EAST LONDON, June 16 -- Cage Rage Contenders favorite Che Mills scored a terrific first round stoppage win over determined Tsunami Gym fighter Afran Saeed Saturday at The Troxy in eastern London.

Clipping Saeed and dropping him in the early exchanges, Mills seized his chance with both hands and chased Saeed to the floor. In full control, the Gloucester native worked his way to his opponent's back, where he bashed Saeed with punches for the referee stoppage and possibly a step closer to the big stage.

Gaz Roriston made a very impressive return to competition as he completely shut out the overmatched Darren Guisha in less than a round.

Closing the distance quickly, Roriston showed some impressive clinch work before taking down and controlling Guisha on the ground. After some stiff knees from side-control, the London Shootfighter took mount and unloaded on the downed Essex native until he was forced to tap.

London Thai Fighters standout Dorian O'Mally worked his way through some uncomfortable moments on the ground in his fight with Robert Powell to score a second-round submission win with a sneaky guillotine choke.

Powell wisely took the fight to the floor at every opportunity, but O'Malley struggled his way to top position, seeing out the first round with some evil ground-and-pound. Early in the second frame, a mistake during a Powell takedown attempt saw O'Malley latch on the hold for the win.

"Brutal" Jake Bostwick will be feeling rightfully hard done-by after an apparent misunderstanding led referee Grant Waterman to prematurely call off his contest with John McGuire moments before the end of the first period.

After some success standing, Bostwick found himself on the ground and out of his element against the Tsunami fighter's solid submission game. Trapped with his arms tied up, Bostwick appeared to tap out as he attempted to escape further punishment.

With Waterman under the impression that the downed fighter was submitting to the onslaught of punches, he rightly stepped in to stop the bout. However, as Bostwick and his corner enthusiastically pointed out, the Kidbrooke fighter was in no mood to quit, leading promoters Dave O'Donnell and Andy Geer to tentatively announce a rematch between the pair on the next Contenders event.

In an extremely competitive duel between two very promising young fighters, Francis Heagney played his part in a successful night for the London Shootfighters, coming back from a beating on the ground to score a hard-fought submission in the second round. After an attempted anaconda choke variation, the Londoner twisted Wesley Murch up with another choke attempt before catching a guillotine early in the second stanza.

Steve Dossett scored an unlikely win in less than a minute as he submitted the gifted, but underachieving Dan Movahedi with a tight guillotine. Eager to score a win, Movahedi rushed in for the takedown, but soon found himself tied up and tapping out. Dossett quickly added to the indignity by announcing that he had only trained in ground-fighting three times. A crowd favorite, Movahedi somehow seems destined to bounce back.

Jon Hathaway showed some excellent striking skills as he picked apart the previously unbeaten Tarcio Santana for the unanimous decision. The Brazilian entered the cage with a display of acrobatics in a wonderfully prepared sequence of athletic aggression, but soon after the bell he found himself on the wrong end of a stand up beating that saw him receive a couple of nasty cuts to his face.

Bravely fighting on, Santana gave all he had, but Hathaway would not be denied and kept up the pressure, continuing his impressive run en route to getting the nod from each of the judges.

In one of the more intense fights on the card, the well-supported Michael King and John Haggerty flew at each other in a gripping brawl. After a scramble, King landed in his guard with a guillotine attempt, but Haggerty kept up an incredible assault on the floor to win by referee stoppage.

Also on the card, Kym Farid bullied Soli Klichko and landed a series of unanswered blows on the floor to force the referee to step in.

Luke Smith shook off a couple of early knees from Jay Gilby to submit him with a rear-naked choke.

Brett Bessett had a successful debut against Nick Porter with a ground-and-pound stoppage after Porter gassed badly in the second round.

Scott Jansen won his bout with strikes on the floor against Eltham Warrior, Deano Durant.

Mark "Baby face" Smith stood on his head to land a first round armbar against Jody Cottham, while Giorgio Andrews scored the win over Max Henchy with strikes from the back in the opening bout of the evening.