Event Title: Ultimate Challenge UK: Mayhem
Event Date: 19 September 2009
Event Venue: The Troxy
Event Location: London
Date submitted: 21 September 2009
Submitted by: Jimmy Page
In the main event, 'Kent's Hardest Man' Ben "HW" Smith tangled with the monstrous Amokrane Sabet for the Ultimate Challenge Super-heavyweight title. Sabet was surprisingly agile for such a hugely muscular fighter and sprawled beautifully to avoid several takedowns from his more experienced opponent, before landing several heavy punches which clearly had Smith in trouble.
To his credit, Smith persisted with his attempts to close the distance and was rewarded with the takedown as he was finally able to drag Sabet to the ground. The difference in skill level on the floor was clear and Smith glided straight past his opponent's guard and quickly caught hold of a powerful arm triangle choke to seal an impressive win.
Media darling and eccentric kickboxer, Alex "The Detonator" Reid was heavily booed by the sell-out Troxy crowd as he made his way to the cage. However, the Aldershot fighter still managed to put on a decent performance as he successfully defended his UK-1 middleweight title with a razor-thin decision over Jack "The Stone" Mason.
The crowd roared in support of Mason who soon cut Reid over the eye with a glancing left hook. No stranger to the sight of his own blood, Reid fought on undeterred and greeted cutsman Paul Marchant like an old friend as he entered the cage between rounds.
Both fighters landed hard knees in the second, but Reid appeared to creep ahead on the score cards with the cleaner work in the third and won a unanimous decision which was roundly booed by the audience.
London Shootfighter, Francis Hegany tore the Ultimate Challenge lightweight title away from Tim Radcliffe with a tight guillotine to conclude an entertaining back and forth grappling encounter. The incumbent champion controlled large swathes of the action, repeatedly taking Heagney's back and landing some heavy shots.
However, Heagney kept his head and caught hold of a nasty guillotine which forced Radcliffe to headspring across his opponent in an attempt to escape; however, Heagney's guard followed, allowing him to tighten up the hold to win the promotion's lightweight title.
In a scrappy light-heavyweight contest, Jamie Hearn seemed to get the better of the exchanges with Mike "LHW" Edwards, prompting the London Shootfighter to propel him to the floor with a nifty hip throw. Once grounded, Edwards went to work and battered Hearn until he forced the tap at 2.13 of the first round.
'The Immortal' Wesley Murch continued to resurrect his promising career with a handy submission win over the massively improved Team Titan fighter, Mark Smith. Murch scored with an early take down, but Smith soon powered his way into top position and began a nasty ground assault.
To his credit, Murch was able to shrug off the beating, threatening with a tight armbar before cranking on a deep kimura in the dying seconds of the fight which sent Smith rolling a summersault before tapping to avoid serious ligament damage.
Great friends, Jake "Brutal" Bostwick and Chris Harman hugged at the beginning of each round but still managed to bring a great deal of venom to their fight. Harmon was the cuter of the two in the stand up, feinting and jabbing, whilst true to form, Bostwick surged forward with vicious but largely avoidable bombs.
However, in the final stanza, Bostwick slammed the Welshman down hard, quickly moving to mount position. After a flurry of hard punches, Harmon was forced to scramble, but in doing so inadvertently gave up his back. An exhausted Bostwick clamped on the rear naked choke which forced Harmon to tap.
Semtex gym product, Colin French repeatedly slammed his way out of deep trouble as Liam Etebar persisted with a tenacious armbar attempt in the early stages of their welterweight contest. Finally free, and no doubt suffering with an extremely sore elbow, French poured all of his energy into a burst of ground-and-pound midway through the first round, forcing the referee to call a halt to the bout.
Cheered on by a crowd of enthusiastic, but slightly blood-thirsty fans, John Kelly put in a very tidy performance as he dissected and dispatched tough wrestler Keith Singh over two rounds. Kelly destroyed his opponent's front leg with a hellish series of low kicks and bashed his face into a swollen mess. After dominating both rounds, Kelly scrambled to his opponent's back in the closing moments of the second to claim victory with a rear naked choke.
Dan Movahedi continued his career reconstruction by hammering Michael Sidwell out of the game in less that 2 minutes. Movahedi countered an ill-advised side-headlock with a beautiful suplex and battered his way to the win as his opponent turtled up to avoid further punishment.
Bloodline fighter, Jimmy "The Teeth" O'Keefe steamrolled Danny Beevor with punches from the mount in the first round. O'Keefe bossed the action on the floor and quickly made his way to the mount where he unleashed a vicious 30 punch combination, old school style.
Wolfslair fighter, Mark Adams fought very aggressively as he stormed to a second round victory over Simon Gill. The newcomer battered his opponent in the stand up exchanges and on the mat, before claiming victory with a tight guillotine choke.
In the first fight of the night, Shane Omar took a leaf out of the Gabriel Gonzaga playbook as he came out and immediately smashed his opponent's testicles with a dubious inside low kick. Marcus Thomas took a couple of minutes to recover and bravely fought on, but soon succumbed to a tight kimura from side control.
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