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Ultimate Challenge MMA: Resurrection Review
06 Feb 2010
By Jimmy Page
Ultimate Challenge: Resurrection featured a massive card of 15 fights and provided an excellent night of skill, determination and bone-crunching drama.
In the main event, Alberto Mina stunned the sell-out crowd as he wore down and over-powered the highly touted Rough House fighter, Dean Amasinger to claim the Ultimate Challenge welterweight title. The London Shootfighter came out throwing kicks, but his game plan was no secret; to take the Nottingham wrestler to the floor and cause havoc with his polished jiu-jitsu skills.
Late in the first round, Mina stood Amasinger on his head with a beautiful kimura-to-armbar set up, before threatening with heel hook and a straight armbar attempt in the second. However, Amasinger remained out of danger and patiently looked for his chances in the stand up exchanges.
Alberto took his opponent to the ground with a tenacious shot early in the third round. Diving on his chance, the jiu-jitsu fighter quickly took rear mount position and unleashed a hellish onslaught of abuse. Unable to escape, Amasinger was forced to cover up as Mina literally punched his way to the title by way of referee stoppage.
Mark Weir claimed the Ultimate Challenge UK-1 middleweight title with a vintage display of precision striking - his opponent, Mark ‘the Beast’ Epstein was made to look flat-footed and ring-rusty in comparison. Early in the contest, Weir fought assertively, darting back and forth with feints and stabbing side kicks which repeatedly found their mark.
Weir cruised into full control in the later stages as he peppered the Woolwich hardman with punches and high kicks, before landing a graceful flying knee to underline his dominance and claim the unanimous decision win.
Stav Economou did his best impression of a malicious bulldozer as he dispatched the athletic, Shola Adeniran, within 90 seconds. The Crazy Bear dumped Adeniran on the mat and battered him with punches; the second Shola turned his back, Economou swooped to apply the rear naked choke.
In his first foray into the welterweight division, John Maguire faced a stern test as he took on a vastly improved Edgelson Lua. Edge showed some incredible jiu-jitsu skill, de-railing the majority of Maguire’s tried and tested grappling attacks. However, the Tsunami gym representative pushed the pace and held on to a slim lead on the score cards to claim the majority decision.
Fearsome London Shootfighter, Karos Vermola tore through late-replacement, Peter Yendall in double-quick time. The young powerhouse was just too strong and aggressive – he instantly dumped Yendall on the mat and unleashed a barrage of spiteful right hands which brought the contest to a halt after only 49 seconds.
Scott Jansen put on an impressive performance and caused some terrible damage to Azran Quasid’s face in the process as he hurried to a one-sided first round win. The heavily tattooed Londoner blasted Quasid with punches and nasty elbows for much of the bout, before clamping hold of a potentially injurious kimura to complete an awful night for the Camberley fighter.
Vicious striker, Jermaine Facey made a real statement as he blitzed Ben Craggy in only 35 seconds. Facey launched a fast lead-left high kick which connected hard - and then followed with a series of brutal right hands on the floor which spelt the end, leaving Craggy dazed on the floor and badly marked up.
Senior warrior, Dave Nobel put up a brave effort as he battled to the point of exhaustion to defeat young killer, Rafiq Benziada, by unanimous decision. Nobel landed a succession of excellent low kicks and eventually Benziada was forced to touch down under the weight of punches, leading all three judges to give Nobel the nod.
Pablo Ben tried playing a mean mind-game with the well-supported Colin French, snarling at him at the weigh-ins and attacking furiously from the get go. Unbothered, French handled the pressure with ease as he locked up a triangle choke in less than two minutes.
Thai boxer, Steve Dossett caught Chris Grieg in the mouth with another impressive lead-left high kick in the early going of their striker-vs-grappler match up. However, Grieg was only shaken by the blow and soon put his opponent on the mat, catching the power-puncher in a guillotine as he struggled back to his feet.
In line with the ‘Resurrection’ theme of the evening, Dan Movahedi continued his career recovery with the route-one destruction of Ryan Campbell. Movahedi caught his opponent with a hard punch early in the fight and did not let up as he unloaded on Campbell, bashing him out of the game in only 72 seconds.
Earl Brown was in for a nasty shock as he took on unknown quantity, Bola Omoyele. The Team Titan fighter showed a genuine vicious streak as he crashed into Brown with low kicks, hurting the disorientated brawler, before smashing him with a fluid, seemingly ever-lasting combination of knees and punches.
Dominic Plumb looked incredibly focussed as he rushed in on Bloodline representative, Brad Wheeler – but as the fight hit the deck, Wheeler quickly ensnared the south Londoner with a tight armbar, forcing the tap in only 31 seconds.
Richard Griffin was forced to work hard, but eventually scored an impressive win over Chris Woolcott. The bout was largely a wrestling battle, as Woolcott expended vast amounts of energy in a concerted attempt to pin his foe to the mat. However, this tactic opened up attacking possibilities for Griffin, who landed numerous punches from his guard, before taking his opponent’s back for the rear naked choke.
In the opening fight of the night, Galore Bosando made an impressive start as he stung Jerome Carol with an array of kicks and put the massively muscled fighter on his back with a hard slam. Later in the contest, however, Bosando unwisely landed an illegal knee to the face of his downed opponent, knocking Carol spark out – and handing him the win via disqualification.
Pictures provided by www.mmapics.com
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