- Jake Shields vs Ray Cooper

HONOLULU, Hawaii, July 9 -- There is really just one word for the Soljah SHOOTO Double Championships: amazing. This show was very well put together from beginning to end, with some of the biggest international stars that SHOOTO has to offer (Pulver, Suda, Paling, Cooper, Shields and Sato, just to name a few). Also on hand were Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, Caol Uno, Renato “Charuto” Verissimo and pound-for-pound the best around, Mr. Hilo Boy BJ Penn. The main event of the night was for the middleweight championship, and featured Ray “Bradda” Cooper (808 Fight Factory) against Jake Shields (Cesar Gracie Academy). Ray had the upper hand in this one early on, being able to effectively punch and get the takedown on Shields early. At one point, Ray had full mount on Jake, but got reversed before being able to do much damage. After the reverse, Shields pulled Cooper into half-guard, which he quickly reversed to a rear-naked choke that was set up nice and tight. Cooper had nowhere to go and was forced to tap at 3:30 of the opening round. Interestingly enough, the referee had to strike Shields several times and yell to get him to release the hold. The extra and unnecessary time without oxygen seemed to leave Cooper in a haze, and it took him several minutes to recover. After the fight Jake said that he didn’t realize that the fight was over at the point Cooper tapped, and that he hadn’t meant to hold on too long. This explanation seemed to appease the other members of the 808 Fight Factory who congratulated Shields in his victory. Both fighters did a great job, as did the referee who was right on top of things trying to keep the guys safe.