Back again folks. I wasn’t able to make the last King of the Cage, so no review was done. Not to mention the one before that I was either doped up on pain killers or tired as hell since having surgery on my knee only four days before. So hopefully this review will make up for those two events.
It was freezing cold outside, but the action that took place both in and out of cage was extremely hot! The KOTC ring girls gave all the guys and possibly some ladies more than enough reason to have a warm fuzzy feeling going on as they strutted their stuff between matches and posed with fans. But the main attraction is always the fights and things were definitely heated between many of the competitors this evening.
The under card began at 5:00pm with it’s first match-up pitting featherweights, Paul Webb against Tom Peralta. Webb showed that he was the better striker early in the first round; however, he just couldn’t keep the fight standing. Peralta controlled the match early keeping his foe on his back fairly easily. The second round was more of the same as web through out some nice strikes that did connect, which put Peralta in trouble. Peralta dropped, grabbed a single leg takedown, and quickly moved from guard to full mount. Peralta couldn’t finish Webb though, Herb Dean stands them up, and the same process happens two more times. This wasn’t the final chapter most fans hoped for as Peralta took a unanimous decision in a fight he should have easily have won.
With the first match out of the way, many thanks can be said to Sean McCafferty and Patrick Doty for the next match these light-heavy weights put on for the fans. McCafferty does an immediate shot for a great takedown only to have Doty latch onto his neck for a guillotine. McCafferty pulls his head out and since not a lot of action is going on the ref stands them. The two begin to brawl as technique went out the door (though I’m not sure it ever came in) as the two clinch while jockeying for position. McCafferty gets another takedown and again Doty can’t capitalize with the guillotine. The two then are beating on each other as Doty has his opponent stuck in his guard. It’s always interesting sight to see the guy on the bottom attempt to out strike the guy on top. Boy, that sounded bounded. LOL Anyhow, McCafferty backs away and challenges Doty to trade. Doty obliges and makes him pay for it with multiple strikes that connect. Fans are going crazy and even though it’s a poor throw, Doty eats the mat, is on his back again, but this time with a knee on his stomach. McCafferty let’s loose on him and it looks like the fight is done. Doty’s patience and defense pays off as the ref stands them once McCafferty runs out of gas and no more strikes are thrown. He immediately unloads with punches and a brutal head kick that would make Mirko Cro Cop proud. Luckily or maybe unlucky in McCafferty’s opinion he winds up against the cage to hold him up and the round ends.
McCafferty is obviously tired and wobbly so Doty immediately looks to capitalize. He pretty much goes Anderson Silva (meaning I’ll hit you with a gazillion unanswered knees, along with a billion other shots, and you’ll see the virgin Mary) on McCafferty. Out of desperation a takedown attempt is made, but Doty is not hearing it, lands more knees, throws a brutal uppercut that makes his foe look like Little Mac getting cracked in Mike Tyson‘s Punch Out. Fortunately for McCafferty his head is still part of his body as it’s saved by his neck that is now about two feet long . Unfortunately though he turns directly into a cross that floors him and Doty jumps on him like kids after piñata candy, winning by TKO at 23 seconds in the second round.
The last match got the KOTC crowd awake and going so much was expected from here on out. Both David Aguirre and Robin Duran did not disappoint either. Both men were pretty large at lightweight and there was no quit in either. Duran comes out with leg kicks eventually slipping while throwing one. Aguirre rushing in for a hard takedown putting his foe against the cage and teeing off with very good body strikes. Aguirre escapes a DEEP armbar that was locked on and remains in the guard. The ref stands the action much to the delight of the crowd and Duran now puts Aguirre against the cage, taking him down, and goes into half-guard. A nifty escape now sees Aguirre pick up his opponent and blast him with a huge slam to the canvas, only to be caught in a guillotine. With one arm in Aguirre escapes, they stand, and he lands two brutal knees to the abdomen to close the round.
Aguirre shoots and misses a takedown allowing Duran to capitalize as he grabs an ankle during the scramble putting Aguirre on his back. Aguirre however, latched onto Duran’s arm for an armbar, but it’s defended well and he can’t extend. Duran starts laying some vicious ground and pound from inside the guard and opens up Aguirre. It’s not a bad cut, but the blood is flowing heavily. To assist with the bleeding Duran gets a slam takedown and goes into half guard after the ref asked the doctor to check the cut. From this position he begins raining down punches. Aguirre changes to butterfly guard, kicking Duran away, posts up for a single, gets side mount, and drops elbows. The entire transition was textbook grappling brilliance! When I thought it couldn’t get any better Duran reverses and now he’s got side mount. He can’t land anything and Aguirre escapes, sitting up inside Duran’s guard and finishes with strikes. The fight is too close to call and for once I actually agree with the decision to make this match a draw. It was an amazing fight and as far as I was concerned at that point was probably going to be fight of the night. Strikes, submission attempts, reversals, getting the better position; these guys did it all. My hat goes off to the both of them as this was one of the best fights I’ve seen ever!
The oh so popular Melvin Costa made his way to the cage next. I said popular, I never said well liked. Melvin is a brawler who’s essentially known for being rough, rugged, and raw. While the crowd may not like his antics, tattoos, or personality; there’s no denying that when he’s in the cage it’s going to be a drag-out brawl with both guys beating one another to a pulp. Melvin’s won all four of his fights this way, all of them being this year. Looking to close out 2007 with a fifth victory seemed conceivable and he looked to impose his will on Jason Jones. Two Thai kicks, a great takedown, mount, a sick armbar (that should have ended the fight, but it wasn’t stopped), a melee of strikes, a Superman punch, hard strikes from within the guard, full mount, and then an armbar where the ref had to call it because it was seconds from breaking. Jones looked nothing like any of Costa’s past victims and didn’t fight like any of them either. With a muscular build, explosiveness, and immense speed; Jones made Costa fight his way and controlled it from beginning to end. I honestly didn’t see Costa land anything in the entire 4:18 it took this fight. The amazing thing is that this was Jones first win after four losses. He had the exact opposite record of Costa; however, his past opponents were higher on the MMA food chain. I hope to see Jones fight again, but think he should head down to 185 where he would be a huge middleweight and probably have great success.
Chris Cully made short work of Kasey Roberts with a great kick to the stomach, followed by a suplex, and ended with a rear naked choke at 1:17 in the first. Millennia’s, Jesus Morales made even quicker work of AJ Pace as Pace ran from him for 15 seconds then lost his mouth piece while getting KO’d the next 4 seconds.
My compadre and partner Hedi from www.mmafanatics.com arrives and along with him is the beautiful, IFL ring girl, Em www.myspace.com/ringgirl7. We head to the snack bar to get some hot coco during the intermission because it’s so damn cold that visiting Alaskans have realized they’ve had it great all along. They leave to head home and are now running around in shorts and tank tops thankful for such hot weather. Ryan Loco is in line for the same reason and if you asked him what he’s doing there he’d probably tell ya nothing. He does nothing and has three different websites; ryanloco.proelite.com/, www.ryanloco.blogspot.com/, and www.myspace.com/muscle68. Go figure.
The main card begins and another quick fight ensues as Greg Guzner gets slammed profusely by Anthony Guerra after a wild scramble. Guzner locks on an armbar as he hits the mat, but gets slammed again for his troubles. Guerra ducks his head to low during the point of impact on the slam though and falls right into a triangle, where he taps at 55 seconds in the first round. Rick Legere follows suit in the next match as he picks up Napoleon Lechunga, delivering a huge slam. Legere goes immediately into full mount, rains punches, a scramble ensues, and repeats the entire process again upon Lechunga before finishing with an armbar for the win at 3:31 in the first round.
DeLao Jiu-Jitsu’s, Illiam Goglia met Millennia’s, Reggie “Iron” Orr in the next stanza. The two battle for control in the clinch and Goglia threw little knees. Orr fired back with knees of his own, as well as punches to the body. The fight stayed against the fence in the clinch and Orr catches his opponent with a vicious elbow followed by two knees to the face. Goglia suffers for attempting to take Orr down and Orr is busy proving that his takedown defense is like “Iron”. I lose track of the match for a second because Tracy Lee from Napkin Nights (www.napkinnights.com) arrives and starts snapping away pictures bent over in front of me. Tracy apologizes, but it’s one of those moments where as a red blooded straight male you can only come up with, “Whhhaaa….???” or “Please take all the pics you want.” Check her out at www.mstracylee.com and you’ll see what I mean. Ms. RaRa (www.myspace.com/raramma) of the UG (If you don’t know by all means learn.) shows up to assist her. Yeah, my life sucks! BTW, if you missed the North American MMA Expo (www.nammae.com) this weekend that RaRa helped put on then you missed out! Back to the fight; Orr releases a flurry of strikes after breaking from the clinch and is picking apart Goglia. Orr throws a homerun head kick and luckily for Goglia, he’s able to get out of the way. The bell sounds and we’re going to another round.
Gabe Ruediger (www.gabegodzilla.com) stops by to say hi to all of us and do a little sideline cheering for Orr as they were past teammates. Second round begins Goglia comes out throwing to lead in for a takedown. Orr blocks the attempt and picks apart his foe in the clinch. Goglia finally gets a desperate takedown, but can’t do anything with it. Orr looks for a triangle attempt while down, but instead the two scramble. Orr quickly goes after Goglia only to have the bell sound after a last minute flurry and takes the unanimous decision.
In what appeared to be an extremely even match-up, Tony Cruz, got the best of Tim Humphry, but it wasn’t easy by any means. The two scrambled to begin the fight, jockeying for position. Each fighter lets knees and punches fly. Humphry ducks a punch, goes for the takedown, misses, and Cruz soars over him. Humphry recovers however and gets a hard takedown followed by strikes from inside the guard. Cruz rolls for a knee bar/foot lock and Humphry sits calm in it as if he’s drinking a refreshing, cool Corona on a hot summer day at the beach. He’s literally bored beyond belief and sighs a few times before slamming Cruz with very hard strikes to the body. Opting not to unload he uses the more calculated approach. Cruz releases the hold realizing that it’s not going anywhere and the two scramble to stand-up. Both warriors come out for the second round where Humphry snatches a takedown and goes into guard. Cruz gets an armbar, but takes a hard slam for his trouble. He manages to hold it however and takes the win at 50 seconds in the second round.
Two middleweights go toe to toe as Brian Warren mixes it up with Paul Arras. Arras comes out quickly after Warren, landing a leg kick to the head after a flurry of homerun punches. They clinch, Warren puts him against the cage, and follows with a takedown. Warren stands over his opponent holding his leg and lets a few kicks go. He then performs an insane spin move to pass the guard; however, nothing comes from it. This only irritates Arras and he comes after Warren catching him with a punch. Arras goes in for the kill while Warren desperately holds him off with an open guard. Warren manages to get to his feet only to get caught again allowing Arras to finish him off via TKO at 3:53 in the first round. A super heavy weight title follows the bout and Brian Sesma makes short work of Alan Zunner in just over a minute to take the crown.
Making his first title defense against Umar Love, middleweight Keith “The KO Kid” Berry looked to show everyone that he is definitely a force to be reckon with. Love came out with a straight kick and Berry let his hands fly with deadly intent. Berry’s fist flew fast and hard, but he was unable to connect. The two clinch and Love takes down his foe to the mat where he begins to lay some ground and pound. Backing away and standing up, Love is able to land downward shots, as well as pass to side mount. Nothing comes of it however and the ref stands them up. Berry comes out with haymakers and it’s easy to see that he’s ready to live up to his KO moniker. Love eventually goes down as some shots land, but Berry lands an illegal kick while Love’s down. The fight is stopped for a while allowing Love to recover. The two trade punches to close the round.
Love starts the second round with a kick and follows with a high kick that misses. The two clinch must like in the first round. Again Love takes Berry down, this time against the cage, and begins some more ground and pound. Love backs out of Berry’s guard and goes for downward shots. Love’s game plan is working to a tee at this point as he’s able to nullify Berry’s bad intentions. Berry gets to his feet and stuffs Love’s next takedown attempt. The two trade blows and Love gets the takedown he’s wanted; however, Berry applies a sideways triangle choke. Love doesn’t tap, but Berry rolls him and begins raining unanswered strikes, and seizing the victory at 4:50 of the second round. Great fight by both fighters!
The after-card begins with the fastest KO of the night as John Lober slips on a takedown attempt walking flush into a punch from Rubin Taigle. Lober does a Ric Flair as he goes down to one knee, gets up, and then falls down. Taigle takes the win in 10 seconds. In a non-eventful match-up Dave Cryer realizes that he cannot stand with the punching power and quickness of Noufel Amellouk after almost getting KO’d early and proceeds to put down on a takedown clinic where he cannot finish his opponent. Cryer wins by unanimous decision. Anthony Roberts, Tyrone Crane, or whatever his real name is got steamrolled by John Brock via TKO at 1:10 in the first round. Andy Balmore scored a unanimous decision win over Miguel Esparza in the 17th match of the evening.
The next few fights go rather quickly. In another heavyweight match Neil Cooke makes short work of Mike Simms as he bounces Simms off the cage, uses the momentum for a suplex, and actually finishes his foe with ground and pound while in the guard. Dropping down to lightweights now, Brendon Bender dominated Hugo Sandoval with a quick takedown and wins with a mounted triangle choke at 1:37 in the first round. Dominic Verdungo makes Dan Priggle pass out to a guillotine choke at 33 seconds in the next match. This is followed by Adam Woods slamming Will Richie only to be slammed himself after the two scramble, and Richie finishes the fight at 1:10 by rear naked choke. The night concluded with Fabian Diaz and Nick Alvarado taking unanimous decision wins over Daniel Gibbons and Victor Salcedo.
KOTC Final Chapter, could not have been given a more adequate name. For years KOTC has been an event hosted at Soboba Casino in San Jacinto, California and has finally come to an end. I’m just happy that it’ll be the final chapter of the freezing cold weather at Sobaba. It may be the end of a chapter in MMA, but a whole new chapter of KOTC begins indoors! Praise EliteXC! The story will continue, only promising to get better in it’s new found home at San Manuel Casino in Highland, California. So be sure to stay tuned and get to a KOTC event if you haven’t checked one out.
