“Ninja” Defeats “The Wizard” in Explosive Cage Rage
Paresh Harsora Oct 1, 2006
LONDON, Sept. 29 — Only positive things for Cage Rage can be
deduced from the fact that Wembley Arena was fully sold-out.
The high expectations, with an improved format to the fighter’s entrance and a 50-row extension to the number of available seats, were met and the promise by Cage Rage that tonight would be “a night to remember” was certainly fulfilled. This is hardly surprising given that UFC legend Kimo Leopoldo (Pictures) and PRIDE veteran Murilo Rua (Pictures) were to make their cage rage debuts.
The evening was nicely concluded with a fight for the Cage Rage
light heavyweight title. Ian
Freeman (Pictures) put on a progressively strategic
performance en route to a decision against the durable Mark Epstein (Pictures).
Round one contained most of the variety, as both fighters tried to implement their game plans into action. Epstein planted a hard left hook that almost prematurely ended what promised to be a mighty brawl. Freeman, however, bounced back with an impressive takedown and almost submitted the durable Epstein with a well-executed heelhook. Yet Epstein’s determination was sufficient to break him free from the maneuver.
This continued for much of round two and proved to be most effective against the frustrated “Beast” in the third period as well. Epstein occasionally managed to salvage half-guard, and at one point even stood. However Freeman’s experience paid off, as he seemed to take his opponent down at will and work on Epstein’s body and face while in side-mount.
The almost monotonous manner in which Freeman worked was probably the complete opposite of what took place between Murilo Rua (Pictures) and Mark Weir (Pictures).
This had all the ingredients of a fight that would stand out in the memories of fans lucky enough to be present. “Ninja” Rua’s transition to middleweight required a decent test and indeed Weir proved to be just that.
The opening round began with Weir unloading his classic flurry of punches and kicks for which he is known. This stunned the Brazilian and forced him to cut the distance with a body clinch followed by a trip.
The takedown resulted in Weir trying to pull guard against an aggressive Rua, who constantly battled to pass guard. Eventually Rua succeeded and reached side-mount. The Brazilian, showing his superior experience on the floor, intelligently transitioned to an arm-triangle choke. However, this was certainly a struggle as Rua already looked tired.
At this point many thought the fight had reached its conclusion, but Weir, refusing to let this outcome be the end of the story, escaped the submission. Returning to his feet, Weir looked full of energy ready to unload like a coiled spring. This was surprising given that he had just been in a chokehold for almost a minute.
“Ninja” was adamant on taking the fight to the floor, and successfully did so. At this stage Rua made his second attempt with the effective shoulder choke and Weir lay helpless as he held on for the dying seconds of the first round.
The second round saw both fighters wanting to execute their most effective moves that they deduced in round one. Weir commenced the action with an awesome left high kick that landed perfectly on Rua’s head.
Sensing a possible victory, “The Wizard” tried to follow through with more left high kicks. However, it seems even these were not sufficient to put away the experienced Chute Box star. “Ninja” reacted quickly with a predictive takedown and transitioned to side-mount. Once again the Brazilian made his third attempt at the shoulder choke, this time with plenty of ticks remaining on the clock. The result was inevitable and Weir tapped 1:15 of round two.
Some would say watching a legend like Kimo fight is worth the ticket price alone. Such was the anticipation for his bout with Dave Legeno (Pictures), perhaps more so on this occasion due to Leopoldo’s suspension in the U.S. in July following an alleged use of steroids.
About Leopoldo’s participation on the card, promoter Dave O'Donnell told Sherdog.com that Cage Rage didn’t believe steroids were used to enhance Kimo’s performance, but were used instead to aid his injured knee, which is what Kimo has claimed all along. He also mentioned that Kimo's size is not big enough to be justified by steroids.
Regardless, there was a fight that needed to play out and both fighters had very clear strategies. Kimo wanted to keep this fight on the floor and opened the round with a surprisingly slow attempt at a double-leg. Legeno’s reaction was a simple sprawl with punches. Indeed much of the first few minutes involved Kimo sticking to his opponent like glue as he constantly searched for a takedown while avoiding punches from Legeno.
With a momentary flash of inspiration, Legeno managed to slip on what looked like a guillotine choke but soon released this in order to land some effective punches to Kimo’s face. The experienced yet gassed Kimo seemed to have no answer for these except to pull guard.
Legeno subsequently stood but Kimo remained on the floor with both hands down, almost inviting his opponent to strike, a far cry from his past performances against the likes of Tank Abbot or Ken Shamrock (Pictures). Of course Legeno did not turn this opportunity down and casually landed a big left hook while still standing. This was quickly followed by a second attempt at a guillotine, which proved successful as Kimo tapped at 3:21 seconds of round one.
Almost everyone at ringside thought that Robert Berry (Pictures) would prove a significant challenge to the surprisingly tough Rob Broughton (Pictures). The obvious difference in physique offered no correlation to what ultimately took place.
The spectacular performance at Cage Rage 17 by Broughton against James Thompson (Pictures) was followed by an equally impressive performance with the Liverpudian’s second cage rage bout.
The opening minutes of round one consisted primarily of Berry attempting to out-punch his opponent while leaving his chin exposed. Broughton, not intimidated by this initial aggression, simply picked his shots effectively as Berry failed to defend the counter punches.
As Broughton began to impose his will with strikes, Berry attempted to change the pace of the fight via a standing shoulder choke while pinning his foe on the cage fencing. This seemed to have little effect, and Broughton shrugged his opponent off.
Beating Berry to the punch, Broughton forced action to the cage fence and began to unleash a punishing flurry of left and right hooks. A big right hook eventually put Berry to sleep 3:31 into the fight, leaving Broughton to claim an impressive victory once again.
If Broughton and Berry’s fight was arguably a lesson in stand-up, then the contest between Abdul Mohamed (Pictures) and Vitor Ribeiro (Pictures) was quite simply a session about clean Brazilian jiu-jitsu. This fight is concrete evidence that Ribeiro, the Cage Rage world lightweight champion, truly is in a different class and is not just any BJJ black belt. Still, one must respect Mohamed’s efforts.
Mohamed started positively with leg kicks as he patiently tried to find his striking range. But this would prove almost worthless as an intelligent Ribeiro disguised a quick takedown with a few strikes of his own.
Once on the floor Ribeiro patiently worked his jiu-jitsu as he slowly passed Mohamed’s guard to gain full mount. The Brazilian landed punches to stimulate his opponent to turn and give up his back. From here “Shaolin” smoothly transitioned to attempt an armbar, which was ultimately converted into a Kimura on Mohamed’s left arm. The Englishman tapped at 4:27 of round one.
Realizing the caliber of his opponent “Shaolin” looked surprised at the ease with which he won. The ecstatic Brazilian then went on to announce that he dedicated this victory to his newborn son.
The entertaining Alex Reid (Pictures) certainly drew a lot of attention with his fight against veteran Tony Fryklund (Pictures). However, this was for all the wrong reasons. Reid entered the cage claiming, “Once that bell rings, you’re going to see Rocky VII.” But this fight hardly proved to be so noble.
It is worth mentioning that during yesterday’s press conference Reid had questions about what was considered legal and illegal when escaping submission maneuvers. This would prove to be of the utmost relevance in the way the bout ended.
Reid had an optimistic start to round one as he landed effective punches and kicks to which Fryklund had no reply at first. However, after shooting for a successful takedown he quickly regained control.
Once on the floor Reid attempted a triangle, but this was to no avail as Fryklund slipped out and immediately replied with a heelhook.
It is at this stage that the controversy began. Reid clearly tapped but seemed to change his mind midway through and began heel-kicking Fryklund in the face to escape. The American, clearly distraught by the referee missing the illegal maneuver, tightened the heelhook and Reid tapped again.
However, despite the submission from Reid, the angered American punished his opponent by holding the submission for seconds after tap.
“I expected Alex to try something like that after the questions he asked at the press conference,” Fryklund said afterwards, “so I slapped on that heel hook. I like the guy, but if he tries that shit on me I’m gonna freak out.”
In what was the quickest fight of the evening, Mustapha al Turk (Pictures) disposed of bulky PRIDE veteran Henry Miller (Pictures) in 56 seconds of the first round due to ground-and-pound. This was a display of overall superiority from al Turk, as he punched his way into a Thai clinch and sent in powerful knees that knocked the American to the floor. The Englishman finished his opponent off with unanswered blows to the head as the referee called a halt to the contest.
Almost as quick was the face-off between Alexandru Lungu (Pictures) and Mark Buchanan (Pictures). The Romanian Lungu was rumored not to be in the most ideal state due to his alleged smoking habit leading up to the fight. But he showed no signs of this as he squared off against Buchanan.
The Englishman commenced with good low kicks as soon as the bell rung. However Buchanan slipped shortly after and fell to the floor, where the 375-pound Romanian followed. Much to Buchanan’s discomfort, Lungu moved from side-mount to full mount. Lungu then worked for a Kimura, which was eventually successful at 1:55 of the first round.
Sol Gilbert (Pictures) had a chance to win the British welterweight title from Paul Daley (Pictures). Unfortunate for Gilbert, he was unable to gain the victory but certainly fought his heart out. Daley deserves full credit for his victory, however, and intelligently defended his title as British welterweight champion.
The first round saw an arsenal of leg kicks and takedowns being used by Daley, as he almost fully controlled the overall pace of the fight. This left Gilbert, who struggled to gain any real dominance, with the difficult task of defending.
To add to this, at one moment Gilbert missed a foot stomp as Cage Rage’s “open guard” rule came into play. This allowed Daley to return to his feet where he soon regained his influence through powerful leg kicks. Eventually the round ended with Daley scoring a textbook takedown and following up with hard left strikes to his opponent’s face.
By this time the challenger realized Daley’s destructive stand-up skills and so he commenced the second round by immediately closing the distance with a clinch. This was not to last long as Daley pushed away and scored yet another double-leg takedown. This time the welterweight champion allowed his opponent up, but soon followed with a flurry of punches while Gilbert tried desperately to defend.
In the midst of this Daley landed a solid left punch that knocked Gilbert out cold 2:59 of the second round.
Preceding this was the unsuccessful defense of the British featherweight title by Brad Pickett (Pictures). Robbie Olivier (Pictures) seemed to have transferred his look of concrete determination from yesterday’s press conference into controlled aggression as he defeated Pickett by submission.
Olivier controlled the fight almost as soon as it commenced, shooting in for the predictable takedown for which Pickett had no defense. Pickett did however show moments of inspiration as he continually struggled to stand once taken down.
Eventually Olivier learned to control Pickett and gained full mount. Taking advantage of this, Olivier patiently stalked the British champion’s face with timed punched that caused Pickett to turn and give up his back. Pickett defended the inevitable attempts at the rear-naked choke and escaped, looking tired.
The second round saw much of the same action, with Olivier continually keeping Pickett on the floor while patiently working for submissions. Pickett never recovered from his continual defense of submissions and strikes from Olivier. The same was true for a majority of round three, and it seemed that Pickett had left far too much work to be done in the final round.
Finally Olivier’s relentless pursuit for certain victory was fruitful as he sunk in a rear-naked choke after Pickett, back-first to his foe, neglected his neck to stand up. In summary it was ultimately a superior work rate from Olivier allowed him to dominate the fight in all three rounds and thus led to a well-deserved victory.
Xavier Foupa-Pokam (Pictures) was victorious over Alex Reid (Pictures) with a slick armbar from the guard in the dying moments of round one. During the opening of the round the Frenchman had difficulty finding his range against Cook. The Englishman was happy to stand and trade blows. Ultimately, a slip from a spinning back kick forced Foupa-Pokam to the floor, where he pulled guard and slapped on the winning armbar after four minutes 45 seconds.
In the opening bout of the night, Zelg Galesic (Pictures) impressed us yet again by making short work of James Nicholl (Pictures). Unlike his fight with Curtis Stout (Pictures), Galesic was able to demonstrate why fighters fear his stand up skills. The Croatian won after just 122 seconds of the first round and has shown clear potential.
The high expectations, with an improved format to the fighter’s entrance and a 50-row extension to the number of available seats, were met and the promise by Cage Rage that tonight would be “a night to remember” was certainly fulfilled. This is hardly surprising given that UFC legend Kimo Leopoldo (Pictures) and PRIDE veteran Murilo Rua (Pictures) were to make their cage rage debuts.
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Round one contained most of the variety, as both fighters tried to implement their game plans into action. Epstein planted a hard left hook that almost prematurely ended what promised to be a mighty brawl. Freeman, however, bounced back with an impressive takedown and almost submitted the durable Epstein with a well-executed heelhook. Yet Epstein’s determination was sufficient to break him free from the maneuver.
The second period commenced with wild swings from Epstein that
forced Freeman to shoot for a double-leg. Freeman took full
advantage of his positional superiority, landing short sharp shots
to Epstein’s face and body.
This continued for much of round two and proved to be most effective against the frustrated “Beast” in the third period as well. Epstein occasionally managed to salvage half-guard, and at one point even stood. However Freeman’s experience paid off, as he seemed to take his opponent down at will and work on Epstein’s body and face while in side-mount.
The almost monotonous manner in which Freeman worked was probably the complete opposite of what took place between Murilo Rua (Pictures) and Mark Weir (Pictures).
This had all the ingredients of a fight that would stand out in the memories of fans lucky enough to be present. “Ninja” Rua’s transition to middleweight required a decent test and indeed Weir proved to be just that.
The opening round began with Weir unloading his classic flurry of punches and kicks for which he is known. This stunned the Brazilian and forced him to cut the distance with a body clinch followed by a trip.
The takedown resulted in Weir trying to pull guard against an aggressive Rua, who constantly battled to pass guard. Eventually Rua succeeded and reached side-mount. The Brazilian, showing his superior experience on the floor, intelligently transitioned to an arm-triangle choke. However, this was certainly a struggle as Rua already looked tired.
At this point many thought the fight had reached its conclusion, but Weir, refusing to let this outcome be the end of the story, escaped the submission. Returning to his feet, Weir looked full of energy ready to unload like a coiled spring. This was surprising given that he had just been in a chokehold for almost a minute.
“Ninja” was adamant on taking the fight to the floor, and successfully did so. At this stage Rua made his second attempt with the effective shoulder choke and Weir lay helpless as he held on for the dying seconds of the first round.
The second round saw both fighters wanting to execute their most effective moves that they deduced in round one. Weir commenced the action with an awesome left high kick that landed perfectly on Rua’s head.
Sensing a possible victory, “The Wizard” tried to follow through with more left high kicks. However, it seems even these were not sufficient to put away the experienced Chute Box star. “Ninja” reacted quickly with a predictive takedown and transitioned to side-mount. Once again the Brazilian made his third attempt at the shoulder choke, this time with plenty of ticks remaining on the clock. The result was inevitable and Weir tapped 1:15 of round two.
Some would say watching a legend like Kimo fight is worth the ticket price alone. Such was the anticipation for his bout with Dave Legeno (Pictures), perhaps more so on this occasion due to Leopoldo’s suspension in the U.S. in July following an alleged use of steroids.
About Leopoldo’s participation on the card, promoter Dave O'Donnell told Sherdog.com that Cage Rage didn’t believe steroids were used to enhance Kimo’s performance, but were used instead to aid his injured knee, which is what Kimo has claimed all along. He also mentioned that Kimo's size is not big enough to be justified by steroids.
Regardless, there was a fight that needed to play out and both fighters had very clear strategies. Kimo wanted to keep this fight on the floor and opened the round with a surprisingly slow attempt at a double-leg. Legeno’s reaction was a simple sprawl with punches. Indeed much of the first few minutes involved Kimo sticking to his opponent like glue as he constantly searched for a takedown while avoiding punches from Legeno.
With a momentary flash of inspiration, Legeno managed to slip on what looked like a guillotine choke but soon released this in order to land some effective punches to Kimo’s face. The experienced yet gassed Kimo seemed to have no answer for these except to pull guard.
Legeno subsequently stood but Kimo remained on the floor with both hands down, almost inviting his opponent to strike, a far cry from his past performances against the likes of Tank Abbot or Ken Shamrock (Pictures). Of course Legeno did not turn this opportunity down and casually landed a big left hook while still standing. This was quickly followed by a second attempt at a guillotine, which proved successful as Kimo tapped at 3:21 seconds of round one.
Almost everyone at ringside thought that Robert Berry (Pictures) would prove a significant challenge to the surprisingly tough Rob Broughton (Pictures). The obvious difference in physique offered no correlation to what ultimately took place.
The spectacular performance at Cage Rage 17 by Broughton against James Thompson (Pictures) was followed by an equally impressive performance with the Liverpudian’s second cage rage bout.
The opening minutes of round one consisted primarily of Berry attempting to out-punch his opponent while leaving his chin exposed. Broughton, not intimidated by this initial aggression, simply picked his shots effectively as Berry failed to defend the counter punches.
As Broughton began to impose his will with strikes, Berry attempted to change the pace of the fight via a standing shoulder choke while pinning his foe on the cage fencing. This seemed to have little effect, and Broughton shrugged his opponent off.
Beating Berry to the punch, Broughton forced action to the cage fence and began to unleash a punishing flurry of left and right hooks. A big right hook eventually put Berry to sleep 3:31 into the fight, leaving Broughton to claim an impressive victory once again.
If Broughton and Berry’s fight was arguably a lesson in stand-up, then the contest between Abdul Mohamed (Pictures) and Vitor Ribeiro (Pictures) was quite simply a session about clean Brazilian jiu-jitsu. This fight is concrete evidence that Ribeiro, the Cage Rage world lightweight champion, truly is in a different class and is not just any BJJ black belt. Still, one must respect Mohamed’s efforts.
Mohamed started positively with leg kicks as he patiently tried to find his striking range. But this would prove almost worthless as an intelligent Ribeiro disguised a quick takedown with a few strikes of his own.
Once on the floor Ribeiro patiently worked his jiu-jitsu as he slowly passed Mohamed’s guard to gain full mount. The Brazilian landed punches to stimulate his opponent to turn and give up his back. From here “Shaolin” smoothly transitioned to attempt an armbar, which was ultimately converted into a Kimura on Mohamed’s left arm. The Englishman tapped at 4:27 of round one.
Realizing the caliber of his opponent “Shaolin” looked surprised at the ease with which he won. The ecstatic Brazilian then went on to announce that he dedicated this victory to his newborn son.
The entertaining Alex Reid (Pictures) certainly drew a lot of attention with his fight against veteran Tony Fryklund (Pictures). However, this was for all the wrong reasons. Reid entered the cage claiming, “Once that bell rings, you’re going to see Rocky VII.” But this fight hardly proved to be so noble.
It is worth mentioning that during yesterday’s press conference Reid had questions about what was considered legal and illegal when escaping submission maneuvers. This would prove to be of the utmost relevance in the way the bout ended.
Reid had an optimistic start to round one as he landed effective punches and kicks to which Fryklund had no reply at first. However, after shooting for a successful takedown he quickly regained control.
Once on the floor Reid attempted a triangle, but this was to no avail as Fryklund slipped out and immediately replied with a heelhook.
It is at this stage that the controversy began. Reid clearly tapped but seemed to change his mind midway through and began heel-kicking Fryklund in the face to escape. The American, clearly distraught by the referee missing the illegal maneuver, tightened the heelhook and Reid tapped again.
However, despite the submission from Reid, the angered American punished his opponent by holding the submission for seconds after tap.
“I expected Alex to try something like that after the questions he asked at the press conference,” Fryklund said afterwards, “so I slapped on that heel hook. I like the guy, but if he tries that shit on me I’m gonna freak out.”
In what was the quickest fight of the evening, Mustapha al Turk (Pictures) disposed of bulky PRIDE veteran Henry Miller (Pictures) in 56 seconds of the first round due to ground-and-pound. This was a display of overall superiority from al Turk, as he punched his way into a Thai clinch and sent in powerful knees that knocked the American to the floor. The Englishman finished his opponent off with unanswered blows to the head as the referee called a halt to the contest.
Almost as quick was the face-off between Alexandru Lungu (Pictures) and Mark Buchanan (Pictures). The Romanian Lungu was rumored not to be in the most ideal state due to his alleged smoking habit leading up to the fight. But he showed no signs of this as he squared off against Buchanan.
The Englishman commenced with good low kicks as soon as the bell rung. However Buchanan slipped shortly after and fell to the floor, where the 375-pound Romanian followed. Much to Buchanan’s discomfort, Lungu moved from side-mount to full mount. Lungu then worked for a Kimura, which was eventually successful at 1:55 of the first round.
Sol Gilbert (Pictures) had a chance to win the British welterweight title from Paul Daley (Pictures). Unfortunate for Gilbert, he was unable to gain the victory but certainly fought his heart out. Daley deserves full credit for his victory, however, and intelligently defended his title as British welterweight champion.
The first round saw an arsenal of leg kicks and takedowns being used by Daley, as he almost fully controlled the overall pace of the fight. This left Gilbert, who struggled to gain any real dominance, with the difficult task of defending.
To add to this, at one moment Gilbert missed a foot stomp as Cage Rage’s “open guard” rule came into play. This allowed Daley to return to his feet where he soon regained his influence through powerful leg kicks. Eventually the round ended with Daley scoring a textbook takedown and following up with hard left strikes to his opponent’s face.
By this time the challenger realized Daley’s destructive stand-up skills and so he commenced the second round by immediately closing the distance with a clinch. This was not to last long as Daley pushed away and scored yet another double-leg takedown. This time the welterweight champion allowed his opponent up, but soon followed with a flurry of punches while Gilbert tried desperately to defend.
In the midst of this Daley landed a solid left punch that knocked Gilbert out cold 2:59 of the second round.
Preceding this was the unsuccessful defense of the British featherweight title by Brad Pickett (Pictures). Robbie Olivier (Pictures) seemed to have transferred his look of concrete determination from yesterday’s press conference into controlled aggression as he defeated Pickett by submission.
Olivier controlled the fight almost as soon as it commenced, shooting in for the predictable takedown for which Pickett had no defense. Pickett did however show moments of inspiration as he continually struggled to stand once taken down.
Eventually Olivier learned to control Pickett and gained full mount. Taking advantage of this, Olivier patiently stalked the British champion’s face with timed punched that caused Pickett to turn and give up his back. Pickett defended the inevitable attempts at the rear-naked choke and escaped, looking tired.
The second round saw much of the same action, with Olivier continually keeping Pickett on the floor while patiently working for submissions. Pickett never recovered from his continual defense of submissions and strikes from Olivier. The same was true for a majority of round three, and it seemed that Pickett had left far too much work to be done in the final round.
Finally Olivier’s relentless pursuit for certain victory was fruitful as he sunk in a rear-naked choke after Pickett, back-first to his foe, neglected his neck to stand up. In summary it was ultimately a superior work rate from Olivier allowed him to dominate the fight in all three rounds and thus led to a well-deserved victory.
Xavier Foupa-Pokam (Pictures) was victorious over Alex Reid (Pictures) with a slick armbar from the guard in the dying moments of round one. During the opening of the round the Frenchman had difficulty finding his range against Cook. The Englishman was happy to stand and trade blows. Ultimately, a slip from a spinning back kick forced Foupa-Pokam to the floor, where he pulled guard and slapped on the winning armbar after four minutes 45 seconds.
In the opening bout of the night, Zelg Galesic (Pictures) impressed us yet again by making short work of James Nicholl (Pictures). Unlike his fight with Curtis Stout (Pictures), Galesic was able to demonstrate why fighters fear his stand up skills. The Croatian won after just 122 seconds of the first round and has shown clear potential.
