WORLD SERIES OF FIGHTING 24
OCTOBER 17, 2015
LIVE FROM FOXWOODS RESORT CASINO IN MASHANTUCKET, CONNECTICUT
– Chael Sonnen and Todd Harris open the show by discussing the fights on tonight’s card. They did a good job of keeping my ears from bleeding, but I’m sure that will change in due time.
MAIN CARD FIGHT ONE: MAGOMED BIBULATOV vs. DONAVAN FRELOW (FOR INAUGURAL WSOF FLYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP)
ROUND ONE: Dan Mirgliotta is the referee for the opening fight. Always fun when the referee weighs more than both fighters combined. Bibulatov is landing a variety of kicks to the body of kicks to the midsection of Frelow early, and just missed a crescent kick. Frelow’s staying o nthe outside, circling away from Bibulatov’s power. Frelow comes forward and lands a few punches, but got thrown to the canvase by Bibulatoc. Frelow got right back to his feet, but Bibulatov is on him and presses him on the cage. Bibulatov lands a backfist as he disengages. Bibulatov got Frelow down against the cage a few seconds later. Frelow walks the cage back up to his feet. Frelow’s not having any luc finding his range yet. Frelow feints a punch and shoots for a takedown, but Bibulatov sniffed it out and easily evaded the weak takedown attempt. Bibulatov lands a series of three kicks and a another backfist. Easy 10-9 for Bibulatov.
ROUND TWO: Bibulatov catches Frelow coming in and plants him with a hard takedown. Frelow again gets back up, but now finds himself backed up against the cage and eats a stiff forearm from Bibulatov. Frelow briefly reverses position, but Bibulatov spins back into the dominant position. Nice elbow again. Hard knee and a kick to the chest from Bibulatov before separating. Back to the middle. Bibulatov lands a hard leg kick. Frelow misses a wicked haymaker. Still can’t find his range. He seems to be quicker, yet Bibulatov is never there when he throws. NBCSN goes to a horrid camera angle from behind the chain link. Don’t do that. 2 minutes left. Frelow comes in and eats a knee to the gut before backing out. He’s getting in and out very well, but not doing much when he gets in. Bibulatov’s not landing nearly as often as he was in the first, and Frelow’s starting to land the occasional leg kick. Nice right cross from Bibulatov, but then Frelow goes to the body. Much closer round, call it 10-9 Frelow. Not that it was a good round, mind you…
ROUND THREE: Bibulatov lands a spinning back kick. Frelow lands an overhand right, and eats a jab from inside for his efforts. Bibulatov misses a crescent kick. Frelow’s starting to throw the jab now. Bibulatov drops under and gets a takedown. He’s got Frelow against the cage, picks him up and slams him back down. Frelow gave up his back but escaped before Bibulatov could choke him. Frelow gets to his feet, and we’re back to standing. His speed there saved him from a bad position. Bibulatov lands a kick to the ribs. And another a little higher. Bibulatov got tagged after missing on a superman punch. Frelow lands a nice 1-2 on Bibulatov, and for the first time in a while Bibulatov had no response and retreated. Bibulatov takes a kick to the junk, and time out is called. Bibulatov took about ten seconds and we’re back. Huge takedown from Bibulatov to end the round. 10-9 Bibulatov.
ROUND FOUR: Frelow comes out aggressive and backs Babulitov into the cage. Nice vertical elbow from frelow before Bibulatov can escape. Frelow’s got to stay aggressive, because Bibulatov picks Frelow apart when Frelow gets passive. Frelow comes in, lands three hooks and a knee to the body. Bibulatov everses position and gets a takedown neat the cage. He’s on Frelow’s back, but Frelow goes out through his legs. Bibulatov puts Frelow against the cage, and we’re at a bit of a stalemate. Bibulatov puts him back on the cage and takes Frelow down. Frelow can’t get off his knees, but Bibulatov isn’t doing any damage. Frelow falls to his back, but he has Bibulatov’s head. Frelow eventually lets go of Bibulatov’s head and escapes to his feet. Frelow misses a couple of sloppy hooks before Bibulatov hits a soft uppercut. The pace has dropped tremendously. Leg kick from Bibulatov. Frelow comes foward and lands a couple high strikes to the upper body. Frelow comes forward and misses badly on a number of wild punches that judges tend to like. I, on the other hand, 10-9 Bibulatov. 39-37 Bibulatov
ROUND FIVE: Frelow charges forward and lands a coupel strikes, but gets taken down easily. Frelow’s trying hard to keep half-guard as Bibulatov works for side control. Frelow keeps half-guard by holding on to Bibulatov’s head. Bibulatov wins the battle of position and gets on Frelow’s head. He’s too high and slides out. Frelow’s on top now inside of the guard of Bibulatov. Bibulatov looks for an armbar but Frelow evades it. Big Dan with a ridiculous standup. Frelow had 25 seconds of top position there. Side kick to the gut from Bibulatov. Cartwheel kick Bibulatov, but did no damage. Pettis throws it, he armbars Henderson. Bibulatov throws it, the result is much less spectacular. Just saying. Nice 1-2 from Bibulatov finds it’s mark. Spinning kick to the head, and one to the legs from the Chechyan. 1 minute remains. Bibulatov drops down for a double leg takedown behind a variety of strikes and gets an easy takedown. Frelow gives up the back in order to get to his feet. Strong knees from Frelow. All Frelow’s trying to do here is ride it out. Bibulatov is landing knees at will. 10-9 Bibulatov. 49-46 Bibulatov.
WINNER: Magomedov Bibulatov by unanimous decision (50-45, 50-45, 50-45)
STAR RATING AND FINAL THOUGHTS: (**) Nothing special. No memorable moments or anything. Bibulatov might be, say… top-50 in the world. Chael’s first question to Bibulatov is to ask him who he wants to defend against. Bibulatov answers by saying simply how happy he is. Even the promotion’s champ can’t name one other flyweight in the WSOF. Nice.
MAIN CARD FIGHT TWO: VINNY MAGALHAES vs. MATT HAMILL (LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT)
ROUND ONE: Bryan Miner is the referee. He’s the same referee that almost got Adam Ward killed on the prelims when Rick Glenn just had to stop punching an unconscious Ward. Hamill having his way with his left hand early on. A right uppercut drops Magalhaes, but Magalhaes fishes for an armbar. Now it’s a heel hook. Make it a kneebar now. Hamill taps to it. That was stoopid sick.
WINNER: Vinny Magalhaes by submission.
STAR RATING AND FINAL THOUGHTS: (**+) As awesome as that kneebar was, Matt Hamill as a zillion times stoopider than that. He had Magalhaes down and recklessly dove in like a kid who can’t swim jumping into the deep end of the pool. Within a second of diving on a dazed Magalhaes he almost got locked into an armbar. All he had to do was backup, force the action back to the feet, rinse and repeat, and Magalhaes wouldn’t have had a chance in hell. Instead, he lost a leg. Good. I like to see stoopid decisions get pounded.
MAIN CARD FIGHT THREE: NICK NEWELL VS. TOM MARCELLINO (LIGHTWEIGHT)
ROUND ONE: Big Dan is back in the cage. For those who don’t know or who have forgotten, Nick Newell is a congenital amputee who was born with no left hand. He fights from the southpaw stance and is just amazing. Newell lands several sharp right hooks and has Marcellino up against the cage. Newell drops down for a single and gets Marcellino down as Chael told me that he wasn’t going to finish this. Marcellino is seated with his back against the cage and has Newell’s head trapped. He drops down for a guillotine, but doesn’t have Newell’s legs tied up at all. Newell is cross body on top of Marcellino, so he’s in no trouble yet. He’s out, and Marcellino’s in a bad spot here. Mounted guillotine from Newell. Marcellino’s hand-fighting, and now he’s punching away on the ribs of Newell. He’s out, and now Newell’s looking for an armbar from the bottom. They’re in the human pretzel position now, arms and legs everywhere. Marcellino stands, but Newell grabs a single and drives him into the cage. Elbows to the spince form Marcellino. Rules, Schmules. Newell’s committed to the single as the round nears an end. 10-9 Newell. Very fun round.
ROUND TWO: Both fighters spend thirty seconds exchanging and mainly missing lazy leg kicks. Newell drives in and gets a takedown near the cage, and Marcellino grabs Newell’s head on the way down. He finally lets go of the head, and Newell’s on top. Newell sticks his head back under Marcellino’s armpit, so Marcellio holds on to it again. This isn’t fun to watch. Marcellino is seated against the fence with Newell on top of him. Marcellino tries to get up. Big mistake. Newell drags him back down and is on his back. Newell has the hooks back in, but gives it up and we’re back in to that seated position again. Newell is sitting with his wrapped around Marcellino’s legs, but his head is still stuck so there’s nothing going on here. Marcellino is a very fundamentally sound defensive fighter. Big Dan finally stands them up. Big Dan stopped the fight because he heard someone ring a cowbell or something. He thought the round was over, but there were ten or fifteen seconds left in the round. I don’t know what that was, but if a fun had a cowbell, he should be arrested. No blaming Big Dan on that one. However, feel free to blame him for the Pat Barry thing all those years ago. 20-18 Newell.
ROUND THREE: Ah, that’s what happened. Instead of the wood-clapper being struck with ten seconds left, the timekeeper hit the ring bell. Marcellino gets Newell down and is on his back. Newell is trying to use the cage to get up, but he’s stuck on one knee at the moment. Marcellino is just holding position, because that will win him the fight. Sure. Newell is slowly regaining his position, but he’s not all the way there yet. Marcellino lands a dencet knee up high. Newell is all the way up, and presses Marcellino into the cage. Newell gets him down and his laying on Marcellino’s left leg. Weird position. This fight is going to hell and going there fast. Marcellino did nothing when he had dominant position, and once he was in a bad position he found a guillotine. Todd Harris saw Newell give a thumbs up and screammed that it was a tap. What a damn idiot. Newell got free while Sonnen and Harris screamed for a tap. Big Dan stands them up with one minute remaining. Newell just needs to hold on because he has two rounds in the bag. Marcellino gets the takedown and sits in full guard, hoping to ride out a 29-28 loss. Postures up and lands a few shots. Newell’s bleeding from his mouth. Marcellino spends the last 15 seconds standing over Newell, taunting him. YEAH! I LOST TO YOU! YOU SUCK, CLOWN! 10-9 Marcellino. 29-28 Newell.
WINNER: Nick Newell by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
STAR RATING AND FINAL THOUGHTS: (**) Only avoids a bad rating because the first round was so fun. Both fighters fought weirdly, and had nonsensical executions of their game plans. Newell is a complete inspiration, but if this is the best he can do, I hope he’s been saving most of his paychecks.
– Twitter is telling me that Nick Newell announced his retirement from fighting during a commercial break. Chael and HArris have made no mention of this. If true, an unbelievable story has moved on to it’s next chapter, and MMA Torch wishes nothing but the best for Nick Newell. He’ll be a success at whatever he chooses to do next.
MAIN CARD FIGHT FOUR: CHAMPION BLAGOY IVANOV VS. DERRICK MEHMEN (FOR WSOF HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP
ROUND ONE: Bryn Miner is back. Aaron Ward is going to have a problem with this when he wakes up tomorrow. Ivanov is stalking and avoiding the jab. And as I say that he gets inside of the jab and goes into berserker mode for 20 seconds. Mehmen escapes real danger, but there were few seconds there where it felt like the end was nigh. Ivanov weighed in at 252, but Harris said he’s close to 265 now. Because Heavyweights cut weight. Sure. Ivanov with another couple of hard punches, but Mehmen’s legs have stayed steady. He’s bleeding from his nose. Ivanov with a left hook that Mehmen walked right in to. Mehmen’s nose is gushing, and Both fighters have Mehmen’s blood on their chests. Eew. Ivanov is killing him. Big left hand wobbles Mehmen. Ivanov is being very patient, knowing he has plenty of time. Left hook from Ivanov. Mehmen is game and he’s tough. Mehmen is taunting Ivanov, trying to get Ivanov to lose his strategy. Now they’re both taunting each other with a series of yo mama jokes. Ivanov stalks in with his hands at his waist. Mehmen can’t hit him. 10-9 Ivanov Weird.
ROUND TWO: Replay shows that one of the big strikes Ivanov landed was a headbutt. Both fighters swinging for the fences during the first minute and a half. Not a lot landing, though. Mehmen is much more mobile, which is the right strategy against the stout Ivanov. Ivanov continues to moe forward, Mehmen continues to walk backward and circle to his left. Mehmen lands a couple of rights before Ivanov backs off. Tons of missed hooks from both fighters here. This round really sucks. Mehmen’s starting to bleed again as the work his cutman did between rounds evaporates. Ivanov hits Mehmen above the left eye and now Mehmen has another cut to worry about. Ivanov cracked him there again and Mehmen is in a panic. He stumbles to the canvas as he retreats from Ivanov. Ivanov jumps on him and lands a couple of big punches before Miner can step in. That was a methodical, brutal beating.
WINNER: Blagoy Ivanov by TKO (strikes) at 4:33 of round two.
STAR RATING AND FINAL THOUGHTS: (**) Brutal finish. Check out this exchange…
Harris: That’s a big man. Weighed in at 252. David Branch, Chael Sonnen, you venture to guess what he’s weighing right now. Not 252.
Sonnen: No he’s not. No he burned some calories and even more sweat out there, didn’t he.
Todd Harris continues to not understand that Ivanov didn’t cut weight to get 13 pounds UNDER THE HEAVYWEIGHT LIMIT.
MAIN CARD FIGHT FIVE: JON FITCH VS. YUSHIN OKAMI (WELTERWEIGHT)
– Why did this fight never happen in the UFC? Other than the fact that no one wanted to see it while they were in their prime. Don’t answer that. It’s time for the WSOF 24 main event.
ROUND ONE: Big Dan has drawn the short straw and will referee this fight. Fitch shoots in and doesn’t get the takedown, but Fitch did drive him across the cage to the fence. Okami reverses position despite only having one underhook. Fitch reverses and grabs a single. Okami’s got a whizzer on Fitch, but isn’t able to change position with it. He lets it go and we’re trading knees now. Okami working for a trip but he has no leverage even having gotten off the fence. Fitch spins back. Okami spins back. Fitch spins back. Okami spins back. Big Dan saves me from suicide and pulls them apart. Okami with a jab. He shoots and puts Fitch back on the cage. Oh goodie. Fighters were both off camera for three seconds. Most exciting three seconds of the fight. Okami trying his damnedest to trip Fitch, but that isn’t going to happen as long as either fighter has their back against the fence. Someone warn Big Dan that I’m about to kill myself, ok? Please? Thanks people. Your silence says all I need to know. 10-9 Okami
ROUND TWO: Fitch with the takedown with Okami’s back against the cage. Okami gets up before Fitch can do anything. Fitch with a couple knees to the thigh of Okami. Fitch with a hook to the ribs before they disengage. Okami with a left hook. Okami shoots but got stuffed by a lightning fast sprawl from Fitch. Fitch grabs a leg and drops Okami. Same position as last time with Fitch on Okami’s legs and Okami seated against the fence. Fitch manages to get Okami’s back on the canvas, and he’s in side control. Moves to half-guard for some reason. Shoulder strikes from Fitch. fitch trying hard to get to mount, but the cage got in the wat. He’s got a cradle, but he’s not going to do any damage from here. Clearly his gameplan is to sit on Okami for two out of three rounds and contaminate the entire jury pool againt him and Rob Maysey. Okami worms on top, somewhat, but Fitch still has positional control. Fitch is sitting on Okami’s neck as the round ends. 10-9 Fitch.
ROUND THREE: Okami charges in behind a jab and tries to get Fitch down, but Fitch reverses position and gets on top with side control. He moves to half-guard. Sonnen just told the audience to fade to black and toll the credits. Okami stands. Okami gets Fitch on the fence. Fitch reverses position and drops down for a single. Fitch drops to his knees looking for the takedown. I hope my cable goes out. Fitch gets the takedown.side control. Okami is barely trying to get free. Either the cut has sapped his energy, or je thinks this is a 19 round fight. Okami gets up, but allowed Fitch to get on his back. Fitch is grapevining Okami’s leg trying to trip him back down to the mat. Yep, down he goes. Okami reverses position and ha a front facelock. Fitch reverses position, very nice might I add. Okami’s working a guillotine, but there’s no pressure there. Fitch pops out and has a minute left, top control, and this round in his hip pocket. Fitch gets up and dives on Okami’s back when Okami slowly attempted to meander back to his feet at a nice leisurely pace. This is a Jon Fitch fight – smthering relentlessness. That might have sounded like a compliment. It wasn’t. 10-9 Fitch. 29-28 Fitch
WINNER: Jon Fitch by unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)
STAR RATING AND FINAL THOUGHTS: (0*) I hate Jon Fitch fights. I hate Yushin Okami’s fights. Two wrong do not, repeat, do NOT, make a right. Worst fight of the year, at least the least entertaining fight of the year. I understand that the scrambles were high quality. Shut up with that. I don’t care. I don’t want to ever see either of these guys fight again.
FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER @JUSTRICHHANSEN
Leave a Reply