By Jim Page

In the main event of Ultimate Challenge: Adrenaline Rush, 42-year old veteran, Mark Weir dispatched young challenger, Jack Mason late in the third round to add the Ultimate Challenge Middleweight title to his growing collection of championship belts.

At the start of the fight, Mason immediately shot in for a single leg takedown but was in for a surprise as Weir executed an unorthodox switch and controlled on the floor. The Gloucester striker demonstrated neat wrestling as he slung Mason around, peppering him with short punches all the way.

Mason looked down-hearted as he returned for the second round and was forced to absorb a beating as Weir landed a stream of high kicks and punches. However, two minutes in, the Tsunami representative came close to victory as he jumped guard with a guillotine choke attempt.

Weir was suffering as Mason clamped on the choke, but once he was able to escape, the relieved striker unleashed a relentless ground-and-pound assault, moving to rear mount were he flatten his foe out. In full control, Weir banged in a flurry of hard shots which forced the referee to intervene.

Powerful wrestler, Michael Pastou claimed the vacant Ultimate Challenge lightweight title with a close-fought decision win over London Shootfighter, Francis Heagney. Throughout the fight, Heagney scored the initial takedown, but ‘One-Two’ was consistently able to force his way off the bottom and hammer away at his downed opponent.

Under pressure, Heagney showed flashes of brilliance as he repeatedly swept his way out of trouble with a rolling kimura, at one stage threatening to finish the hold before Pastou broke free.

In the final round, Heagney dominated from rear mount, frustrating the ensnared fighter to the point where he dropped his guard, allowing the Shootfighterto land a series of chopping shots to the head.

However, with his success in the first two rounds, the Team Titan representative had done enough on the judges cards to walk away with the title belt.

19-year old, James Saville showed no sign of nervesas he stepped in to face UFC veteran, Dave Lee in a contest set to crown the inaugural Ultimate Challenge featherweight champion. ‘Scraps’ immediately scooped Lee up with a tight bodylock and propelled him across the cage, landing in side mount.

However, Lee has some absolutely sick jiu-jitsu and executed a beautiful sweep to turn the tables on his young foe in convincing fashion. To his credit, Saville immediately countered, exploding off his back and into top position where he stood over Lee raining down spiteful bombs.

For a few damaging moments, an upset looked more than likely, but Lee brought all of his experience to bear as he caught his opponent in a triangle choke – temporarily turning out the lights on Saville’s championship aspirations.

The highly anticipated bout between Ben Smith and Jamie Hearn fizzled out after only two minutes as Hearn suffered an unfortunate shoulder injury on the floor which forced him out of the contest.

‘The Wang’ started brightly by circling away from an early take down attempt and looked very light on his feet. Smith, however, was determined to take it to the ground and quickly caught up with the former boxer. After a few moments on the floor, Hearn complained that he was injured and the referee immediately stopped the fight.

The fight between local hard man, Jake Bostwick and, gun for hire, Denniston Sutherland went to a potentially controversial decision as Bostwick got the nod from the judges.

The majority of the first round took place in the clinch, where Bostwick landed a pair of elbows before Sutherland tied him up. As the fight opened up, both had success on the floor, but Sutherland seemed to land the greater amount of punishment as he slipped between mount and knee-on-belly. The judges didn’t see it that way and awarded the win to ‘Brutal’ Bostwick.

Ian Hawkins looked like he’d just stepped out of the ring with Vitali Klitchko as he arrived sporting two black eyes. However, he quickly showed that appearances mean nothing as he smashed physical specimen, Shola Adreniran to the mat with a brutal right hand in only 16 seconds - one of the fastest wins in Ultimate Challenge history.

In a heavyweight bout, newcomer Jack Dennis showed some excellent grappling skill as he threatened with both a triangle choke and a gogoplata in his fight with Marvin Egan. However, the Fighting Hurts graduate was having none of it and delivered a ground-and-pound kerbstomp which forced the referee to step in.

Wessley Johnson put his health on the line as he relentlessly chased Simon Carrington on the mat, pushing himself to the absolute limit. Carrington snuck out of trouble long enough to apply a savage heel hook which had Johnson grimacing in pain.

Fighting his way free, Johnson was able to tighten up a crafty guillotine choke which forced the tap – before spending over half an hour receiving oxygen at cage side.

 In an entertaining back-and-forth bout, Billy Mohaney picked up a razor-thin decision over Earl Brown. The fight resembled a boxing match for much of the 15 minutes as the fighters enthusiastically traded punches. After taking a pasting in the early stages, Mohaney kicked his way back into the fight to claim victory.

 Roy Allison came out of the blocks fast, dumped opponent, John Kelly, on the floor and took mount position. ‘The Bully’ threw caution to the wind as he dropped a volley of hard punches onto Kelly’s face. However, despite looking stuck for some while, Kelly was able to sneak out.

 The EKBJJ representative did a much better job of holding position and unleashed his own, much tighter ground-and-pound which forced the referee to stop the contest.

 Independent fighter, Reza Meldavian is a lively character. With his hands by his waist, he walked headlong into a vicious shoot out with wild-eyed brawler, Michael Brown. Brown is plain scary – but Reza couldn’t care less and laughed as he blasted himto the floor for an impressive 3-and-a-half minute win.

 Representing Loaded magazine and Bandogs MMA, journalist Nick Lloyd made his pro debut as he stepped in to face fellow newcomer, Kai Senken. The fight was a mess, to be perfectly honest. Despite a heavy punch from Senken in the dying seconds, Lloyd had done enough to claim a split decision win.  

 Men’s Health writer, Dave Morton did not fare so well. Things started badly at the weigh in, as Morton enraged his opponent, Afakasi Sione, by refusing to shake his hand. Sione settled the score mid-way through the first round as he cracked his foe with a brutal right hand, sending him crashing out of the contest.

 In a UK-1 rules bout, Luke Sines dominated behind an array of heavy kicks as he picked apart the game, but out-classed Reece Watson over three rounds.