By Jim Page

Boosted by the recent unveiling of a new television deal with Sky Sports, London-based promotion, Ultimate Challenge delivered a fantastic night of action, drama and excitement in the Troxy theatre on Saturday night.

In the main event, Welsh fighter Dino Gambetesa shocked the local crowd with a stunning knock out win over teak tough jiu-jitsu specialist, Brad Wheeler. In an early exchange, both fighters threw hard right hands, but only Dino landed, clipping his opponent’s jaw and sending him crashing to the mat.

Wheeler attempted to turn into his foe, but Gambetesa countered perfectly by taking mount and blasting away with a series of heavy right hands which forced the referee to step in to stop the contest after 40 seconds.

Jack ‘The Stone’ Mason implemented the perfect game plan to defeat Moldovan kickboxer, Dorlan ‘The Dog’ O’Malley. Wasting no time, Mason dragged the fight to the floor and methodically worked his way to an arm triangle submission in just over 2 minutes.

Nigel Whitear was in tremendous shape ahead of his fight with rangy striker, Jamaine Facey, and surged forward in the opening seconds of the fight. Facey, however, did not seem overly concerned, dropping Whitear with a knee to the body and finishing with a stream of right hands to claim the win in only 38 seconds.

Fighting Hurts graduate, Dyson Roberts showed his vicious streak as he smashed Michael Brown with a series of punches on the floor in the first round. Brown was able to reverse his fortunes and land some hefty blows of his own.; however, Roberts turned up the paced and battered his opponent to defeat with hammerfists midway through the second round.

Scott Jansen got back to winning ways as he scored a unanimous decision over Richard ‘The Myth’ Griffin in a cage kickboxing bout. Jansen crept steadily ahead on the scorecards with a relentless series of fluid combinations which left Griffin looking frustrated and disorganised. The well supported London fighter held onto his advantage until the conclusion of the fight with more accurate combos, superman punches and high kicks.

In another UK-1 bout, Jake ‘Brutal’ Bostwick charged into Alex Reid with a sustained barrage of powershots. Forced to draw on his vast experience, ‘The Reidenator’ was able to avoid most of the shots and retaliated with a hard right knee which stopped Bostwick in his tracks just 54 seconds into the contest. 

London Shootfighter, Giorgio Andrews put on a terrifyingly efficient display as he dismantled Max Henchy with strikes on the floor before claiming the win with a rear naked choke. With that impressive win, Andrews once again proved that he would provide a stern test for any fighter in the featherweight division.

Chris Greig exposed a gulf in grappling class between himself and Shaun Lomas early in the first round, but seemed to take his foot off the accelerator, which allowed Lomas to scramble out of danger. In the second, Lomas came close to scoring an upset as he landed a series of hard knees to the legs and body before dropping Greig with a vicious knee to the head. However, Greig was able to recover quickly and caught his opponent in a very tight heel hook which forced Lomas to declare ‘No mas’. 

Earl Brown seemed content to fight at a snail’s pace until opponent, Rafi Benziada, caught him with a sharp flurry of punches. Enraged, Brown waded in with a right hand, but immediately lost his balance and dropped to the mat. With his foe vulnerable on the floor, Benziada needed no second invitation and punched his way to victory in little over a minute, start to finish.

True to form, determined grappler, Wesley Johnson steamed in with a left hook and took his opponent, Alex Harvey straight to the mat. Harvey scored with a neat reversal but ‘Two Play’ turned his success against him and ensnared the tattooed fighter in a triangle choke barely 2 minutes into the fight.

In a scrappy, back and forth ground fight, both Luke Smith and John Joe Ellis had chances to land punches from top position, while Smith was also warned for both head-butting and up-kicking his grounded opponent. In the second round, a battle worn Ellis powered his way off the bottom, only to land in a triangle choke delivered by the titan representative, ‘Cool Hands’ Smith. 

South London Bad Boy, Dominic Plumb and rugged veteran, Jody Cottam traded bombs from the opening seconds, with Cottam soon sustaining a nasty gash over his left eye. Undetered, ‘The Pimp’ tried to catch hold of a guillotine as the bout hit the floor; however, Plumb was not to be denied and smashed his way to rear mount and secured the choke.

In the first bout of the night, talented all-rounder, Brett Basset made the most of an early opportunity against Adam Avo as he quickly scrambled his way to his opponent’s back to finish with a rear naked choke.

Full Results

Brett Basset bt Adam Avo - RNC R1
Dominic Plumb bt Jody Cottam - RNC R1
Luke Smith bt John Joe Ellis - Triangle R2
Wesley Johnson bt Alex Harvey - Triangle R1
Rafi Benziada bt Earl Brown - ref stop GNP R1
Chris Greig bt Shaun Lomas - heel hook R2
Giorgio Andrews bt Max Henchy - RNC R1
Alex Reid bt Jake Bostwick UK1 - KO knee 54 seconds
Scott Jansen bt Richard Griffin UK-1 - UD
Dyson Roberts bt Michael Brown - ref stop GNP R2
Jamaine Facey bt Nigel Whitear - ref stop GNP 38 seconds
Jack Mason bt Dorlan the Dog - arm triangle R1
Dino Gambetesa bt Brad Wheeler - ref stop GNP 40 seconds