Trigg Stuns Mayhem to Win ICON Middleweight Title
James Meinhardt Dec 2, 2006
HONOLULU, Dec. 1 — After dropping three of his last four fights due
to submissions, almost everyone counted Frank Trigg (Pictures) out against the younger,
submission savvy Jason
"Mayhem" Miller. But Friday night at ICON Sport’s
“Unstoppable,” Trigg would not be denied in his comeback quest for
the Icon middleweight belt, scoring a technical knockout over the
champion in the second round.
Trigg stalked Miller around the ring, defending takedown attempts and taking the fight to “Mayhem”. The nearly 6,000 fans filling Oahu’s Neal S. Blaisdell Arena collectively gasped as Trigg walked into trouble early in the first round, giving up his back and standing-up into a rear-naked choke attempt from Miller that was eerily reminiscent of Trigg’s wars with Matt Hughes (Pictures).
“I didn’t panic this time,” Trigg told Sherdog.com after the fight.
“I knew that I had to stay patient. It just was a case of me
maintaining my position, making sure I always control the wrist,
control the hand, and then throwing elbows whenever I can and then
getting him off my back as quickly as possible without using too
much energy, just picking the spot and picking the pace.”
But “Twinkle Toes” prevailed, escaping from back-control before eventually turning the tables by taking Miller’s back. “Mayhem” was able to defend against the choke, but appeared to have no answer for Trigg’s strength, as he was put on his back again and punished with kicks and punches.
The second frame was more of the same. Trigg kept the pressure on, landing some good shots on the feet before once again putting Miller against the ropes and on his back. Trigg put on the pressure and let loose with a vicious flurry of brutal kicks and heavy hands that overwhelmed the champ and opened up a large cut over his eye.
With Miller seemingly defenseless and obviously taking damage, Shimada had no choice but to call a stop to the bout at the 2 minute, 53 second mark of the second round, giving Trigg the win and making him the new ICON Sport middleweight champion.
“Didn’t you see the fight? I got lickins!,” joked the dethroned Miller in his post-fight interview.
Miller, who was previously undefeated in the Aloha state at 8-0, was unavailable for further comments as he was on his way to the hospital to have a large cut over his eye stitched up.
In the co-main event, Brazilian jiu-jitsu brown belt Sidney Silva (Pictures) tapped BJJ black belt Jay Jack (Pictures) in the first round to win the ICON Sport North American welterweight title.
Jack put Silva on his back early, where he was able to secure a north-south position and land some knees to the head of Silva as he worked his way back up to his feet.
From the clinch, Jack attempted to lock in a guillotine choke and pulled guard. But the Brazilian was able to escape, popping his head out of Jack’s grip and improving his position to half-guard, where he could rain down blows to the face of his opponent.
Jack defended well, but Sidney was able to roll into a triangle choke and lock it in, forcing Jay Jack (Pictures) to tap out just 2:30 into the first round.
Another title was won tonight as Mark Oshiro took the Hawaii state flyweight title by knocking out Tyson Nam just 2:15 into the first round, giving the young star his first loss.
“I landed some kicks on his legs trying to mess with his mind,” recalled Oshiro. “I just gave him a nice right and then he went to the floor.”
Oshiro improved his record to 8-1, while Tyson Nam fell to 3-1.
Professional boxer and trainer at Randy Couture (Pictures) and Bas Rutten (Pictures)’s Legends MMA Gym in Hollywood, Calif. made his mixed martial arts debut scoring a stoppage over veteran Ron Fields just 37 seconds into the second round.
The victory was not without its trials however, as Williams narrowly escaped an armbar in the first round after surprisingly initiating a takedown. Williams showed great composure and strength when dealing with the submission attempt, but was unable to mount any offense once on top of his opponent.
After some inaction, the referee restarted the fighters in the same position in the center of the ring. Possibly due to frustration, Williams then deliberately head-butted Fields from the guard and was given a one-time warning.
Both fighters came out swinging in the second, but it was Williams who was able to get Fields to his back and drop down punches until the fight was stopped.
Undercard action saw 160-pounder Marshall Harvest outscore Kyle Miyahana to win a unanimous decision, while fellow lightweight fighter Chris Cisneros submitted David Padilla (Pictures) with an armbar.
Flyweight Paul Gorman redeemed himself after being knocked out in just 20 seconds by Mark Oshiro in his last outing by applying a textbook armbar from the bottom to tapout Ikaika Silva.
Light heavyweight Maui Wolfgram was able to out-grapple Ben “Pele” Fonoti, securing a fight-ending armbar in the first.
Sadhu Bott used his flexibility to avoid an early kneebar attempt and continue on to win the unanimous decision over Lorenzo Moreno.
Ron Verdadero scored a first round technical knockout over Kekoa Baker, as did Bronson Piper who defeated Vinny Delos Santos earlier in the night.
Trigg stalked Miller around the ring, defending takedown attempts and taking the fight to “Mayhem”. The nearly 6,000 fans filling Oahu’s Neal S. Blaisdell Arena collectively gasped as Trigg walked into trouble early in the first round, giving up his back and standing-up into a rear-naked choke attempt from Miller that was eerily reminiscent of Trigg’s wars with Matt Hughes (Pictures).
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But “Twinkle Toes” prevailed, escaping from back-control before eventually turning the tables by taking Miller’s back. “Mayhem” was able to defend against the choke, but appeared to have no answer for Trigg’s strength, as he was put on his back again and punished with kicks and punches.
With PRIDE rules in full effect, Trigg continued dishing out soccer
kicks and punches to the head of the downed champion. Referee Yuji
Shimada watched closely as “Mayhem” did his best to avoid the
punishment as the final seconds of the first round ticked off the
clock.
The second frame was more of the same. Trigg kept the pressure on, landing some good shots on the feet before once again putting Miller against the ropes and on his back. Trigg put on the pressure and let loose with a vicious flurry of brutal kicks and heavy hands that overwhelmed the champ and opened up a large cut over his eye.
With Miller seemingly defenseless and obviously taking damage, Shimada had no choice but to call a stop to the bout at the 2 minute, 53 second mark of the second round, giving Trigg the win and making him the new ICON Sport middleweight champion.
“Didn’t you see the fight? I got lickins!,” joked the dethroned Miller in his post-fight interview.
Miller, who was previously undefeated in the Aloha state at 8-0, was unavailable for further comments as he was on his way to the hospital to have a large cut over his eye stitched up.
In the co-main event, Brazilian jiu-jitsu brown belt Sidney Silva (Pictures) tapped BJJ black belt Jay Jack (Pictures) in the first round to win the ICON Sport North American welterweight title.
Jack put Silva on his back early, where he was able to secure a north-south position and land some knees to the head of Silva as he worked his way back up to his feet.
From the clinch, Jack attempted to lock in a guillotine choke and pulled guard. But the Brazilian was able to escape, popping his head out of Jack’s grip and improving his position to half-guard, where he could rain down blows to the face of his opponent.
Jack defended well, but Sidney was able to roll into a triangle choke and lock it in, forcing Jay Jack (Pictures) to tap out just 2:30 into the first round.
Another title was won tonight as Mark Oshiro took the Hawaii state flyweight title by knocking out Tyson Nam just 2:15 into the first round, giving the young star his first loss.
“I landed some kicks on his legs trying to mess with his mind,” recalled Oshiro. “I just gave him a nice right and then he went to the floor.”
Oshiro improved his record to 8-1, while Tyson Nam fell to 3-1.
Professional boxer and trainer at Randy Couture (Pictures) and Bas Rutten (Pictures)’s Legends MMA Gym in Hollywood, Calif. made his mixed martial arts debut scoring a stoppage over veteran Ron Fields just 37 seconds into the second round.
The victory was not without its trials however, as Williams narrowly escaped an armbar in the first round after surprisingly initiating a takedown. Williams showed great composure and strength when dealing with the submission attempt, but was unable to mount any offense once on top of his opponent.
After some inaction, the referee restarted the fighters in the same position in the center of the ring. Possibly due to frustration, Williams then deliberately head-butted Fields from the guard and was given a one-time warning.
Both fighters came out swinging in the second, but it was Williams who was able to get Fields to his back and drop down punches until the fight was stopped.
Undercard action saw 160-pounder Marshall Harvest outscore Kyle Miyahana to win a unanimous decision, while fellow lightweight fighter Chris Cisneros submitted David Padilla (Pictures) with an armbar.
Flyweight Paul Gorman redeemed himself after being knocked out in just 20 seconds by Mark Oshiro in his last outing by applying a textbook armbar from the bottom to tapout Ikaika Silva.
Light heavyweight Maui Wolfgram was able to out-grapple Ben “Pele” Fonoti, securing a fight-ending armbar in the first.
Sadhu Bott used his flexibility to avoid an early kneebar attempt and continue on to win the unanimous decision over Lorenzo Moreno.
Ron Verdadero scored a first round technical knockout over Kekoa Baker, as did Bronson Piper who defeated Vinny Delos Santos earlier in the night.
