The Ultimate Fighting Championship might be on a seven-week hiatus between events but that doesn’t mean that the fight world has been put on pause, quite the opposite actually.
Here at MMASucka.com we understand that following all the action between North America, Canada, Japan, Madagascar and the rest of the globe can become a chore – Luckily for you guys, I don’t have a life though.
Here is a run-down on all the noteworthy happenings that went down this weekend featuring brutal knockouts, slick submissions, elimination tournaments and even a few UFC cast-offs working their way back to the big time.
The biggest event to take place this weekend was Bellator 61 – The Chicago-based organization took their first step in crowning a season-six middleweight champion with four men punching their ticket into the semi-finals.
Maiquel Falco had little problems dealing with series underdog Norman Paraisy winning all three rounds to earn his way to phase two while once beaten Russian sensation Vyacheslav Vasilevsky put a world-class beatdown on Victor O’Donnell to do the same.
Bruno Santos didn’t set the world on fire with his victory over Giva Santana and left the crowd about as satisfied as your ex-girlfriend but he got the job done but the big talk of the night came in television opener as season favorite Vitor Vianna fell to a devastating knee from Brian Rogers that will live on in Bellator highlight pakages for a long time to come.
Moving forward Falcao will be meeting Vasilevsky while pairing Rogers with Santos to take us one step closer to clearing up the controversy at 185-pounds.
Notable happenings from the preliminary portion saw bantamweight hopeful Jason Sampson hand Jeremy Myers his third consective defeat in his promotional debut – The once beaten 135-pound Texan could be someone to watch out for.
Additionally, for the professional wrestling fans out there some of you may remember Jeremiah Riggs from the past season of WWE Tough Enough who faced unbeaten Pat Miletich product Trey Houston, losing to an armbar in an exciting one-round affair that got some television time.
Full Results:
Maiquel Falcao def. Norman Paraisy by unanimous decision (30-27,30-27,30-27)
Vyacheslav Vasilevsky def. Victor O’Donnell by unanimous decision (29-28,29-28,29-28)
Bruno Santos def. Giva Santana by unanimous decision (30-27,29-28,29-28)
Brian Rogers def. Vitor Vianna by knockout (flying knee) at 4:14 of round 1.
Josh Quayhagen def. Brent Taylor by unanimous decision (30-27,30-27,30-27)
Derrick Krantz defeated Eric Scallan via submission (D’arce choke) at 3:01 of round 1.
Jason Sampson defeated Jeremy Myers via submission (rear naked choke) at 2:25 of round 3.
Trey Houston defeated Jeremiah Riggs via submission (armbar) at 3:30 of round 1.
North of the border Score Fighting Series 4 took place with MMASucka.com’s own Carlin Bardsley in attendance, read his thoughts on the nights happenings here.
Receiving top billing was Canadian-born Xtreme Couture product John Alessio who took another step in his campaign back to the UFC with a unanimous decision victory over Ryan Healy winning with 29-28 scores across the board.
Alessio hasn’t fought under the Zuffa umbrella since 2008 with his disqualification loss to Brock Larson, since that point he has gone 12-3 with wins over UFC veterans in Pete Spratt, Luigi Fiorivanti & War Machine.
Also on the card Forrest Petz won his third-straight victory since his second run inside the UFC with an action-packed fight with Shooto & K-1 veteran Sergey Juskevic that saw him put him away with a series of punches in the second frame.
Full results:
John Alessio def. Ryan Healy by Unanimous Decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Josh Hill def. Eric Wilson by Unanimous Decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Forrest Petz def. Sergey Juskevic by TKO (Strikes) at 3:25 of Round 2
Alex Ricci def. Iraj Hadin by KO at 3:16 of Round 1
Shane Campbell def. Derek Boyle by Unanimous Decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)
Lyndon Whitlock def. Corey Houston by KO at 4:28 of Round 1
Jason Meisel def. Mike Sledzion by Unanimous Decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)
Elias Theodorou def. Erik Herbert by Unanimous Decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Adam Assenza def. John Roche by TKO (Strikes) at 4:17 of Round 1
Craig Hudson def. John McPherson by KO at 0:57 of Round 1
Cage Warriors Fight Night 4 took place at the Dubai World Trade Centre in the United Arab Emirates featuring an interesting heavyweight affair at the top of the card with Mike Hayes winning the ten-pounds of gold from Andreas Kraniotakes.
Hayes pushed his win-streak to five-straight with his victory South-African slugger Neil Grove who frequents Bellator events – The under-sized Hayes avoiding punishment on the feet for the most part and was able to take it to the floor where he had the most success, finishing with a third-round kimura.
Additionally, rising Swedish prospect pushed his record to 14-2 with a one-sided victory over Steven Ray taking it to the floor from the get-go and threatening with a series of submission attempts before putting him away in the second round with a guillotine choke.
Finally world-ranked 125-pound German female fighter Sheila Gaff wasted only ten-seconds to blast Brazils Jennifer Maia to move forward in their tournament.
Full results:
Mike Hayes def. Andreas Kraniotakes via submission (kimura) at 4:21 of round 3
Assan Njie def. Stevie Ray via submission (guillotine choke) at 2:29 of round 2.
Lucio Linhares defeats Kyle Baker by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Sheila Gaff def. Jennifer Maia via knockout (punches) at 0:10 of round 1.
Phil Harris def. Casey Dyer by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Mansour Barnaoui def. Brad Wheeler by submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 3, 4:26
Bradley Scott def. Mok Rahman via TKO (strikes) at 2:45 of round 3.
Cyril Asker def. Adam Brearley by TKO (strikes) at 4:30 of round 1.
The Commerce Casino in Commerce, California played host to BAMMA USA: Badbeat 5 last Friday which featured three Zuffa cast-offs in the top-positions looking to fight their way back to the big show.
Mike Guymon came out of retirement to make his debut at 155-pounds against King of The Cage mainstay Chris Leyva who had fallen on hard times with back-to-back defeats for the first time in his young career.
The 37-year-old survived an early onslaught from the Team Four Corners product to take over when the youngster faded in the second frame as he put him away with series of knees and punches to get his first victory since Yoshiyuki Yoshida at UFC 113.
The other UFC veteran on the card wouldn’t have the same luck as Gabe Reudiger dominated the start of his bout with California-based weekend warrior Scott Catlin before getting rocked in the second frame that the 5-5 rookie was able to capitalize on and finish with a series of hammer fists.
Lastly, three-time WEC veteran Chad George made another claim to joining the UFC’s 145-pound division with an arm-triangle victory over Shad Smith in less than two minutes.
Full Results:
Michael Guymon def. Cris Leyva by TKO (punches) at 4:10 of round 2
Scott Catlin def. Gabe Ruediger by TKO (punches) at :36 of round 2
Chad George def. Shad Smith by submission (arm-triangle choke) at 1:56 of round 1
Mychal Clark def. Josh Bennett by KO (spinning back elbow) at 2:36 of round 1
Chris Beal def. Jose Morales by TKO (elbows) at 4:44 of round 1
Joe Condon def. Ismael Gonzalez by split decision
Jason Carbajal def. Bobby Sanchez by submission (triangle choke) at 3:05 of round 1
Eric Brown def. Brandon Anderson by submission (guillotine choke) at :20 of round 1
Gil Guardado def. Chris Costello by TKO (punches) at 2:21 of round 2
Most fight fanatics have a deep hatred for M-1 Global for their part in not allowing their world-ranked heavyweight sensation Fedor Emelianenko join the UFC’s heavyweight division in 2009 but they have grown into the hotspot for European MMA talent.
The Ice Palace in Saint Petersburg, Russia played host to the M-1 Challenge 31 event capped off with two-time world submission grappling champion Jeff Monson defeating Ukranian combat sambo champion Alexey Oleinik by split decision.
Today, Monson is a shell of the man that once posed a legitimate threat to the UFC heavyweight title and is fighting for paychecks at 41-years-of-age but his grappling was enough in the first and third rounds to get past on the judges’ cards.
Additionally, the younger Emelianenko brother Aleksander out-struck Lithuanian heavyweight Tadas Rimkevicius scoring his 12th career knockout but failing to capture the imaginations of the Russians in attendance.
The M-1 Global welterweight title switched hands with the Sengoku Raiden Championships welterweight tournament runner-up Yasubey Enimoto being unsuccessful in his first defense being outworked by Rashid Magomedov took his status as one of the best welterweight prospects on the market one step further.
Full results:
Jeff Monson def. Alexey Oleinik via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
Alexander Emelianenko def. Tadas Rimkevičius via TKO (punches) at 1:52 of round 2
Rashid Magomedov def. Yasubey Enomoto via unanimous decision (50-45, 49-47, 50-45)
Alexander Yakovlev def. Shamil Zavurov via TKO (retirement) at 5:00 of round 3
Deniss Smoldarev def. Denis Komkin via split decision (30-27, 28-29, 29-28)
Abdulmajid Magomedov def. Arthur Shumakov via submission (rear-naked choke) at 3:53 of round 1
Vugar Bakhshiev def. Jerome Bouisson via TKO (doctor stoppage) at 5:00 of round 2
Marat Gafurov def. David Kozma via submission (rear-naked choke) at 2:10 of round 2
Ilya Doderkin def. Alexey Martynov via submission (triangle choke) at 1:57 of round 1
Bruno Carvalho def. Ramazan Esenbaev via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
Well there you have it, another loaded weekend of fisticuffs is in the books after this quick travel across the globe that gave us a little bit of everything.
