...OH, ONE MORE THING - PLEASE BOOKMARK US & VISIT DAILY!
By: Rich Hansen, MMATorch Columnist
WORLD SERIES OF FIGHTING 2
MARCH 23, 2013
LIVE FROM ATLANTIC CITY, NEW JERSEY
- The main card is scheduled to air at 9:30 PM Eastern, but the college hockey game airing before the fights is running late. Hang tight, we'll be going soon!
- Todd Harris introduces the show about seven minutes late. Could be worse. After running down the scheduled fights, Bas Rutten is brought in to the broadcast.
FIGHT ONE: Gesias "JZ" Cavalcante vs. Justin Gaethje (Lightweights)
- Gaethje is a former wrestler at Arizona State, and trains out of Grudge in Colorado.
Round One: Keith Peterson is the referee for this fight. Gaethje lands a big uppercut on JZ, and JZ has a cut on his scalp from that shot. Lots of action early. The ref stops the fight so the cageside physician can check the cut. The bout is over. The cut is deeper than Fiona Apple poetry.
Winner: Justin Gathje by TKO (cut) at 2:27 of Round One.
Star Rating and Final Thoughts: (**) Good action, and I hope they book a rematch in June. too short to amount to much, however. Bas Rutten is making a fool out of himself interviewing Gaethje.
- Harris intervviews WSOF President Ray Sefo. Nothing of note was said, of course. Sefo did announce that the winner of the next may "possibly" face Jon Fitch. Gee, thanks for that. One more reason to not tune in on June 14.
FIGHT TWO: Josh Burkman vs. Aaron Simpson (Welterweights)
Round One: Big Dan is the referee, guaranteeing mayhem. Before the fight started, I heard him say the word shit, but I don't know why. Don't believe me, rewind the tape. Burkman comes out swinging, and missing, with two wild hooks. Burkman misses another, Simpson ducks under and presses Burkman into the fence. Nice knee by Burkman which hit Simpson's jaw flush. Burkman turns, and has Simpson against the cage. Simpson pushes Burkman off, and we're back ot the middle. Would this be the right time to mention that both of these men have tramp stamps? No? Okay, I won't then. Simpson's mouth is a little bloody. Nice leg kick from Simpson. Burkman drops Simpson with a straight right, but Simpson pops back up. That was a well timed punch, which caught Simpson trying to shoot. Burkman is landing heavy now. Overhand right gets Simpson backing up to the cage. Right hand, right knee to the face, and Simpson is on queer street. This fight is over.
Winner: Josh Burkman by KO (knee) at 3:04 of Round One.
Star Rating and Final Thoughts: (**+) That was a hell of a finish by Burkman. Fitch vs. Burkman 2 (possibly) is semi-appealing. When asked about the fight by Bas Rutten, Burkman showed zero interest in it, because he knows how to sell a fight and self-promote.
FIGHT THREE: Paulo Filho vs. Dave Branch (Middleweights)
Round One: Kevin Mulhall is responsible for this fight, and the voices in Filho's head. Branch is working the straight rights early and gets a quick takedown. Half-guard. Filho is busy singing Gregorian chants to the ring card girls. Not really, but would you be shocked if that were true? branch is content to throw right hands to Filho's ribs while Filho tries to create some space. Branch has landed maybe 40 right hands to the ribs, 405 at a time every time. Branch could get mount any time here. Speak of the devil, he got it, and THAT seemed to wake Filho up, and he hip escaped his way to guard. Branch in a wide open guard now. Branch hasn't stopped throwing to the ribs. Filho's head is mashed against the cage. Filho's not doing a damn thing, and he's way better than this. I feel for him. He's just not all here. Branch postures up and throws a knee to the butt. This is embarrassing for a one-time great. 10-9 Branch
Round Two: Branch is teeing off on Filho, who seems to drop to one knee after every punch. Branch follows Filho down and gets half guard. Filho uses the cage to get up, and Branch presses him into the cage. 10 seconds later, Mulhall breaks them apart. Back to the middle of the cage, Branch ducks under a wild punch and takes Filho down in the middle of the cage. Side control, and one of Filho's arm is totally trapped. Branch gets the crucifix and lands about 40 shots to the head. Bas compared it to Jones vs. Matyushenko, but really it's more Nelson vs. Kimbo as far as crucifixes go. Branch is counting out the strikes. He got up to 18 before Filho bucked out. I think Filho is just a tackling dummy. Branch to north south, then back to side control. This is a grappling match. Branch must be the worst offensive fighter of all time, not being able to finish Filho. Filho is absolutely refusing to defend himself. Knees from side control by Branch, and now back to north south. Briefly went for a north south choke, and now back to side control. Branch has a knee on Filho's stomach. We're going to the third. 10-8 Branch Filho should never again be licensed to fight in the States. Next stop, Bellator.
- We come back from commercial and the doctor is looking over Filho's rib cage. The fight continues.
Round Three: Filho is less interested in fighting than I am in watching The Ultimate Fighter. Branch stalking Filho. Filho throws some Capoeira kick, lands on his butt, and Branch jumps on top and begins pounding away. This is embarrassing. You can hear laughter in the crowd. Filho is on his side, smooshed against the cage. I'm not dignifying the rest of this with commentary.
Winner: Dave Branch
Star Rating and Final Thoughts: That was the worst fight I've ever seen.
- During the post-fight interview, Bas asked the crowd if they wanted to see Branch vs. Danilo Villefort and literally not one fan made one peep. Good job of sensing the crowd's disdain coming off of yet another Filho breakdown.
FIGHT FOUR: Marlon Moraes vs. Tyson Nam (Bantamweights)
- Todd Harris introduced Tyson Nam as a Bellator veteran. I. I just. Um, No.
Round One: Keith Peterson drew the assignment for this fight. This should be good. Ding ding. Left hook right low kick by Moraes after a little feel out process. Moraes lands an uppercut and low kick combination. Nam is throwing straight low kicks to the knee in an effort to slow Moraes down a little. Nice right hook to the ear by Moraes. Moraes ducked under and landed a hook to the body. Name lands a right to the body of his own. Moraes has fast hands, and has thrown pretty much every strike known to man so far. Name doesn't know what's coming next. Name with a nice leg kick. Right head kick off the top of Nam's head from Moraes, and Nam is down. Moraes pounces with a couple strikes to the ground, and it's over. Wow! Moraes is a very diverse striker, with really fast striking.
Winner: Marlon Moraes by TKO at 2:55 of Round One.
Star Rating and Final Thoughts: (***-) That was really, really enjoyable. Moraes is excellent, and doesn't rely on just one or two techniques. He has a very bright future.
FIGHT FIVE: Andrei Arlovski vs. Anthony Johnson (Heavyweights)
Round One: Kevin Mulhall is the referee for the main event. This should be good. and is the sole reason I accepted this assignment, for what it's worth. No feeling out. Both guys come out firing. Johnson with a nice straight right. Thank you, Tyrone Spong. Todd Harris just called The Blackzillians one of the premier camps. Arlovski with a big right, and Rumble just misses a left hook that would have ended the fight. Johnson throws a right high kick left high kick combo, neither landed flush. Johnson with a right hand and left head kick. He's certainly the aggressor here. Johnson going to the leg kicks, hoping to get Arlovski to look low. Johnson's feet are slow, but his hands are fast as ever. To that point, Johnson shoots and gets stuffed. Arlovski's back is against the cage with Arlovski pressing his massive frame into him. Mulhall gets bored and breaks them apart with a minute ten left. Arlovski with a nice flurry upon the restart. Johnson catches a body kick and runs Arlovski into the cage. Arlovski turns and has Johnson against the cage now. Stalemate, and broken up after 15 whole seconds. Johnson drops Arlovski with 5 seconds left, and the bell saves Arlovski. The bell rang with Johnson about to ground and pound Arlovski into next week. Good round! 10-9 Johnson
Round Two: Johnson is telegraphing the left head kick. Arlovski ties up with Johnson and lands a knee to the cranium of Johnson. Johnson drives through and gets Arlovski up against the fence. ten seconds and Mulhall tells them to work, because they were just standing there checking their Twitter accounts. Johnson continues to work, so Mulhall breaks them up to the middle. Rumble is eating a lot of shots too, but Arlovski doesn't seem to have a ton of power in the shots he's able to land now. Johnson presses Arlovski back into the wall again. Arlovski reverses. I wonder if that qualifies as work? Mulhall stops the fight as Johnson ate a knee to the pills. Johnson is on his butt breathing VERY heavily. Lord knows he should use the entire five minutes. Todd Harris just told the audience that yes, indeed, they DO wear protection down there. Thanks, Todd. Johnson uses less than a minute, but comes out swinging with Rage-O-Hol, until he decided to press Arlovski into the fence. Dumb. He had Arlovski in trouble, and instinctively went for the shot. Johnson working hard for a single, but can't get it. Now he's working a double. As much as he's landing, why is he shooting? Johnson's gassing out while going for these shots. Rumble should've taken the whole 5 minutes. 10-9, 20-18 Johnson
Round Three: NBCSN cut to commercial 15 seconds to late, and came back from commercial 18 seconds into the round. Doesn't look like anything happened, at least. Rumble is gassed. Rumble lands a head kick and a couple hooks and presses Arlovski into the fence. His corner must want to kill him. then again, he IS a Blackzillian, so at least he's trying to keep up the history of losing. Mulhall breaks them up after like 7 seconds. Push kick by Arlovski. Johnson's hands are so low that he can block a low kick with his hands. Arlovski throws a spinning kick and, wait for it, gets pressed against the cage. This really sucks now. Arlovski gets a body lock and reverses position. 1:45 left. Arlovski with a couple elbows to the head as he disengages. Johnson lands some nasty power shots to the head of Arlovski. Arlovski is dazed. Fortunately Johnson is polite enough to shoot again. Back to the middle with 45 seconds left. Arlovski gets in tight and Johnson drops to one knee and holds on to Arlovski's leg. This is embarrassing. 10-9 Johnson, 30-27 Johnson
Winner: Anthony Johnson by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Star Rating and Final Thoughts: (**) The first round was really good. After that, not so much. Even when gassed out, Johnson hits REALLY hard. Arlovski looks like he lost teeth and maybe has a busted jaw.
That's it for WSOF2. Bottom of the hour, listen to Dave Walsh and Rich Hansen, details below.
Once the show has ended, head to BlogTalkRadio.com/mmatorch for a post-mortem audio review of tonight's card with myself and Liverkick.com's Dave Walsh
(Attention MMATorch app users: Make sure to upgrade to the latest edition of the MMATorch app on your iPhone, iPad, or Android device!)
Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
STAFF COLUMNISTS: Shawn Ennis - Jason Amadi
Frank Hyden - Rich Hansen
Chris Park - Matt Pelkey
Interested in joining MMATorch's writing team? Send idea for a theme to your column (for Specialist section) or area of interest (i.e. TV Reporter) along with a sample of writing to mmatorch@gmail.com.
