Issue 038
June 2008
Cage Warriors
Enter the Rough House 6
19 April 2008, Nottingham
Dan ‘The Outlaw’ Hardy gave the perfect response to his transatlantic detractors with a third round TKO of American Chad Reiner. The Nottingham-born fighter kept the welterweight title on British soil after stuffing numerous takedown attempts and eventually putting ‘The Grinder’ to the canvas with a right hand before finishing the fight with ground and pound.
The 25-year-old paid tribute to an opponent who took a lot of punishment without taking a backward step, but said the win gave him great pleasure after the abuse dished out by Reiner’s friends on the Internet. The partisan home crowd were given a scare in the first few seconds of the fight when Reiner got Hardy to the floor and almost secured a rear naked choke and then a guillotine, but the Team Rough House fighter stayed calm to escape from both submission attempts.
Although Hardy was docked a point for grabbing the fence, he ended the round on a high when he dropped Reiner with a knee ten seconds left, but ran out of time as he tried to follow up. A visibly drained Reiner was in trouble again in the third and after landing some crisp punches, Hardy threw a right that downed his opponent and allowed him to ground and pound his way to victory, delighting his home support.
Another Rough House fighter with cause to celebrate was ‘Judo’ Jim Wallhead, who outboxed Irish fighter Tom Haddock and stopped him with ground and pound in the second round. The night ended in disappointment for fan-favourite Ian Butlin, whose comeback after a 10-month absence from the cage was ended just 25 seconds into the first when he was caught with a heel hook by Cengiz Dana.
French lightweight Bendy Casmir did enough in rounds one and two to take a majority decision victory over Rough House standout Andre Winner, despite a third-round rally by Winner, when he eventually solved Casmir’s takedown and landed some vicious ground and pound, only to lose on the score cards.
Strike & Submit 6
13 April 2008, Gateshead
Headlining this event was the final of a winner takes all four-man middleweight tournament. Sweden’s Assan Njie defeated Rodney Moore on points to face Alex Makhonin (who submitted John Donnely via RNC in his first bout) in the final.
Following a slow start, Njie caught Makhonin in a tight guillotine choke submitting the skilled kickboxer inside the first round to claim the Strike & Submit middleweight title and the £1000 cash prize. The runner up, who was making his pro debut, did himself proud – with such little experience, Makhonin certainly didn’t look out of place in the cage, surviving a knockdown in his first fight before coming back with his tapout win.
Lightweight prospect Ross Pearson continued his winning ways by defeating one of the UK’s most infamous and entertaining journeymen, Sami Berik. In just under a minute of mayhem, Pearson managed to get the take down and claim the vacant belt via triangle submission.
Featherweights Tyrone Smith and Sebastian Grabarak went back and fore for three torrid rounds with the local fighter Grabarak walking away with a very close split decision win. Fighter of the night award went to semi pro welterweight winner Matt Inman. The sometime-Thai boxer beat Tadas Andriussaitis with a great display of Muay Thai striking and an impressive takedown defence. Rob ‘Robocop’ Mills held onto his semi pro middleweight title, and hinted at a possible move to the pro ranks sometime in the near future.
In other action local fighter Dave Wilson stopped his opponent Karl Roche with a keylock in under a minute while Dave Daughbney beat Dave Kelly of Ireland with a second round TKO due to ground and pound from mount.
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