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 HFC 24 - Jiro vs Gold in review
Another great event in the books here at HFC as another great night of fights is in the books! We crowned a new champion, some contenders proved themselves against great fighters, and Bubba Randall completed his epic journey to fight at least once in every weight class.
Before we jump in, did anything about this card stand out to you, Blaze?
Blaze "Well, in fact something did. Our title fight of the night I expected Boshank to find a way to pull out the defense, but Kocak looked like a man on a mission and not only finds himself the new champ, but also the highest ranked P4P fighter in the HFC now. How about that?"
Yes, he does, and my boy Jiro will have his hands full if he thinks he's going to go for the gold again. Rather Kocak or Wanker, he would have his work cut out for him to pull of a title from either of those divisions.
Now I know you predicted this one from the start, a first round TKO finish for Jiro. Gold is a great competitor, but Jiro is a brutal striker who's had much success in his career. Gold has been a long time contender, but Jiro has been a two time Champ, and looking for his third. I don't see him accomplishing that feat with the likes of the roster we have here at HFC these days, but if he wants a shot, we'll definitely give him one.
The fight started off with Gold doing quite well, even opening up a cut on Jiro. Within seconds, Jiro returned the favor and cut Gold. Now we're talking, it's a bloodbath! Gold took the fight into the clinch where Jiro landed a few strikes before breaking and that seemed to be the theme of the fight. Jiro worked gold from the clinch and Gold wore himself out early and after breaking away, Jiro threw down and put Gold to sleep.
One thing I can say about Jiro is that when he smells blood, he's like a shark in the water. The man is a finisher.
Blaze "Yes he is, and don't you count Gold out, he'll be back. I've never seen that man back down from any fight and he's got plenty left in the tank. As for Jiro, he had me a little worried early on, but I see now that he just needed to get popped really hard to snap him out of it. Great victory for Jiro as he heads back to the 265 to take on his next opponent. Management has been pushing for him to take a rematch with Motts, who he defeated back in February. Oddly enough, Mott's brother over in F&B was the fighter to last defeat Jiro, so I guess they want to keep it in the family, sort of like the Diaz boys."
Ladies and gentlemen, after 1:35 of round 1, we have a winner by way of TKO (Punches). Ken Jiro!
Wells def Sogrin via KO (Punch) (KO otN)
Well, you nailed the winner, but wells only threw one knee on the night, and it was a blocked body blow. Wells displayed some excellent stand up skills as he bounced in and out of the clinch and was deadly accurate with his striking. Sogrin was more effective in the clinch, but didn't have an answer for some brutal elbows coming from Wells.
Blaze "I expected this to be a war, and it was more like a flash battle. I mean, we did get almost a full round of action, but I thought this one could potentially go into the third, if not to the judges. Hats off to Vernon Wells, the man has skill and he's doing a great job of mixing up his tactics from fight to fight."
Ladies and gentlemen, after 4:38 of round 1, we have a winner by way of KO (Punch). Vernon Wells!
Kocak def Boshank (Title Fight) via doctor stoppage
I have been an advocate to remove doctor stoppages from fights in the HFC from day one. But all this damned red tape and laws and liabilities... this is EXACTLY what we try to avoid. It's bad enough to have a doctor strip a fighter who is clearly dominating a fight because of a little blood (not this fight). But in this case, these two warriors were slugging it out and they stopped a championship fight? No title should ever be lost to the judges, or to a doctor. This breaks the hearts of all those loyal HARDCORE fans who love to see the blood, and I promise you Boshank isn't happy about it either.
It was clear from the start that Kocak was the better stand up fighter. Boshank has never faced a fighter who's been able to just completely dominate a fight. Kocak landing over 90% of his strikes in this one, and he mixed it up with everything in his arsenal.
Boshank was able to land a few shots, but he was missing more than landing due to Kocak's excellent defense. Nobody wants to lose to a cut, or doctor stoppage, but I'm not sure how much longer Boshank would have been able to stay in this one with the amount of punishment he was taking.
And the new HFC Heavyweight Champion of the World, Demir Kocak!
Blaze "Boy did I get this one wrong? I must have been high.. well, of course I was, better to say not high enough before making this pick. I expected Boshank to do what he does and take down the promising Kocak, but wasn't that about the farthest thing from happening? Demir came in here for the belt, and he had no doubt in his mind that he was walking out of the arena with some gold. He displayed striking skills that should put the division on notice, because that's a baaaaaad man! Just to note, he's now the highest ranked P4P fighter in the HFC. Who's next?"
Ladies and gentlemen, after 4:22 of round 1, we have a winner by way of TKO (cut). Demir Kocak!
Rex def Southanouvong via Unanimous Decision
Well, one thing was for sure in this one... This was a non stop action packed brawl, ladies and gentlemen. A combined 168 punches from both ranged and clinch, not to count all the kicks thrown by Rex. If you just go by the stat sheet, this looked like some kind of man crush hippie hug event between two love at first sight snowbirds trying to stay warm. All you see popping out on the sheet is clinch, break clinch, clinch, break clinch.. but there was so much action in between that this one had fans standing for the majority of the fight.
Blaze "Yeah man, I had this one pegged wrong too. I had it ending in a decision, got that much right, but the judges raised the hand of Rex, and I can't argue with the results. This was a sloberknocker of a fight and I don't think anyone would have batted an eye if it had earned FotN honors. Much respect to Rex for picking up a huge win, but both of these guys deserve a brownie (you know, special brownie) for such an action backed slug fest."
Ladies and gentlemen, after 3 rounds of action, we go to the scorecards for a decision.
Judge Columbo Gatti scores the fight 28:30
Judge Eddie Farnsworth scores the fight 28:29
Judge Bruno Lombardi scores the fight 27:30
In favor of your winner, by unanimous decision... Sabotage Rex!
Yazzie def Clark via Unanimous Decision
This was, perhaps, the strangest fight of the night. But the results may have been what lead to the win for Yazzie. Yazzie had the edge from range as all Clark wanted to do was clinch up. He was only successful 4 of his 20 attempts, but clark was very active in the clinch throwing 45 strikes to Yazzie's 20. From the clinch, Yazzie seemed more determined to take the fight to the ground as he was successful 4 of his 17 attempts at doing so. Once on the ground, it was a submission spam fest as Clark continually found himself warding off a submission attempt.
Always managing to get the fight back to standing, Yazzie was not able to capitalize on his grappling advantage and in the closing seconds of the fight stunned Clark with a shoot takedown from range to end the fight. When looking at the judges scorecards, that single action may have been the difference in giving him the win in this fight, it was that close. Had that not happened, this fight would have either been a split decision or possibly a draw. Though I'm glad we didn't have a draw, Clark can't be happy about the fight being so close and he may even be looking for a rematch. Nobody likes to lose in a decision, and when it's that close, there's always those who will think the fight should have been scored differently.
Blaze "Well, J.W., I'm pretty sure I've heard you say before that no fight should be left in the hands of the judges. Yazzie wasn't able to capitalize on the ground, and Clark wasn't able to get the job done from range. In my eyes, they both lost because they let the judges settle it. As a fighter, you want to end the fight, leave no room for doubt. Knock or tap their ass out and be done with it. Any talk after that is just garbage."
Ladies and gentlemen, after 3 rounds of action, we go to the scorecards for a decision.
Judge David Schapiro scores the fight 29:28
Judge Joseph Jones scores the fight 29:28
Judge Jorge Garcia scores the fight 29:28
In favor of your winner, by unanimous decision... Dyami Yazzie!
Bizihwaeile def Murphy via Unanimous Decision
Another happy hippy clinch fest, eh Harley? This was another Harley got wrong. I believe he had Murhpy winning this fight and Bizi on a 3 fight skid, but boy, was he wrong.
Bizi was back to contender form in this one as he left it all out there on the line. His defense was solid, his striking was good, he was very, very aggressive. He was easily able to get the fight into the clinch and dictate the fight all the way through. Murhpy did land a few nice leg kicks and mixed up his attack a little more, but it wasn't enough to catch the judges eyes when all they can see is Bizi non stop swinging, clinching, and just working Murphy throughout this fight.
Blaze "I don't really have anything for this one. I expected more out of Murphy, but Bizi showed us he's not gone yet. He needed a big bounce back win here, and I doubted him, but he did it. He proved to the HFC, and everyone else around the world that Bizi isn't gone, and we haven't seen the last of him."
Ladies and gentlemen, after 3 rounds of action, we go to the scorecards for a decision.
Judge John Roberts scores the fight 27:30
Judge David Schapiro scores the fight 27:30
Judge Bruno Lombardi scores the fight 27:30
In favor of your winner, by unanimous decision... Feaqeuin Bizihwaeile!
Saget def Mustacho via TKO (Head Kick)
Harley, if you keep missing all these picks you're going to look like the laughing stock of HFC. I, also missed this one. I mean, how can I take someone named Bob Saget seriously? Well, Mustacho didn't take him seriously and he is now regretting it.
This fight ended half way through the first round after Saget landed a beautiful combo that dropped and cut Mustacho. Saget waved him up and then lands a hard head kick that dropped Mustacho again. Saget was about to dive in to make sure the fight was over when the ref, a wanna be Goldberg, tackled Saget to prevent him from doing anymore damage to Mustacho.
Blaze "Yeah, I'll eat crow on this one. Saget has had one of those up and down careers. He'll show flashes of brilliance and then other times just look like a complete dud. If he can be this impressive moving forward and string together a few wins, the division will definitely start looking at him a little more seriously, as will I. Huge win for Saget here, I even spilled my beer when I saw that head kick. Great shit man!"
Ladies and gentlemen, after 2:46 of round 1, we have a winner by way of TKO (Head Kick). Bob Saget!
Large def Randall via KO (Punches)
Well, not much to say in this one. Randall officially became the first HFC fighter to ever have fought in each weight class. And as you can imagine, he didn't stand much of a chance against someone so much bigger and stronger than he was. It only took 34 seconds in the first round for this fight to be over, but the record has been written.
Blaze "That's a cool record and all, I suppose, but wouldn't it be better if you actually were a contender, or could compete in those fights? I mean, he fought in all the weight classes, but he hasn't won in all of them. To me, that would be a far more sought after record."
Ladies and gentlemen, after 0:34 of round 1, we have a winner by way of KO (Punches). Mr Large!
Vaiduoklis def Gracie via Unanimous Decision
And another Gracie goes down this weekend. I guess the rest of the MMA world is catching up to them. This was about the most one sided dominated fight I've ever seen that went the distance. When looking at the score cards, the judges agreed as all three judges scored the fight 30:25 for Vaiduoklis.
In a full 15 minutes of action, Gracie had managed only 2 takedowns out of his 17 attempts. That'll take a lot out of any fighter, and it must have taken a lot out of him. In his minimal time on the ground, he managed only 1 attempted GnP strike and 1 sub. That's not going to cut it against a fighter like Vaiduoklis who just dominated the fight standing. He must have been aiming for 100% accuracy because as many times as he landed strikes on Gracie, he was either hitting with pillow cushions or Gracie is the toughest SOB in the HFC.
Blaze "I couldn't agree more, J.W. Gracie couldn't take him down, and never had a chance. Vaiduoklis showed he's one of the more accurate strikes in the HFC, but was unable to finish this fight. I guess when you can do it this way, and leave no doubt to the judges, it's a good win. He was 100% accuracy from range and went absolutely ape shit in the clinch landing 44/47 head punches and 41/78 body blows. He consistently worked the body to gas out Gracie and prevent Gracie from having the juice needed to even attempt to get the fight to the ground at times. Hard to bend down and grab a leg when you're constantly getting face drilled and kidney punched. Excellent job by Vaiduoklis. Now you just need a short and simple nickname so I don't have to call you Vaid."
Ladies and gentlemen, after 3 rounds of action, we go to the scorecards for a decision.
Judge John Roberts scores the fight 30:25
Judge Reed Andrews scores the fight 30:25
Judge Franklyn Lucas scores the fight 30:25
In favor of your winner, by unanimous decision... Juodasis Vaiduoklis!
Battle def Black via TKO (Strikes)
And finally, we get to the fight that kicked the night off. And what a way to kick things off indeed! Our opening fight was our fight of the night! That's right, these two young gladiators went at it all night long and were only seconds away from the final bell. But as time expired, Battle took the advice we've been pumping out there since day one and turned it up, not leaving the fight in the hands of the judges.
This fight was back and forth between these two fighters, in and out of the clinch, and both fighters were determined for that win. Black was the more aggressive fighter from range, but only landed 50 of his 131 strikes from range. Battle was just as effective mixing things up, but didn't throw nearly as many strikes, conserving more energy. Battle displayed some brilliant striking from the clinch where he dominated Black, but otherwise was a pretty solid and even fight. Volume didn't make up for accuracy and power in this one, and when it was approaching the final bell you heard a shout from his corner telling Battle to "step into the light." I didn't know what that meant at the time, but Battle just started walking through several strikes from Black, checking legs, blocking kicks, but when he saw it, he stepped into the light and turned Blacks light off and let him fade to black.
Harley Blaze
Blaze "This was a great fight, and it had to be to beat out some of the other fight of the night candidates we had on this card. But holy hell, what a finish by Battle. Black got knocked into the future with that counter strike and even tried to fight the ref after the fight was over. I have no idea if Battle planned this tactic out, or if he just got lucky there at the end. This fight could have gone either way with the judges as we've seen before they sometimes take into account volume of action instead of effectiveness of actions. So great job by Battle of finishing this fight, and what a way to get the crowed amped up and ready for the night to come."
Ladies and gentlemen, after 4:30 of round 3, we have a winner by way of TKO (Strikes). Dre Battle!
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