Cage Rage 27

Everyone’s favourite unprofessional UK-based MMA promotion returned this evening on free telly from Wembley. In between the world’s most grating MC and god damn awful presenters, we had some fights.

Stav Economou – Piotor Kusmierz: not a particularly interesting heavyweight fight, which started badly with Kusmierz coming out accompanied by some irritating Polish rapper, thankfully Economou’s hair provided enough of a distraction. Both fighters started by trading lots of wild blows in a stand-up slugfest, and they both appear to gas after about two minutes, the Pole more so, surprising as he looked in better shape than the fatter Economou. Economou manages some takedowns and imo does enough to take a close round 10-9. Second round sees Economou go for the early takedown again and ground and pound. He has good position, but Kusmierz is able to pull guard. However, his ground game isn’t great and Economou is able to transition at will, and attempts an armbar, but Kusmierz avoids it and manages to get top position himself. After the ref stands them up, you can see their gas tanks are completely shot and Piotor keeps getting tagged with shots, backing off and offering nothing back. Another 10-9 Economou round. Third round saw Stav integrate low kicks into his game, however mutual poor cardio makes for neither fighter being able to land anything telling. Kusmierz manages a token late flurry, but is forced into the clinch quickly nullifying any chance of a needed KO. 30-27 in my books and Stav secured a unanimous decision.

John Phillips – Tom Watson: Watson’s monkey-esque entrance is briefly amusing. Watson looks to go to the clinch early and lands some muay-thai esque knees. He secures a takedown, and mounts Phillips, allowing him to land shots, but Phillips moves away to side control. Watson’s superior ground game is evident and one-way traffic ensues, with Phillips unable to get back up. He does at one point but is taken back down quickly, with an attempted guillotine during the takedown failing. Phillips is hit with an illegal knee when getting back up towards the close of the first, but no point is deducted. 10-9 Watson. Second round is similar but more emphatic, Watson again clinching early, and Phillips is taken down, again trying for a guillotine, but Watson pops his head out. It’s basically all that Phillips is able to do, with Watson having a dominant position, eventually getting Phillips’ back looking for a rear naked choke, mounting for more ground and pound, and then trying for RNCs again. It’s so one way it was a 10-8 round in my opinion. In the final round, Phillips is able to keep it stood up for a minute or so, landing a decent combo but eventually it goes to the ground yet again. He tries for submissions again, but with time running out he opts for the safety first route and runs out the clock to get a unanimous decision, 30-26 for me.

Mustapha Al-Turk – James McSweeney: In a fight for the vacant British heavyweight title, Al-Turk dominates his opponent, nailing an early takedown, getting into a top position and looked for trademark GnP. He moves to the mount and is able to rain down punches easily. McSweeney attempts to turn but this just allows Al-Turk to get his back, resulting in more unanswered shots, some being borderline to the back of the head, and the ref stopped the contest midway through the first.

Neil Grove – Robert Berry: Grove has the better of early standup exchances, utilising leg kicks frequently and to good effect, with Berry switching stance often, possibly to limit damage. Berry manages to grab Grove’s leg and takes him down, but cannot keep him there and he is up immediately. More shooting for takedowns is countered by solid defence from Grove, and by the time that he is able to get Grove on the deck, there isn’t long enough left in the round to do anything with the position. 10-9 Grove. Round 2 sees a less explosive start, but the fight is finished quickly when Grove rocks Berry with leg kicks and knocks him down via punches, following him to the ground and finishing quickly.

Phil Baroni – Scott Jansen: The fight seemed to be far too big of a leap for the inexperienced Jansen, with Baroni taking the fight to the ground straight away. Jansen offered some resistance from the bottom, but Baroni quickly looks for an armbar. He isn’t able to finish from a good position though, and eventually transfers to the mount. The ref stands them up, too quickly for my liking, but the British public are notoriously impatient as a whole. Soon after, Baroni lands perfectly with a right hook, knocking out Jansen with one shot. Hilariously in the post-fight antics, some random nutter headbutts Baroni, something we don’t want to see.

All-in-all, some good action but the lack of depth showed again, with those lower on the card unable to offer anything into later rounds. For a free card you can’t complain though.