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Ultimate Challenge MMA: Fighting for Heroes Review
05 Dec 2009
By Jimmy Page
On Saturday night, Jimi ‘The Poster Boy’ Manuwa decisively powered his way to victory over Shaun Lomas in the main event of Ultimate Challenge: Fighting for Heroes. Lomas landed a thunderous leg kick in the opening seconds which reverberated around the arena; however, it led Manuwa straight into the clinch and out of striking range.
The Sheffield challenger looked to employ his notable judo skills, but the Poster Boy was able to counter with a beautiful lateral drop takedown. Mounted and under pressure, Lomas covered up as Manuwa unleashed a frightening barrage of punches and hammerfists.
Lomas did show some skill on the ground as he briefly reversed his way off the bottom, but Manuwa would not be denied as he pounded his way to victory from the mount after 4 minutes.
Tam Khan was in for a nasty shock as he stepped in to face the naturally bigger, dangerous puncher, Jamie Hearn. In the opening exchanges it became all too clear that Hearn was the more effective striker, leaving Khan skipping round the outside, assessing his options.
90 seconds into the contest, Hearn pounced with a hard right hand, before roughly shoving the TSG fighter to the ground with his left. Khan dropped heavily, banging his head off the floor as referee, Leon Roberts, dived in to stop the contest.
Liverpudlian, Mark Glover put on an excellent display of Thai boxing in his bout with Michael Pastou. Glover picked apart the monstrous North London lightweight from start to finish in the stand up exchanges.
However, Pastou was able to repeatedly take his opponent to the floor and control an uneventful ground fight to earn the clear decision win.
Scott Jansen scored a narrow points win over Jason ‘Bad Ass’ Barrett in a UK-1 rules match up. Barrett banged in some hard single shots, but Jansen consistently landed with impressive combinations, mixing in some heavy side kicks.
Ben Smith claimed the Heavyweight Grand Prix title in a scrappy two round fight with tattooed hardman, Wayne Weaver. Smith immediately shot in for the takedown and proceeded to batter his Canvey Island opponent with sustained flurry of punches.
Amazingly, Weaver took the punishment in his stride and came back with several hard knees to the head in the second round. However, the fight was decided on the floor as Smith choked his way to the win.
Recovery of the night award goes to Wesley ‘Two Play’ Johnson who appeared to have been knocked unconscious in a vicious early exchange with Luke Smith. The musician-turned-fighter came back to life and took Smith to the floor as he desperately struggled to clear his head.
Determined to capitalise on his early success, Smith struggled back to his feet and bashed Johnson to the mat and out of the fight, 4 minutes into the first round.
Karl Lawrence punched Earl Brown all over the cage in their scrappy two round shoot out, knocking him to the ground three times. However, Brown showed a real tactician’s mind as he jumped guard with a seemingly reckless guillotine attempt at the end of round two, forcing the tap with one second left on the clock.
Jake Bostwick threw down with bad intentions in his fight with Mike Edwards and came very close to knocking him out. But as the fight hit the ground, ‘Mad’ Mike was quickly able to sweep his way out of trouble and finish with the rear naked choke.
Brett Bassett came close to scoring a submission over Dyson Roberts as he worked hard to straighten out the Londoner’s knee. Roberts was infuriated by the situation and the second he was free, the Titan representative attacked Bassett with real venom, forcing the tap at 2.59 of round one.
Simon Gill scored an unusual but thoroughly well-deserved, win over powerful EKBJJ fighter, John Kelly in the Lightweight Grand Prix final. Kelly bossed the stand up exchanges, causing some significant damage to Gill’s face.
On the floor, the younger man was able to dominate position and slam his way out of trouble, but Gill won the judges over as he constantly threatened off his back with numerous straight armbar attempts. Every time Gill landed in his guard he would resume his attack, holding Kelly in a perpetual state of mild panic.
Joe Holder sustained a freak injury in his fight with Michael Brown. Holder was driven head first into the fence a few centimetres from the cage post and, due to the increased tension in the fencing in that area, he received a terrible cut to the head.
I’d like to wish Joe all the very best and hope for a swift recovery.
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