SportFight XIX POST-FIGHT REPORT
Posted on | May 7, 2007 | No Comments
Press Release
Story and Photos by Greg Peterson / Greg’s Photography Inc.
SportFight XIX
Cinco de Mayhem
Saturday, May 5, 2007 in Portland, Oregon at the Rose Garden Arena, Matt “The Law” Lindland and Randy “The Natural” Couture once again produced an incredible night of fights. SportFight XIX, otherwise known as “Cinco de Mayhem” gave the audience everything they could want in a mixed martial arts event. There were 11 fights on the card that included a highly anticipated Main Event rematch between Enoch Wilson vs. Travis Bush. By the end of the night there were 2 KOs, 4 Tapouts, 3 Referee stoppages, 1 disqualification for biting, and 1 unanimous decision. Out of 11 fights only one went to judges score cards and once again it was the Main Event between Wilson and Bush. These two warriors previously battled at SportFight 18 in a fight that went the distance and ended in a draw. This time around the judges unanimously decided that Travis Bush pushed the action and received the win to become the new SportFight Champion.
The Co-Main Event could definitely be considered Mayhem. Everyone knew that Ed Nuno vs Eddy Ellis could only result in an all out war. Both fighters have displayed their skills and abilities in previous SportFights, and by doing so have built an incredible fan base. The SportFight fans were almost evenly split on who they wanted to win and cheered the fighters thru the entire fight. There was never a dull moment in this fight, both fighters exchanged kicks and punches. Ellis did get a couple of takedowns and caught Nuno in a rear naked choke that seemed to be the end of the fight. However, Nuno escaped the choke and reversed the action with his well known “Bam Bam” style and Knocked Out Ellis at 4:53 of Round 2. The new SportFight Welterweight Champion is Team Quest’s own Ed “Bam Bam” Nuno, and no one was happier than the former Welterweight Champion and Team Quest teammate Chris “The Professor” Wilson, who retired his belt due to being signed by the IFL.
Other Mayhem fights of the night included a submission by Team Quest’s Jon Krohn over Whisper Goodman. Krohn once again proves that he is a warrior in 205 lb. weight class and continues to give the crowd what they want….huge takedowns, amazing strikes, and nonstop action that included the final arm bar submission.
The Blake Fredicks vs James Birdsley fight could only be described as Mayhem. These two battled evenly exchanging punches, takedowns and reversals that kept the crowd on their feet. At one point Birdsley released a barrange of punches, Fredicks dropped his guard and smiled to the crowd and let Birdsley’s punches land. After taunting Birdsley, Fredicks started landing his barrage of punches and knocked out his opponents mouth piece several times. In the third round, while Fredicks was trying to secure an arm bar, Birdsley bites Fredicks inner thigh. Once Referee Dave Hagen was made aware of the bite and the doctor confirmed it, Hagen immediately disqualified Birdsley and informed him that was completely unacceptable. Definitely a Mayhem ending to what was a nonstop action fight.
For the first time in SportFight history, a fighter was taken out of the ring by medical personnel on a stretcher. An interesting fact when considering out of 19 SportFights and over 200 fights, this was the first competitor to be taken out of the ring on a stretcher, especially considering how often that happens in other professional sports. Tim Sternod vs Mike Pierce was shaping up to be a great fight when Pierce got his third huge takedown and Sternod landed with his arm behind his head. Sternod immediately started screaming and doctors came to his side to discover his left arm was broke just below the shoulder. This was an unfortunate loss for Sternod, hopefully he will recover and return to the ring for another battle.
Other results are as follows:
Round 1 Josh Bennett referee stoppage victory over Paul Waremecki
52 sec. of Round 2 Rear Naked Choke win for Dave Culbertson vs Tyson Jeffries
1:21 of Round 1 Steve Storwick KO over Greg Thompson
Round 1 Jon Clift defeated Casey McEuin
1:42 of Round 1 Peter Aspenwal victorious over Lynn Bently by tap-out
1:53 of Round 1 Travis Bell by Rear Naked Choke against Rob Stalcup
Randy Couture and Matt Lindland bring SportFight back to Portland on Saturday September 8, 2007. As always log on to www.sportfight.tv and www.gregsphoto.com for results and more info on SportFight.
