Friday, September 11, 2009
Liveblog: ROC 26 Part 7
The ROC lightweight belt is at stake now with champ Chris Liguori of Team Ricardo Almeida defending his title against Team Combat's Dwayne Shelton. Liguori opens by taking Shelton down and trying to improve position, and Shelton slows him down with a kimura. Scramble, scramble, scramble and one of the judges cries out in dismay at the prospect of having to score this round. In the second round Liguori masterfully escapes two close armbar attempts to edge ahead with his ground and pound, and though in the final round Shelton comes out ahead in the scrambles, it's not enough to sway the judges. Liguori keeps his belt with the unanimous decision. Last bout of the evening and it's Advanced Martial Art's Ricardo Romero against Motor City Boxing's Richie Lictawa for the USKBA heavyweight title. Round 1 is all Romero, as he takes Lictawa down and feeds him a barrage of leather artillery from the mount. Miraculously, Lictawa makes it to Round 2, but he still cannot stop Romero from taking him down, and the Advanced Martial Arts fighter nearly rips off his arm with a kimura at 2:14 of the second round. That's all she wrote.
Liveblog: ROC 26 Part 6
Team Serra/Longo striking ace Costa Phillippou squares off against Team Vision/Walker MMA's Victor O'Donnell. At stake: the ROC middleweight belt, which O'Donnell took from Natal at the last show. O'Donnell has proven to be able to take punishment and dish it out, but Phillippou is deadly like a sniper, so we'll see if he can his mojo can take it. Well, it most certainly can in Round 1, as O'Donnell lets Phillippou know immediately that his stand-up cannot be trifled with by tagging him with a right to the chin. Phillippou gets the takedown, but O'Donnell more or less avoids any real punishment and eventually gains dominant position. Round 2 has the Team Serra/Longo rep immediately shooting for the takedown, and from his guard O'Donnell comes ridiculously close with a triangle choke. This round ends with them taking turns being on top. The momentum changes drastically in the final frame, as Phillippou rallies to score a pair of takedowns and keep his opponent on his back for the duration. The judges score the bout 29-28 in favor of Phillippou, but this one was closer than that, and O'Donnell - claiming he was eye-gouged at some point - leaves without the belt.
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.
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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