Saturday, Apr 21, 2001
Bushido Succumbs To Weatherbut Doesn’t Tap-out
|
Bushido Succumbs to Weather but Doesn’t Tap-Out By Josh Gross  PHOENIX – Mixed martial arts has battled politicians, the cable industry and ignorance on its long arduous road to legitimacy. Evidently, Mother Nature isn’t a fan either. For the second time in three months an outdoor MMA show was severely impacted by rain and cold weather. Unlike the wet and wild King of the Cage 7 experience, Bushido organizer Frank Shamrock quickly dispelled any thoughts of fighting outside in the rain. As the countdown to fight time began, Shamrock addressed the hundreds of fans that had been allowed to congregate in the fighters’ warm up area in an effort to avoid the heavy downpour. Promising their money’s worth, Shamrock set up an indoor submission-wrestling event. Not only was the idea brilliant, it provided enough time for the first rain to subside.  It appeared that the respite from the rain would save the evening and one fight did go down – Gerald Torre won by arm-bar. However, soon the rain came down harder than before and for the second time, the show was moved indoors. That’s where it stayed the rest of the night. Many of the fighters scheduled on the card put on excellent submission grappling matches for the crowded room of faithful MMA followers. In the end, the results weren’t tallied and they really didn’t matter. What mattered was the fans on hand saw some good submission wrestling – probably something most had never seen before. Shamrock took lemons and made lemonade as he educated the audience on hand in the basics of submission.  The crowd also witnessed Sanshou star Cung Le demonstrate why he is the #1 competitor in his sport as he tossed around Rudy Ott to the delight of the crowd. Also, Shamrock and "Crazy" Bob Cook graced the mat in a final display of submission wrestling. The action was fast and furious drawing "oohs" and "ahs" from the half soaked audience. Hats off to Shamrock for making a really bad night enjoyable. Who knew it rained in the desert? |
posted by Full Contact Fighter @ 8:00 pm
