Fighters Only

Issue 016

August 2006

Coventry Skydome, UK, May 27^th 2006

Report and photographs by Hywel Teague

You’ve got to hand it to the CageWarriors team- they may not be the biggest show in the UK, but they’ve got canny business sense. In case you haven’t noticed, its that time again where even the most self-respecting cosmopolitan member of the country drops any notion of political correctness and reverts to the shameless patriotic behaviour saved especially for the football world cup.

As if it wasn’t enough that it is the fortieth anniversary of that victory over the old enemy, the world cup this year is being held in, yes, Germany. Fitting then, that for the latest in CageWarriors ongoing “UK vs” series, they should choose… Germany. Nice one lads.

Some creative matchmaking also saw two title fights disputed (later to be reduced to just the one, see below for details) as well as a showdown between two of Europe’s hungriest welterweights. A couple of local kickboxers were brought in to beef up the card and satisfy the home crowd, and we saw the very anticlimactic debut of a renowned BJJ black belt.

McVeigh steamrolls to victory

Here is a question for you; when is a bantamweight title match not a bantamweight title match? Answer: When the challenger doesn’t make weight.

Normally this is seen as something scandalous- that a fighter with a shot at the prestigious title of CageWarriors world bantamweight champion should mess up his chances by coming in overweight is almost unthinkable. But that’s exactly what challenger Neil McLeod did in his last chance for redemption against Paul McVeigh.

Before we look at the happenings of that evening, we must travel back three years to the Bracknell Leisure Centre in Berkshire. On a ridiculously warm summer’s evening, two of the UK’s most entertaining fighters put on a show for a baying crowd on the legendary promotion Extreme Brawl. In a three round war, the young upstart Paul McVeigh triumphed over the local favourite and grizzled warhorse Neil McLeod in one of the most dramatic contests in UK MMA history. He stole not only McLeod’s EB title, but also the attention of those with vested interests in the game.

And my have things changed since then. The domestic MMA scene has altered beyond belief, as have the two protagonists of that memorable meeting. McVeigh went on to put out a string of appearances across the weight classes, finally settling into his position as the number one 61kg fighter in the country last year with a resounding win over Phil Harris. McLeod dropped off the radar, with rumours of a chronic back injury keeping him out of action until very recently.

The scene was set for the most anticipated rematch in UK when it was announced that McLeod would return and challenge McVeigh for his CW strap. Of course, his hopes were dashed somewhat by his inability to make weight, but ever the sportsman, McVeigh agreed to take on McLeod in a non-title match. “Neil is the only fighter who has ever made me look bad,” said Paul before the fight. “Even in the fights I’ve lost, I’ve looked good, but Neil was basically kicking my ass until I beat him.” With this in mind, it was clear the Northern Irish fighter would be looking to leave an impression, and in this case it would most likely upon McLeod’s head with his fists.

They started briskly with McLeod showing the cleaner, crisper striking, though he didn’t manage to penetrate McVeigh’s defence. McVeigh, always known as a jiu-jitsu and submission specialist, showed improved stand up ability, a sign of his extensive training with some of Scotland’s top Thai boxers. He was well prepared to deal with McLeod’s razor-sharp high kicks, and dominated the clinch to the extent that McLeod felt forced to pull guard while standing.

This was a gift to McVeigh though, as his ground and pound is something his is noted for, and something he has taken great care to develop. Showing fantastic use of his hips and some deceptive set ups, McVeigh crashed punches through McLeod’s arms to open a big cut over his left eye. A brief stoppage had everyone holding their breath- nobody wanted this one to end on a technicality. Luckily the medics decided McLeod could continue, and McVeigh finished out the round in top position.

The second round saw more spirited trading before McVeigh took the fight to the floor. A textbook guard pass and transition from side control to mount put him exactly where McLeod least wanted him- sat astride his upper body and raining down increasingly vicious punches. Referee Marc Goddard has seen enough 3.27 into the round, and saved McLeod from further punishment by waving the contest off. McVeigh has been clearing up the challengers and no doubt CageWarriors will soon be forced to look further afield for opponents, though McVeigh has recently signed to meet top featherweight Alex Owen in Northern Ireland. It is a shame this contest couldn’t happen on the mainland, as the potential audience could be huge. McVeigh is a crowd pleaser and one of the UK’s brightest young hopes.

Gonzales melts the Ice Viking

The most improbably-named Swedish fighter ever, Deigo Gonzales, ground out a close yet comfortable decision win over Icelandic fighter Arni ‘The Ice Viking’ Isaksson. Defying the general opinion of him being a grappler, Diego stood and traded with the Viking for much of the first round, throwing wild strikes that found their mark more than once. Isaksson was taken out of his rhythm immediately- having undergone intensive preparation for a grappler and primed to employ a sprawl and brawl type strategy, he found himself facing a man who seemed to want to test his stand-up ability.

This was actually quite a clever move on Diego’s part. In his last few fights he has taken the fight to the floor relatively quickly, and was starting to appear somewhat predictable. By making Isaksson think he had a brawler on his hands, he drew the Icelandic fighter away from his game plan and threw a psychological spanner in the works. Just as Isaksson was getting comfortable and was ready to settle into a slugfest, Diego shot in and took him down. Once on the mat, he used his respected ground skills to control Isaksson, passing from side control to mount. He either chose not to or seemed unable to strike from any position though, and did nothing to capitalise on his advantages, merely sitting on Isaksson instead.

The second round saw Gonzales shoot in twice more, taking the fight down both times. Again he managed to pass guard, and this time launched a weak offensive that did nothing to bother Isaksson. A lack of conditioning seemed to be catching up with the Swede, and in the third round he seemed to have run out of gas.

Gonzales managed to pull a takedown out of somewhere but used up his remaining energy in doing so, and this is when Isaksson started to take over. All of a sudden the balance of the fight had shifted, and Isaksson began to find his mark. Gonzales’ scrappy style of striking may have caught Arni off guard in the first round, but by now the striker had worked out how to deal with the Swede, and he began to hunt him down with precision punches and kicks. At least twice Isaksson wrapped his shin around the side of Gonzales’ skull, and credit must go to the Swede for not dropping under such an onslaught. Isaksson stuffed one last takedown in the dying seconds and pressed Diego up against the fence. Stuck on his back and trapped, the referee hovered and seemed moments away from stopping the contest and the barrage of strikes going the Swede’s way was increasing, but the bell rang signalling the end of the contest, leaving Gonzales to pick up the unanimous decision.

Isaksson, winner of the CageWarriors welterweight tournament earlier this year, is still guaranteed a title shot, and will contest it in Texas in August on affiliate promotion FightFest. Doubts now hang over his ability to hang at the top level, but thought must be given to the circumstances under which this fight took place. As it was a three round non-title fight, and usually championship contests are held over five rounds, it is altogether possible that Isaksson could have finished Gonzales within the distance. As it stands, should he win the title in August, he will most likely agree to a rematch to allay any criticism of his position.

UK vs Germany

The CageWarriors team coined a great idea a few years ago by implementing a series of events of which the main card featured a clash between the UK and opposing countries. So far, we’ve had France (twice), Scandinavia and now, in an altogether fitting fashion, Germany was the chosen foe.

Germany has been producing high calibre MMA fighters for some time, but not that many of them have been active in the UK, so it has been difficult for non-dedicated followers of the international scene to follow their exploits.

Headlining the event was Alex Izidrio (a Brazilian, but representing the UK as he is a resident here) defending his lightweight title against the tough Mario Stapel. The action almost kicked off before the fight was even started, as Mario struggled to keep his emotions in check and got in the face of TUF3 contestant and CW light heavyweight champion Mike Bisping! Bisping, who was acting as ringside official, sensibly shrugged off the German’s antics, though was obviously pissed off about the incident! To my knowledge it is the first time a challenger for a title has tried fighting someone other than his opponent!

The fight itself was a painful experience to go through from a spectator’s point of view. Izidrio, reminding me why I despise watching him fight, almost exactly repeated his performance from last November’s Night of Champions, where he frustrated both his opponent and the crowd by being very effective in short bursts but punctuating it with lengthy periods of stalling and inactivity.

If you added up the actual work Izidrio did in the 5 x 5 min rounds, you’d probably only have ended up with one round’s worth of work. The rest of the time he danced around the cage out of range or lay on top of his opponent. Stapel couldn’t deal with him at all, and Izidrio rarely made a move to finish the fight. It’s a bad sign when the highlight of the entire fight was the appearance of a streaker midway through the fifth round!

In the other ‘UK vs’ fights, Peter Angerer pulled an entirely surprising and unexpected submission over Jimmy Wallhead. Under pressure and stuck against the cage in bottom halfguard, Angerer managed to deflect an elbow strike and caught a very tight arm-triangle choke from bottom in a huge upset.

Allan Lee TKO’d Cengiz Dana in a scrappy, uneventful contest, as did Andre Balschmieter with the BJJ black belt Jose ‘Ze’ Marcello. Neither fight was particularly interesting save for the finish, one of which was too late (Marcello was way out and received a few too many follow up blows), and the other which seemed somewhat premature.

Ross Mason utterly destroyed an overmatched Jesse-Bjorn Buckler, stopping him with strikes in only 2.24 of the first round. Is it just me or does Ross Mason seem to get bigger every time I see him? How he makes 77kgs is beyond me.

Daniel Wiechal scored a decision victory over Brazilian import Josenildo Ramarho in a very close fought and entertaining bout. I personally scored it to ‘Loquinha’ due to the numerous close submission attempts and better ground control. Franco de Leonardis slapped a surprised triangle on Mark Spencer, tightening it for the tap only 40 seconds in, making the overall score 4-3 to Germany.

The result may have gone to Germany but the highlights of the evening lay firmly with the native fighters. McVeigh showed pure class in his victory, as did an impressive looking Ross Mason. CageWarriors are planning another ‘Vs’ series in September, with details to follow as we get them.