submission attempts that Fliegknecht was, to his credit, able to defend. The win puts Anderson, a veteran of Rise since the first event, back on track for a run at the title, but now he faces Frank Granger, who we will talk about in just a little bit. Fliegknecht, despite admirable performances against two of the best in the division has come up short in the W column again. Hopefully we will see this man back in action where he could possibly earn that first win.

The next fight saw the firebrand, Daniel Orndorf from Brunno Falcone’s Evil Empire take on Raghave Upadhyaya. Upadhyaya was the far more experienced fighter, having fought four times prior to Saturday night, two of which were in Rise. Orndorf, who is known almost as much for his over-the-top antics and profanity-laced diatribes as he is for his quick KO of his first opponent back in Rise – 11, was his opponent for this night. A night that ended as suddenly as it began when Orndorf landed a KO punch from Hell that just came out of nowhere. In just thirty-seven seconds, Orndorf put away his second Rise opponent. His total time in the ring is less than one minute. This guy is tearing through the division and has already started speculating on title shots. Orndorf is to face Phaneuf on the Rise – 20 card, assuming that Phaneuf takes the fight on with only two months* to train.

Undefeated 4 - 0, Dante Fiaschi took on Lebron Griffin, 1 - 0. Despite Fiaschi scoring a knockdown early in the first round and Griffin recovering from that to score a takedown, this fight was not going to finish early. Another contender for fight of the night as Dante Fiaschi squeaked out the win twenty-nine, twenty-eight. I, for one, would love to see these two in a rematch at some point in the future.

Frank Granger and Jim Crocker started off the second half of the card with a bang as the debuting Granger smashed the veteran Crocker in just 24 seconds. Crocker had started out in the QFC like so many other fighters and he scored a win in that organization. Crocker also scored a unanimous decision win over Marco Aurelio in Rise – 1, before going into a two-fight losing streak. Granger extended that to three in resounding fashion.

Another of the Evil Empire’s fighters (there were seven altogether on this fight card), the flamboyant and eccentric Tyan “the Saviour” Quincy, was set to face off against the Frenchmen, Jean Luc Phaneuf in the next fight. And these guys fought from bell-to-bell giving the fans a show. They earned fight of the night honors and Phaneuf moved closer to the title with his unanimous decision win. Meanwhile, Quincy drops to 2 -2 as he tries to pick himself up and dust himself off. Phaneuf has been offered to fight Orndorf in just two months* time. As of the filming of this, Phaneuf had yet to sign the fight deal. A win over Orndorf is sure to put Phaneuf in the title hunt, just as surely as an Orndorf win would get him there. A great fight with a lot riding on it. I hope it goes down, because I would love to see this fight. Phaneuf controlled the fight from the clinch and earned the win as a result.

Max Onera, 3 -1, faced off against Michael Grundmann, 2 - 0. Onera whose only loss was against Wes Ray for the title in his last outing showed considerable advantage, on paper, against Grundmann in Brazilian Jiujitsu, but having a slight deficiency in wrestling. It did not seem to matter much as both men scored takedowns at will, but neither was able to capitalize on a mistake of the other fighter to finish them. In the end Onera proved he was worthy of title consideration as he outworked and out scored Grundmann to earn the decision win.

The co-main event saw former heavyweight champion Benny Alison, 6 - 1, take on 3 - 1, Alistar Ngannou, in a rematch from their fight on Rise – 6. Alison was attempting to bounce back after losing the title to Bennie Benson in his last fight and first title defense, while Ngannou was looking for some payback and to get into the title picture. Unfortunately, that was not to be for Ngannou. Alistar was able to take the fight into the clinch early where he was having his way with Alison, but late in the first round Alison was able to break the clinch and work from range. It only took a few seconds to land a telling blow that sent Ngannou to the mat and clearly had him hurt. As Ngannou’s strike defense fell apart, Alison scored a straight right, right down the middle and out went the lights. This win was big for Alison. It puts him right back into title contention and could be the first step in reclaiming his belt.

The main event saw Wes “the Best” Ray set to defend his title for the second time since earning it from Brian Maples via TKO. Ray was 4 - 0 coming into this and he faced “Terrible” Terrell Jones who was unbeaten in five professional fights. This title fight was Jones’ first fight outside of the QFC, which you all know I do not hold in high regard. Jones had, without a doubt the better standup game, but he was facing an absolute beast on the ground in the form of Ray. Ray boasted that he would finish Jones in whatever way his fans wanted him to. Submission was the method chosen and sure as I am sitting here, that is what Ray delivered. A kneebar in one minute and forty seconds. He talks the talk and, apparently, is more then able to walk the walk as well. Wes Ray retains his Middleweight title and his unbeaten streak moves to five. Who will face this man next? For this question and more I will ask none other than the owner of Rise Fight League, Humble Greco, himself. [Humble makes his way across the studio to sit next to Ricky’s desk.]

Humble, welcome to the show.

Humble Greco: Thanks for having me, Ricky. I'll jump straight into it. Max Slaughter has earned his shot at the Middleweight title after his win last night, and he'll be fighting Wes Ray for the belt soon. You can count on that.

Well, first I'd like to point out the fact that Wes Ray backed up all the talk yesterday. He said he would finish his opponent the way that the fans wanted him to, and he did exactly that, and in outstanding fashion too. Also, Jean Luc Phaneuf and Tyan Quincy put on an amazing show that earned them the Fight of the Night award. Phaneuf is really proving himself as a real contender, so I decided to match him up with Daniel Orndorf next. These two should really make the crowd get on their feet come fight night. Moving on though, Dante Fiaschi is really turning into one of my favorite fighters, he just keeps getting better and better every fight, as he proved yesterday in his fight with Lebron Griffin. We could see him as champ one day. I'm also very happy to have seen Frank Granger make his debut, both in his career and for RISE. He did not disappoint, and his knockout was so insane to see that I just had to give him that KO of the Night award. Can't wait to see him take on RISE veteran Carlos Anderson. That'll be a great fight, for sure.

 

Ricky Warner: So, Daniel Orndorf is set to face Jean Luc Phaneuf, if Phaneuf accepts at least. Does the winner of that fight get a title shot in the Light-Heavyweight division?

Humble Greco:  It's difficult to say at this time whether or not the winner of Orndorf vs Phaneuf will get that shot at the belt, but it is certainly a possibility.

Ricky Warner: Frank Granger showed tremendous power in his twenty-four second knockout of Jim Crocker and he mentioned the possibility of moving up to Heavyweight, yet we noticed that he has signed a fight against Carlos Anderson at Light-Heavyweight. Does that mean that he is not moving up or has he just agreed to stay at Light-Heavyweight for this fight before moving up?

Humble Greco: We should be seeing Frank moving up to heavyweight after this fight with Anderson. I think he'd do great in either division, but I’m sure he wouldn't want to interfere with his training partner, Daniel Orndorf.

Ricky Warner: So, Ray fights Max Slaughter next for the Middleweight title? What about some of the other title fights?

Humble Greco: Max Slaughter is next for Wes Ray, for sure. For me it's who he'd fight after Slaughter if he is to win. Henry Aron has cleared his division at 205, and they both are only three pounds apart from each other at the moment. I'll definitely be keeping an eye on that.

Ricky Warner: OK, last question. Can you paint us a picture, in broad strokes, what the title landscape looks like at Rise over the next few cards?

Humble Greco: Well, most of our champions at RISE have been very tough to defeat and have been seriously looking to move up or down a weight class to try and claim another belt. Our champs Randy Kelly and Henry Aron are prime examples, as they have almost completely cleared out their divisions. We could be seeing fights like Wes Ray vs Henry Aron or Randy Kelly vs Meatball Destroyer, but that is not confirmed to happen. 

Ricky Warner: OK, thanks so much for your time, Humble. Good luck with the org and we'll see you soon at Rise - 18.

Humble Greco: Thanks for having me on the show.

[The sound cuts out as Ricky Warner and Humble Greco can be seen talking casually. The credits roll for the show, and the screen fades to black all as the theme music for the show plays.]

 * (I use in-game time in writeups, so weeks=months)

 

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