Fighters Only

Issue 011

March 2006

Wembley Conference Centre, Dec 3rd 2005

By Hywel Teague, photos by Kjetil Kausland

It's not everyday you see a bona fide legend in person, let alone in action. Fans from around Europe came to see the man they call The Phenom, Vitor Belfort, grace the Cage Rage octagon. Backed by some of the hottest names in MMA today, it's no wonder that Cage Rage enjoyed a sell-out show for the first time since Lee Murray met Anderson Silva, On top of this, our own legend, Ian ‘The Machine’ Freeman was making his Cage Rage debut as presenter and TV host.

When writing event reports, I try to do them as close to them taking place as possible, and I advise my writers to do the same. There are a few reasons for this, but I have to admit I totally disregarded my own advice in the case of the latest Cage Rage.

Writing a report needs to be done quickly because, and this is certainly the case for me as I’ve been hit in the head so many times, memory can fail you. Accuracy is paramount to any good report, but then so is insight, and every once in a while you have to let things sink in before you can write about them.

This is exactly the case with the last Cage Rage. A flood of hastily written (and some barely readable) accounts of the show appeared on various news websites, but reading through them left me shaking my head. They were all missing the point. Cage Rage 14 was a great show, there is no doubt about it. But…

When you put a star like Vitor Belfort (Brazil, 12-6-0) in a promotion any degree smaller than Pride or UFC, it seems like a monumental event. In fairness, it is a monumental event, especially for UK MMA, that a star of his magnitude makes it to our shores. So what if, depending on his mood, he burns brightly or barely flickers? Who cares if he lost his last three fights in wholly uninspiring performances? This is the guy who destroyed Wanderlei Silva in seconds, the guy who has been toe-to-toe with the best Light Heavyweights the UFC has to offer. Yet predictably, here is another ‘but’…

In all honesty, who was he fighting? A Frenchman with a patchy record, no notable wins on his resume (save one heavily tattooed Chute Boxe fighter) and a suspect chin. OK, imagine for a second you’re the promoter of Cage Rage. You’ve achieved the unthinkable by signing one of the most recognised names in the business, but now you’ve got to find some poor sap to fight him. Here’s where it becomes clear. Antony Rea (France, 9-4-0) probably couldn’t believe his luck when he got a call offering him the biggest fight of his life, and I’m sure that those in the Cage Rage offices couldn’t believe theirs when he accepted.

So the match was made, and Cage Rage had the biggest ever buzz around an upcoming event. Fans across the world were suddenly clamouring to see what this promotion was all about. Regardless of his flaky nature, Vitor is still one of the biggest fan favourites, and there is no doubt eyes all over the globe would be firmly upon his impending performance in that small corner of North London.

And what a performance it was. Yes, the hype was deserved. Yes, we got our money’s worth. But, this wasn’t the ‘old’ Vitor. No, this was something else. This was a new, matured Vitor, one who showed patience, class and a dazzling array of techniques. From the moment the bell rang, Rea had nothing for him.

Patiently stalking Rea, Belfort held those ridiculously fast hands back, obviously not keen on eating any wild counter shots from the heavy-handed Frenchman (who had prepared with K1 superstar Jerome LeBanner for this fight). When he did let them go, they came in dizzying bursts, combinations so fast even the sharpest photographers had trouble keeping up. Things weren’t exactly going Rea’s way, especially when Vitor sunk in a deep guillotine choke that the Frenchman barely escaped.

From his closed guard, Vitor gave us a taste of his long-disputed ground game. While arguments raged over whether he really did deserve his BJJ black belt, Rea was desperately fighting off a slick omoplata, than a triangle. There is no doubt about it, regardless of his submission loss to Overeem, Belfort does have a ground game.

In the second round, Rea knew he needed to up the pace, as until now he had been stuck on the end of punches and kicks that while not damaging, gave him nothing. Though he came out with gusto, he was fighting a shadow. Belfort’s performance began to eclipse him totally, and sharp, stinging combinations began to sneak their way through his guard, along with knees and high kicks. Sure, he would rally with the occasional kick or hook of his own, but Belfort wasn’t staying still long enough to get hit, and suddenly Rea was in trouble.

A cut had opened over Rea’s right eye, and he knew that unless he tried something, it would only get bigger and he’d lose via TKO. The blood was streaming into and around his eye, and while still small, the cut would force a stoppage from any ringside doctor. He mounted an attack, throwing a long straight right that Vitor easily side stepped. Throwing another, Rea extended himself that little bit too far, and Vitor crashed a rear uppercut from his southpaw stance into his chin, dropping Rea to his hands and knees. The referee jumped in before Belfort could follow it up, and the Brazilian shouted in joy at his first win since January 2004.

On paper, you’d expect Curtis Stout (USA, 10-6-1) to have nothing less than an all-out war with someone like Cage Rage World Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva. Silva (Brazil, 13-3-0) seemed the better fighter when comparing records, but it was Stout who had just notched up three highlight performances in his last three outings.

Stout has a patchy record and until finding his feet in Cage Rage, had always been a bit up and down. The British water must have agreed with him, because whenever he came here, he was knocking people out left and right. Or maybe it was a case of him being given, and I hesitate over this phrase, easy fights.

First off, no one gets easy fights. Regardless of who you are, everyone you ever face is a threat, but sometimes some fights offered are more appealing than others. Fights against people who are less experienced than you, whose style matches well against your own, those who are smaller. All of the above reasons meant Curtis had suddenly found his record somewhat inflated. People thought they saw something special, and they started believing the hype.

One person taking no notice was Silva. He had only fought once this year before he met Stout, and that was against Jorge Rivera (also in the Cage Rage octagon). Lets be honest, Silva wouldn’t have been bothered by Stout’s record. The ex-Chute Boxe fighter has only three losses on his resume, two of those by tap out, and Curtis isn’t exactly known for his submission game. Since 2000, Anderson has been around the world fighting (and beating) some of the biggest names in the business. Hayato Sakurai, Carlos Newton, Jeremy Horn and Lee Murray had all tasted defeat at his hands and Silva came into this contest with no intention of being beaten.

Predictably, the fight started with the two standing, and everyone was eager to see who would engage first (meaning, everyone wanted to see who was going down first). Stout opened with some leg kicks that barely registered with Silva, and for a moment, his eyes seemed to lose focus in that sleepy manner reptiles employ before a strike. Intense yet utterly detached, his expression was devoid of any intention, and then it came. Like a cowboy cracking a bullwhip, his left leg shot out in an arc that saw his shin drive into the covering arms of Stout. Grimacing with effort, Silva’s face now let us in on his really being, that of a predator launching his first strike.

From here, a beautiful animalistic nature took over the fight. Silva came alive and transformed into something else, a part of his true self that exists only for these moments. He struck with precision, making Stout look clumsy in returning. He easily took down the American and flowed from position to submission attempt with a Zen-like calm, but then, he changed again.

Now, he became truly ferocious in his attack, hitting Stout at all times. Stout tried to defend the blows from his back, but Silva controlled his guard and landed shot after shot. They ended up near the fence, and seizing an opening, Silva unleashed a series of rights that cut through Stout’s defences and trapped him against the mesh. Three, four, five shots went in, and Stout no longer had his hands up to even cover his head. The referee jumped in as quickly as he could, but Silva had put still more blows in by this time, until he was pushed off by the third man.

There was only one second left in the round when the referee declared the contest over, and you might wonder had he let it continue whether Stout could have recovered and come back in the second round. The answer is a firm no, as a good five minutes passed before Stout was on his feet again after receiving medical attention.

The main card saw UFC exile Matt Lindland meet Chute Boxe representative Schembri in a predictably boring match that had the saving grace of a surprising finish. Everyone knew that Schembri would pull guard, and everyone knew that Lindland would try to ground and pound him, but nobody expected Matt to finish him.

Mark Weir scored another lightning-fast KO, this time over a late replacement for Phil Baroni, Akira Shoji. Way overmatched and hideously out-of-shape, Akira Shoji succumbed to a left high kick that almost took his head off. Alex Reid and Daijiro Matsui battled it out in a back and fore match that was ruled a somewhat controversial draw. The crowd were extremely vocal in their disapproval of the decision, getting behind the Japanese fighter instead of the hometown guy.

Sol Gilbert was doing OK against Xavier Foupa-Poukam until he got soccer-kicked in the face while down, which saw him win by an unenviable DQ. Dropping to welterweight for the first time Ross Mason clinically destroyed Darren Guisha in a one-sided beating, and Paul Daley showed an until-now unseen side of his game by out-wrestling the Dutchman Joey Van Wanrooij for a unanimous decision.