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McCullough Smokes Crunkilton, Retains Title
LAS VEGAS, Sept. 5 -- "Razor" Rob McCullough (Pictures) wasted little time in settling
the debate as to who would walk out of the World Extreme
Cagefighting cage with the lightweight belt.
McCullough, the champion, bombarded challenger Richard Crunkilton (Pictures) from the start of their five-round fight and scored arguably the most impressive win of his career thus far.
"His whole game plan was to get close to me and take me down and grapple me," McCullough said immediately following the fight. "But I got a vicious right hand, and I know it."
"Vicious" might not be an accurate word to describe his right hand. "Explosive" or "concussive" is more like it, but regardless of what adjective is attached to the tools that pay McCullough's bills, they did the job perfectly Wednesday night.
McCullough (15-3-0) got the slugfest he desired and Crunkilton paid dearly for opting to bang away with the premiere striker. McCullough hurt Crunkilton seconds into the fight but the challenger responded by quickly firing back with a sizzling combo to the face.
The punches looked marvelous, though they seemed to simply bounce off McCullough's head without inflicting any damage.
The 155-pound champion responded by closing the show with a series of lethal punches, punctuated by pinpoint right hands. McCullough dropped Crunkilton on three separate occasions after detonating the right hand on the Floridian's jaw, but "Cleat" was too brave and continued to rise back to his feet, desperate to survive.
Finally, one final perfectly placed right cross crashed into Crunkilton's face, putting "Cleat" onto the canvas. Once he crumbled onto his knees, referee Herb Dean (Pictures) waived off the attrition, signaling an end to the massacre.
Crunkilton had lost only once before in 15 fights (to Hermes Franca (Pictures)) and quite a high number of MMA insiders predicted that the title would change hands. However, McCullough had something to say about that and wound up crushing one of the better lightweights in the sport.
"Obviously Rich is a really tough guy," McCullough said. "I believed that he was going to do that, to try to setup the takedown later on in the fight. But I think he made a wrong choice."
McCullough is eager to defend his WEC title and said after the fight that that time will likely come in November.
In the co-main event, Chase Beebe (Pictures) demonstrated why he is one of the more dangerous fighters in the bantamweight division as he thwarted, confused and controlled challenger Rani Yahya (Pictures) for the duration of their five-round title fight.
Yahya, one of the best jiu-jitsu practitioners in MMA, appeared to overwhelm Beebe early on as his submission trickery kept Beebe defending sub attempts for the opening five minutes. Yahya threw armbars, triangles, omoplatas, rear-naked chokes and practically everything else under the sun at Beebe, but the Chicago fighter was too crafty to be caught in a submission, though he knew he was in for a long night of tricky submissions from Yahya.
"It was tough man," Beebe said after the fight. "He threw a good kneebar at me."
In the second round, Beebe looked to figure out his opponent; he seized control of the action and never relinquished it. Yahya was no longer able to attempt submissions at will and it seemed that no matter what he tried to do to Beebe, the Brazilian found himself on his back defending elbows and punches.
Beebe was also trying to pull off submissions but, like all superior grapplers, Yahya was no fool and never really came close to tapping. Since Beebe couldn't seal the deal he opted to systematically wear down Yahya and break his will. As the fight wore on and Beebe incrementally figured Yahya out, it was clear who the superior fighter was as the fight progressed.
"I figure that with all my opponents," Beebe added, "as long as I can stick it out you know, my conditioning will come through."
In the final stanza of the contest Yahya (11-3) needed to pull off a miracle submission, but Beebe, like he had been for the previous three rounds, was too dominant.
In the end, Beebe (11-1) won the fight going away as he secured not only the unanimous nod by margins of 49-46 (twice) and 49-45, but also his claim as the 135-pound champion of the WEC.
Miguel Torres (Pictures) not only sported a spiffy mullet into the cage, he demonstrated why he is considered one of the sport's best-kept secrets by dominating Jeff Bedard (Pictures) from the outset.
Torres (19-1) quickly pulled guard early in the fight and began working in some pesky strikes to soften his adversary. Torres faked a triangle about 2:10 into the round and switched his footing around after he failed to cinch it up. Once he changed his legs and feet around, that's when he caught Bedard in the submission and forced the tap.
The official time of the picture perfect and textbook triangle came at 2:30 and the victory allowed Torres to ascend the ladder even further. Torres is without question a dangerous fighter who is more than deserving of a WEC title shot.
The first televised bout of the card had Jeremiah Billington pitted against rising prospect and U.S. Marine Brian Stann (Pictures). Both men predicted victories, but only Stann's visions came true. Stann dominated from the start and his fierce striking power was clearly too much for Billington to handle.
A stinging left hook hurt Billington and when Stann closed the gap, Billington pulled guard. However, that tactic didn't work as Stann, sensing a classic stoppage, stood over his confused opponent and unloaded a vicious assault that forced a referee stoppage. Stann took out Billington at 3:07 of the first round and though his win wasn't over an elite level opponent, he certainly looks like a future star in the making.
In the lone disappointing fight of the evening, Canada's John Alessio (Pictures) won a unanimous three round decision over the too-reluctant Marcelo Brito (Pictures) via tallies of 30-27 on all three judges' scorecards. The fight was completely devoid of action save for Brito on his back absorbing dozens of kicks to the legs and rump.
Marcus Hicks kept his unbeaten record in tact by submitting Scott McAfee with a guillotine choke 2:15 into the first round. The action was intense while it lasted as Hicks quickly scored a takedown and worked from McAfee's half guard. After a scramble back to their feet, McAfee inadvertently fell into the choke where Hicks perfectly capitalized and forced the tap.
TUF alum Jesse Forbes (Pictures) almost had an early knockout win over Bryan Baker (Pictures), but after hurting his opponent with a series of punches, the pesky Baker stormed back and delivered a furious barrage of punches of his own.
After things became a bit hairy for Forbes, he performed a perfect scoop slam, though he couldn't keep his foe down for long. After a huge slam from Baker moments later, the suddenly fatigued Forbes began eating way too many punches and once he gave up his back and absorbed many unanswered blows, the fight was stopped. The official time of the TKO came at 4:15 of the opening stanza.
Donald Cerrone (Pictures) applied one of the more peculiar submissions in recent memory and he did it while opponent Kenneth Alexander (Pictures) achieved side-control after a takedown.
Cerrone slipped his legs around Alexander's neck, tightened the grip and torqued his hips without Alexander's arm being trapped for the triangle. Alexander had to tap and after the fight Cerrone didn't have a proper name for his creative submission. The official time of the modified triangle-type choke came just 56 seconds into the fight.
Blas Avena (Pictures) made surprisingly quick work Joe Benoit as he latched on a guillotine choke when Benoit, who ducked under some errant punches, tried to grab Avena's right leg. Once Avena sunk the choke, he dropped onto the canvas and closed his guard, forcing a tapout just 29 seconds into the fight.
The opening bout of the evening saw Ian McCall pound out a hard-earned TKO late in the third round over the tough Coty "Ox" Wheeler.
After a somewhat slow-paced first two rounds, McCall scooped up and slammed Wheeler down hard and from there he delivered two brutal right hands while standing over his opponent. After the second punch landed, the referee stopped the fight. The official time of the stoppage came at 4:34 of the third round.
McCullough, the champion, bombarded challenger Richard Crunkilton (Pictures) from the start of their five-round fight and scored arguably the most impressive win of his career thus far.
"His whole game plan was to get close to me and take me down and grapple me," McCullough said immediately following the fight. "But I got a vicious right hand, and I know it."
"Vicious" might not be an accurate word to describe his right hand. "Explosive" or "concussive" is more like it, but regardless of what adjective is attached to the tools that pay McCullough's bills, they did the job perfectly Wednesday night.
McCullough (15-3-0) got the slugfest he desired and Crunkilton paid dearly for opting to bang away with the premiere striker. McCullough hurt Crunkilton seconds into the fight but the challenger responded by quickly firing back with a sizzling combo to the face.
The punches looked marvelous, though they seemed to simply bounce off McCullough's head without inflicting any damage.
The 155-pound champion responded by closing the show with a series of lethal punches, punctuated by pinpoint right hands. McCullough dropped Crunkilton on three separate occasions after detonating the right hand on the Floridian's jaw, but "Cleat" was too brave and continued to rise back to his feet, desperate to survive.
Finally, one final perfectly placed right cross crashed into Crunkilton's face, putting "Cleat" onto the canvas. Once he crumbled onto his knees, referee Herb Dean (Pictures) waived off the attrition, signaling an end to the massacre.
Crunkilton had lost only once before in 15 fights (to Hermes Franca (Pictures)) and quite a high number of MMA insiders predicted that the title would change hands. However, McCullough had something to say about that and wound up crushing one of the better lightweights in the sport.
"Obviously Rich is a really tough guy," McCullough said. "I believed that he was going to do that, to try to setup the takedown later on in the fight. But I think he made a wrong choice."
McCullough is eager to defend his WEC title and said after the fight that that time will likely come in November.
In the co-main event, Chase Beebe (Pictures) demonstrated why he is one of the more dangerous fighters in the bantamweight division as he thwarted, confused and controlled challenger Rani Yahya (Pictures) for the duration of their five-round title fight.
Yahya, one of the best jiu-jitsu practitioners in MMA, appeared to overwhelm Beebe early on as his submission trickery kept Beebe defending sub attempts for the opening five minutes. Yahya threw armbars, triangles, omoplatas, rear-naked chokes and practically everything else under the sun at Beebe, but the Chicago fighter was too crafty to be caught in a submission, though he knew he was in for a long night of tricky submissions from Yahya.
"It was tough man," Beebe said after the fight. "He threw a good kneebar at me."
In the second round, Beebe looked to figure out his opponent; he seized control of the action and never relinquished it. Yahya was no longer able to attempt submissions at will and it seemed that no matter what he tried to do to Beebe, the Brazilian found himself on his back defending elbows and punches.
Beebe was also trying to pull off submissions but, like all superior grapplers, Yahya was no fool and never really came close to tapping. Since Beebe couldn't seal the deal he opted to systematically wear down Yahya and break his will. As the fight wore on and Beebe incrementally figured Yahya out, it was clear who the superior fighter was as the fight progressed.
"I figure that with all my opponents," Beebe added, "as long as I can stick it out you know, my conditioning will come through."
In the final stanza of the contest Yahya (11-3) needed to pull off a miracle submission, but Beebe, like he had been for the previous three rounds, was too dominant.
In the end, Beebe (11-1) won the fight going away as he secured not only the unanimous nod by margins of 49-46 (twice) and 49-45, but also his claim as the 135-pound champion of the WEC.
Miguel Torres (Pictures) not only sported a spiffy mullet into the cage, he demonstrated why he is considered one of the sport's best-kept secrets by dominating Jeff Bedard (Pictures) from the outset.
Torres (19-1) quickly pulled guard early in the fight and began working in some pesky strikes to soften his adversary. Torres faked a triangle about 2:10 into the round and switched his footing around after he failed to cinch it up. Once he changed his legs and feet around, that's when he caught Bedard in the submission and forced the tap.
The official time of the picture perfect and textbook triangle came at 2:30 and the victory allowed Torres to ascend the ladder even further. Torres is without question a dangerous fighter who is more than deserving of a WEC title shot.
The first televised bout of the card had Jeremiah Billington pitted against rising prospect and U.S. Marine Brian Stann (Pictures). Both men predicted victories, but only Stann's visions came true. Stann dominated from the start and his fierce striking power was clearly too much for Billington to handle.
A stinging left hook hurt Billington and when Stann closed the gap, Billington pulled guard. However, that tactic didn't work as Stann, sensing a classic stoppage, stood over his confused opponent and unloaded a vicious assault that forced a referee stoppage. Stann took out Billington at 3:07 of the first round and though his win wasn't over an elite level opponent, he certainly looks like a future star in the making.
In the lone disappointing fight of the evening, Canada's John Alessio (Pictures) won a unanimous three round decision over the too-reluctant Marcelo Brito (Pictures) via tallies of 30-27 on all three judges' scorecards. The fight was completely devoid of action save for Brito on his back absorbing dozens of kicks to the legs and rump.
Marcus Hicks kept his unbeaten record in tact by submitting Scott McAfee with a guillotine choke 2:15 into the first round. The action was intense while it lasted as Hicks quickly scored a takedown and worked from McAfee's half guard. After a scramble back to their feet, McAfee inadvertently fell into the choke where Hicks perfectly capitalized and forced the tap.
TUF alum Jesse Forbes (Pictures) almost had an early knockout win over Bryan Baker (Pictures), but after hurting his opponent with a series of punches, the pesky Baker stormed back and delivered a furious barrage of punches of his own.
After things became a bit hairy for Forbes, he performed a perfect scoop slam, though he couldn't keep his foe down for long. After a huge slam from Baker moments later, the suddenly fatigued Forbes began eating way too many punches and once he gave up his back and absorbed many unanswered blows, the fight was stopped. The official time of the TKO came at 4:15 of the opening stanza.
Donald Cerrone (Pictures) applied one of the more peculiar submissions in recent memory and he did it while opponent Kenneth Alexander (Pictures) achieved side-control after a takedown.
Cerrone slipped his legs around Alexander's neck, tightened the grip and torqued his hips without Alexander's arm being trapped for the triangle. Alexander had to tap and after the fight Cerrone didn't have a proper name for his creative submission. The official time of the modified triangle-type choke came just 56 seconds into the fight.
Blas Avena (Pictures) made surprisingly quick work Joe Benoit as he latched on a guillotine choke when Benoit, who ducked under some errant punches, tried to grab Avena's right leg. Once Avena sunk the choke, he dropped onto the canvas and closed his guard, forcing a tapout just 29 seconds into the fight.
The opening bout of the evening saw Ian McCall pound out a hard-earned TKO late in the third round over the tough Coty "Ox" Wheeler.
After a somewhat slow-paced first two rounds, McCall scooped up and slammed Wheeler down hard and from there he delivered two brutal right hands while standing over his opponent. After the second punch landed, the referee stopped the fight. The official time of the stoppage came at 4:34 of the third round.
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