Mega Fight 2 – The action fires the cold Mountains in the South of Brazil Bento Golcalves, May 6th- A real display of MMA – where the muay thai was the main ingredient – packed the action in the first weekend of May at Municipal Gymnasium of Bento Goncalves The promoter of the event and head coach of Grarra Team, Eduardo Virissimo, kept the same formula of the first edition with Muay Thai fights, but this time he inserted 2 fights of MMA and 2 of BJJ between the 16 fights of this second edition of Mega Fight. The contests in the three modalities were basically challenges between Garra Team and teams from the neighboring cities like Caxias do Sul and Porto Alegre. The final outcome was the impressive score of 14-2 in the Garra’s favor. Fighters who surpassed the expectations at the Muay Thai combats were John Calduro and Marci Acogueiro who landed their opponents Jorge Moura and Rogerio Menna respectivelly to the canvas by KO and TKO. Calduro was protagonist of a beautiful high-kick which connected in the Moura’s chin and drove him immediately to the canvas. A fight ala Rocky Balboa vs. Apollo Creed- when Marlon Santos (Muay Thai Sul) got to block the greater will-power of the local idol Diego Stone of Garra. Stone had more chances early in the match to finish the fight by strikes, and I guess it cost him a lack of stamina into R2 and R3. Santos got a few counter-attacks and it kept Stone at a safe distance, avoiding the better straight and crosses of Stone. The fight extended itself to R2 and R3 and Santos came batter with punches. The drop of Stone seemed to be a question of a combo, but bravely (ala Rocky) he kept standing while Santo dominated the pace. Final of the match and Santo came across like the winner by decision. Seivakai’s Alan Magoni, known like Tsunami- displayed his repertoire of fly knees and kicks and spinning-kicks to dictate the pace of the match against Adriano Cesar of Physoicus. In a few occasions the kicks of Mangoni, missed and opened gaps to Cesar punched him, forcing Mangoni to clinch, but did not harm Mangoni’s victory which came by decision. In the BJJ meetings, the Garra team athletes easily overwhelmed their adversaries of Clan Caxias, by arm-triangle and points. The MMA fights are always the moment that all the audience expects to see when an event has a formula such as Mega Fight did. So when the first two fighters entered the ring, the fans were excited about what they were going to see in that first valetudo match.
The Garra team representative Nelson Velasques seemed to feel the pressure of fighting in his city, and was totally dominated inside the two first rounds by Lindomar Silva. Velasquez was really out of sync with his corner who screamed instructions never heard by a scared Velasques. By his side, Lindomar mopped-up Velasques on the ground and connected a huge punch which left the Velasques’ eye swollen. Nobody expected a different final result than a victory of Silva, however Velasques had other intentions when local audience screamed his name. They clinched and hit the ropes at R3, Velasques landed two strikes and Silva fell, dropping on the mat, Velasques followed him and unloaded knees and punches forcing referee Helio Dipp to jump between them to stop the contest. A high noise done by the crowd and by won Velasques who seemed not to believe in what had happened. “I always said to Velasques, the ‘fight is only finished when it is really finished’, and he followed my suggestion” stated his coach Virissimo. At the main-event two Leandro Costa faced Leandro Frois in an exciting 3 round fight in which Costa controlled the action. Frois was a warrior because even he suffered a tough punishment such as foot-stomps and a catch of the backs followed by a mount position from where Costa mauled him, he resisted until the final. Frois had his small good moments on the fight when it was standing and they exchanged punches frankly, forcing Costa to walk back and change the strategy. Into R2, Costa realized Frois had a problem in his left knee and started on kicking it and putting Frois in butt-scoot position all opportunities. R3 had the same pace of R2, but Costa seemed to have a problem, because all the time he was more than close to finish Frois by strikes he hesitated – so after 3 rounds judges scored Costa by unanimous decision. Later, the corner man of Costa informed us that he had broken his ribs at first round and even so kept himself tough during whole 3 rounds. Full results:
Muay Thai Tiago Baiano (Garra) def. Marco Ribeiro (Mota) by decision
Marcos Fonseca (Mota) def. Tiago Naifa (Garra) by TKO [doctor stoppage] – R3
Edson Souza (Garra) def. Wagner dos Santos (Mota) by decision
John Calduro (Garra) def. Jorge Moura (Physicus) by KO – R1
Estevam Benica (Garra) def. Guilherme Cottirenko(Brutus) by decision
Marlon Santos (Muay Thai Sul) def. Diego Stone (Garra)by decision
Marcio Açogueiro (Garra) def. Rogerio Menna (Mota) byTKO – R2
Lizandro Caldeira (Garra) def. Maciel Ferreira (Pride)by decision
Deivid Bittencourt (Pride) def. Jonatan Manfio(Alvorada) by decision
Alam “Tsunami” Mangoni (Seivakai) def. Adriano Cesar(Physicus) by decision
Douglas de Andrade (Garra) def. Tiago Pantera (Brutus)by TKO[verbal tapout] – R2 Ladies:
Giordana Roth (Garra) def. Cristiane de Paula (PauloErexim) by decision BJJ:
Andre Cristofoli (Garra) submitted Rafael Toqueto(Clan Caxias) by arm-triangle
Vagner Zanela (Garra) over Marcos Miranda (ClanCaxias) by points MMA:
Nelson Velaquez (Garra) def. Lindomar Silva (Muay ThaiSul) by TKO[referee stoppage] – R3
Leandro Costa (Garra) def. Leandro Frois (Brutus) bydecision – R3