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Live Event Reports
7/14 Cage Rage 21 Recap of ProElite.com Webcast with Star Ratings for the Fights By Randy Rowles, MMATorch Columnist
Jul 14, 2007 - 6:52:00 PM
CAGE RAGE 22: HARD AS HELL was webcast live on www.ProElite.com on Saturday. Here's a short recap of the show.
I missed the first 2 fights. Tom Watson won a decision over Ed Smith, and Michael Johnson broken Damien Riccio's nose. Riccio threw in the towel after the second round.
Probably didn't miss a whole lot.
The first fight I saw was Dean Bray vs. Ross Pointon. Solid first round, with Pointon taking the lead early, but Bray caught on late in the round. Throughout the fight, Pointon had tried several guillotines, which the announcers no-sold as being effective. Around the fourth try or so, Bray tapped out to a guillotine just as the annoucers were talking about how Pointon was wasting his energy. It was as much a neck crank, as a guillotine, but nevertheless Ross Pointon finally got a win! Yeah! Anticlimactic finish, though. (**)
Marius Zaromskis pretty much had his way with Ross Mason. Mason was more than willing to take a beating, though, and did get some licks in himself. In the third round, Mason was taunting Zaromskis, standing there with his hands down, which he had done several times in the fight, so finally Zaromskis came up the middle with a flying knee that flat KO'd Mason. Spectacular finish. Zaromskis looked great. Really good fight. (**+)
Robbie Olivier won a boring decision over Ronnie Mann, which is odd considering the two are featherweights. These guys worked hard to dispel the notion that all light fighters are exciting. Granted, Mann is real young (19) and on the big stage for the first time, so his tentativeness was understandable. Afterwards, Olivier admitted that he had to fight boring to win this one, because of how good Mann is. Mann had a dull performance here, but you can just tell he has a bright future. (**-)
James McSweeney made short work of the outclassed Mark Buchanan. It's going to be fun to see how McSweeney matches up against some of the real Cage Rage heavyweights. (*)
Another boring decision, saw Paul Cahoon go over Mark Epstein. Really I shouldn't rate this one because I was literally falling asleep, maybe I missed something.
Now, time to wake up for the Main Card.
Edson Drago vs. Gary Turner. Great back-and-forth first round. Drago took the round, but was penalized a point for elbowing Turner to the head on the ground, so it was even going into the second. Another close round, but less action as Drago's offense slowed because he was tired. Both fighters were cut above the eye. At the end of the second, Drago threw in the towel because of his eye, but likely also because of his exhaustion. Smiler wins! (**)
Mario Sperry made short work of Lee Hasdell in the legends fight. Sperry wanted no part of standing up with a world class kickboxer. So, he took him down and tapped him out. (*)
Neil Grove (0-0) vs. James Thompson (put a whoopin' on Don Frye). It was supposed to be Cabbage Correira, then it was Kimo, but it ended up being Neil Grove. The late replacement, unbelievably, was actually bigger than Thompson. That's right, Colossus was the small man in this fight. The monstrous karate fighter Neil Grove (who kind of looks like a nicer version of the WWE's Snitsky) landed a HUGE punch that knocked Thompson out cold in 10 seconds. Grove pounced on the lifeless Thompson and landed two more shots, before the ref came to the rescue. Grove is an absolute animal and a giant man. Wow. Instant superstar. (*+)
In the trend of the night, Herb Dean threw in the towel after the first round, saying he couldn't see out of his right eye. Well, can you see out of your left? The crowd was none too happy, because the eyeball was clearly still in the socket. Not a great fight. I would have loved to have seen Dean get his ass kicked a bit more by Deathwish. Dave Legeno has now brought his record up to 4-3, over .500 for the first time, after starting his career 0-3. In all seriousness, since Herb Dean is one of the top referees in the world, if he's got any problem with his eye and doesn't want to continue, he is smart to just take the loss, and not risk further injury that could jeopardize his real career. Given his referee status, he'll always be a good novelty fighter. (*)
Finally, the main event. I picked Butterbean, but really I didn't think he could actually win. I just hoped. Tengiz Tedoradze did choose to stand and strike with Butterbean. He was actually dominating the stand-up, by jabbing and stepping back, out of range of the short-armed Butterean. Tedoradze got a little too confident though, which is part of Buttbean's gameplan (to take a little punishment to lull his opponent into a false sense of confidence), and Butterbean caught Tedoradze with a big shot that sent him to the canvas. Butterbean pounced, but he is just such a large man, he loses positioning easily, and Tedoradze was able to scramble. Butterbean was rolling around like a walrus, and Tedoradze managed to get back up, pin Butterbean down and unload until the ref stopped the fight. Tedoradze was rocked hard, but Butterbean was just not able to finish. (*+)
Overall, not a great show really, but certainly not the worst. A lot of sizzle, but no steak. Just too many sideshow fights. A couple of these fights are okay and can be fun, but then you need some solid fights, too. There really weren't any solid fights. The best fight wasn't even on the main card.
I'd love to see Butterbean matched up against Neil Grove next. How crazy would that fight look?
KO OF THE NIGHT: Neil Grove
SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT: Mario Sperry
FIGHT OF THE NIGHT: Mario Zaromskis vs. Ross Mason
