FRANK SHAMROCK SUBMITS PHIL BARONI WITH A REAR NAKED CHOKE
SHAMROCK LANDS A CLEAN RIGHT AGAINST BARONI IN THE SECOND
MURILO "NINJA" RUA VS JOEY VILLASENOR
The Strikeforce/EliteXC mixed martial arts event in San Jose on Friday night opened a lot of eyes. The headline Shamrock-Baroni bout lived up to the extensive hype, the main fight card showcased local MMA talent and 2 Middleweight title fights, and 10,850 fans made the elaborate presentation even more electric.
A brief fight by fight recap of the June 22nd MMA event:
Main Event - Frank Shamrock vs Phil Baroni for the Strikeforce Middleweight World Championship
Frank Shamrock semi-retired after earning a submission over Tito Ortiz at UFC22 in 1999, the last time I saw one of his fights, but he has exhibited good punching power on several occasions. A number of Phil Baroni's UFC and PrideFC opponents have taken him down early, and Phil has not shown a great ability to get back to his feet. If this fight goes to the ground clear edge to Shamrock, if they stay standing there is still an edge to Shamrock but Baroni would have a punchers chance.
Baroni opens with a several combinations and backs Shamrock up to the fence. Then he takes down Shamrock, but backs off and returns to his feet. A huge Shamrock right hand lands a minute into the first, and he pantomimes Baroni going to sleep. Seconds after the taunt, Shamrock catches him with 2 rights out of a 3 punch combination and drops the NYBA. Shamrock then sinks in a deep guillotine choke but can not finish with Baroni up against the cage. Official Steve Mazzagatti takes a point from Shamrock for 2 punches to the head, and Baroni could use the time to recover and finish out the round. Baroni is trying one desperation single leg takedown after another, more to avoid trading shots with Shamrock than to take him down to the mat. Shamrock rolls Baroni to his side and lands two huge right hands. Baroni takes them, and then spins and rises to his feet. Amazing chin, but zero boxing fundamentals or standup defense. Shamrock lands a series of punches and two hard knees to stagger Baroni near the end of the round.
Start of the second, I noticed Shamrock wincing in one of the photos when Baroni went for a desperation takedown. Baroni's breathing labored, and his feet appear planted in the mat. Baroni lands a hard right followed by a knee, and Shamrock turns his back and spins away from his opponent. This is one of at least 3 or 4 times Shamrock turns his back in the second. Against a top Middleweight contender this would say, "please club me to the mat". Shamrock storms forward with a series of punches, and Baroni is having trouble keeping his hands up in front of him. Later in the round, Shamrock transitions from a guillotine choke to a side choke to a kimura attempt before taking his back. The "legend" sinks both hooks in, and Baroni eventually goes limp before Mazzagatti stopped the fight. It looked like Shamrock held on to the choke a second or two after the stoppage, before getting up and raising his hands to each corner of the arena.
Frank Shamrock TKO's Phil Baroni with a rear naked choke 4:00 into the second round. After the fight Shamrock tells Bill Goldberg, "You put me in a cage, you call me out in my town, you are going to get an a** kicking. The knee hurts, I tore my ACL and MCL two weeks ago, but I am not going to let San Jose down." Phil Baroni was gracious in defeat telling Showtime that Shamrock took care of business, and that he was the real deal.
Murilo Rua vs Joey Villasenor for the EliteXC Middleweight World Championship
Villasenor lands an early left that staggers Rua, and follows with a knee to the body. Pinned up against the cage, Rua manages to take Villasenor down and give himself a little time to recover. Villasenor reverses and gains top position. Joey Villasenor lands a couple of hard right hands before he fends off a leg lock attempt from the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu specialist and Chute Boxe Academy member. Very high tempo in this fight, there is a lot of action. There are a couple of scattered boos from the crowd as Rua is on top of Villasenor trying to tourque his arm into a kimura lock. Not sure what they are upset about, it looks like Rua is trying to take the arm off instead of going for a submission.
Rua opens the second round with a flying knee, but it is not clean. Both fighters trade hard shots at the center of the ring, but Rua is gaining the slight edge because of a better defense. Murilo Rua is landing over the left of Villasenor at will. Villasenor lunges in for a punch and steps directly into a short right hand which leaves him sprawled on the mat. Murilo Rua is very emotional as he receives the EliteXC Middleweight belt.
Murilo Rua earns a TKO over Joey Villasenor 1:05 into the second round.
Cung Le vs Tony Fryklund
There are a few hardcore MMA fans with questions about Cung Le, but at 3-0 he has a lot of tools and plenty of time to work on his weaknesses. Le unleashes the full spectrum of San Shou kicks early against Krykland. He lands up high, down the middle, liver kicks from the side. Tony Krykland is standing in front of Cung Le absorbing as many kicks as possible, with no attempt to close the gap or to take the fight to the mat. Le is firing away with looping high kicks and spinning back kicks, but he staggers Krykland with a right punch and drops him with a counter. There is a lot of flair and style to Cung Le's striking approach, but there has not been the power behind them that say a Mirko "CroCop" Filipovic would deliver, at least not yet. Krykland finishes with a brief flurry at the end of the round, but misses with both a superman punch and a spinning backfist.
Cung Le is moving around the ring well at the start of the second. Krykland lands a combination, but can not sustain it. Le is patient, teeing off on Krykland and then moving to an open area. Krykland is methodically plodding around the ring after Le, but he neither cuts it off, nor lets his hands go when he catches him. Early in the third, Le lands a kick to the midsection that doubles over Krykland. A right drops him to the mat.
Cung Le earns a TKO over Tony Fryklund 0:25 into the third round. After the fight in a brief backstage interview, Le mentions that he still needs to work on his ground game, and that there are a few outside issues that made training for this fight difficult. He also mentioned that he was proud of the ethusiastic fans at HP Pavilion. In the post-fight press conference, Le called San Jose "the new Mecca for MMA". He also said there were martial arts gyms on every corner, a number of top local professional fighters, and that the Bay Area is going to develop into one of the top spots for mixed martial arts.
Josh Thomson vs Nick Gonzalez
I missed the start of the fight, but from the replay it looks like the San Jose native and former Stanford wrestler Josh Thomson dropped Gonzalez early. Thomson then gained position as Gonzalez gave him his back. Thomson sunk in a rear naked choke, and earned a TKO 1:42 into the first round, before jumping up on the cage and celebrating 1 inch from the Showtime camera. Thomson will be a big draw for EliteXC, and there are a number of big names at 155 pounds that would be a perfect fit for a future Strikeforce.
Paul Buentello vs Carter Williams
San Jose American Kickboxing Academy member Paul Buentello earned a heavyweight title shot in the UFC, and Carter Williams is a heavyweight K-1 kickboxing grand prix champion, which makes this one of several interesting matchups on the evening. Everyone in the building thought Carter Williams would try to utilize his kickboxing and striking skills while standing, but he ended up taking Buentello down early and landing a hard right. Carter Williams lands two more hard shots, but Buentello is able to back out and get to his feet. Williams appeared a little bigger than his K-1 highlights on ESPN, and he used his size and his strength to out-position Buentello up against the cage. Buentello is a MMA veteran, and he landed short jabs, elbows, and foot stomps at every opportunity. Carter shoots in, and Buentello sinks in a guillotine choke. Buentello lands a few short punches and elbows before the round expires.
Buentello lands a punch to start the second, and then follows that with two more. The last one hits Williams in the eye, and he can not continue. Paul Buentello earns a KO victory over Carter Williams 0:10 into the second round. Buentello is besieged by fans asking for autographs and photos on his way out of the cage. After the fight in a short backstage interview, Buentello mentions that a move to San Jose gave his MMA career a second life, that he has 3 or 4 fights left in him, and that he will fight whoever they put in front of him.
Shamrock Returns with Domination of Baroni - Sherdog.com.
For the first time since stepping away from the Ultimate Fighting Championship, Shamrock reminded old fans what he had and introduced himself to a new generation by sparking memories and planting in minds that he was, in fact, once considered the best mixed martial artist on the planet.
Fighting more like the 26-year-old that stopped Tito Ortiz in Sept. 99 than the 34-year-old who came into his fight at the HP Pavilion off a terrible performance against Renzo Gracie, Shamrock dominated before choking the loud Phil Baroni unconscious four minutes into the second period.
The pay-per-view video preview and the preliminary fights are available for free online at
elitexc.com and
proelite.com. Behind the scenes interviews from Gary Shaw, Randy Couture, Cung Le, Josh Thomson and others are online
here. The main event was available via
Showtime PPV, and will be rebroadcast on June 30th.
MMAweekly.com posted a Strikeforce
recap and
photos, interviews with EliteXC Middleweight champion
Murilo "Ninja" Rua and Strikeforce Middleweight champion
Frank Shamrock, the Shamrock-Baroni
salary/attendance figures, news that Phil Baroni will miss 6-7 months with a
torn groin muscle and that fighter Carter Williams
tested positive for cocaine.
Other reactions from
MorethanUFC,
Wrestlingobserver, the
Houston Chronicle,
fightreport (nice animated gifs),
SprawlnBrawl,
MMAcalifornia were positive to extremely positive about San Jose as a venue and Strikeforce/EliteXC as a promoter. MMA is just as prone to a string of unimpressive cards as boxing, and with the demise and recent sale of the Pride Fighting Championships in Japan, there is room and a solid crop of fighters waiting for another big name to emerge at the top of Mixed Martial Arts.
[Update]
Shamrock's show, San Jose fighter beats Phil Baroni in MMA main event - SJ Mercury News.
Frank Shamrock is old-school in the world of mixed martial arts. But the 34-year-old added a new chapter to his MMA legend Friday night. Shamrock, with one healthy leg, scored his first title in nearly four years with an inspired second-round technical knockout over Phil Baroni in the main event at the EliteXC/Strikeforce mixed martial arts card at HP Pavilion.
"To win in my hometown is just a whole 'nother level," said Shamrock, who has lived in San Jose since 1997 and opened an MMA academy in town in 2005. "I've won titles all over the world. But to do it here means a lot to me."
[Update2] The American Kickboxing Academy (AKA) in San Jose has a
Myspace blog in addition to the offical website at
akakickbox.com.
[Update3]
Is full-on Shamrock comeback in the cards? - Fox Sports.
IFL coach Frank Shamrock has had, by most standards, a pretty rough year. His San Jose Razorclaws didn't win a single match in 2007, including their opener against his brother Ken's Nevada Lions, and then he was disqualified for the first time in his life in a bout with fellow IFL coach Renzo Gracie. For the man who's been telling anyone who will listen that he's the greatest martial artist of his generation, things didn't seem to be going his way at all.
But Shamrock managed to turn it around this past weekend with a convincing win over UFC and Pride veteran Phil Baroni. In the run-up to the fight, Shamrock made several colorful remarks (to say the least) about his opponent, of the type we've come to expect in recent years. This Shamrock fight, however, was far from what we've c
