Hooknshoot ‘relentless’becomes Submission Exhibition
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HOOKnSHOOT ‘Relentless’ Becomes Submission Exhibition By Joe Hall Photography by Keith Mills EVANSVILLE, Ind. — It was a great night to introduce a new spectator to the art of groundfighting. Six of the eight HOOKnSHOOT "Relentless" bouts ended in submissions, including two armbars, a kneebar, a rear naked choke, a side choke, and a guillotine choke. Saturday was also a terrible evening to be from the Japanese Paraestra team, which was winless in three bouts: Shiko Yamashita drew with freelance fighter Scott Henze; Takumi Nakayama was destroyed by Nova Uniao’s Vitor "Shaolin" Ribeiro; and Yohei Suzuki was steamrolled by Hermes Franca of the American Top Team.  In the main event, local favorite Scott Henze and middleweight counterpart Shiko Yamashita enlivened the crowd for three hard-fought rounds. The opening five minutes started slowly as both fighters cautiously maneuvered on the ground. Yamashita looked to take Henze’s back early, but found little offense. Likewise, Henze could not inflict any damage in Yamashita’s half guard. Reversals filled the second round, which began with Yamashita tripping Henze to the mat. The Japanese fighter then passed to the side mount, though Henze escaped after giving his back. Henze punched from the top only momentarily before Yamashita executed an elevator sweep. Following Yamashita’s advance back to the side mount, Henze pulled off yet another reversal and resumed punching. The final round belonged to Yamashita. After missing an armbar because he was too close to the corner, Yamashita used another elevator sweep to reverse Henze. He then passed his opponent’s half guard and moved to the mount. As time dwindled, Yamashita unloaded from his superior position to the dismay of the Evansville audience. Henze rolled to his stomach to avoid the barrage of punches, but Yamashita wisely wrapped his hooks around Henze, flattened him out, and tagged the Indiana native until time expired. The bout fell to the judges, whose cards declared a majority draw. The first two rounds were tough to call on initial viewing, although many in attendance felt the third round should have cinched the victory for Yamashita. There was no doubt that Travis Lutter is a wizard in submission competition, but the question surfacing prior to the HOOKnSHOOT light heavyweight title match concerned Lutter’s MMA skills. Specifically, how would he fair on his feet? He did just fine. After weathering an opening onslaught by AMC Pankration’s Chris Munsen, Lutter shocked and staggered his adversary with a powerful right hand. Munsen wobbled, and Lutter immediately slapped on a rear naked choke. Turning blue, Munsen tried to escape, but the effort was futile against such a seasoned grappler. The impressive victory begins Lutter’s reign as HOOKnSHOOT light heavyweight champion.
American Top Team brought an intimidating contingent to support team members Dustin Denes (light heavyweight) and Hermes Franca (lightweight). Both fighters delivered victories; from his back, Denes submitted Tom Jones with an armbar, and Franca dominated Yohei Suzuki with a flurry of punches followed by a guillotine choke. In bantamweight action, Ryan Ackerman battled Mike Cardoso to a majority draw. Also at 135 pounds, Travis Phippen quickly defeated Dan Swift by pulling guard and spinning into an armbar. The first fight of the night set the tone for the series of submissions that would follow as John Renken, who appeared to be headed for a decision loss, tapped Keith Wisniewski with a kneebar late in the final round of a middleweight match.
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 This past Saturday, May 25th, the city of Curitiba probably witnessed the biggest Muay Thai event ever realized in Brazil, in one of the most beautiful places ever to hold a fight. The arena in the "Opera de Arame" — one of the city’s most important landmarks — is surrounded by glass so everybody in the dome can see the sky from inside the building. Not only that, but the arena is located in the middle of a small forest, creating a spectacular scenario for the fight night. The event started with fireworks and, needless to say, the crowd was packed. Despite some last minute problems that caused some changes in the card, STORM showcased several young and promising Muay Thai fighters from Brazil, facing some experienced veterans and one would have a hard time to find a boring match this night. Most of the fighters were looking for knockouts from start to finish, and the result was clear in the end with only 3 of 14 fights going the distance. Anderson Silva student and Chute Boxe future star Zanon "Pitbull" [pictured below in the corner with coach Anderon Silva, punching Thiago & celebrating his victory] once again delivered in furious fashion and got the win after the referee was forced to stop the fight, due to the considerable amount of blood coming out of Thiago’s nose after "Pitbull" hit him with several punches. "Pitbull" is a 16-year-old kid that looks like a 12-year-old, but despite his apparent fragile physic he is a small version of the "Axe Murderer" and never stops going after his opponent! The Chute Boxe team believes he will be their star of the future and the kid is already training some NHB.  In another exciting match, Fabio "Pelezinho" fought a technical back and forth fight against Vagner, and got the knockout in the last round, winning the award for the most technical fighter of the night in the process. One of the biggest surprises was Chute Boxe veteran Gildo Lima’s loss.  Gildo was the heavy favorite, but got surprised by a huge punch and was knocked out on the spot. Another Chute Boxe fighter who is willing to do NHB very soon, Marlon Matias was very impressive in his win by knockout. He showed great composure and never rushed anything in the ring, yet he was aggressive during the whole fight. The crowd was screaming for him during the fight, showing he is already making a name for himself in Curitiba and he didn’t disappoint his supporters, scoring a knockout in the first round. MECA seems like the next step for him. The last fight of the night was also a highlight, with lots of tension between the fighters and even the referee, Vanderlei Silva! Ednei is a veteran Muay Thai fighter and teacher from Curitiba, and he was fighting a war against Zeli Ferreira from Sao Paulo. Both fighters were having their moments in the fight, and Zeli’s antics were annoying the crowd and even Vanderlei, who thought Zeli was breaking the rules on purpose. Surprisingly, when Ednei seemed to gain control of the fight and was about to score a knockout, there came a punch out of nowhere by Ferreira, and it was lights-out for Ednei. Another impressive knockout to end a night full of KO’s! Check out FCF’s next issue for a complete report of the 5th edition of STORM Muay Thai in Curitiba. Here are the complete results of the event:
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From Koichi "Booker K" Kawasaki: Results from K-1 WORLD GP 2002 IN PARIS K-1 WORLD GP 2002 Date: Saturday, May 25th 2002 /Starts 20:00 Place: Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy Mark Hunt (New Zealand) vs. Jerome Le Banner (France) Ernesto Hoost(Holland) vs. Stefan Leko (Germany) Alexey Ignashov (Belarus) vs. Bjorn Bregy (Switzerland) Remy Bonjasky (Holland) vs. Petar Majstorovic (Switzerland) Tony Gregory (France) vs. Azem Maksutaj (Switzerland) Cyril Abidi (France) vs. Nick Marray (England) K-1 JAPAN Series K-1 SURVIVAL 2002 in Toyama, Japan Ebenzer Fontes Braga is out of next K-1 Japan due to injury. Sergei Gur (SWA/Belarus and K-1) will fight Nicholas Pettas. *Sergei is winner of K-1 World GP 2001 Regional Tournament in Italy. K-1 JAPAN Series K-1 SURVIVAL 2002 Different School Match 1st Different School Match 2nd Different School Match 3rd Different School Match 4th Different School Match 5th K-1 Japan Series 1st K-1 Japan Series 2nd |
