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King of the Cage 32 Review
by Ben Stark, Team IronLife.com Writer
January 24th 2004 at the Office Depot Center in Sunrise Florida.
Florida is finally starting to hit the MMA map with its 2nd major promotion coming to the state. KOTC makes its Florida debut last Saturday at the Office Depot Arena. They started their promotion by buying 3 1/2 hour spots on the local Sunshine Network which runs throughout Florida. Along with that they boasted a good card that featured 3 title fights.
Unfortunately John Alessio was injured during training so his 170lbs title defense against Jorge Santiago was scrapped, and some issues with Erica Montoya and her opponent had that fight cancelled as well. Still with high hopes roughly 2500 people showed up for a night that we all hoped would have gone down better than it did.
The action was slow and drawn out with a lot of stand ups that shouldn't have been and lack of stand-ups when there should of, not to mention the multiple instances of HORRIBLE refereeing such as 1) a stand up while a fighter was applying a kimura, 2) a stand up when a fighter had just taken his opponents back. 3) when a fighter went to sleep from a gilotine the ref not calling it, 4) in that same fight when a fighter was KO'd from a knee and yet again the fight not being called, 5) One fighter actually getting blatantly KO'd and the ref telling the other fighter to keep fighting till he KO'd the guy a 2nd time, I can go on for another 5 or 10 examples.
To stop dwelling on the negatives I will say that the good fights were really good. Jorge Santiago showing a great improvement in his stand up and the epic local battle between American Top Team's (Ft. Lauderdale) Marcel Ferreira and Freestyle Fighting Academy's (Miami) Charles McCarthy. On to the results:
Main Event
Marvin Eastman -vs.- Vernon "Tiger" White
Marvin Eastman defeated Vernon "Tiger" White by decision. The fight Was not action packed but what can you expect when the last fight starts at midnight. It had its moments of good flurries and slams.
King of the Cage World Super Heavyweight Championship
"Big" Eric Pele -vs- Travis "the Ironman" Fulton
In a rematch from KOTC 8 "Bombs Away" 4/29/2001 "Big" Eric Pele defeated Travis "the Ironman" Fulton by Towel being thrown in from the corner due to strikes early in the first. Fulton tried to muscle Pele into the cage but failed. Pele took Fulton down and mounted the fists soon followed, that's when Fulton's corner threw in the towel.
King of the Cage Unlimited Class Superfight Title
Seth Petruzelli -vs.- Dan Severn
Seth Petruzelli defeated Dan Severn by decision. Seth came out strong constantly stepping forward with Dan backpedaling away not engaging. In the 2nd round Seth landed a high kick to the face KO'ing Dan but the ref did not call it and told Seth to keep fighting. Dan finally got a take down in the 3rd round and mostly lay and prayed the round. Funny enough the ref had to stop the action 2 or 3 times just for Dan to pull his pants up.
Jorge Santiago -vs.- John Cronk
Jorge Santiago defeated John Cronk by arm bar early in the 2nd round. Santiago came out with good looking Muay Thai but stayed very cautious. Jorge got his take downs from the clinch and controlled the ground well going for and closing 3 triangles during the first round. Cronk's determination got him out of those but in the 2nd round determination just wasn't enough and Jorge floated over Cronk's back to take the arm bar for the win.
Manny Reyes Jr. -vs.- Eric Obrien
Manny Reyes Jr. defeated Eric Obrien by decision. This was by far the most ridiculous fight of the night. Absolutely horrible. Eric was constantly coming forward trying to engage with his Thai boxing skills and Manny just blatantly ran, its was atrocious. Manny would occasionally rush in with a flying side kick or bull charge Eric into the fence as a "takedown". The ref let them sit there doing NOTHING for 3 1/2 or 4 min uninterrupted, ridiculous.
Jake Short -vs.- Scott Bills
Jake Short defeated a very game Scott Bills by decision in a great display of wrestling and positioning.
Todd Carney -vs.- Jorge Pereira
Todd Carney KO'd Jorge Pereira for the win in there fight. In another display of horrific refereeing Todd actually KO'd Jorge TWICE yes you read right TWICE! Todd dropped Jorge hard and assumed the fight was over and the ref told him to keep fighting. he hit Jorge again waking him up and then again putting him back out before the fight was stopped.
Crafton Wallace -vs.- Mike Quinlan
Crafton Wallace defeated Mike Quinlan by Guillotine Choke 3:13 round 1.
Marcel Ferreira -vs.- Charles McCarthy
Marcel Ferreira defeated Charles McCarthy by a hard earned decision. Marcel took Charles down pretty much at will. In the 1st round Marcel got a guillotine sunk in deep with McCarthy going to sleep WITH NO CALL FROM THE REF!!! Marcel let the choke go and swept Charles.
In the 2nd round Marcel shot in hard catching a knee and putting him out WITH NO CALL FROM THE REF!!!!!! Charles actually hit Marcel waking him back up! the whole crowd at this point is asking themselves WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?!?!?!
Anyway Marcel and Charles continued to roll around sweeps to takedowns etc..
Rory Singer -vs.- Wilson Gouveia
Rory Singer defeated Wilson Gouveia by TKO ref stoppage. They both fighters came out swinging in a pretty even exchange till Wilson took Rory down and worked a methodical GnP till the round ended.
Second round started the same Wilson again forced the clinch and took Rory down. Rory work on kimuras and triangles which created distance. Both fighters stood up and exchanged hard, Wilson took a shot but Rory sprawled forcing Wilson to pull guard to which Rory backed out forcing the standup. They both immediately went for another exchange and Wilson for the clinch but Rory braced him off and threw a high knee that caught Wilson in the chin. Wilson fell back to the cage and Rory just let loose a blitz from above with about 20 seconds left connecting often and hard till the ref jumped in.
Stu Hesselmeyer -vs.- George Crawford
Stu Hesselmeyer defeated George Crawford by decision.
Danny Byrket -vs.- Joe Cervantes
Danny Byrket defeated Joe Cervantes by decision.
Behind The Scenes
Manny Reyes Jr. has been talking a lot of shit about local fighters, fight teams, and fans. Of all people for him to call out he chose the guys of Freestyle Fighting Academy. Not the best idea he has ever had after his display of inability in the MMA world (yes he has 3 wins but they are 3 wins over "tomatoe cans").
Both Marcos Avellan and Mike Cardoso have called him out on a public Mixed Martial Arts forum (the UG).
Mike Cardoso said "Manny Reyes is a fag! He talks a hole bunch shit to get attention. then he fights a young unexperienced kid and all he does is runaround and get booed in his own hometown. I would love to fight him if he has the balls!"
and Marcos Avellan stated:
"Me, Mike, Jorge, or anyone from FFA would be more than willing to fight this guy." & "You wanted the attention - well you got it. You think its a good thing - but you are going to find out that all the attention isn't going to be everything you thought it was all cracked up to be. "
I would definitely say that the world of MMA is not the world where you should be running your mouth off without thinking. Guys in this sport will without a doubt call you out on your trash. Looks like Manny Reyes Jr. just wrote a check he couldn't cash. Too bad for him good for South Florida fans.
* Article by Ben Stark, Team IronLife.com Writer
* Back to Issue #6 Frontpage
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