Sunday, June 7, 2009

By Isaac Kuhlman

  The amateur MMA scene has exploded in Las Vegas, and the diversity of promotions is seeing a legitimizing effect of the sport. International Championship Fighting has the idea of turning amateur MMA into a nationwide circuit of fighters, much like the Golden Gloves of boxing.

  International Championship Fighting is brought about by a group of experienced fight networks including Hall of Fame referee, Richard Steele, and ICF President, Rico White. They have thrown bouts across the country and, most recently, held an event at Warrior Training Center in Las Vegas. This event was held at the Sport Center of Las Vegas. The 8-bout event brought fighters from as far as Florida to showcase their skills.

  In the first fight of the night, J.P. Poole from Reno, NV took on Tyler Freeman from Lake Forest, CA. The fight started with Freeman throwing bombs that had Poole rocked. Poole got it to the ground after about 20 seconds of being pummeled, but the fight was close to being stopped. The fight was furious, and Poole was getting the worst of it. Freeman was making his mark--literally. Poole's face was bruised and swollen after just the first minute. It prompted Poole to note in his post-fight interview, "That kid's got great hands. He's going to be killing people."

   Poole knew he had lost the first round, but he also knew that he was still in the fight. Poole wasn't about to give up. He managed to strategically get his game plan on track. Takedowns and ground and pound from Poole marked almost the entirety of the next two rounds as Poole managed to overcome the odds to get a unanimous decision victory.

  "He was throwing bombs. I didn't have anything close to the power he had," Poole said. "I capitalized on what was there. I mean, I used what was there, but you never plan to lose the first (round)."

  The next fight was a quick one between Joel Black and Jeremy Burns. Burns took down Black into a guillotine choke attempt, but he could not lock it in very tight. After Black got out of the hold, he got even. He reversed it and took Burns' back. Seconds later he submitted Burns via rear-naked choke in only 1:04 of the first round.

  The third fight was perhaps the best overall fight of the evening. Victor Vorgar took on Alain Gonzalez in a fight of classic technical differences. Vorgar was the ripped, strong wrestler/grappler, and Gonzalez seemed to be the more modern "jack of all trades." The fight proved what most fight fans now know--that is, as the Gracie Family teaches, it's more about technique than brute force.

  Vorgar man-handled Gonzalez in the first round. When Gonzalez shot in for takedowns, Vorgar sprawled away and countered his attempts. When Vorgar finally got into a position Gonzalez liked (Gonzalez' full guard), Vorgar simply lifted Gonzalez entirely off the mat and stood him up.

  The next round was short and sweet. Vorgar looked to end the fight quickly as he picked up Gonzalez and slammed him hard to the mat. Unfortunately for Vorgar, he landed in a guillotine choke (and also injured his knee on the throw). Gonzalez applied the pressure, and, after about 25 seconds of tightly choking him, Vorgar finally tapped. It looked like he may have been out before his tap, and the tap may have actually just been his hand going limp.

  The doctors had to take a long look at Vorgar, and, upon inspection, he had sustained a left-knee injury and had to be carried out of the cage.

  Next up was Chris Ortega and Adam Morse. Morse was part of a fight team (Champions Freestyle MMA) that came all the way from Birmingham, AL to show their skills in the MMA Mecca (Las Vegas). The fight started off in a bad way for Morse though. He was knocked down and put into a triangle choke almost immediately. Fortunately for Morse, the hold was not tight enough, and he quickly capitalized into side mount. After a minute or so of ground and pound, Morse sunk a guillotine and Ortega tapped at 2:38 of round 1.

  Shawn McCarty and Chris Eigenman squared off in a close fight that was won by McCarty controlling the offense of Eigenman. Though McCarty didn't dominate the fight, he was victorious due to his big slams and his hand control on the ground. Eigenman attempted a couple of submissions, but McCarty was strong enough to get out of them without much problem, and, as the fight went to the scorecards, McCarty come out on top with a unanimous decision win.

  The sixth fight involved Rodrigo Viggiani fighting the crowd favorite of the night, John Allsup (from Las Vegas' Excel Defense Studio), and Allsup was determined not to disappoint.

  As the fight began Allsup went to his strength--takedowns. He had 2 big slams in the first minute of the fight. The fight got back to the feet, but Viggiani slipped to the ground and Allsup jumped on him in full mount. Allsup quickly landed big hammerfists and downward strikes that made the referee jump in to call a stop to the fight after only a minute and a half of round 1.

  Allsup said of the fight, "He was tough. He hit me with a good kick...I wanted to get him in my world on the ground."

  The crowd's support was an extra benefit for him as well. "Yeah, we're from Vegas here. We have a lot of guys into the sport, so it wasn't hard to get them down here."

  The seventh bout was probably the most lopsided of the night as Robert Hrcka and Kyle Neal squared off. Neal looked to be fresh to the fight scene as he tried to turn away to block most of the strikes, but Hrcka was determined to get his punches to land.

  The fight only lasted a little over a minute, and Hrcka landed about 20 big punches which eventually knocked Neal to the ground and ended the fight. Neal did get in a punch that dropped Hrcka, but it was probably due to the fact he was caught off balance, because, as Neal moved in, Hrcka still managed to get to his feet and land more punches than Neal.

  The last fight of the night between Fred Weaver and Patrick Edwards was by far the best fight, and it had the best ending of all the fights. With Weaver being from Alabama and Edwards being from Florida, there was already the Flora-bama rivalry in place. Now they just had to settle it in the ring.

  Edwards started with some clean punches landing early. However, when he went in with a front kick, Weaver caught his leg and dragged Edwards to the mat. He quickly got into side mount but had little offense for Edwards at the time. The referee got the action back to the feet, and, at the end of the round, Weaver picked up Edwards and slammed him hard to the mat.

  The second round started with Weaver's corner yelling, "Move your head. Keep moving your head." As instructed Weaver bobbed and "weaved" and threw a vicious right hand that knocked out Edwards before he hit the canvas. It was only 32 seconds into the second round, and the fight was over instantly.

  Weaver said, "I kind of used the first round to figure out what he was doing, to catch his rhythm, and it just worked out in my favor...I just listened to my coaches. They called it like that. I just watched what he was doing, because he was doing the same things, and I just caught him."

  He ended with the statement, "Vegas is awesome. This is my first time here. I'll be back."  With that kind of talent, let's hope so.

  For complete event results click here, and for more information on ICF go to www.icfights.com.