Mixed Martial Arts has a long and colourful history, which not only spans the best part of the 20th century, but can also trace its origins to the ancient Olympics.  Here in the UK, we have only had professional MMA events for a few years, but things have already reached a point where we are able to enjoy high quality shows that deliver the kind of action and drama only mixed martial arts can provide.

In the ever-growing UK scene Ultimate Combat has established itself as one of the premier promotions, and on the 20th June they held their tenth event in Kidderminster.  Consistently featuring hard-hitting matches between the UK’s finest and highly ranked foreign challengers, Ultimate Combat X saw some truly memorable fights take place.

Headlining was World Light-heavyweight Champion Pierre Guillet, facing off against the Frenchman Matthias Riccio.  Standing in for his injured brother, Matthias replaced would-be challenger Damien, the veteran of an infamous bare knuckle challenge match with a clan-member of the most famous Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu family, Robin Gracie.

Also featured was “The Colossus” James Thompson, the fearsome heavyweight fighter from Bristol.  At 6’5 and 120kg, he was to meet a man similar in stature; the Georgian Giant Tengiz Tedoradze.  At 6’3 and 110kg, Tedoradze would be Thompson’s toughest test to date, and this promised to be a tough test of the canvas floor as well- with 230kg flying about!

With an undercard consisting of a multitude of potential headline matches, UK fighters such as Matt Ewin, Ross Mason, Paul Sutherland, and Robbie Olivier took on foreign opponents Tony Torres, Patrick Suhl, Franco DeLeonardis and Marcello Ferreira.  The crowd were set for a night of excitement, and weren’t disappointed.

Pierre Guillet vs Matthias Riccio
International Superfight

As a headlining fight, the fans could not have wished for anything better.  A frenetic yet technical fight, Team Ultimate Combat fighter Guillet came out with his usual relentless ground attacks, switching from submission to submission at a blistering pace.  Riccio’s strength saved him from a lot of the attempted submissions as he slammed his way out of triangles and shook off leglocks, and it was clear that Pierre had trouble dealing with Riccio’s power.  Matthias was regularly dropping big bombs while they were on the ground, yet throughout round one both fighters were getting dominant position on the ground, reversing each other often and attacking with strikes and submissions.

The 2nd round saw Riccio step it up a gear and capitalising on triangle attempt from Guillet’s guard, Riccio slammed his way out before passing and securing mount.  Unleashing a number of strikes it was a matter of time before Pierre would turn and expose his neck to a rear naked choke at 2 mins 58 secs.

Winner:  Matthias Riccio by Sumbission (Rear Naked Choke)

James Thompson vs Tengiz Tedoradze
European Heavyweight Superfight

A true battle of the giants took place in Kidderminster this evening, and Ultimate Combat fan favourite “The Colossus” James Thompson would face his stiffest test.  Ex-world Champion Greco-roman wrestler Tengiz is a force to be reckoned with and, as expected, the fight became a display of awesome wrestling ability from Tengiz.

Thompson answered a lot of questions regarding his stamina and heart, but was ultimately outclassed.  Having never endured a fight longer than 30 seconds, Thompson bravely battled through two five-minute rounds before the doctors called the stoppage. The exhausted Thompson was willing to carry on, but the fight could easily have been stopped a number of times.  Tengiz repeatedly took full mount and pounded away at Thompson, and while he may have bruised and battered the giant’s face, Thompson can walk away knowing his heart had not been broken.

Winner: Tengiz, TKO (doctor’s stoppage between rounds)

Lars Besand vs Nathan Schouteren
Middleweight World Title Eliminator

The sharp striker Schouteren got an early stoppage against the tough Dane Besand.  Caught by high kick early on, Besand was wobbled and on the back foot for the rest of the fight.  Chased down and battered against fence until he dropped, it was a disappointing showing from Lars, but he was caught cold and didn’t manage to display any of the wonderful skills we know he has.  Constantly looking for a clinch, he may have fared better on the ground but Schouteren played a perfect game plan and used his long arms and legs to keep on the outside and pepper him with strikes.

Winner:  Nathan Schouteren by TKO (strikes)

Patrick Suhl vs Ross Mason
Middleweight World Title Eliminator

Mason showed anyone and everyone why he is rightly called Ross “The Boss”.  He came out and hunted the game Suhl down and dominated every range.  Shutting down Suhl’s game early with a strong clinch he took the fight to the ground and proceeded to batter Suhl with a good mix of punches and elbows before cranking on a keylock for the win.  A highly charged Mason will be a handful for anyone in the next round of the middleweight Title race.

Winner:  Ross Mason by Submission (keylock)

Tony Torres vs Matt Ewin
 Middleweight World Title Eliminator

Matt Ewin has taken an impressive scalp here by beating a BJJ black belt.  Showing a somewhat usual approach to tackling such a dangerous grappler, Ewin used his strong takedowns to repeatedly take the fight to the mat!  With excellent submission avoidance, Ewin kept top position and constantly poured pressure on in the form of short punches and elbows.  Killing Torres’ hip movement by stacking against the fence, Matt had to dodge two extremely tight triangles but left no doubt to the judges as to who was the winner and went on to take a unanimous decision.

Winner:  Ewin by unanimous Judges decision

Marcelo Ferreira vs Robbie Olivier
 International Superfight

A 32 year old BJJ black belt under the legendary Carlson Gracie, Bocao was a veteran of esteemed Brazilian Vale Tudo show “Meca”.  Facing an extremely experienced opponent and one of the UK’s top lightweights Robbie Olivier, Bocao had his work cut out for him and found Olivier to be an extremely tough challenge.  Olivier usually struggles against good jiu-jitsu players and tonight found himself fighting out of some perilous positions, but gave as good as he got and took Bocao the distance.  In the end it was the Brazilian who got the nod, but Robbie raised his stock more so with that loss than he might have with a win against someone else.

Winner:  Marcello Ferreira by unanimous Judges decision. 

Phil MacCall vs Sami Berik
European Bout

In a seesaw battle Judo stylist MacCall managed to overcome the UK San-Shou Champion Berik by way of a submission.  Berik came out hard and fast with a flying knee, but MacCall showed great composure in repeatedly taking down Berik before applying a choke for the first round victory.
 
Winner:  MacCall by Submission (Rear Naked Choke)

Peter Angerer vs Javier Garcia
Welterweight World Title Eliminator Final

2 times Thai-boxing Champion and German Top Team member, Angerer came out predictably throwing sharp strikes, displaying his talents as a great kickboxer.  Garcia, however, has phenomenal ground skills, enough to make even MMA-veteran Angerer look average, and it was a matter of time before the Spaniard had him on his back.  Constantly kneeing and punching while controlling Angerer on the ground, Garcia soon opened a cut over the German’s eye, and in the second round used his ground strikes to set up a lightening fast armlock at 3.23 of round two.

Winner:  Javier Garcia by Submission (keylock)

Franco De Leonardis vs Paul Sutherland
Lightweight European Superfight

Surprisingly, this turned out to be a very one-sided fight.  The German Top Team member used good hip throws, and tossed Sutherland twice from the clinch before gaining mount and then working to a rear naked choke.  Nobody expected it to be quite so quick or easy for DeLeonardis, especially against the very tough and experienced Sutherland, but in this sport it often can be hard to predict what will happen.  Sutherland seemed a shadow of his usual self, and one can only speculate what might have affected his performance.

Winner:  Franco DeLeonardis by Submission (Rear Naked Choke)

Vitelmo Kubis Bandeira vs Mick Broster
Middleweight World Title Eliminator

In a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it encounter, the Brazilian Thai-boxer Vitelmo Bandiera AKA. Cubis Katel came out and scored an flash TKO, a brutal shot that caught Broster completely unawares.  Feinting and dropping his level for a brief moment, Brosters hands came down just enough for Katel to send a huge right cross over the top.  Stunning Broster, he pounced on the fallen fighter and pounded on him until the referee dragged him off after only 18 seconds. 

Winner: Vitelmo Bandiera by TKO

Dave Campbell vs Roger Woodward
Lightweight Bout

Woodward gave a classy display of grappling in his first pro-rules fight.  A seasoned veteran of the Combat Sports Open Trials amateur circuit, he was visibly nervous on stepping up to full pro-rules, but stuck to his game plan and smoothly took an armbar from mount without so much as a scratch for his efforts.

Winner:  Roger Woodward by Submission (Armbar)

Thomas Henrichsen vs Wesley Murch
Welterweight European Bout

The team-mate of Lars Besand, the experienced Henrichsen was making his Ultimate Combat debut, facing off against tough Judo Champion Wesley Murch.  Murch showed good strength in the clinch and excellent base on the ground, controlling Henrichsen throughout for a well-deserved decision win.
 
Winner:  Murch by unanimous decision. 

Summary

The Middleweight Title eliminators have identified four hot prospects and as a result, two mouth watering matches.  With Matt Ewin, Kubis Katel, Ross Mason and Nathan Schouteren all set to square off for the esteemed Ultimate Combat World Middleweight Title, the next instalment of Ultimate Combat will be hotly anticipated.