Thursday, December 29, 2011

Dramatis Personae: Carlos Moreno

I really wanted Carlos Moreno to be in RAW COMBAT but the timing wasn't right. You see, when I was doing interviews with local Northeast fighters, fighters who helped make the scene what it is today, "The Tyrant" was a guest of the state, and incommunicado (to me, at least). But damn, when it comes to raw talent, intensity and ferocity, few have been able to match Moreno in the cage - which makes his friendliness and likeability outside of the cage such a stark contrast.

If you take Moreno and his record at face value, you'll only get half the story. A glance at his stats and one can see he was a product of "Big" Dan Miragliotta's BAMA Fight Nights, and all of his wins have come from hitting his opponents so hard they either went to sleep or wished they were asleep, and that he was a Ring of Combat and Battle Cage Xtreme heavyweight champ. However, the tale not told by mere stats is a tale only told by the details, details seen when you're a fixture at shows. There was the time he duked it out with UFC vet Kevin Jordan, and when he got dropped by a knee, his mom was frantic as she rushed the cage. There was also the time teammate Tom Gallicchio showed up for a fight with the words "Free Carlos" written on his back, an open plea to the world about Moreno's legal plight. And there was the time when Moreno took a fight on an EliteXC undercard against Carlton Haselrig, which, due to the short notice (really, only a few days), meant the Latino version of "Tank Abbott" had enough gas for one round of fending off Haselrig's wrestling before he was forced to call it quits.

But those losses, and time spent away from the scene, don't mean much in the grand scheme of things, especially when you're a heavyweight with the ability to break someone's orbital bone with a jab, or when you can overwhelm nearly everyone with sledgehammer fists, and provide a fight card with one heck of an exclaimation point.

Moreno is out now and keen on getting back into the cage, and that's pretty freakin' cool to hear. He was, without question, the Northeast scene's first true heavyweight knockout artist. And it doesn't matter whether there's still TNT left in his fists or not, because ultimately, the scene is far more interesting with him around.