Sunday, December 5, 2010

ROC 33 Postscript

With so many fights - and so many good ones - it's hard to pick the standouts. But I shall try... James Jenkins has shown a lot of promise in just two ROC appearances; Mervin Rodriguez looked rock solid and his new camp (Pellegrino MMA) might be a great fit for him; Tom DeBlass continues to climb up the division; Justine Kish looked amazing, both in her confidence and her technique (when Holland had her pressed up against the cage she was literally crawling up Munah to put her in a guillotine); and, Costa Phillipou was his usual deadly self. As for the championship bouts, Sean Santella, Chris Weidman and Gian Villante came off as top-level guys about one or two fights aways from competing in the UFC. But if the night belonged to anyone, it belonged to Joe Aviles. Thus far we have seen only spectacular knockouts from this Jungle Gym rep, and that's the kind of trait that makes him worth his weight in gold to any organization. Fighters like Weidman and Villante will sell a lot of tickets because they're good at what they do and they have a lot of family and friends that like to come out and support them. Someone like Aviles, however, will have people buying tickets (or tuning in or purchasing the pay-per-view) just to see who and how he will kill next. Like I said, that's gold right there.