Fighters Only

Issue 011

March 2006

November 26^th,Manaus, Brazil

Words: Denis Martins. Photos: Levy Ribeiro

When the Jungle Fight was created back in 2003, the intention of the promoter Wallid Ismail was to turn the attention of the world to the preservation of the Amazon Forest. At this fifth edition of Jungle Fight, the event focused on the rich history of the Amazon.

Centuries ago, an Indian warrior named Ajuricaba battled for the freedom of his people from the European colonists. The Indian warrior preferred to kill himself than be enslaved, and this great story evoked the warrior's spirit in the 18 fighters scheduled for this instalment of Jungle Fight.

The presence of the politician Artur Virgilio Netto, who paid homage to the master Carlson Gracie during an intermission, was a high point of the night. It seems that Jungle Fight is the only MMA promotion in Brazil with a high enough profile to capture the attention of political officials such as Senator Netto.

Fights

Vale Tudo legend Jose "Pele" Landi-Johns expected an easy time in the main event of the night, but his opponent, the tough and unknown Alexander Shlemenko of Russia, had some surprises in store for the Brazilian. The total dominance of Pele in round one gave everyone the idea that it would be a bad night for Shlemenko. Little by little, he was sinking under as Pele launched his attacks. After an absolutely dominant performance in round one, Pele allowed his game to loosen up in the second and third. Shlemenko threw some impressive spinning-kicks to catch Pele off guard and swing the momentum of the fight a bit, but Pele got back to business and did what he had to do to secure the unanimous, if close, decision.

The night's most impressive display of striking was between two heavily tattooed guys in the form of Evangelista ‘Cyborg’ Santos and Michal Materla. Cyborg landed punches and kicks in his usual aggressive fashion upon the overmatched Polish fighter Michal Materla. The referee decided that Materla couldn't defend himself from Cyborg’s strikes in the second round as Santos controlled him from side mount.

Jungle Fight's protégé fighter Fredson Paixao has been mauling whoever they put in front of him. This time Paixao took on the Serbian fighter Miljan Djurasinovic. In the early stages of the fight, Paixao clinched Djurasinovic and took the fight to the ground. Paixao hammered Djurasinovic's face, who survived to get back to his feet. Paixao repeated his game and put Djurasinovic on the ground, smashing his face with several punches until he eventually found his opening and finished the contest by rear naked choke in the first round.

Edson Draggo impressed everyone when he knocked out Helio Dipp with a left cross which connected with Dipp's chin. Dipp has been a hot commodity in Brazil of late, so this was a big win, but Draggo didn't make many fans with the victory. Draggo kept striking the unconscious Dipp until several people had to drag him off his fallen foe. The crowd were unhappy that Draggo had spoiled the fight with his negative actions.

The determined and very experienced submission fighter "Cacareco" was up against Chute Boxe representative Julio Cesar Jamanta. The bell rang and Cacareco landed a left-hand strike, immediately knocking Jamanta down. Cacareco opened up with a stream of aggressive punches from the mount that forced Jamanta to try to escape, allowing Cacareco to apply a guillotine choke only 40 seconds into the fight.

The Serbian fighter Miodrag ‘Pele’ Petkovich lived up to his nickname (he shares it with the king of soccer, Edson Arantes do Nascimento) against Alessandro Coelho by kicking his opponent’s legs. Coelho rocked Petkovich badly in the first round, but in round two Petkovich kicked a staggering Coelho, who was cornered and got caught in a guillotine choke.

Lightweights from Nova Uniao and RFT clashed in the fight number three; Jose Aldo Jr and Luciano Azevedo had the perfect combination of weapons to engage in some

first-class combat. Azevedo worked with takedown attempts, but was frustrated by Nova Uniao's Aldo’s sprawl work and Muay Thai combinations. When the second round started the number one pupil of the former Shooto-ranked fighter Marcio Cromado insisted once again on attempting to takedown Aldo Jr, and after much trouble he finally put him on the canvas. From there,

Azevedo went to the mount and took back control, choking an amazed Aldo Jr in round two.

Carlson Team's Ivan ‘Batman’ Jorge didn't need to expend much effort to earn a unanimous decision over another local fighter, Andrius Tigrao. Batman, fighting with a broken hand, used his better takedown skills to control Tigrao during the three rounds. The impression was that if Batman didn't have the problem with his right hand, he would have mauled and finish Tigrao in the first round.

Beto Ninja, fighting in his home, choked the up and comer Sandro Reny of Pele Team. More was expected from Reny, who didn't take advantage of the fact that Ninja gassed out early in round two. It turned out that the ground battle was a problem for Reny, who got choked out.