Fighters Only

Issue 013

May 2006

Catterick, March 4th, 2006

Written by Peter Falkous and photographed by Hywel Teague

With 19 bouts on the fight card this was either going to be great or a show where things could go horribly wrong and was testament to the organisers that consequently everything flowed smoothly. This is Pride And Glory's second outing to Catterick with the first one hailed a massive success in December last year. With the venue opening its doors to over 100 more eager paying punters this event was aiming to be bigger and better than its predecessor. The night kicked off to an exciting start with the legend Ian 'The Machine' Freeman getting the crowd going with his anecdotes before the first fight.

The show, originally billed to be 2 Para versus The Marines (names?), which caused a stir on the internet, was called off until June due to injury.

The Amateur and Semi Pro fights exacerbated the aggression and technique of each round, as if every fighter seemed that they had something more to prove. Notable fights included Alex Wright’s return to the ring after a prolonged absence. The way he fired his knees into Kris Michalowski spelled a quick victory for the Alex as the fight was soon over with a standing Rear Naked Choke after 2.34 mins of Rd1.

The pro fights got underway in what felt like a hurried affair, however when things got going the crowd where not disappointed. Kev Thompson destroyed Neil Hall in 1.04 mins with over powering ground and pound, which only made things, move over quickly for the main fight of the night.

Peter Irvin was coming into this fight after winning his last outing here using his groundwork to clinch victory. However this time Paul 'Hands of Stone' Jenkins flew up from Cardiff to try and add to his huge MMA record. A tough fight for both Irvin and Jenkins as they stepped into the ring.

Three exciting rounds saw both fighters tearing into each other with a great mix of stand up and groundwork. Irvin looked for the takedowns at every opportunity but Jenkins was aware of his game plan and was able to reverse the mount and take control. Due to him being more powerful he kept dropping elbows on Irvin who was working hard to get that submission that would finish the fight. Irvin seemed to be the more aggressive on both stand up and on the ground but Jenkins was more powerful and only used his hands when he knew he was going to connect. Irvin’s clinch in round three looked as if he was just about to get a knockdown with his knees firing in but Jenkins fought back and got some head shots that threw Irvin to the floor, much to the surprise of Irvin and the crowd.

Again in the last minute Irvin got the takedown and started to unleash elbows into the now tiring looking Jenkins until the final bell rang.

Something, which I was glad I didn’t have to do, was the scoring. Both fighters put down everything they had into the fight and both thought they had won. When they announced that Jenkins won on a split decision it seemed like the half the crowd celebrated and the other half felt cheated. Both fighters made a fight that will be remembered, well maybe until the rematch anyway.