It may not be “Fight Week, Blog Week”, but we’ve got the UFC 146 Primetime series and now this little gem. It’s kind of like if you combined the old radio promos for monster truck events — “Saturday and Sunday!!!” old grindhouse movie sound effects and graphics, and images from when MMA was known as No Holds Barred. And how about the all-heavyweight main card?
Three of York County’s MMA academies had fighters in the Warrior Challenge 17 event this past weekend in Virginia. The event was the culmination of a tournament which began at the previous Warrior Challenge by promoter Mark Jovich. Those who survived the first round were battling for titles in this event.
Bob Bitner, who runs Hanover Academy of MMA, had one fighter in Warrior Challenge, and one at another event in the state:
“Started the night off in Chantilly Va. with Nick Weaver who was fighting for the light heavyweight title at Warrior Challenge. Rd 1 had Nick and Sam Dunlap both exchanging kicks, Sam showed some frustration and shot in on Nick which didn’t end well for Sam. After some quick scrambling Nick ended up getting the mount and ended the rd. with some short elbows getting the cut.
Rd. 2 started out the same way with Sam throwing kicks, this time though Nick showed his stand up skills by countering with punches every time Sam threw a kick. Not sure if Sam was tired or frustrated, but he threw a kick and dropped his hands, Nick saw the opening and threw a high kick of his own, all shin to temple, end result was a clean K.O. and winning the light heavyweight championship.
Called my other crew that was at another event in Purcellville cornering Nate Kinard to find out where we were on that card. Found out we still had some time to wait yet, so they shot me the address to that event. Realizing it was only 30-35 minutes away i jumped in the truck and hauled ass to that event.
Nate, true to form was not to be outdone by team mate Nick. Came out blazing with punches and kicks and got the win with a first rd. tko. Not a bad way to spend a saturday, wins at two events and still have never missed an event any of my fighters have been at.”
D’Juan “Dirty South” Owens took on Jeremy Myers at Reality Cage Combat’s event in Charleston, West Virginia on Friday. The description under the video reads: “This is the fight ending sequence from D’Juan’s fight in Charleston West VA! Ground and pound to Wilson pass to north/south choke!”
At Strikeforce: Barnett vs. Cormier on Saturday night, Gilbert Melendez and Josh Thomson completed their trilogy, in what was probably the unofficial Fight of the Night. The rivalry began in June 2008, when Thomson beat Melendez by unanimous decision to win the lightweight belt. Melendez then evened the score — and won the belt — in September 2009, when he was awarded a unanimous decision over Thomson. Melendez had retained the belt ever since, beating Shinya Aoki, Tatsuya Kawajiri and Jorge Masvidal.
Here are some of my live tweets from the fight:
“Round 1 to Melendez, by pushing the pace, a take down and crisp striking.”
“Time called as Thomson gets poked in the eye. He quickly recovers.”
“Second round goes to Melendez, again, aggressive pace and a higher volume of strikes.”
“Round 3 to Thomson, but only by a hair. Melendez’s right eye looks to be very swollen.”
“And we’re tied at 2-2 for Thomson-Melendez, fifth round on the way.”
“Thomson gets poked in the eye again.”
“I have Thomson 3-2 over Melendez.”
“Melendez wins by split decision.”
“Thomson is a class act, all the way. Gives major props to Gil, apologizes for cussing at a previous fight.”
Similar to Barnett-Cormier, both Melendez and Thomson are UFC-caliber fighters. I know the UFC disbanded the Strikeforce heavyweight division, cherry-picking the best fighters, but I don’t know if it’s “business as usual” for SF’s lightweight division. If it is, it would be foolish to move Melendez and Thomson over. Guess we’ll just have to wait and see — not sure there’s too many more worthy challengers for Melendez in the division.
Hard, fast punches, powerful take downs and punishing ground-and-pound — all administered by Daniel Cormier on Saturday night — led to his dominance over Josh Barnett. The win saw him crowned the Strikeforce World Grand Prix champion, and almost assuredly, a contract with the UFC.
Barnett was forced to stand up with Cormier — unless Cormier dictated a take down. On the feet, Barnett was blasted with power punches, knees, and even head kicks from his shorter opponent.
Barnett had a chance at a knee bar/heel hook, not sure which round it was, but Cormier intelligently rolled and pulled out of it. he stood toe-to-toe with Cormier, but his punches seemed to have less power behind them.
The fight went the distance, and as someone else tweeted, it was great to see big dudes with such great cardio in a championship fight.
The epilogue from this fight should be that both Cormier and Barnett receive UFC contracts. Cormier proved he can immediately jump into dangerous waters in the UFC — although he migh have to wait until someone who already has a fight scheduled is free again, like Cain Velasquez, Roy Nelson or Travis Browne. Barnett may have come out on the losing end, but he can still create a lot of intriguing match-ups in a thin UFC heavyweight division.
Here’s the next episode in the UFC 146: Primetime series. It’s great that the UFC gives its big fights the long-form documentary treatment. In these videos, we see more of Frank Mir and Junior dos Santos’ lives, their motivations for fighting, and some insightful interviews and training footage.
PA fighter Sean Oliveri (1-1) of Balance Combat took on fellow Pennsylvanian Ian Brofsky (2-1) of Tri-State MMA on Saturday night at Cage Fight 12 in Dickson City, which saw Olivieri defeat Brofsky by triangle choke at 1:39 of round 2. According to the ring announcer, this was a grudge match between the two fighters — not sure what the beef was about, and but hopefully the fight squashed it. It was hard to tell from the video, but it looks like the two congratulated each other at the end, so that’s a good sign. The win brings Oliveri’s record up to 2-1.
Here are the results, courtesy of DMV Athletics:
Dusty Thursby over AJ Layung
Darius Campbell over Adrian Smith Jr via tap out (strikes)
Myron Baker over Shawn Joffee via triangle choke
Mike Santini over Timothy Lodgen via tko (strikes)
Tyron Layug over Edwin Leiva via tko (strikes)
Shawn Kepper over Mike Wilson via KO
Piankhi Zimmerman over Arnaud Young via tko (strikes)
Justin Faithful over Jon Tuxford via KO
Matt Schellenschlager over Donald Williams via tap out (rear naked choke)
Nick Weaver over Sam Dunlap via KO (head kick)
Darren Costa over Daniel Miller via tap out (rear naked choke)
Jessie Mitchell Jr over Kenny Gaudreau via tko (strikes)
*Eric Albright vs. Ron Vaughters was scratched, after, according to Albright and trainer Chad Strawbridge, Vaughters no-showed at the weigh-ins.
Joel Roberts celebrates after his win at Cage Fight 12 Saturday in Dickson City, PA.
CAGE FIGHT 12: Roberts wins featherweight title
by Herb Smith (staff writer), The Times-Tribune
DICKSON CITY – For one fighter, there is joy and a look toward the future. For his opponent, it is back to the drawing board.
Joel Roberts of Lehighton continued his march through the professional ranks with his fifth straight win, defeating James Cianci of Clarks Summit by rear naked choke at 4:00 of Round 1 to win the Cage Fight Featherweight Championship in front of 1,260 in the main event of Cage Fight 12 at Genetti Manor.
It was also Roberts’ fifth straight win by submission.
“I train for three rounds but I fight to get a finish,” Roberts said. “I don’t want a boring fight.”
In the co-feature bout, Mike Bannon of Milford submitted Jay Haas with a knee bar at 1:47 of Round 1 in a lightweight professional fight.
Jeremiah Wells also earned a title as he defeated Dennis Maldonado by TKO to win the Cage Fight Middleweight Amateur Championship.
In the main event, Cianci looked to have the early edge as he pressed Roberts against the cage. He attempted to take him down but Roberts countered. Continue reading
Here are the results of the all-amateur Extreme Fight Club IV: Showdown event, held last night at Nutley High School in Nutley, NJ, courtesy of the NJ State Athletic Control Board:
Bouts-
1
140
Ref Dudley
Rivera 139.5. Uzquiano 136
Irwing Rivera (124-281) vs. Edwin Uzquiano (103-582)
Judges Bittencourt, Castro and Sinclair all score 29-28 for Uzquiano via three round unanimous decision.
2
168
Ref Carolei
Both fighters weigh 166
Eddie Diaz (119-343) vs. Elijah Bovenzi (125-731)
Judges Castro, Sinclair and Vrlaku
all score 29-28 for Diaz via three round unanimous decision.
3
135
Ref Carolei
Sylvester 134. Letizia 133.5
Adam Sylvester (125-672) vs. Steven Letizia (127-879)
Sylvester wins via split decision in three rounds, 29-26, 29-26 and 27-28 Bittencourt.
Ref deducted one point from each fighter during the contest for fouls. Continue reading
Mixed Martial Arts is exploding - the sport of the future is here. With mainstream media coverage, and fights on nearly all continents, it's now impossible to ignore the excitement, the complexity and the ferocity of MMA.
My name is Ted Czech, and I've worked in York, Pa. for eight years as a police reporter. I've been a fan of MMA since UFC 1 -- seriously -- and I've dabbled in a few styles like karate, kung-fu, taijutsu and submission wrestling. I hope to give some press to fighters from the York area, while also commenting on things happening in the U.S. and beyond. Let's support the sport!
