Rio MMA Challenger 2- Review and pictures!
BTT’s power house dumped at main-event!
June 21th, Campo Grande- Rio de Janeiro,With a lackluster line-up [if compared with the first edition] Rio MMA Challenger 2 took place at West Show night-club and tried to please the crowd by a few up & coming fighters and other weird attractions on the card. Of course even with the best intentions possible, a fiasco nearly occurred in co-main event when one of the promoter’s hopes got disqualified by hitting the opponent when they dropped out of the ring. We saw in the promoter’s face a depiction from giving an unknown local fighter the benefit of spotlights in co main-event.
However not only of nightmares was composed the atmosphere of the show. Soon in first fight the tough Eduardo Felipe won a unanimous decision against Roberto Vieira. The tactic of Felipe was to take Vieira down and work on the ground & pound. But he found himself frustrated at first takedowns attempts. Vieira survived and kept the match on the feet, and they kept themselves clinched at the ropes. Vieira tried to knee Eduardo, who until then didn’t acquire what he was looking for, the takedown. It seemed Vieira would fit his better standing game, while Eduardo tried without success to take the fight down. They circled around the ring clinched and met the neutral corner, so finally Felipe reached the angle to slam Vieira and to start a furious unload of punches, nearly all of them connected and referee positioned himself near the fighter to stop the contest. However Vieira resisted and grabbed Felipe’s arms. Even so the punishment didn’t stop, but Vieira survived until the final of 1st stanza. After spending so much energy in R1, Felipe managed his stamina in the following rounds at control the pace by circling Vieira around. Vieira tried to chase Felipe and they tangled and went to the ground. Vieira was in a good position when he sunk a toe-hold and worked on it to finish. Felipe resisted and turned the position staying in the Vieira’s guard, punches were exchanged on the ground and Felipe took R2 too. R3 was all or nothing for Vieira, but the lack of enough stamina made him to not be very effective against Felipe, who was extremely exhausted. Both fighters did what they could and went to the score cards which indicated Felipe by unanimous decision.
War of strikes on the feet at the fight involving BTT’s Eraldo Paes and Fabio Abreu of Rio Fight; when both fighters didn’t walk away from a frank trade of blows. With Paes being the more refined on the feet, the hand bombs of Abreu connected and cut the eyebrow of Paes. Bleeding a lot early on the fight, Paes balanced the R1 by his ultimate efforts and didn’t refuse any game on the feet. Abreu wanted to stop Paes on the feet, and he kept himself throwing punches, Paes had to shoot for takedowns and to prevent himself from a doctor stoppage due to the intense bleeding. The fight was stopped for the doctor check the Paes’ cut, but he was able to proceed. Paes’ cut became the main key for the victory of Abreu on this match. Because Paes had to avoid the trade of blows and shot takedowns attempts desperately, Abreu walked away from this fight with a victory by majority decision.
Jorge Britto of Gracie Tijuca collided BTT’s debut fighter Fernando Paulon in a classic chess match of who was going to be on the top. Both fighters didn’t explore much the trade of strikes on the feet. We saw kicks and punches, and but it was unlikely any of them would knock each other out. Paulon took Britto down and worked with punches, Britto used his experience to avoid an injury and control (even on the bottom) Paulon’s best game in R1. R2 and R3 was a dominance of Brito who pummeled Paulon when the fight was on the ground and administered the victory by decision after taking the back and nearly choking Paulon out.
Gracie Barra Combat Team representative Amilcar Alves didn’t have any problems with Bad Boy this match. The bell sounded and Alves shot successfully. Bad Boy didn’t see moves of Alves, who passed the guard, landed a few strikes and pushed BadBody to the north/south position. BadBoy was scared, and when tried to remove Amilcar from the top, he was victim of a tight anaconda choke to tap in less than 2 minutes of fight.
Craziness! This is what I should say about Joao “Maluco” Torquato in the co-main event of the show. During the rules meeting Maluco (which means crazy in Portuguese language) was the guy who didn’t agree with all the rules established by the organizers and he tried to convince them to change a few of them. He got the changes, however anything could support him when Fabiano Farney sprawled all takedowns attempt of Torquato and landed jabs to cut his mouth. Torquato lack of preparedness was evident and after a weird beginning in R2, both guys, who were heavyweights, dropped out of the ring. In an insane attitude Torquato kicked a downed Farney on the ground and a riot nearly started. Promoter Jorge Turco with his staff managed the solution of the problems generated by Torquato’s insanity, while the own Torquato fainted on the ground due to a problem in his arterial pressure. The medial staff took care of Torquato who got disqualified in R2.
Main-event put the new project of BTT, the power house Rosimar Toquinho against tall and calm Artur Cesar of Top Brothers. In the first minutes of the fight, Toquinho shot and Cesar (still on the feet) worked a triangle, Toquinho lifted him more, walked around the ring and totally and thunderously slammed Cesar near of the neutral corner! Cesar was calm enough and not provided many gaps for Toquinho, who after it tried and armbar and an armlock. In my opinion these attempts of Toquinho were his ultimate opportunities on that fight, because he couldn’t let the fight go to R2 and R3 due to the difference of 10kgs in the favor of Cesar. Cesar knew that Toquinho couldn’t keep that initial pace during the following rounds. And then he stalled safety the fight when he was on thebottom, and Toquinho tried his arsenal of submissions, but Cesar (a BJJ black-belt) knew how to avoid all of them We didn’t see many hits landed by either fighter in R1, who preferred to trade submission attempts. So the R1’s bell – indicating the end of this round – sounded and Cesar got to impose what he had in mind, to control the power of Toquinho in R1. Soon R2 started and Cesar had a different attitude, when he reached the top position when the fight hit the ground, and unleashed strikes several times in the face of Toquinho. This situation happened a lot of times during the R2, dominated by Cesar. It was impressive as Cesar saved enough stamina to perform in R3, while Toquinho didn’t get to shoot anymore and had to try inaccurate spinning-kicks which didn’t reach the target. Cesar was the right road for the victory and didn’t jeopardize himself in committing a mistake. He only went ahead of Toquinho when he knew he couldn’t provide any counter attack. Even though the fight didn’t have many exciting moments in R3, it had enough moments to convince the judges Cesar was better and it had no doubts, Cesar by decision!
See more images @:http://www.revistanet.com.br/album.asp?Festa=1534&Pagina=1&FotoInicial=1http://www.revistanet.com.br/album.asp?Festa=1534&Pagina=2&FotoInicial=21http://www.revistanet.com.br/album.asp?Festa=1534&Pagina=3&FotoInicial=41
~Results~
Muay Thai:70kgs – Claudiere (BTT) KO’d Anderson Guinho (Aktberj/NU) at 29s of R1
90kgs – Marcos Felipe (Indio Team) KO’d Guaraci Junior (Nocaute) at 1:00 of R3
MMA:65kgs – Eduardo Felipe (Beto Padilha Team) unanimous decision over Roberto Vieira (Top Brothers)
70kgs – Fabio Abreu (Rio Fight) split decision Eraldo Paes (BTT)
76kgs – Jorge Brito (Gracie Tijuca) unanimous decision over Fernando Paulon (BTT)
85kgs – Almicar Alves (GBCT) def. Bad Boy (Beto Padilha Team) byanaconda-choke at 1min29s of 1R
100kgs – Fabiano Farney (Ono Fight) def. Joao “Maluco” Torquato (Nocaute) by disqualification in R2
95kgs – Arthur Cesar “Gogo” (Top Brothers) majority decision Rosimar Toquinho (BTT)