Pangea: Warren, Ruediger Survive to Win Bouts
HOLLYWOOD, Calif., May 12 — He’s been anxiously waiting for over a
year, and now with his victory over San Diego’s Brodie Farber (Pictures) (7-3) in the main event of
Pangea’s Fight Enterprises “The Beginning” card, middleweight
Brian Warren (9-4) can
finally focus on avenging his unanimous decision loss to Cung Le (Pictures).
After wearing four straight knees to the forehead and falling on his back, Warren saw his opening as Farber went to ground-and-pound but instead got caught in a triangle choke and tapped out at 1:54 of round two.
“Nobody knows I’m a jiu-jitsu guy first and kickboxer second,” said
Warren afterwards.
But really it was his conditioning that Warren believes won him the fight.
So now with the victory, San Bernardino native Warren looks towards the rematch with Le June 9 in San Jose — only this time it will be under what Warren called “my rules.” The loss to Le in their first scrap was in a K-1 event, while the pending Strikeforce card at HP Pavilion features mixed martial arts competition.
“I guess people are doubting his MMA skills,” said Warren of Le, “but me, I’m comfortable anywhere, standing up or on the ground.”
Rancho Cucamonga native and crowd favorite Gabe Ruediger (Pictures) (4-2) came back from almost certain defeat and caught Savant Young (Pictures) (4-4) in an armbar at 1:29 of the third round in their scrap.
Ruediger, who displayed a great chin, which really means he was wearing plenty of overhand rights and straight lefts, also had trouble with Young on the ground. Displaying great ground defense, Young was simply overpowering.
Ruediger, fighting for the first time since losing his WEC lightweight title to Hermes Franca (Pictures), failed to finish Young in the first round with a triangle choke, which Young slammed his way out. In fact, Ruediger seemed to have no answer for the Los Angeles native Young’s game.
Even after taking Young down in the third round and passing his guard Ruediger had trouble breaking through Young’s defense until he finally was able to apply the finishing armbar.
The under card action went as follows:
Middleweight James Smith (6-1) of Manhattan Beach finished Chicago’s Jason Chambers (Pictures) (16-5-1) at 1:55 of round one with a heelhook in a battle that featured all jiu-jitsu and virtually no striking. Chambers, who fights out of Hollywood, attempted to muscle his way out of the hold, instead ended up twisting his knee and was unable to continue.
Middleweight Steve Magdaleno of Torrance tapped out an aggressive Joe Calavitta of Riverside with a triangle choke at 2:45 of round three in their professional debut.
Welterweight Scott Epstein of Queens, New York but fighting out of Hollywood earned his first pro victory (1-1) as he tapped out Riverside’s Reuben Duran (0-1) with a rear-naked choke at 2:40 of round one.
Boulder, Colorado native Conor Heun also won his debut over Martin Hench (debut) of Santa Clarita with a rear-naked choke at 2:54 of round two in their middleweight fight.
Crowd favorite Travis Gambino from the South Bay, in his debut, outlasted Victorville’s Lucas Taber (1-1) to pull off a split decision victory by the scores of 29-28 twice and 28-29 in their heavyweight standoff.
In their debut, heavyweights Candelario Gomez of San Bernardino and Rafael Ramos of Sun Valley treated the crowd to a slugfest that was called off when Ramos ran out of gas and tapped out at 1:40 of round two while taking shots to the head.
Heavyweight Edgar Cruz of Guadalajara won his debut with a technical knockout over Bakersfield’s Randy Bullard 51 seconds into round two.
Middleweight Jonathan Romero grounded-and-pounded his way to a 30-27 unanimous decision over Isamu Hamaru.
After wearing four straight knees to the forehead and falling on his back, Warren saw his opening as Farber went to ground-and-pound but instead got caught in a triangle choke and tapped out at 1:54 of round two.
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But really it was his conditioning that Warren believes won him the fight.
“Before the second round started, he saw me jumping up and down,
and I could see right then and there his confidence go down,” said
Warren of Farber, who had perhaps used all his energy in the first
round fighting off an ankle lock that Warren had applied, despite
being taken down by the aggressive starting Farber.
So now with the victory, San Bernardino native Warren looks towards the rematch with Le June 9 in San Jose — only this time it will be under what Warren called “my rules.” The loss to Le in their first scrap was in a K-1 event, while the pending Strikeforce card at HP Pavilion features mixed martial arts competition.
“I guess people are doubting his MMA skills,” said Warren of Le, “but me, I’m comfortable anywhere, standing up or on the ground.”
Rancho Cucamonga native and crowd favorite Gabe Ruediger (Pictures) (4-2) came back from almost certain defeat and caught Savant Young (Pictures) (4-4) in an armbar at 1:29 of the third round in their scrap.
Ruediger, who displayed a great chin, which really means he was wearing plenty of overhand rights and straight lefts, also had trouble with Young on the ground. Displaying great ground defense, Young was simply overpowering.
Ruediger, fighting for the first time since losing his WEC lightweight title to Hermes Franca (Pictures), failed to finish Young in the first round with a triangle choke, which Young slammed his way out. In fact, Ruediger seemed to have no answer for the Los Angeles native Young’s game.
Even after taking Young down in the third round and passing his guard Ruediger had trouble breaking through Young’s defense until he finally was able to apply the finishing armbar.
The under card action went as follows:
Middleweight James Smith (6-1) of Manhattan Beach finished Chicago’s Jason Chambers (Pictures) (16-5-1) at 1:55 of round one with a heelhook in a battle that featured all jiu-jitsu and virtually no striking. Chambers, who fights out of Hollywood, attempted to muscle his way out of the hold, instead ended up twisting his knee and was unable to continue.
Middleweight Steve Magdaleno of Torrance tapped out an aggressive Joe Calavitta of Riverside with a triangle choke at 2:45 of round three in their professional debut.
Welterweight Scott Epstein of Queens, New York but fighting out of Hollywood earned his first pro victory (1-1) as he tapped out Riverside’s Reuben Duran (0-1) with a rear-naked choke at 2:40 of round one.
Boulder, Colorado native Conor Heun also won his debut over Martin Hench (debut) of Santa Clarita with a rear-naked choke at 2:54 of round two in their middleweight fight.
Crowd favorite Travis Gambino from the South Bay, in his debut, outlasted Victorville’s Lucas Taber (1-1) to pull off a split decision victory by the scores of 29-28 twice and 28-29 in their heavyweight standoff.
In their debut, heavyweights Candelario Gomez of San Bernardino and Rafael Ramos of Sun Valley treated the crowd to a slugfest that was called off when Ramos ran out of gas and tapped out at 1:40 of round two while taking shots to the head.
Heavyweight Edgar Cruz of Guadalajara won his debut with a technical knockout over Bakersfield’s Randy Bullard 51 seconds into round two.
Middleweight Jonathan Romero grounded-and-pounded his way to a 30-27 unanimous decision over Isamu Hamaru.
