PORTERVILLE, Calif., Nov. 13 — Headlined by a classic battle for the Gladiator Challenge middleweight belt between Jaime Jara (Pictures) and Dustin Arden, Gladiator Challenge returned its MMA promotion to the Eagle Mountain Casino.

The card contained five featured bouts, which included Bryan Travers (Pictures), Darren Crisp (Pictures) and Big Ross “Grizzly Bear” Cliffton. Also on the card was the Kris Kohls, drummer of the band Ademas. To top off all of those fights the Chairman of the Tule River Tribe got in the cage as well.

In the main event the crowd was pumped for Arden as he made his way to the cage to the sound of Rooster (Alice in Chains) pumping through the speakers. Jara came out and attempted a high kick that missed then went right to the double-leg takedown and was able to get Arden’s back and attempt a rear-naked choke.

It looked deep but “The Rooster” was able to pull out and get the top position. Arden then proceeded to land a few nice shots. Jara did not panic and grabbed a leg and fell back into a heelhook attempt. The heelhook was in pretty deep judging by the looks of Arden’s expression.

Arden was then able to get out and stand up, only to back up and let Jara return to his feet. Then both fighters started throwing and landing some nice shots until Jara caught Arden with a big left that rocked The Rooster.

Jara went down to the ground to finish the shaken Arden. After landing a few shots on Arden, he stood and raised his hands only to have referee Herb Dean (Pictures) look at him as if it say, “What are you doing.” The wobbly-legged Arden got back to his feet and Jara came in for the kill, unleashing a right-left combo that knocked Arden back to the canvas. Jara followed up with one more big left as Dean stepped in to stop the fight at 4:39 of round one.

The amazing thing about this is Arden was still going to grab Jara's legs and continue to try to fight back. What a war as Arden walked around the cage for a long period of time wondering why the fight was stopped. Dean did a great job, allowing Arden to recover a few times, as anyone that has seen Arden fight knows he recovers quickly, has tremendous heart and never wants to quit.

Great fight. Great stoppage. And a great rematch in the waiting. Props to both guys.

Bryan Travers (Pictures), an independent fighter out of Bakersfield, Calif., has been putting together a nice little start of a career at Eagle Mountain. Travers was to have the toughest match of his young career in Ben Davis. It was rumored that Davis was a sparring partner of the K-1 famed Dewey Cooper. I could not confirm this but the way he came out it looked to be true, as Davis was a very fast heavyweight.

He came in and started the fight with a lightning quick high kick that caught Travers in the ear. “He should have kicked me somewhere else then my ear,” Travers said after the fight, laughingly pointing to his very cauliflowered ear. “I have more padding on my ear then most places.”

Davis then unleashed a few nice clean punches, catching Travers a few times causing Travers to retreat and setup his double-leg takedown. Once on the ground Travers displayed his ground skills, easily getting mount then unloading some nice punches from the top to force Davis to tapout at 0:53 of round one.

In a 155-pound battle, Gladiator Challenge matchmaker Paul Zilius (Pictures) brought together two exciting young fighters: Darren Crisp (Pictures) out of “The Box” in Visalia versus Sergio Salcedo out of Bakersfield.

The fight started off with a nice flurry from both guys, with Crisp getting the better of the bombs by landing a left and knocking Salcedo into the fence. After spending some time in the clinch, referee Cecil Peoples broke them up, only for them to end up there again. But this time Crisp was able to land a nice forearm that bloodied Salcedo’s nose.

Crisp was able to then get the trip and went straight to mount and began to throw some punches causing Salcedo to turn his back to avoid the punches. Crisp took advantage of it by sinking in the rear-naked choke at 4:05 of round one.

Brian Granados came in throwing some nice punches at Jason Canaday (Pictures). Not wanting to stand, Canaday ducked a punch and went for the takedown. But once on the ground Granados was able to get mount and Canaday tried to roll out. Granados got his back and sunk in the rear-naked choke to end the fight at 1:31 of round one.

A fight that featured 6’ 7” 400-pound Ross “The Grizzly Bear” Cliffton against 6’ 4” 370-pound Paul Vasquez did not look like it would go the distance. Cliffton came out at an alarming pace and put Vasquez into survival mode to get the fight to the mat.

Vasquez grabbed onto Cliffton’s leg trying to get him to the mat only to have “The Grizzly Bear” go to the ground with him and unload some big shots. Cliffton then grabbed Vasquez’s arm and secured a keylock to end the fight 52 seconds into round one.