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 BANZAI COMBAT 10 – Review
BANZAI COMBAT’s milestone 10th event did not disappoint and continued to break the orgs existing records as the org continues to grow. An attendance of 1,175 at Hayashi’s Lounge in Tokyo witnessed an exciting night of action and saw the crowing of a new Lightweight Champion!
Main Card
Main Event – Lightweight Championship - Tyrese Mercado vs Lincoln Hamilton
Mercado came into this fight as the newly crowned, inaugural Lightweight champion having convincingly beat Nuori Makunochi for the belt at BANZAI COMBAT 8. Hamilton on the other hand had quickly worked his way up the rankings with a series of quick submission victories. Both undefeated, the stage was set for a fantastic encounter between an out and out boxer and an out and out submission artist!
The fight started at a blistering pace as Mercado almost immediately sent Hamilton to the floor with a big left hand and immediately mounted him. Hamilton in desperate trouble, stayed calm and worked from the bottom.
2 minutes in and Hamilton got the reversal as his superior ground skills started to shine through and a flurry of submission attempts followed by Hamilton. A desperate Mercado tried to get to his feet but Hamilton dropped back for a heel hook synced it in and the fight was over at 3:19 of round 1! Lincoln Hamilton was crowned the new Lightweight Champion!! Great appreciation was shown by those in attendance.
Mercado will be disappointed not to defend his title but he will be back.
Co-Main Event – Light Heavyweight - Bentley Santos vs Yukihiro Shimada
Blinked and you missed this one! Both these fighters were looking to put themselves into title contention by taking the victory in this encounter.
The reasonably well-rounded Bentley Santos immediately came out of the blocks with dangerous intent as he buckled his opponent's knee momentarily with a nice leg kick. Serrano, however coming off a big KO win at BANZAI COMBAT 8 was having none of it and gave as good as he got with a series of kicks and punches. The crowd were on their feet as these two warries went at it toe to toe!
Serrano missed with a body shot and Santos took full advantage getting a clinch and controlling Serrano up against the cage. Santos pulled guard and looked for triangle choke! His superior BJJ skills were no match for Serrano as he tapped out at 2.57 of round 1.
What a victory for Bentley Santos and he surely has put himself firmly in line for a title shot after that wonderful victory!
Featherweight - Bentley Rocha vs Daichi Tanaka
This intriguing match-up was a key fight for Bentley Rocha having suffered a brutal KO loss to the number 1 fighter in the Featherweight division, Junior Calderon in his last outing.
Rocha, a skilled BJJ brown belt avoided Tanaka’s wild uppercut attempt in the opening moments. Rocha then got a clinch but changed his mind and breaks the clinch. Strangely it was Daichi Tanaka who completed the first successful takedown of the fight but he does nothing with it and is happy to control the action leading to a referee stand-up! Thank God he listened to the boos coming from the crowd!
Towards the end of the first round Rocha finally finds his groove and a beautiful double leg takedown leads to a submission attempt but runs out of time as the bell rings.
Round 2 starts with Rocha full of confidence easily scoring the takedown and submitting his opponent at 1.48 of round 2 with a kimura!
An important victory for Brendan Rocha as he seeks a rematch with Junior Calderon which may even be to crown the first ever BANZAI COMBAT Featherweight champion!
Middleweight - Enoc Solves Torres vs Katsumi Orochi
Did I say blinked and you missed it?! Nothing compared to this! Enoc Solves Torres easily dispatched his foe, who was making his debut in BANZAI COMBAT in 0.31 of round 1! A big right hand followed by a few more vicious punches and this one was over!
Torres maintains his unbeaten record at 185 lbs as he climbs the Middleweight rankings with this fantastic victory!
Lightweight - Panished Snake vs Kwame Kombate
Another 31 second barn stormer featured a fighter making his BANZAI COMBAT debut in Kwame Kombate against a fighter making in 4th appearance in the org. The fight ended with Kombate catching Snake with a big overhand right followed by a few more punches to finish him off before the ref stopped the fight at 0:31 of round 1.
What a debut for Kwame Kombate! He has certainly made his mark on the division with this emphatic victory!
Undercard
Featherweight - Mr Lucky vs Luc One
This fight featured two fighters making their MMA debut. The extremely long and lanky Luc One looks like a stick! He’s a stick! Lol. But his height and reach advantage will be enormous!
Lucky immediately took the fight into a clinch where he had three failed takedown attempts. Eventually One gets the takedown but Lucky escapes and gets back to his feet! Another takedown by One, leads to a reversal by Lucky but One gets full mount!
A very exciting period of action leads to Lucky giving up his back and One sinks in a rear naked choke! Great debut for Luc One!
Featherweight - Baki Hanma vs Luc Taala
This mid-card bout featured two 18-year-olds making the BANZAI COMBAT debuts.
Luc Taala’s cut around the 3 ½ minute mark of the first round may have been the highlight of this one! But full credit to Baki Hanma as he dominated the stand-up throughout the fight.
No fewer than 26 failed takedown attempts by Taala wore him down but Hanma was unable to take advantage and get the KO.
The fight ended in a unanimous decision victory for Baki Hanma with all three judges scoring the fight 30:26 in his favour.
Bantamweight - Petchongboo Sitsongrit vs Mahatma Gandhi
BANZAI COMBAT was privileged to have the current No 1 ranked manager in the game, Theksit Ruengruong, have his young prospect, Petchongboo Sitsongrit make his debut in this match-up. Unfortunately, his opponent Mahatma Gandhi seemed to forget he was there for a fight and did very little apart from get punched in the face!
Sitsongrit displayed an excellent mix of kicks and punches both on the outside and in the clinch easily dispatching of Gandhi at 2:49 of round 1 after a huge head kick, followed by strikes to finish the job!
Welterweight - Luc Ryder vs Mikazuchi Rei
Luc Ryder looked very convincing in the second fight of the night! He dominated the action taking the fight into the clinch a number of times, eventually getting a takedown before the ending the fight at 3:32 of round 1 with an absolutely beautiful americana, which earned him the submission of the night award!
Heavyweight - Van Vader vs Thanh Tung
The first fight on the undercard would set the precedent for the night, as several quick victories would follow at this event.
Not to be confused with Big Van Vader of WCW fame, his namesake got the night off to a ferocious start with a MASSIVE right left combination, which left his opponent out on his feet! At just 0:10 of round 1 Van Vader had a KO victory!
I’ll have to check the record books but I think that might be a record for BANZAI COMBAT!
Overview
There you have it folks, what a great night, which saw history made as a championship belt changed hands for the first time in BANZAI COMBAT!
Attendance: 1,174
KO of the night: Van Vader ($5,000)
Sub of the night: Luc Ryder ($5,000)
Fight of the night: Lincoln Hamilton vs Tyrese Mercado ($5,000 each)
Event Rating: 86.22
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