Issue 089
June 2012
From early-round TUF Live knockouts to sick submissions and a pocket-sized personality.
MOST VICIOUS GROUND ASSAULT
Rick Hawn, Bellator 62
It’s quite possible that Bellator 62 lightweight Rick Hawn knocked out Ricardo Tirloni then woke him up three times during his ground ‘n’ pounding of the Brazilian mid way through the first round. The 2004 Olympian initially dropped Tirloni with a straight right then pounced into Tirloni’s guard, administering around seven further blows – switching the lights on and off a trio of times all inside a blisteringly fast two seconds. Yeah, we had to pick our jaws up off the floor too.
BEST SUBMISSION
Lloyd Woodard, Bellator 62
Possibly a man who should have been on our ‘Top 5 Nicknames’ list (see page 122), Lloyd ‘Cupcake’ Woodard managed to sneak out of semi-obscurity to fracture Patricky ‘Pitbull’ Freire’s arm with a kimura at Bellator 62 in March. The underdog to the ferocious young Brazilian, Woodard exchanged near knock downs and slick sweeps with his foe in their lightweight tournament quarter-final. Cupcake then engaged in a brief war of reversals with Freire after locking up the kimura around 90 seconds into the second round, which finally ended in a slight jolt in Pitbull’s left arm and a subsequent tap.
ACCIDENTALLY ON PURPOSE
James Vick, Ultimate Fighter Live: Episode 2
Experience doesn’t always trump fortune, as The Ultimate Fighter series often proves (see Amir Sadollah winning season seven with his first pro fight). Despite Daron Cruickshank’s stand-up controlling most of the bout’s 136 seconds, a James Vick kick became a knockout knee when Cruickshank dropped for a takedown directly into Vick’s oncoming limb. The 10-2 Cruickshank was out immediately thanks to the blow from Team Cruz’s Vick, whose 4-0 record only began in June last year.
TAKE A KNEE
Brian Rogers, Bellator 61
Walk-off knockouts are obviously the best kind of knockouts ever. You’re so sure you’ve just asserted your dominance over another person you can just strut away with little more than a cursory glance to confirm their body and their senses have temporarily parted ways. Wanderlei Silva protégé Vitor Vianna was a victim of one at Bellator 61. Meeting Brian Rogers in the quarter-finals of Bellator’s season six middleweight tourney, a crunching Rogers right cross rocked the BJJ phenom, who was consequently encouraged all the way to unconsciousness with no less than a flying knee from Rogers too. Certain he’d caught his prey, ‘The Predator’ didn’t follow up with punches, only a victory lap around the cage. Emphatic.
CAN YOU SEE ME NOW?
Ian McCall, UFC on FX 2
No stock was raised higher at UFC on FX 2 in March than that of Ian McCall and his steampunk mustache. The former Tachi Palace Fights 125lb champ fought tooth and nail with Demetrious Johnson in the opening round of the UFC flyweight tournament, screaming out to the crowd as he battered ‘Mighty Mouse’ from back mount to put a stamp on the third stanza. And ‘Uncle Creepy’ might have had another five-minute overtime round to further that impression had a tabulation error not meant the bout was ruled a decision win for Johnson instead of the correct majority draw. From WEC dropout to hot UFC commodity.
FRANKLY, MY DEAR, THAT’S DISGUSTING
Ronda Rousey, Strikeforce: Tate vs Rousey
Judoka Ronda Rousey took the biscuit in the ‘MMA’s most gruesome armbar’ sweepstakes during her bad-blood affair opposite Miesha Tate in the main event of Strikeforce: Tate vs Rousey. A 2008 Olympic bronze medallist in judo, ‘Rowdy’ wrenched away rival Tate’s Strikeforce women’s bantamweight title by grotesquely torquing ‘Takedown’s elbow joint more or less back on itself when the former champ failed to submit to the initial hold. Utterly stomach-turning, it makes for Rousey’s fifth pro win, all via armbar. Credit to Tate, however, who waited until the very end to tap.
BEST FINISH
Justin Lawrence, The Ultimate Fighter Live: Episode 3
Back in the day, a scrap between members of Brazil’s teams of Black House and Chute Boxe would have got MMA die-hards disproportionately excited indeed. And while neither stable is now what it was in their Pride golden days, TUF Live still had an old-school new-school matchup of sorts in young Black House prodigy Justin Lawrence (Team Cruz) squaring off with former Chute Boxe man Cristiano Marcello (Team Faber). With a huge round-two lunging left haymaker, Lawrence leveled Marcello with such force he didn’t need to follow-up on the Brazilian now limp on the canvas perimeter. Stunning to say the least.
BIGGEST KNOCKOUT
Pat Curran, Bellator 60
It’s incredibly hard to have a more impressive 24 months than Pat Curran has enjoyed. By knocking out London 2012 Olympic wrestling hopeful Joe Warren at Bellator 60 in March with a furious onslaught of strikes to become the new Bellator featherweight champion, he established a two-year 7-1 tear and cemented himself as a top-10 featherweight. The 24-year-old only lost to lightweight standout Eddie Alvarez during a stint where he defeated UFC veteran Roger Huerta, former Sengoku champ Marlon Sandro, FO World MMA Awards winner Toby Imada and the hotly tipped Ronnie Mann, amongst others. Some people have all the fun.
