M-1 “russia Vs. The World 7”
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M-1 "Russia vs. the World 7" Two draws slow international stage progress in St. Petersburg Report and photos by Keith Mills St. Petersburg, Russia-The Russian team mainly represented by Team Red Devil slipped in the results slightly compared to October’s Moscow show by picking up the same amount of losses but also picking up two draws for a total on the main card of 7-2-2. Unfortunately the two draws were in two of the fights with the most attention from the Western perspective, with both the much-anticipated Denis Kang/Andrei Semenov fight and the main event of Gilbert Yvel (from Holland but fighting as Red Devil)/Daniel Tabeira.
The Russian team did do better against the Americans with two-time UFC vet Dave Strasser and his student Brad Lynde both losing by guillotine choke but the Russians still couldn’t beat Tiberia from Spain and this time one of the Frech fighters Kassim Anan. It should be noted that both Anan and Tibeira were losing their fights early on but Anan mustered a good comeback while Tabeira was handed a surprising draw after fouling Yvel with an illegal elbow.
The major outcomes of this show were the inaugural Welterweight belt fight between the USA’s Dave Strasser and Russian Ansar Chalangov left the belt in Russia while German fighter Fatih Kocamis took the belt with a TKO over Arman Gambaryan. Semenov is the Middleweight Champion but his fight was a non-title Super Fight as was Gilbert Yvel’s. Look for a full report in an upcoming issue of Full Contact Fighter. Preliminary Fights Main Event
Musail Alaydinov def. Yuji Hoshino 0:13 by TKO |
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European Vale Tudo I Quick Results: Guy Mezger scores a TKO as a new show was born By Eduardo Alonso The first edition of the newest MMA promotion in the old continent of Europe is now history. European Vale Tudo I took place this last Saturday night, December 6th, at the city of Copenhagen, capital of Denmark, bringing first quality MMA action inside a cage for the first time ever in Scandinavia. The show was a success with only one match ending in a judges’ decision and plenty of submissions and knockouts taking place. In the main event Guy Mezger proved why he was the favorite scoring a TKO win over Swedish fighter Daniel Bergman. Here are the results of the show:
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From the event’s promoter: BATTLE QUEST Postponed To the fight community… I am sorry to say that BATTLE QUEST 2 set for this Sunday, December 7th at the RED & JERRY’S event center will be postponed until early next year. Unfortunetly we had so many drops of fighters from out of state after the Thanksgiving weekend that we were not able to complete a full fight card. I apologize to the fighters that trained and I have spoken with everyone who remained on the card. The fighters that did not pull off the event will be rewarded by comprising the under card of the upcoming ROF 11 show in January. I also want to say THANK YOU to the fighters that I have spoken with and who followed through with their comitments. It will be a pleasure to have you all fight on a RING OF FIRE. Any tickets that were sold to the BQ2 event will be honored at the door for ROF 11 featuring Duane BANG! Ludwig in a World Title bout. I am sorry for the inconvenience to all of the fans, fighters and families involved. Sincerely, |
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Super Brawl 32 Held December 5, 2003 Blaisdell Arena, Honolulu, Hawaii By Chris Onzuka SB 32 was to be the road back to the rematch between former Super Brawl Champion, Egan Inoue and current SHOOTO and Super Brawl champ, Masanori Suda. In their first meeting Suda scored a brutal knock out taking the championship back to Japan. Inoue wants to prove that fight was a fluke, but in order to do that, the rematch had to be built up by having Inoue fight Miller and Suda taking on Ritch. Jason Miller had an impressive showing at the Super Brawl 185lbs tournament and then dispatched Inoue’s student Shawn Taylor showcasing a myriad of submissions. Shannon Ritch is one of the most active MMA fighters and has fought all over the world. Both Suda and Inoue were favored going into their matches, but nothing is guaranteed in the world of MMA. Inoue started off the match looking strong. He controlled the clinch, took Miller down and snapped on a vicious Kimura key lock that had Miller rolling to escape and Inoue looking to lock down Miller’s body so he could crank it more. Miller somehow got out of that and survived Inoue’s onslaught of punches from the standing, the guard and even the mount only to reverse the position and end both rounds pounding a turtled up Inoue. Inoue looked to be spent after the first round but came back in the second and landed a few hard blows that made Miller realized that the fight is not totally in his hands yet. At the end of the second round, Inoue tried to stand, but grabbed his ribs and fell to the ground. He winced in pain, apparently from a separated or broken rib. The fight almost got ugly when some disrespectful fans started heckling Inoue. Egan’s brother, Enson, who is always at Egan’s side for his fights, stepped into ring and told them to shut up. A huge crowd of people stood up, but luckily the situation was calmed down before any punches were thrown. The final match was a walk through for Suda. Shannon Ritch started off well and landed a leg kick, but made a fatal error when he chose to clinch Suda. Suda took him down, mounted him and lock up a triangle from the mount and rolled onto his back to finish off Ritch. Under card highlights were the Super Brawl debut of Stephen "Bozo" Paling’s son, Stephen IV against Harvey Nakamura, who had an impressive debut in SB 31. Paling, like his father showed crisp punches and good take down defense. Nakamura showed some power of his own, in addition to his good ground game. In the end, Nakamura won the unanimous decision, but it was a very close fight. Watch out for Paling, he is only 17 years old and has very good skills and composure for his young age. And Nakamura has shown a lot of potential in both fights. Other highlights were the Brandon Keene-Mike Bauer fight. Keene came in with an undefeated record, having just won in Maui. Bauer is coming into the fight with one win under his belt and has shown that he is a tough young fighter and very aggressive. Both fighters went after each other on their feet and exchanged hard punches, kicks and knees. The fight turned as Keen started taking Bauer to the ground more often and finally wearing him down enough to slip in a rear naked choke. The road to the rematch took a detour as the title, which was expected to be heading back to Hawaii, will now either stay in Japan or move to the west coast. One name that can be thrown into the mix is Falaniko Vitale, who is hungry after coming off of a disappointing performance in the UFC. The next event is scheduled to take place on February 7, 2004 and only time will tell what surprises T. Jay Thompson has in store. 139 lbs. – 3 Rounds – 3 Minutes 125lbs – 3 Rounds – 3 Minutes 170lbs – 3 Rounds – 5 Minutes 205lb – 3 Rounds – 5 Minutes Heavyweight – 3 Rounds – 5 Minutes 145lbs – 3 Rounds – 5 Minutes 185lbs – 3 Rounds – 5 Minutes 185lbs – 3 Rounds – 5 Minutes |
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From the event’s promoter: December 7th – EAGLE MOUNTAIN CASINO GLADIATOR CHALLENGE  MAIN EVENT Cole Escovedo Vs David Rivas Joe Stevenson Vs Cory Cass Dustin Arden Vs Robert Escalera CASINO GRUDGE MATCHES FOR RESERVATIONS EAGLE MOUNTAIN CASINO: 1-(559)788-6220 VALLITIX.COM : 1-(888)825-5484 TO PURCHASE ONLINE: www.vallitix.com GATES OPEN AT 3:00 PM |
 Punishment in Paradise Held November 30, 2003 Campbell High School Gym, Ewa Beach, Hawaii By Chris Onzuka The name is new, but the people behind the event are not. Brennan Kamaka, the man behind Hawaiian Combat and Warriors Quest is back with his new event combining mixed martial arts matches with kickboxing matches. The three of the four kickboxing matches consisted of kids matches which included two of Brennan’s nephews and his son. These kids are the future champions of Hawaii and it is amazing to see so much skill in that small a package. The MMA matches brought together some young fighters looking to get their feet wet by taking on opponents that are on the same level. These fighters really wanted to gain some experience because some of the fighters fought last week. In fact, there was a rematch from last week’s event. Marcus Moreno wanted another shot at Ed Newalu, but Newalu repeated his performance and went on to beat Moreno via decision again. Vilapando was the other fighter to return to fight again and racked up another win using a relentless take down game and controlling Aiana on the ground.
The main event pitted the Amateur Fighting Champion, PJ Dean against one of Hawaii’s best kept kickboxing secrets, "3D" Deshaun Johnson. Dean is an accurate and power puncher and Johnson has power of his own, but is known for his ability to NOT get hit. This was an interesting match up going in. Both fighters exchanged strikes going in, with Johnson effectively slipping some punches and counter punching. Johnson surprised the home town crowd when he started landing more punches and buried a punch that had Dean lean into Johnson. Dean was out on his feet and when Johnson finally stepped out of the way, Dean fell to the canvas. Dean was given a standing 10 count and he recovered and survived the round. The second round had Dean pressuring Johnson trying to make up for the previous round. The final round saw Dean come on strong and the deciding factor turned out to be the minimum number of kicks required per round. Johnson did not meet the kick requirements in the last two rounds and a point was deducted off the score cards because of it. This turned out to be the one factor that cost Johnson the match. Exhibition: Kids Kickboxing – 3 Rounds – 60lbs – 3 Rounds – 1:30 minutes MMA – 130lbs – 3 Rounds – 5 minutes MMA – 145lbs – 3 Rounds – 5 minutes Exhibition: 65lbs – Kids Kickboxing – 3 Rounds – 45 seconds Exhibition: Kids Kickboxing – 60lbs – 3 Rounds – 45 seconds Exhibition: Kickboxing – 145lbs. – 3 Rounds – 1 minute MMA – 170lbs. 3 Rounds – 5 minutes MMA – 190lbs. 3 Rounds – 5 minutes Exhibition: MMA – 145lbs. – 3 Rounds – 5 minutes Main Event -Kickboxing – 170lbs. – 3 Rounds – 2 minutes |
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KICK’N IT 3 Held November 28, 2003 Holomua Elementary School, Ewa Beach, Hawaii By Chris Onzuka
The big tent in Ewa that the event was held in could barely contain the action as Hawaii’s best kickboxers put it on the line. They came out and emptied their gas tanks in every round. Once very large in Hawaii, kickboxing events slowly fizzled out. Dennis Alexio kept it alive by headlining his own events for a while. After Alexio retired, kickboxing almost ceased to exist. Now after only three events, you would have never believed that kickboxing had taken a break by the level of the kickboxers. The night started off with a great battle of two young warriors. Kai Ruiz and Keanu Kamaka took turns having the upper hand in the fight only to have the other one come back and take back the lead of the fight. Some of the night’s action got to the next level during matches like Kaneala Stanton and Nick Correira and when David Balicao’s quick hands and power punches took apart Earnie Candilaris. Danny Kaheaku and company felt it was time to crown some champions and have them start defending their titles in future events. This event was capped off with five championship bouts. Starting with the kid’s championship and leading up to the most anticipated kickboxing match in a long time, Moreno versus Taylor. In a championship title bout, Brandon Absher and Joey Kuni had a war. This fight had supporters from both sides on their feet and brought on a comedic twist when the sprinklers suddenly turned on and had to be covered up. When the sprinklers were taken care of, the estatic crowd kicked out the electrical cord to the lights. The match was stopped with 20 seconds left. After the lights were restored, both fighters unloaded on each other for the remaining seconds causing the crowd to go crazy. Absher’s accurate punches and kicks earned him more points in the judge’s eyes than Kuni’s constant pressure throughout the bout. This led us to the main event, Moreno versus Taylor. Danny Kaheaku came into the ring to announce that part of the proceeds of this event would be donated to the war on Ice (Crystal meth-amphetamine), which is a huge problem in Hawaii. This event was created with the hope that this would give kids a reason to stay away from drugs and have an activity to train for and compete. Danny gave a piece of himself to the crowd telling everyone that he made some mistakes in the past with this very issue and that he would be paying for that mistake by serving some time behind bars. This brought a real world perspective to the issue and more than helped to drive home the point. Hopefully, more than a few young people took his message to heart and will choose the right path.
On to the main event. The key to this bout was who would be able to make the other fight their fight. It was a classic boxer versus kickboxer match up. Three time Hawaii Golden Gloves champion and MMA fighter Mark "El Torro" Moreno fought Hawaii Golden Gloves champion, Hawaii State Kickboxing champion and West Coast kickboxing champion, Shawn "Tornado" Taylor. Taylor’s straight ahead style seemed to work right into Moreno’s. Moreno chose to forgo most of the kicks and unloaded his fists on Taylor. Every one of Moreno’s punches were thrown with bad intentions and most of them hit their mark. Taylor has always been known to have a tough head…er…chin. Moreno dropped Taylor to the canvas in the first round and seemingly had Taylor out on his feet at one point. Moreno started getting a little frustrated because Taylor’s reaction was to keep pressing Moreno. Moreno finally landed the punch that finished the fight, causing Taylor to crash into the ropes. 65lbs – Exhibition: 3 Rounds – 45 seconds 50lbs – Exhibition: 3 Rounds – 45 seconds 95lbs – 3 Rounds – 1:30 minutes 160lbs – 3 Rounds – 1:30 minutes 150lbs – Exhibition: 3 Rounds – 1:30 minutes 200lbs – 3 Rounds – 2 minutes 65lbs – Exhibition: 3 Rounds – 1:30 minutes Heavyweight – 3 Rounds – 2 minutes Kids Championship – 60lbs – 3 Rounds – 1:30 minutes Lightweight Championship – 140lbs – 3 Rounds – 1:30 minutes Super Lightweight Championship – 135lbs – 3 Rounds – 1:30 minutes Welterweight Championship – 155lbs – 3 Rounds – 1:30 minutes Super Middleweight Championship: 175lbs – 3 Rounds – 1:30 minutes |
