Saturday, October 2, 2010
Liveblog: Brick City FC Part 3
Josh Key of Rhino Fight Team and Eric Bradley of Wanderlei Silva's gym in Las Vegas square off for a welterweight bout. People who stand with Key tend to get knocked out, so Bradley eats two low kicks and decides to wrestle Key to the ground and try to submit him. Almost all of Round 1 is spent with Bradley in mount or on Key's back, although Key does make it back to his feet to reinforce that whole "dude, I will kill you with theses fists" thing. Round 2 is the same exact thing, with Key getting closer and closer to putting Bradley away with his ten seconds of punching. Key gets even more time to punish the hell out of Bradley in the third, but ultimately Bradley's wrestling keeps him from getting knocked out, and he takes the unanimous decision. Two longtime New Jersey staples take to the cage in JA Dudley (Team Endgame) and Glen Sandull (AMA FC) for a heavyweight pairing. Sandull goes back to his wrestling roots for this one, keeping Dudley down and doing his best to work him over. Dudley shows his usual gameness, though, and survives, escapes and delivers punishment of his own to punctuate the opening round. Sandull is on top for the vast majority of the second, and repeats that scenario in the third, cruising to a clear-cut unanimous decision.
Liveblog: Brick City FC Part 2
Greg Jackson-trained Ran Weathers is up first, taking Miletich Fighting Systems' Brandon Adamson in a lightweight contest. If I've learned anything in all my years of covering fights, it's that you can never bet against someone with a verb as a first name, so keep an eye on Mr. Weathers. Round 1 has Weathers scoring with a nice double-leg, fighting out of a tight guillotine, and working his mojo from Adamson's back. Adamson doesn't like this, so in Round 2 he comes out and kicks Weathers in the ribs - nearly folding him over. Adamson ends up on top on the ground, again working for a guillotine. But Weathers catches his breath, escapes, again takes his foe's back, and this time manages to sink the rear naked choke. The official time of the tap out is 1:47 of Round 2. Artur Rofi of Team Renzo enters to take on Adolpho Sanchez of Rhino Fight Team in another 155-pound scrap. A clear crowd-favorite, Rofi comes close to falling prey to an arm-in guillotine in the first 30 seconds. However, the next four and a half minutes are all about Rofi putting Sanchez through the ringer with the kind of back-control reserved for long prison nights and gay pride parades. Sanchez toughs out about two dozen rear naked choke attempts, but he refuses to tap to an armbar at the bell, and from then on it's clear he can barely use it. Round 2 sees Rofi punish him on the feet with knees and punches, then finish the job with a KO from the mount at 4:53.
Liveblog: Brick City FC Part 1
MMA Journalist is here at Essex County College in Newark, cageside for the debut of the Brick City Fighting Championship. There are nine bouts scheduled, and if there's a theme to the match-ups, it's best described as "Team Gracie versus Gold Team" (Gold Team is Jorge "Macaco" Patino's boys). For those unfamiliar with the results of New Jersey's 2010 census, Newark has a huge Brazilian population, so the audience reaction for tonight's fights should be about as passionate as it was for Rio de Janeiro's 1997 Pentagon Combat (hopefully, with less stabbings).
Friday, October 1, 2010
Observations from My Couch: WEC 51 "Death of a Zombie"
- Mark Hominick has been looking great lately. Am I the only one who thinks he might be able to beat Jose Aldo on the feet? If the two fought, at the very least we’d get to see Aldo use his ground game to put Hominick away.
- Chan Sung Jung is the most likeable fighter in the WEC, so watching George Roop plaster him was especially hard. Long live the Korean Zombie!
- I’m not going to say that Charlie Valencia was a can, but when Miguel Torres crushed him, there was definitely a distinct crunching-metal sound.
- Zhang Tie Quan: the Coca-Cola of products seeking to gain a foothold in an emerging market. However, if he continues to face scrubs, he will only ever be the Coke Zero.
- Donald Cerrone and Jamie Varner had a very entertaining scrap, but I’m left wondering why they must fight each other in the cage forever. Is it a gypsy curse?
- Manny Gamburyan never stood a chance.
- Right now the most intriguing match-up for Aldo is for him to face Frankie Edgar. That bout would never happen – what if Aldo won? What would the UFC lightweight belt be worth then? But it would be a huge fight nonetheless.
Observations from My Couch: Bellator 31 "Ultimate Megumi"
- Was Yoshiyuki Yoshida angling to get into the next Bellator welterweight tournament with that fight? ‘Cause if so, that was his first mistake. Anyone who’s supposedly a shoe-in for a tournament slot always gets their ass kicked in their tune-up bout. Of course, his second mistake was blocking Chris Lozano’s strikes with his face.
- Someone please explain to me why Mark Holata wasn’t in the heavyweight tournament. Seriously, that bout was why we watch the big boys fight.
- I could see Zoila Frausto winning two rounds, but no way did she win all three. Jessica Aguilar got jobbed.
- Did Mike Chandler TKO the lead singer of “Creed”?
- Megumi Fujii is so badass, she doesn’t train with Josh Barnett. Josh Barnett trains with her.
MMA Tournament in NYC on October 16
There's an MMA tournament in the East Village on October 16th - an MMA tournament of the UFC Undisputed videogame variety, that is. The host is our pal Matt Kaplowitz, a.k.a., the Fight Nerd, and the location is 8 Bit & Up Video Games at St. Marks Place and Second Avenue. More info to come.
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