November 24, 2003
UFC 45 Pictures By Joel Gold |
Ring of Honor Held November 22, 2003 Campbell High School Gym, Ewa Beach, Hawaii By Chris Onzuka
The inaugural Ring of Honor event mixed kickboxing and MMA. Ring of Honor in its entirety, will host three amateur divisions consisting of submission grappling, kickboxing and MMA. Each competitor will be ranked in each division based on their performance. The promoters hope that this will give people thinking about competing in MMA the opportunity to get their feet wet or to help them become complete fighters by being able to enter the division that they need to improve upon or to strengthen. The ranking system will allow a systematic, objective method to match up fighters evenly. Now on to the event…as I always say, action is where the amateurs are at. Every one of these fighters threw everything they had at each other. The skill level was very good especially when most of the fighters either made their debut or fought less than three fights. Some of the action that stood our was Ryan Lee and Curtis Rivera’s exchanges for both rounds or Jr. Yacup’s power punching against Russ Barr’s quick kicks. As the fights continued, the question of the night was, would the main event be a slugfest of one of Hawaii’s best boxers versus a UFC veteran that has been saying that he wanted to show off his striking skills? In the end, strategy won out as Jeremy Jackson felt that he was better on the ground than Mark Moreno and took him to the mat. During a scramble Jackson got to Moreno’s back and worked in a rear-naked choke for the submission.
Amateur MMA 2 rounds x 3 minute – 135lbs Amateur Kickboxing 3 rounds x 1:30 minutes – 170lbs Amateur MMA 2 rounds x 3 minutes – 195lbs Kids – Exhibition: Amateur Kickboxing 3 rounds x 1minutes – 72lbs Amateur Kickboxing 3 rounds x 1:30 minutes – 135lbs Amateur MMA 3 rounds x 3 minutes – 145lbs Amateur Kickboxing 3 rounds x 1:30 minutes – 200lbs Amateur MMA 2 rounds x 3 minutes – 190lbs Semi Main Event: Main Event Pro MMA Bout 3 rounds x 5 minutes – 175lbs |