Next MMA Fighter

My apologies to you all for not getting this up sooner: My laptop died over the weekend, and I’ve been writing it up in 10-minute windows at work over the last three days.

I just want to say a few words about the production value of this show. The Sportfight X guys did an outstanding job, with high production values and good entertainment. The only complaint I’d offer was the lack of raked/stadium seating for the folks sitting further back, but other than that the event was top-notch throughout. The swearing in of four new air force recruits was pretty cool, in particular. And the woman who sang the national anthem? Damn, what a voice.

But I know you guys aren’t here to read about the singing and dancing during intermissions, even if it was all pretty cool, so I’ll get to the fighting.

This event had seven fights on the card, the first one an advanced amateur bout and the other six all professional matches.

185 lbs | Jeremy Wallace vs. Hamza Mutelib | Mutelib by Submission (armbar) @ 2:03 of R1

From the beginning of this short fight, Mutelib was the clear aggressor, pushing forward hard and making life difficult for his opponent. About 25 seconds into the match, he stuck in a beautiful hip throw, landing cleanly in side control. During that exchange, though from my angle I couldn’t quite be sure, it looked like the fighters clashed heads pretty hard, yet it didn’t seem to slow either man down. About a minute later, Mutelib was in full mount, well in control of this fight, and he pulled off an armbar at about 1:50, locking it in quickly for the victory at 2:03 in the first round.

Overall, this was a strong fight for both guys, but particularly for Mutelib, who was able to show off his superior ground game.

170 lbs | Dhiego Lima vs. Kenny Moss | Lima by Submission (triangle) @ 4:28 of R1

Lima landed a pretty heavy right almost out of the gate, after a brief clinch against the cage, but if the strike proved one thing, it’s that Moss has a great chin. These guys are both scrappers, and they put on a great show. In fact, I think Moss actually wanted to get hit. Throughout the first round, both threw multiple flurries of strikes, the action almost constant, and neither showed any sign of slowing down.

Around 2:30, Moss tried a spinning right hook kick to Lima’s head, but the kick went wide and Lima came back with a hard combo, including a nasty lead-leg roundhouse to Moss’s face. Moss finally seemed a little dazed by that one, but he quickly recovered; did I mention this kid has a concrete chin?

Just a bit over the 4:00 mark, Moss got Lima’s back as they maneuvered against the cage and then tried a suplex, but Lima managed to twist in the air and seemed to take the throw in stride. By 4:25, he showed decent jiu-jitsu and caught Moss in a triangle choke, cinching it for the win at 4:28 in round 1.

Great effort from both of these guys; I’d look forward to watching either of them fight again.

145 lbs | Byron Bloodworth vs. Jarall Bowman | Bloodworth by Submission (triangle) @ 4:23 of R1

These guys spent a while circling before the action really started, but once it did they both put on a good show. Around 1:20, Bloodworth caught a kick by Bowman and shot cleanly into a single-leg takedown, but showed some classic wrestling technique by hefting Bowman up and slamming him down hard. Like, probably heard clearly in the next building hard. Bowman kept his wits, though, and almost caught Bloodworth in a guillotine from the bottom, but after struggling with it for a while just wasn’t able to sink it in.

By 2:30 they were back on their feet, still clinching and looking for the takedown, but this time Bowman took the initiative. From the bottom, Bloodworth showed off his rubber guard, but wasn’t able to catch Bowman in his gogoplata attempt. However, by 3:59 he had shifted to a triangle choke, the second of the night in just three short matches, and locked this match up to win by submission at 4:22 in the first round.

Again, great fight from both guys, and congratulations to Byron Bloodworth for defeating a tough opponent.

155 lbs | Frank Millsap vs. Matt Covan | Millsap by TKO (verbal tapout, strikes) @ 3:23 in of R1

Coran opened up with some solid-looking leg kicks, but for the most part things moved a little slowly here when compared to the previous three fights. The pace was a bit surprising given the weight class, in fact, where guys are usually throwing wallops around like caffeine-crazed Energizer bunnies on speed.

Overall, I would have given the point game to Millsap by a hair, but the fight didn’t go that far. Millsap landed a solid flurry putting Covan against the fence, following up with a vicious flying knee (well, more of a hopping knee, but it worked), battering Covan into submission by blunt force trauma delivered via the knuckles and the patella. At 3:23, the ref called the fight after the fight had left Covan, who called for someone, anyone to stop the carnage.

185 lbs | Warren Thompson vs. David Vitkay | Vitkay by Submission (RNC) @ 3:38 of R2

This was the first fight of the night to make it out of the first round, and it was also something of an upset, at least for us at Nextmmafighter.com. That’s not to say I think Vitkay is a weak fighter, not at all, but we definitely had Thompson picked to take this one home.

To his credit, though, Vitkay came into this fight looking better and sharper than I had seen him in any of his previous matches in this fight series. His cardio was greatly improved, and he just seemed to really have the mental edge coming in. In fact, he was playing mind games with Thompson from the time they came forward for the ref’s pre-fight conflab. And it worked pretty damn well.

At about 1:15 in the first round Vitkay caught Thompson with a beautiful body slam, almost a pile driver, which by all rights should have deviated Thompson’s cranium. He went immediately into Thompson’s guard, and while Thompson went for a triangle choke, Vitkay muscled his way out of the submission handily. Vitkay kept the pressure on for the remainder of the round, holding the top position and landing some decent shots. The round was clearly his.

In round 2, Vitkay revealed what must have been his game-plan by bringing Thompson down again almost immediately, keeping the fight on the ground. He seemed a little tired this round, or was just being careful, because the action was a bit less intense from the top, but he nonetheless controlled Thompson for about 3 minutes, finally getting the back and winning by rear naked choke at 3:39 in the second round.

Great match, and a hearty “cheers” to Vitkay for impressing me with this performance.

Note: After the fight, I saw Thompson walking around with what looked like a messed-up shoulder; didn’t get a chance to ask him how it happened, but I’m thinking maybe the pile driver-esque takedown early in round 1 might have been the culprit? That might explain why Vitkay so easily managed the ground game for most of the fight.

145 lbs | Diego Saraiva vs. Dee Jay Fuentes | Saraiva by Unanimous Decision (30-27)

This was the first fight of the night to go the full three rounds, and it absolutely lived up to what I expect from two good 145-pound fighters: fast and furious. Saraiva showed some good boxing and muay thai, keeping up the pace and firing off some beautiful combinations throughout the fight. Fuentes is no slouch at the striking game either, with decent hands and some nice high kicks — a bit more flash than function, maybe, but always entertaining for the crowd.

For the first few minutes in round 1, the fight stayed on the feet, with both guys landing some glancing shots. Finally, around 2:44, Saraiva landed a nice inside knee in the clinch, the first really telling blow of the fight, but Fuentes recovered quickly. At 3:09, Saraiva took it to the ground, but they scrambled and were soon back on their feet. Very soon thereafter, Fuentes took a hard knee to the groin and the fight was paused.

Once he signaled that he was good to go, the fight recommenced, and Saraiva took the lead right away, landing a nice combination to the body and head, followed by a vicious roundhouse kick to Fuentes’ upper thigh. Lesson learned? Fuentes is a tough kid, taking it all in stride. Finally, just about 10 seconds before the bell, Saraiva caught a single leg and brought the fight to the ground, but didn’t have time to really do anything more before the round ended.

In round 2, the fight went to the ground quickly, Saraiva getting the takedown and landing in full mount. He started pounding, but Fuentes weathered the storm pretty well. At 1:15, Saraiva got Fuentes’ back, but Fuentes recovered and got back around, bringing Saraiva into his guard. Saraiva seemed okay with that, though, dropping some wicked fists and elbows for a time. By 3:56, things had slowed, and the ref stood the two up for inactivity. The remainder of the round was a slower match, with some circling and a few combos thrown on both sides, but little of consequence landing.

Going into round 3, Saraiva had the edge in the standup striking game again, but only barely. At 0:49, I guess feeling that he didn’t want to wage a stand-up point battle, he shot under Fuentes’ punch and took the fight to the ground again. From there, he rained some more punishment from the top, though a bit more slowly and with less impact than in the second round. By 3:24, he managed to get Fuentes’ back again, and after some more striking, maneuvered himself into a rear triangle from the top; that’s a hard submission to sink in, though, and Fuentes fought through till the bell.

So, after a good three-round match, Saraiva had bested Fuentes in all three rounds, though by a narrow margin, and took the win by unanimous decision. Congratulations to both fighters for an exciting match.

185 lbs | Douglas Lima vs. Cortez Coleman | Lima wins by Split Decision

This fight also went the full three rounds, and it was a much closer affair than the previous fight. While I actually gave the edge to Coleman, scoring 10-9 for him in rounds 2 and 3 (which surprised me, to be honest, since I had Lima winning this hands down coming into the fight), the judges saw it differently and gave Lima the win. Admittedly, though, it was a close enough fight that it really could have gone either way, and both fighters put on an outstanding performance.

Both fighters came in looking very fit, and given the $10,000 prize, I’d have been surprised to find it any other way. Coleman looked far leaner than I recalled him being the last time I saw him fight. Then again, you’d want to train damn hard for the title in a fight series too, especially when that kind of money is on the line, right?

Anyway, both guys looked strong in the clinch early in round 1. Lima started the scoring with a takedown about 20 seconds into the round, but they were soon back on their feet. A short while later, Coleman tried a throw, but Lima capably reversed it; however, in the scramble, Coleman still ended up on top in Lima’s guard. By 1:53, Lima had worked his way back up to his feet, and they proceeded to clinch, shoving each other around and showing that both men had good cage control. For the most part, this part of the round was indecisive. At 2:53, Lima pulled of a beautiful body slam, but Coleman quickly got back to his feet. Overall, Coleman seemed slightly stronger, but Lima had the edge in speed and outpointed his opponent this round.

In round 2, they traded some powerful shots for the better part of the first minute until, at 0:44, Lima managed another takedown. By 1:15 Lima had taken Coleman’s back; Coleman managed to work around and get Lima into his guard, but Lima then got full mount about half a minute later. That didn’t decide things, though, because by about 3 minutes into the round Coleman turned things around and took the top position. Neither was able to land anything really clean from the top position, though. In all, this was a very close round, but I gave the edge to Coleman due to superior control on the ground; on their feet, the score was about even. I suspect this is where the judges and I differed.

In round 3, we saw a lot more clinching and cage work; Lima got a couple of decent knees in here and there, but nothing landed very cleanly. Following the 2-minute mark, Coleman landed a couple of nice combinations, taking the steam out of Lima, who was starting to look a bit gassed. (This surprised me a bit, actually, as he had seemed pretty much indefatigable in his previous fights I’d seen.) By 3:45, both men were looking pretty tired, and a nice crisp downward elbow from Lima in the clinch was about the only thing worth mentioning in the latter part of the round. In the end, this seemed the easiest round to score: I gave it to Coleman.

Again, this was a great fight from two skilled, strong fighters, and it really could have gone either way. Coleman performed better than I had seen him, and I just couldn’t be sure which way the judges would go in the final analysis. Certainly neither man should be disappointed in his performance during this bout.

So, that wraps it up. In all, this was one of the best nights of fights I’ve seen in Atlanta, and I congratulate everyone involved on the fighters’ side and the promoters’. Can’t wait till the next one!