The event didn’t have the theme “BTT x GBCT” but the fans and insiders had already titled it that.Wednesday night, 9:00pm: with a small delay to start the first MMA show after the marathon of World Championships of BJJ in Rio de Janeiro; the action began with a Muay Thai match, one of the three ones scheduled for that card. To tell you the truth, I don’t enjoy MMA mixed with Muay Thai – mainly – in a show such as Top Fighter MMA was. Nine fights, and in 4 of them Gracie Barra Combat Team squared-off against Brazilian Top Team. The event didn’t have the theme “BTT x GBCT” but the fans and insiders had already titled it that.
Back to the action of Muay Thai, soon in the first fight a terrible scene shook a few spectators when in R2 Francisco Bronco threw a big low kick and Carlos Eduardo blocked it perfectly, breaking the Bronco’s calf in a nasty scene. I don’t know how Carlos Eduardo could celebrate (like he did) a victory in a situation as that. The pain that Bronco was feeling was too much at looking to the grief ofhis face, and the screams. Don’t get me wrong, I know this is a fight-sport and accidents happen- but to celebrate a victory by an injury which can have finished a fighter’s career -like it was a KO victory, is a bit weird for me.
In the other Muay Thai matches Gibson da Silva got a unanimous decision over Vitor Mianu and Claudiere Freitas schooled Fabiano Moura with extraordinary technique; forcing Moura to tell the referee “no more”, who decreed a TKO victory via verbal submission in Freita’s favor. MMA fights- Great teams collided, GBCT takes the challenge! Lightweight fighters Cristiano Bananada and Erinaldo PitBull tried to keep the pace of the contest in their specialties. Bananada was better in takedowns; while he had stamina PitBull couldn’t do much. The double and single legs of Bananada ran over the sprawls of PitBull and the fight hit the ground. However Bananada didn’t take advantage of all ground positions and PitBull returned to their feet. R2 and R3 was dominated by PitBull, who faced a tired Bananada without any strong chance of controlling the fight; Bananada got stomped and soccer-kicked. Bananada jeopardized himself in a few trade of strikes on the feet, dominated by PitBull. PitBull by decision. Wendell “Negão” Oliveira defeated Ricardo Petruccio by decision in a match that was all takedown attempts by Petruccio that were turned in the middle of moves and he was forced to the bottom position. Greco-Roman Wrestler Marcos Maciel threw Leonardo “Tangerina” Carvalho by nice suplex at R1 and tried submissions. Tangerina low-kicked Maciel toughly, but even so the inaccurate jabs and straights of Maciel outclassed Tangerina on the feet. Maciel by unanimous decision. Eduardo Pachu came to the fouth match of the card with the intention of showing the bonus of the first MMA fight without necessity of judges giving the result. He clinched the state of Rio de Janeiro kickboxing champion Leandro Mun-Ra and took the fightdown. Mun-Ra showed he still didn’t train ground-fighting and Pachu didn’t hesitate on mounting him and unload a nasty arsenal of strikes, Mun-Ra shook his head to avoid, but nearly all of the punches connected and he tapped-out at R1. Gracie Barra CT’s ace, Luis “Beicao” Ramos, faced Mauricio Reis of BTT in the third of the four challenges between these teams. A victory would put one of the teams in advantage, since they were tied up at 1×1. Both fighters squared off and circled around trading jabs and low-kicks. Reis seemed to be lighter than Beicao, but even so he had a chance of finishing the fight at R1. With a front kick that connected at Beicao’s chin, Reis nearly knock Beicao out, whodropped in knockdown and had to use his all experience to control Reis from the full guard. Reis didn’t strike too much when he had opportunity from the top position, and the fight was re-started on their feet, they trade more blows and the action was stopped by the bell’s ring. Beicao knew he lost R1, so he tried to combat Reis with takedowns and ground and pound- plus a few low-kicks when the fight was stand at R2. He got to be better and this round, when the ground control assured him the victory on this second stanza. R3 was a replay of R2, but Beição stayed more active and escaped from a second attempt of frontal-kick of Reis. On the feet the fight was very balanced and the differential was the takedowns and the on the top position guaranteed by Beicao. In one of these takedowns, Reis did the move, but Beicao turned it in the middle and got the top position. From there, he punched and stood up to soccer-kick and stomp Reis, none of these strikes connected, but rendered Beicao avictory by decision- two victories to GBCT against one of BTT. The power house Danilo Moto-Serra faced the zero MMA experience fighter, Cosme dos Santos in a fight with a lack of enough technique. Cosme was in good shape, and his fitness was the only tool he displayed in whole fight. Moto-Serra took the fight down early when Cosme came up angrily to smash Moto-Serra’s face. Once on the ground Moto-Serra dominated, but didn’t finish by choke from north/south position such as he wanted to. R2 started and Moto-Serra punched and kicked, and one of the kicks were high and tough enough to connect and knock Cosme down. UFC veteran Flavio Luis Moura had a hell-of-match against until then unknown 5-3 fighter from state of Goias, Leandro “Batata” Silva. All the low-kicks of Moura missed the target; and both fighters trade punches on the feet, each one connected their fists. Moura took Batata down, but Batata reversed and Moura tried a guillotine. Batata tried to hurt Moura with ground and pound and he achieved it, when gained the half guard and landed a big knee- cutting the right eyebrow of Moura. The R1 ended and Moura had a big problem on stopping the bleeding. The came back to R2 and Batata slammed Moura again, and started a nasty ground and pound, Moura tried to talk with the referee that Batata was eye-gouging him, but the referee was close to both and interpreted Moura was feeling pain due to the cut at the eyebrow, so he jumped between them and stopped the fight. Batata by TKO. The main event had an curious environment, both fighters wanted to fight each other in the past and a victory by Paulo Boiko would tie result in a tie for BTT, while a victory in Fabricio Monteiro’s favor would mark a dominance of 3×1 by GBCT. Boiko started better with jabs, but Monteiro connected with lowkicks and hand-strikes, the fight went to the ground with a takedown by Monteiro, who pounded Boiko hard with two right hand punches. They tangled on the ground at neutral corner and Monteiro woke-up and started on foot-stomping and pulling over Boiko, In two opportunities the foot of Monteiro connected at Boiko’s face, starting a small bleeding. The necessity of being better at R2 hurt Boiko’s game, who went desperately ahead of Monteiro, and this move opened gaps for mistakes that Monteiro used to take the opportunity to clinch the back of Boiko. Monteiro is known for his suplex, so Boiko positioned himself to defend it, but Monteiro surprised everybody by jumping to catch the back of Boiko on the feet. They went tothe ground and Monteiro worked quickly and finished the fight by rear-naked-choke at R2.
Top Fighter MMA August 2nd at Castelo das Pedras – Rio de Janeiro Full results: Muay Thai – Carlos Eduardo TKO’d Francisco Bronco. – Gibson da Silva def. Vitor Mianu by decision. – Claudiere Freitas TKO’d Fabiano Moura Erinaldo PitBull def. Cristiano Bananada by decision. Wendell “Negao” Oliveira def. Ricardo Petruccio by decision.
Marcos Maciel def. Leonardo “Tangerina” Carvalho by decision.
Eduardo Pachu def. Leandro Mun-Ra by TKO (punches from the mount).
Luis “Beicao” Ramos def. Mauricio Reis by decision.
Alex Gaze def. Ricardo Sam by W.O.
Danilo Moto-Serra def. Cosme dos Santos by KO (high kick).
Leandro “Batata” Silva def. Flavio Luis Moura by TKO(referee stoppage).
Fabricio “PitBull” Monteiro def. Paulo Boiko by rear naked choke.