On what turned out to be a nice night in Central California, World Extreme Cagefighting held it’s third show at the Palace Indian Casino in front of around 3500 enthusiastic fans. This event presented the crowd with two title matches, and the emergence of two lightweight contenders that in my opinion could end up making major waves in the world of MMA.
The Main Event of the night pitted Aaron Brink against Zane Frazier for the WEC Heavyweight Title. For most of Brink’s career he has been fighting at around 235lbs, but tonight he stepped into the cage at an impressively ripped 210. Zane Frazier tipped the scales at 270lbs, and was looking to use the weight advantage to his favor. The fight started with the two circling and exchanging a few punches.
Brink then went for and proceeded to take down Frazier landing him up against the fence. From there Brink grounded and pounded a defensive minded Frazier until referee Mason White stopped the fight at 37 seconds of the first round. Brink is now training with Team Punishment, and will be stepping up his competition with several major fights already scheduled in the coming months.
The Co-Main Event of the night featured another Team Punishment member in Jimmy Terrel from Huntington Beach, CA against Travis Doerge from Olympia, WA for the WEC Lightweight Title belt. Both of these fighters were definitely looking to give the other their first loss. The fight started with each fighter exchanging mostly jabs and low kicks until Terrell scored a double-leg takedown of Doegre that landed him in brief side-mount control. Doegre relying on his ground experience quickly pulled guard and was able to control Terrell long enough for the referee to stand the two back up to their feet.
Once on their feet Terrell shot in and scored a highflying double-leg takedown that this time put Doegre up against the fence. Terrell unleashed a flurry of punches and knees to the face that enabled him to achieve full mount, where he reigned down more punches until the referee called a halt to the fight at 3:39 of round one.
Crunkilton systematically picked apart and bloodied SLO kickboxing’s Cruz Gomez until the referee stopped the fight at 3:04 of the first round.
The fight started with Crunkilton showing his impressive standup abilities against a tough Gomez. With a jab that could not miss it’s target Crunkilton had Gomez’s nose bleeding just seconds into the contest. After taking repeated shots to the face the fight was stopped to let the doctor check on Gomez. The doctor decided that Gomez could continue and they restarted the action. Unfortunately for Gomez the rest of the fight provided much of the same until the referee had no choice but to stop the fight because of the amount of blood that was pouring from his face.
The other impressive showing of the night came from Cole Escovedo who used his triangle choke to get the win over Paul Morris.
The fight started with the two throwing simultaneous rights that left Morris with a bloody nose, and Escovedo jumping to guard immediately after. From there Escovedo was able to secure a tight triangle choke that had Morris nose bleeding quite profusely. Morris had no recourse but to tap at 29 seconds into the first round. Escovedo and Crunkilton were both very impressive with their showings, and will most likely be looking to step up their level of competition in the near future.
In the nights other action, SLO kickboxing’s Eric Swartz defended an armbar attempt by Glover Teixeira in the first round en route to a solid ground and pound TKO victory at 3:33 of the second.
Schwartz was able to avoid the early takedown and submission attempts of Texeira in the first round, and started to dominate Texeira in the second. With Texeira tiring from his unsuccessful takedown attempts, Schwartz used punches, elbows, and knees to the face and body of Texeira until the referee called a halt to the bout.
Julian Sherk put yet another loss in the record of Shannon "The Cannon" Ritch. Julian came out and endured a couple of high kicks before getting the takedown and landing in Ritch’s guard. In quick fashion he was able to gain side-mount and land a couple of punches to which “The Cannon” verbally submitted at 1:57 into the fight. This fight along with some of “The Cannon’s” recent performances leaves me wondering if he should reassess his fighting career.
Pat Minihan dominated Eddie Ellis over the course of three rounds en-route to a unanimous decision victory. Minihan who defended against a kneebar and heelhook attempt from Ellis early in the fight was able to achieve mount position towards the end of the first, second, and third rounds, but was never able to finish the fight from there.
Jason Pratt had a little trouble early on against a lanky and quick Jack Cardenas, but was finally able to secure a takedown in the first round. After Pratt scored the takedown he proceeded to ground-and-pound until Cardenas turned and gave his back. Pratt then sunk in a rear naked choke that Cardenas tapped to at 3:21 of round one.
Anthony Hamlett took almost the full three rounds before finally getting the referee to stop the fight against Caleb Mitchell. Round one saw some brief standup action before Mitchell jumped to guard. Hamlet then proceeded to ground-and-pound Mitchell for the remainder of the first.
The second round saw Hamlet start to get the better of the standup exchanges, and Mitchell starting to tire. Hamlet achieved two takedowns, and controlled most of the action throughout the round. The third saw more of the same with Hamlet finally getting the mount position on a severely tired Mitchell, and reigning down punches until the referee finally halted the bout at 3:45 of round three.
