Cage Rage 24: Feel the Pain - Event Report by Costas Athinodorou
Event Title: Cage Rage 24: Feel the Pain
Event Date: 01 December 2007
Event Venue: Wembley Arena
Event Location: London
Date submitted: 04 December 2007
Submitted by: Costas Athinodorou
Cage Rage and Elite XC joined forces to bring a card that combined title fights with the usual intriguing Cage Rage domestic dust ups, in what was an entertaining, if not spectacular, night of fights. With the UFC’s global domination setting in, based on the talent brought in for this card, Cage Rage aren’t going to roll over any time soon.
Recently dethroned Elite XC ex-champion ‘Ninja’ stepped up against Pokam, who has been on a tear as of late, demonstrating an increasingly dangerous skill set. These skills were not enough to see him through to victory against Rua, however, who came through a few sticky patches to pull off an impressive second round win.
The first round started with both fighters circling and being cautious, exchanging leg kicks. A good low kick from Pokam took Rua’s legs from under him, but he popped right back up and fired back with hard low kicks of his own again. Pokam looked to counted Rua’s kicks with punches, but fell short with most. Both fighters seemed wary during most of the round, though Pokam did manage to upset Rua’s balance twice with low kicks, and once with a nice push kick. Pokam stepped it up a gear on the 10 second marker and seemed to wobble Rua with punches at the bell.
The second round began with Rua again throwing hard kicks, and landing. He tried for a takedown after eating a hard counter left from Pokam, but failed. Pokam again tried to step up his aggression with punches, though this time he found himself on the mat, courtesy of a Rua takedown. Though Pokam’s groundgame has improved, he found that he was no match for ‘Ninja’ on the mat, and was soon tapping courtesy of a rear naked choke that put Rua back on the road to redemption, and took some of the wind out of Pokam’s sails.
Cahoon served up notice that he has some heavy hands in this fight, putting away the tough, durable Sinosic in the first round more decisively than I have ever seen the Australian finished in the past. After a brief exchange Cahoon threw a vicious right hand that put Sinosic down and out, and followed with some ground and pound for the win seconds into the first round.
Weir almost put his run of bad luck behind him in this fight, but as they say, almost doesn’t quite cut it. Fickett immediately took Weir to the ground, well aware of the danger Weir presents on the feet with his range, speed and power. Weir scrambled to his feet and Fickett pulled half guard with a guillotine on, which Weir worked out of. What followed next was some vicious ground and pound that had Fickett on the verge of being taken out, and scrambling desperately for safety. Then the turning point came. Weir was in the middle of a ground and pound arsenal when Fickett hit a switch, and suddenly had Weir’s back. It didn’t take long from here for Fickett to work in his hooks and finish Weir off with a choke in what was an inspired comeback performance.
The first fight on the live broadcast saw Ross Pointon stopped on cuts against Marius Zaromskis in what was an exciting, fast paced fight. Pointon stalked Zaromskis for much of the first round, mixing up his arsenal with low and high kicks, and big punches. Zaromskis looked for more flashy techniques, such as flying knees, and at one point a spinning heel kick to the head-but these were not as effective as his low kicks and counter punches. Pointon looked sharp on his feet however, and wobbled Zaromskis twice towards the closing of round 1.
In round two Pointon again hurts Zaromskis with a right, and Zaromskis gives ground, firing low kicks. Pointon couldn’t catch up to the elusive fighter, however, and soon Zaromskis was back to looking for his flying knees and high kicks. After taking a hard right hand back from Zaromskis, Pointon shot in and got the takedown. Suddenly blood covered both fighters, and the ref called the doctor who immediately stopped the fight-Pointon had been sliced open above his eye in another Marvin Eastman style gash. It was hard to see where the cut came from, but replays made it look as if a grazing knee as he shot in ripped him open-whatever the cause, it was an unfortunate end to what was shaping up to be a tough, entertaining scrap. Both fighters showed improvement here and a rematch to settle the score properly is a must.
Prior to the live event, Robbie Olivier and Abdul Mohamed clashed in a British Lightweight title match. While a great fight on paper, the two tough wrestlers cancelled each other out, with the majority of the fight spent with Robbie pushing Abdul on the fence looking for the takedown, and Abdul throwing knees to his body. Abdul was clearly the more powerful fighter, however he was out-positioned for much of the fight, and surprisingly Robbie hung with him in the wrestling - however the judges decided that Abdul done more damage with his short knees from inside, and defended the takedowns well enough to pull off a majority decision in a tough stalemate of a fight.
Mark Epstein and Tom Watson failed to deliver the fireworks both promised, and traded hard low kicks and takedowns throughout their fight. Watson threatened while on his back, whereas Epstein was somewhat static from the guard. Epstein maintained the top position for longer in the fight, however, piling up the points for control. While he didn’t do quite the damage Watson did on the ground, he landed some spiteful low kicks standing, and coupled with his control, this was enough to pull out the split decision win.
Late replacement Mark Buchanan welcomed George Castro to the world of MMA with some absolutely vicious leg kicks that had Castro limping by the second round, though not beaten, as he continued to wing in right hands looking for the finish. Buchanan stayed sharp, however, and followed one evil low kick with a nice combination of punches that made Castro crumble to the mat in defeat.
Ivan Serati steamrolled Lee Hasdell in their fight, taking him down and will and punishing him on the ground. Serati locked up an armbar at the close of round 1, and had Hadsell’s arm fully extended in what would surely have been a fight ender, with the bell coming just in time to save Lee.
It wouldn’t save him for long, however, as Serati took him down early in the second, mounted, and began to punish. Once Hadsell turned his back Serati sunk in the choke for the win.
Robert "Buzz" Berry put on a near-clinic against the truly enormous Neil Grove, who couldn’t use his huge size to any real advantage during the fight, other than to avoid an early takedown. During one wild exchange ‘Buzz’ used more disciplined strikes to tag and drop Grove heavily, and followed with ground and pound from the mount. By the end of the round, however, Berry had punched himself out and couldn’t come out for the second round-must to the disdain of the crowd.
Overall it was a solid night of fights with most being tactical stand up wars-not edge of the seat stuff, but entertaining none the less.
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