“Shaolin” Wins Cage Rage Lightweight Title
Weir & Rivera win
Pedro Wrobel Sep 12, 2005
In a visual mismatch, Mark
Weir (Pictures) knocked out the diminutive and
overmatched Kyosuke
Sasaki (Pictures). This was the same improved Weir
that we saw at CR 12, with the Englishman displaying the more
focused, cautious and precise game that helped him to dominate
Sol Gilbert (Pictures) last time around.
Compared with Gilbert, Sasaki was relatively easy fare. The Japanese fighter never got into this one — Weir used his massive reach advantage to control the stand up and knocked Sasaki down twice, following up the second time with some strong ground and pound, forcing the referee to pull the victorious Englishman off his bloodied and briefly insensible opponent. Weir wins by KO after 1:52 of the first round.
In the second and final decision of the night, Jorge Rivera (Pictures)’s superior cardio earned him a
victory against an awkward Marcelo Azevedo (Pictures). This fight started out at a fast
pace, with Azevedo using an incredibly effective single-leg to
control the positioning and pace of the fight.
Azevedo could have had Rivera on a number of occasions, working some solid guillotine attempts and taking Rivera’s back for a tight rear-naked choke attempt towards the end of the round.
The third round was simply a continuation of this theme, with an exhausted Azevedo shooting, Rivera sidestepping and Azevedo flopping to his back. From here a cautiously aggressive Rivera would do enough damage to show his dominance before beckoning Azevedo back to his feet, from where he’d shoot, miss and then flop to his back all over again. Rinse and repeat.
As the final bell sounded, the fight was awarded to Rivera by a unanimous decision. That’s probably the right result — I scored it 2-1 to the American.
“My name’s Cyborg and f__k you!” said the charmingly tattooed monster as his eloquent pre-fight statement was played. With these six words, the Brazilian earned himself a houseful of fans as the crowd roared its appreciation of this sentiment.
I can’t remember what Darren Little said, and neither can I really remember why he thought this would be a good career move for him. A fight between Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos and Michael Bisping (Pictures) would have been a good spectacle — this was just an exhibition in brutality.
Little initially seemed happy to trade with the Brazilian but after feeling his power, the Englishman changed tactics and tried to take him down. This proved to be a futile exercise and Little basically got beaten down.
As the rookie fell to his knees, Cyborg kicked him in the face — a foul that caused Grant Waterman to separate the two fighters. Before the referee could pronounce any judgment on the incident, Little’s corner threw in the towel. The Englishman, blood literally streaming from his nose, showed no objection as Waterman waved the fight off. Cyborg takes the victory by TKO after 55 seconds of the first round.
In another one-sided battle, Antony Rea (Pictures) systematically took apart tough newcomer Remus “Viteza” Ciobnu, a late replacement for Jason Delucia. Rea was always looking to strike but the Romanian, fighting out of Wanstead, East London, was smart enough to repeatedly clinch with Rea, limiting the latter’s space.
This situation was not sustainable, of course, and Rea consequently scored a huge takedown from that position. From here it was just a matter of time as Rea initially pounded Ciobnu and then, as the latter gave up his back, dug in the rear-naked choke for the tap 4:40 of the first round.
In the most exciting fight of an exciting night, the trilby-hatted Brad “One Punch” Pickett proved that his decision to train full-time has paid off. The Eastender’s opponent was veteran Ozzy Haluk (Pictures), a man most people (including me) thought would eat the youngster for breakfast.
As is often the case, I was wrong as Pickett turned in a sparklingly mature and aggressive display. “One Punch” got the better of his opponent throughout the first round. Despite falling prey to multiple takedowns, Pickett never stayed down long enough for his opponent to be able to work his ground game. Instead, Haluk found himself forced to trade with Pickett, a situation that resulted in him being floored twice in the first round.
The second round continued this trend, with Haluk unable to do much, even on the occasions when he did manage to force the fight to the floor. Haluk looked tired, and this was probably his downfall. Having been taken down, Pickett escaped and stepped back but the Manchester-based fighter did not follow him.
As the referee called “open guard,” Pickett took full advantage, leaping over his opponent’s legs to land hard on Haluk’s face with both feet, heels first. Haluk and the referee reacted immediately, Grant Waterman stopping the fight as the downed fighter writhed in pain. Pickett takes the victory with a KO after 4:25 of the second round.
Compared with Gilbert, Sasaki was relatively easy fare. The Japanese fighter never got into this one — Weir used his massive reach advantage to control the stand up and knocked Sasaki down twice, following up the second time with some strong ground and pound, forcing the referee to pull the victorious Englishman off his bloodied and briefly insensible opponent. Weir wins by KO after 1:52 of the first round.
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Azevedo could have had Rivera on a number of occasions, working some solid guillotine attempts and taking Rivera’s back for a tight rear-naked choke attempt towards the end of the round.
The second round was the turning point and as Azevedo tired his
shoots became visibly slower and slower. Rivera’s sprawl became
more effective and his confidence improved. Soon he began landing
harder and more convincing shots, taking advantage of the new “open
guard” rule to score some brutal stomps.
The third round was simply a continuation of this theme, with an exhausted Azevedo shooting, Rivera sidestepping and Azevedo flopping to his back. From here a cautiously aggressive Rivera would do enough damage to show his dominance before beckoning Azevedo back to his feet, from where he’d shoot, miss and then flop to his back all over again. Rinse and repeat.
As the final bell sounded, the fight was awarded to Rivera by a unanimous decision. That’s probably the right result — I scored it 2-1 to the American.
“My name’s Cyborg and f__k you!” said the charmingly tattooed monster as his eloquent pre-fight statement was played. With these six words, the Brazilian earned himself a houseful of fans as the crowd roared its appreciation of this sentiment.
I can’t remember what Darren Little said, and neither can I really remember why he thought this would be a good career move for him. A fight between Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos and Michael Bisping (Pictures) would have been a good spectacle — this was just an exhibition in brutality.
Little initially seemed happy to trade with the Brazilian but after feeling his power, the Englishman changed tactics and tried to take him down. This proved to be a futile exercise and Little basically got beaten down.
As the rookie fell to his knees, Cyborg kicked him in the face — a foul that caused Grant Waterman to separate the two fighters. Before the referee could pronounce any judgment on the incident, Little’s corner threw in the towel. The Englishman, blood literally streaming from his nose, showed no objection as Waterman waved the fight off. Cyborg takes the victory by TKO after 55 seconds of the first round.
In another one-sided battle, Antony Rea (Pictures) systematically took apart tough newcomer Remus “Viteza” Ciobnu, a late replacement for Jason Delucia. Rea was always looking to strike but the Romanian, fighting out of Wanstead, East London, was smart enough to repeatedly clinch with Rea, limiting the latter’s space.
This situation was not sustainable, of course, and Rea consequently scored a huge takedown from that position. From here it was just a matter of time as Rea initially pounded Ciobnu and then, as the latter gave up his back, dug in the rear-naked choke for the tap 4:40 of the first round.
In the most exciting fight of an exciting night, the trilby-hatted Brad “One Punch” Pickett proved that his decision to train full-time has paid off. The Eastender’s opponent was veteran Ozzy Haluk (Pictures), a man most people (including me) thought would eat the youngster for breakfast.
As is often the case, I was wrong as Pickett turned in a sparklingly mature and aggressive display. “One Punch” got the better of his opponent throughout the first round. Despite falling prey to multiple takedowns, Pickett never stayed down long enough for his opponent to be able to work his ground game. Instead, Haluk found himself forced to trade with Pickett, a situation that resulted in him being floored twice in the first round.
The second round continued this trend, with Haluk unable to do much, even on the occasions when he did manage to force the fight to the floor. Haluk looked tired, and this was probably his downfall. Having been taken down, Pickett escaped and stepped back but the Manchester-based fighter did not follow him.
As the referee called “open guard,” Pickett took full advantage, leaping over his opponent’s legs to land hard on Haluk’s face with both feet, heels first. Haluk and the referee reacted immediately, Grant Waterman stopping the fight as the downed fighter writhed in pain. Pickett takes the victory with a KO after 4:25 of the second round.
