Friday, September 11, 2009

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Liveblog: ROC 26 Part 5

Peak Submission's Allan Weickert enters the cage to take on Team Renzo's Raphael Natal. Originally, Sean Salmon was supposed to be facing Natal, but Salmon had the brilliant idea of admitting online that he threw his last fight (which was against Weickert), so karma has the Peak Submission rep doing the dance in his place. Anyoo, they swing bolos until Natal gets it to the ground, where he works onto Weickert's back, snakes his arm around Weickert's neck and elicits the tap at 2:53 of Round 1. Bellmore Kickboxing monster Gian Villante is up next, taking on last-minute replacement Rob Wince of the Hammer House (yes, Mark Coleman's Den of Wrestling Madness). Surprisingly, despite the short notice, Wince seems pretty capable, threatening with takedowns and willing to stand and trade. Villante controls him on the ground, threatening with a choke at one point, but it's by no means a rape. No, that comes in Round 2, when Villante catches Wince leaning in and puts him away with a high kick to the head. The official time of the knockout is 1:25 of the second round.

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Liveblog: ROC 26 Part 4

The Armory's Ed Guedes takes to the cage to square off against Team Energy's John Salgado. Guedes has travelled all the way from Florida for this bout; meanwhile, Salgado has prepared himself by punching cars as they drive by on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. The opening minutes have them trading punches and Guedes brings things to the ground with a takedown, where he eventually works into the mount and then back-mount. Time expires with Guedes dropping bombs from Salgado's back. Round 2 is almost an exact replay of Round 1 minus the stand-up exchanges, and sensing Salgado's inability to stop the takedown, Guedes keeps up with the same plan of action in the third. To his credit, Salgado is resilent and able to escape every submission attempt, but when time runs out there's no question Guedes has earned the unanimous decision. Bellmore Kickboxing stud "Crazy" Chris Schlesinger and Team Serra/Longo up-and-comer Nabih Barakat are up, a match-up of veteran against new blood. These guys waste no time mixing it up, clinching against the cage and trading knees until Barakat inadvertantly lands one in Schlesinger's jewels. A restart and Schlesinger nails the takedown, and for the rest of the round he does his best to punish his opponent below. Barakat gets taken down twice more in Round 2, and though he avoids most of the heat Crazy Chris is bringing, he can't muster much by way of offense. Round 3 sees Schlesinger slow from exhaustion, but he does manage an ankle pick, and with Barakat once more on his back, it's smooth sailing to Unanimous Decision Island for the Bellmore Kickboxing rep.

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Liveblog: ROC 26 Part 3

Carlton Haselrig is off the card. He was supposed to fight Gian Villante, but he suddenly realized he had very little talent and ability and Villante would've killed him, so Haselrig bailed. Carlos Brooks was scheduled to fight Lorenzo Hood, but Hood bailed as well, apparently having taken a fight elsewhere. Now it's time for Rhino Fight Team's Jose Sulsona and Bellmore Kickboxing's Ryan LaFlare. LaFlare tends to fight with about 110% pure aggression, which in this instance has him bullying Sulsona to the ground and all over him like white on rice. Sulsona has his moments, though, threatening with a few subs and a particularly close heelhook attempt. The round ends with LaFlare working to extend an arm for the armbar. Round 2 is more of the same, only this time LaFlare gets Sulsona's back and snags the armbar from there. The official time is 2:18 of the second round. Sean Santella of AMA FC and Jose Villanueva of TSMMA take to the cage next. This the third time these two have met, with Villanueva getting the decision when they were amateurs and their first pro pairing ending in a draw. Hopefully this bout will resolve it all, otherwise these men are perilously close to being considered married under current New Jersey statutes. Though pretty evenly matched, Santella has the edge in wrestling and Villanueva the edge in striking, and when Santella nearly lands a flying triangle the TSMMA fighter makes him pay with some hellacious ground and pound. Round 2 begins and Santella nails the lightning-fast takedown, moves to side-mount then transitions into an armbar - a flawless display of grappling that forces Villanueva to tap at the two-minute mark.

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