Petrescu Crowned UWC Light Heavyweight Champ
Jun 4, 2007
SOUTHEND, ESSEX, England, June 2 -- After some crafty submissions
early in the night, the main card of Saturday's Ultimate Warrior
Challenge provided some close fought bouts and a shocking knockout
to cap off another quality night of action.
The main event saw local fighter Valentino Petrescu repeatedly take his opponent, Arunus Andrius, to the floor and chip away with a methodical ground assault to win the UWC light heavyweight title.
Early in the bout, Petrescu threatened with a series of heavy low
kicks, before clinching and taking his opponent to the mat to grind
out the unanimous decision.
In stark contrast to the measured performance of the final bout, heavyweights Stav Economou and Ronny Gill tore into each other from the opening seconds of their encounter.
In other light heavyweight action, recent Vitor Belfort (Pictures) victim Ivan Serati (Pictures) put in an uncharacteristically lackluster performance, gaining the edge with his strong wrestling to scrape through with a points victory over Sergei Matkine.
Serati's teammate -- and fellow Cage Rage veteran -- Francesco Ligato had a far rougher time of things in his bout with Jason Kubiak. The Milton Keynes fighter lifted Ligato up for a slam early in the fight and proceeded to punish him with spiteful punches from rear-mount, forcing the referee to stop the contest midway through the first round.
Reza Meldavian put in an audacious performance as he kept his hands down by his waist for a large part of his bout with talented kickboxer Andrew Tate.
Happily for Meldavian, he was able to avoid a few very close high kick attempts from the Storm gym fighter, surging forward to land his own heavy punches and claim the unanimous verdict from the judges.
Cornered by PRIDE veteran and former Shooto champion Joachim Hansen (Pictures), Norwegian fighter Simeon Thorensen returned after his dominating performance at UWC 3 to score an impressive victory over late replacement, Soli Klichko.
After absorbing a vicious jump knee at the start of the bout, Thorensen kept his composure and stunned the crowd into silence seconds later, as he scored a slick armbar submission from his back.
Dean Jones came back from a two-year layoff to dominate his fight with Italian import Christian Binda. With the TSG Italia fighter scoring some success in the stand-up, Jones repeatedly took Binda to the floor, shrugging off a cut to his forehead to pound the Italian and finish with a Kimura from his guard early in the final round.
In other action on the card, Lee Wiezorek seemed to almost twist Danny Warr's arm off with a Kimura before switching to a guillotine for the win. Przemyslaw Mysiala made the drop to light heavyweight and caught Italian fighter Matteo Piran with a nasty looking keylock. Rounding off the card, Kevin Porter, Joakim Engberg and Jack Mason choked their way to victory, whilst Tommy Maguire made up for his last losing effort with a cut stoppage win over Chris Richardson.
The main event saw local fighter Valentino Petrescu repeatedly take his opponent, Arunus Andrius, to the floor and chip away with a methodical ground assault to win the UWC light heavyweight title.
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In stark contrast to the measured performance of the final bout, heavyweights Stav Economou and Ronny Gill tore into each other from the opening seconds of their encounter.
Eventually, Economou landed a brutal punch that knocked Gill out,
leaving him face down on the canvas as a concerned "Crazy Bear"
looked on. Gill, however, was fine and made a full recovery moments
later.
In other light heavyweight action, recent Vitor Belfort (Pictures) victim Ivan Serati (Pictures) put in an uncharacteristically lackluster performance, gaining the edge with his strong wrestling to scrape through with a points victory over Sergei Matkine.
Serati's teammate -- and fellow Cage Rage veteran -- Francesco Ligato had a far rougher time of things in his bout with Jason Kubiak. The Milton Keynes fighter lifted Ligato up for a slam early in the fight and proceeded to punish him with spiteful punches from rear-mount, forcing the referee to stop the contest midway through the first round.
Reza Meldavian put in an audacious performance as he kept his hands down by his waist for a large part of his bout with talented kickboxer Andrew Tate.
Happily for Meldavian, he was able to avoid a few very close high kick attempts from the Storm gym fighter, surging forward to land his own heavy punches and claim the unanimous verdict from the judges.
Cornered by PRIDE veteran and former Shooto champion Joachim Hansen (Pictures), Norwegian fighter Simeon Thorensen returned after his dominating performance at UWC 3 to score an impressive victory over late replacement, Soli Klichko.
After absorbing a vicious jump knee at the start of the bout, Thorensen kept his composure and stunned the crowd into silence seconds later, as he scored a slick armbar submission from his back.
Dean Jones came back from a two-year layoff to dominate his fight with Italian import Christian Binda. With the TSG Italia fighter scoring some success in the stand-up, Jones repeatedly took Binda to the floor, shrugging off a cut to his forehead to pound the Italian and finish with a Kimura from his guard early in the final round.
In other action on the card, Lee Wiezorek seemed to almost twist Danny Warr's arm off with a Kimura before switching to a guillotine for the win. Przemyslaw Mysiala made the drop to light heavyweight and caught Italian fighter Matteo Piran with a nasty looking keylock. Rounding off the card, Kevin Porter, Joakim Engberg and Jack Mason choked their way to victory, whilst Tommy Maguire made up for his last losing effort with a cut stoppage win over Chris Richardson.
