Issue 064

July 2010

With so many events taking place around the world it’s impossible to feature them all, but here is our selection of outstanding moments from recent action

Most Decisive Finish

It was an eventful and memorable night for Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua in Montreal. The Brazilian light heavyweight ace lifted the 205lb title at the end of the contest, and will go down in history as the first person to defeat the previously unbeaten Machida. 

Quickest KO

Cuban middleweight scrapper Hector Lombard has been sharpening his skills with the world-renowned American Top Team in Florida. A former Olympic-level judo player, Lombard’s time with ATT has obviously paid off, as he scored a blistering six-second KO over Jay Silva. 

Fastest Title Defense

Brett Rogers is a big, strong dude and gave Fedor Emelianenko a seriously tough time when they met in November 2009, but the Dutch heavyweight Alistair Overeem made Rogers look like a rank amateur with a one-sided beatdown in St Louis. Tossing the burly American to the canvas, he pounded him out in just over three and a half minutes, a total of three minutes quicker than Fedor could. 

Best Entrance

It was a gutsy move, dressing head-to-toe as the famous ‘Rocky’ character Apollo Creed. Complete with Stars and Stripes top hat, Lawlor danced to the ring to the sounds of ‘Living in America’ – a ballsy idea, considering he was fighting in Montreal! There must have been plenty of Rocky fans, because the crowd certainly saw the funny side. 

Best Toe-to-Toe Brawl

It’s like Sam Stout is a machine programmed to never engage in boring fights – this slugfest (they spent 13 of 15 minutes standing up) with Jeremy Stephens marked his fifth fight of the night award. Amazingly, the two lightweights threw a combined total of 671 strikes in only 15 minutes of fighting, with Stephens emerging the winner via split decision. 

Best Jiu-Jitsu

Fighters with the name Gracie haven’t had such a great time of it, lately. First Rolles got smashed inside one round in the UFC, then Renzo fell to Matt Hughes in Abu Dhabi. Roger managed to protect the famous fighting family’s position as the defenders of jiu-jitsu with a textbook display of Gracie jiu-jitsu. The lanky light heavyweight dropped Kevin Randleman with a knee to the chin before putting on a BJJ clinic that left the wrestler counting sheep.  

Best Takedowns

Though a world-class Brazilian jiu-jitsu competitor with multiple world titles in the art to his name, Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza impressed us with his wrestling more than anything else. He dominated tough Greg Jackson-trained Joey Villasenor en route to a comfortable decision by repeatedly taking the veteran fighter down to the canvas. Villasenor’s cage experience kept him out of the way of Jacare’s fearsome submissions, but it couldn’t protect him against the Brazilian’s takedowns.