AUTHOR: DENIS MARTINS ~ IMAGES: LEONARDOMONTEIRO/JORNAL DO VALE-TUDOMinotauro Fights 5, undefeated fighters kept their resume intact.
For the first time the Minotauro Fights was held outside the state of Bahia (Brazil) in last December 9th when the city of Sao Bernardo do Campo in Sao Paulo was the stage for the fifth edition of the show.The city is located at the metropolitan region of Sao Paulo and this fact attracted less fans than expected, however who was at the audience watched 13 very good combats, where only one was decided by the judges.
The fighters who surpassed the expectations at this show were three tough ones who kept their resume undefeated: Banha, Feijao and Crocota beat their opponent by unanswerable way. At the weigh-ins the size of Wagner Ribeiro of BTT, was a fact which impressed. Debuting in MMA events, the Murilos Bustamante’s student weighed 111kgs and this worried a little his opponent, the undefeated Luis Artur “Banha” (Gracie SP/Gibi Thai), who weighed96kgs and was coming of a victory at the Fury FC, held 10 days before. Supported by the audience, Banha saw himself being clinched early at round one- however he got to escape from the grip and took the giant of BTT down. Ribeiro showed an aggressive jiu jitsu, trying several submissions. But when he faltered, Banha soccer kicked Ribeiro’s head, who tapped out at 2:53 of firs stanza.
“The fight was good, but I expected a little more from Ribeiro, who weighed 165kgs more than I did. I was a bit feared of him, but it ended when I dominated the action” celebrated the undefeated student of Eduardo Plamponha who has six kos imposed into his career.
The other undefeated fighter of the night, Rafael Feijao (BTT) beat Rubens Macula (Team Werdini) by strikes from the mount position. After defending himself of the punches landed by Macula; Feijao took the fight down, got the mount and unloaded a barrage of punches- forcing the Team Werdini’s member to tap at 2:30 of first stanza.
Main event was the time to Edilberto Crocota (Champion/Team Minotauro) submits Lourenco Filho with an anaconda choke in 2:50 of first round. Crocota was very excited for this fight and impressed the crowd. They trade punches on the feet and Crocota connected more strikes and Filho shot, so Crocota sprawled and sunk an anaconda choke, finishing Filho.
Crocota licks Jorge Patino
After the victory, Crocota asked for the microphone and challenged Jorge “Macaco” Patino at screaming: -“I want to kick the Macaco’s ass”. Macaco went to the ring to accept the challenge and Crocota licked him in a weird scene. Macaco did get mad, and answered the challenge by saying Crocota was not professional fighter (due to thelick), but if the promoters pay his money, he’llfight anyone.
Marcelo “Grilo” Alfaia and Ediardo Maiorino lost their matches
At the other MMA fights, a lot of combatants – a bit unknown for the audience – did not save will power and finished the year with superb performances. Fernão (Tidi Vale-Tudo) showed a good game against Adson Preguica (Lotus Club/MMA). Both fighters performed very well with takedowns, submission attempts and a few foot stomp provided by Preguiça, who nearly got submitted twice(kneebar and guillotine choke). Preguica escaped from these submission attempts and imposed an efficient ground£. At third round Preguiça sunk triangles and armbars, very well defended by Fernao, who was gassed at this round. After the three rounds, the judges gave the unanimous decision to Preguica.
Into the most controversial match of the night, Marcelo “Grilo” Alfaia (BTT) was fighting pretty well against Marcos Rodrigues (MGT), during whole round one. Grilo punched well on the feet, took Rodrigues down twice and got a knockdown, where he took advantage to take the backs and nearly sunk a rear-naked-choke, but the bell rang. At the second stanza the situation was the inverse- Rodrigues was superior at avoiding the Grilo’s takedowns and imposed a effective punishment over the BTT fighter, who only got to take the fight down close of the end of the round. The round three was to show who was better to come across like the winner, and the fight had a weird outcome when Grilo shot Rodrigues sprawled and stomped the Grilo’s face twice. When Rodrigues prepared himself to a soccer kick, the referee stopped thecontest decreeing a TKO at 1:30 of third stanza. Grilo screamed: “You robbed me!” while the referee stated: -“He was nearly with lights off. If I allowed the punishment this could generate a huge damage to him.
K-1 Brazil 2003 standout and veteran of K-1 USA 2003 Elimination, Eduardo Maiorino (Team Maiorino) is living a hell into his fighter career, and this time his nightmare was Junior Cigano (Champion/Team Minotauro). Maiorino had no chances when the Rodrigo “Minotauro” Nogueira’s Cigano sunk a tight guillotine choke overcoming the K-1 expert in premature 50 seconds. After this fight the local fight Alexandre “Sagat” Brandão (ABC Fighters) faced Gil Freitas of Never Shake. This was the most balanced fight of whole night, where we watched Sagat seeking for the fight on the feet (and defending himself of the teakedowns), while Freitas got a few takedowns and ground£s inside the guard of Sagat. Round #2 Freitas gets the mount position and dominates, but Sagat survives. Twice on this fight the will power of Freitas into the takedown attempts was so huge, that both fighters fell out of the ring. At the end of the three rounds Freitas was declared winner by split decision.
-Minotauro Fights 5, full results-December 9thSão Bernardo do Campo – Brazil
Muay Thai:
Higor dos Santos (Muay Thai Brasil) def. Sergio Vieira (Gibi Thai/Pamplona) by decision
Marcos Rogério “Pezão” (Never Shake) def. Júlio Cesar (Brazilian Muay Thai) by TKO – R2
Tadeu San Martino (Never Shake) def. José Carlo “Torrão” (MG) by TKO / 2:36 – R1
Boxing:Joilson Baiano (Champion/Team Minotauro) def. Jose Claudio da Silva by TKOErivan Conceição (Champion/Team Minotauro) def. Joselito dos Santos by KO / 1:36 – R1
Silvia Zacarias (ARG) def. Letícia Rojo (Top Spin/Big Ball) by split decision
MMA:
Adson Preguica (Lotus Club/MMA) def. Fernão (Tidi Vale-Tudo) by decision
Marcos Rodriguez (Macaco Gold Team) def. Marcelo “Grilo” Alfaia (BTT) by TKO / 1:30 – R1
Gil Freitas (Never Shake) def. Alexandre “Sagat” Brandão (ABC Fighters) by split decision
Junior Cigano (Champion/Minotauro Team) def. Eduardo Maiorino (Team Maiorino) by guillotine choke / 50s – R1
Luis Artur “Banha” (Gracie SP/Gibi Thai) def. Wagner Ribeiro (BTT) by submission / 2:53 – R1
Rafael Feijao (Team Minotauro) def. Macula (TeamWerdini) by submission / 2:30 – R1
Edilberto Crocota (Champion/Team Minotauro) def. Lourenco Filho (Infight /Top Brother) by anaconda choke / 2:40 – R1