URCC 21 Warpath The Reports pt 2

URCC 21 Warpath The Reports pt 2

Published on May 1, 2012 by The Editor in URCC

So here it is Part 2 of the URCC 21 Warpath Report

Bout 4.

Mario Sismundo Vs Miquel Alo

Round 1:

Sismundo bore an uncanny resemblance to Manny Pacquiao which led a very excited crowd to chant Manny, Manny, Manny at every opportunity and it was so funny as my Sister in Law who is a big Pacquiao fan came to life. She had been mostly hiding her face behind her hands for the previous fights but this brought her out of her shell with a vengeance as she joined in with the chants and really came alive.

Sadly of course looking like Pacquaio is not enough in MMA and very early in the fight Alo a late replacement had opened up a cut on his head.

Although a tough fight, Alo was getting the better of things on the ground and he attempted three different times to complete an armbar and every time Sismundo managed to escape it much to the delight of the crowd as the chants increased.

Round 2 ~  began once again with Alo on top during the ground portion of the fights but Sismundo was doing a very good job of keeping Alo at bay and Alo’s ground and pound was losing it’s Zing.

Sismundo turned the tables and had Alo is a very solid rear naked choke but Alo has some real ability and soon retained top position and eventually at the fourth attempt he got his armbar at 9:34 of round 2. Another excellent fight that was stopped just before the end of the round.

The crowd is buzzing another cold Colt 45 is ordered and we all settle down for the next fight.

The organisation here is very slick and the vendors are in evidence throughout the event which makes getting refreshments nice and easy.

Bout 5

Jonathan Sumogat Vs MJ Abrillo

In this fight we had our first one round finish as Sumogat cruised to a comfortable 3-0 record.At no time did he look to be in any danger and he eventually finished Abrillo with a rear naked choke at 6:30.

Bout 6.

Mark Stiegl Vs Alcer Lozada

Time for a Team Buffet Double Bill ~ Striegl entered this fight on a 9 -0 record and he showed his greater experience to great effect as he swarmed all over  Lozada finishing him at 2:39 of the first round with a rear naked choke. Striegl really looks like a fighter with great potential, potentially right now he could be up for a title shot with the URCC and at least two other organisations. he’s a man on the move.

Winner by rear naked choke at 3:33 of Round 1 Mark "Mugen" Striegl

Everybody  would have been very impressed to see Will “The Kill” Chope walk to the ring with his team-mate! Yes, Mark “Mugen” Striegl who has just won his fight is back to support his friend and team-mate. Impressive stuff.

Bout 7.

Will Chope Vs Angelito Manguray

This is  a real battle of opposites Chope is just 21 whilst Manguray is in his 40′s with figures ranging from 42 to 48 being banded about. The official age for this event was 45 and then you had Chope who at 6’4″ towers above Manguray.

Chope is wanting a shot at the URCC title and knows that winning this fight and winning it well is needed.

Chope like Striegl is a member of Team Buffet the Philippines smallest fight team. Yet Chope like his team-mate came to do a job and he did it with devastating effect. Chope did not let Manguray settle and drove forward from the word go and did not let up, Manguray did lay a couple of good shots on Chope, but Chope was landing punches, kicks, knees all with force and Manguray must have wondered what was going on, it was like he had been picked up in a hurricane and at just 2:59 of round one Chope got the rear naked choke that assured him his tenth victory. 

Immediately Chope was walking around the ring and making the sign  of a belt, the message was very clear but if it wasn’t Chope was going to make it easy, he grabbed the mic and called out URCC champion Ricardo Sapno. The message then could not be ignored.

Bout 8.

Jenson Estoro Vs Roysaldo Transmonte

This fight was a superb affair with both fighters putting everything into it. Estoro played a waiting game as he had such a good counter punching (and kicking) style that every time Transmonte came in he made him pay.

But like so many on this night this fight flowed backwards and forwards really building up the excitement level.

This fight went all the way and as it was still a draw on the judges cards this had to go to the third round. One thing I really hate in so many of the Japanese organisations is the amount of draws there are, this is the right way to do things.  It’s all or nothing, Win or Lose. And this went to round three. This is where Estoro really came into his own, he was quite simply more powerful and had better cardio.

He won the fight by unanimous decision.

Bout 9.

Roy Doliquez Vs Alvin Ramirez

Round 1:

Doliquez was always pushing the action in this bout and the much more experienced Ramirez must have wondered what was going on, no matter what he did Doliquez seemed to have an answer, I felt I could see the heart draining out of Ramirez as the first round progressed and then with around 15 seconds to go he looked at Doliquez, smacked his own ass and exploded battering Doliquez   with a very effective attack. Then the round ended. It was probably not enough to win the round but it gave Doliquez something to think about.

 Going into Round 2 ~ I wondered if Ramirez would start it as he finished round 1, sadly the answer was no and Doliquez started with effective kicks, then he took Ramirez down and standing over him, kept placing kicks into Ramirez, while Ramirez attempted to protect himself with some powerful looking up-kicks.

Somehow they both ended up on the ground and Ramirez was on top  but he just did not do enough meaningful work.

Roy Doliquez was awarded the win by Unanimous Decision.

Bout 10.

Frolain Sarenas Vs Nicholas Mann

This superfight was going to be a tough affair for Sarenas who stepped up a weight class to tackle a very buff Nicholas Mann.

The fact that this fight went to a decision says a lot for Sarenas heart as Mann really was considerably bigger looking and seemed to have the beating of Sarenas with punches or kicks and yet he could not put a game Sarenas away. The first round was close, the second round not so much as Mann benefited from his physical size advantage and although he never looked likely to stop Sarenas, he also never really looked to be in any danger.

Mann won the fight by a unanimous decision.

Sarena fought gamely but the weight difference and size really was a factor.

And at around 1:30am that was it a very enjoyable night of fighting and probably the best live night of fighting I have attended all year. The reasons are very simple URCC have been running for ten years have it down pat. A very well run show with enough entertainment  pre-fights to keep the crowd happy. The quality of the match making by URCC match maker Willy Carlos is so far ahead of any other Asian MMA organisation. No easy fights for certain fighters because of which gym they are attached too, just tough fights.

Filipinos love to fight and Filipinos love to watch fights this creates a superb atmosphere. Each fighter gets to come to the ring with just two corner-men, so you don’t get any of the scenes you get at ONE FC where everybody has a few corner-men until an Evolve fighter is on and then something like fifty people pour forward completely crazy and an unfair advantage.

My grateful thanks to Alvin and Bubbles Aguilar and Willy Carlos and all at the URCC for looking after me.

And that should be that but I try to keep it real and our latest contributor “The Dinner Lady”  wants to have her say. She in fact demanded I print this.

My Brother is Married to a Filipino lady and both he and my Mother live in the Philippines, So when “The Editor” said he wanted to go to Manila to report on the URCC event and support the boys (Will Chope and Mark Striegl) I was happy to go along. I invited my Brother and his Wife to join me, knowing that if they enjoyed themselves, they could become regular attendees with their large extended family.

The tickets said 7:00pm and we were there having killed a few hours shopping in the Mall of Asia a fantastic Mall right next to the SMX Convention Centre where the event was being held.

The Editor met us with our tickets (thank you very much the URCC) and we joined the considerable queue that was already building up.

The line did not move until about 8:00pm and when we finally got to the front of the queue we found out why it was so slow-moving. Everybody was being checked minutely. The sign stating what you could or could not bring into the event was right at the entrance door, Not at the start of the queue but right at the point where you have been in a queue for over an hour. If the sign was where people entered the arena they would probably go back to their cars and drop all their purchases from the mall off. But after over an hour people were getting mighty pissed off. Every women was having the contents of their handbags minutely searched  and expensive items like perfumes were being thrown away in bin bags. Some people had at this stage had enough and just walked away. My Brother was made to empty his pockets and my Sister in law had to throw some hand sanitizer away, I hid her very expensive Chanel perfume in my ample cleaverage! They also tried to make her throw away her diabetic tablets and so she demanded they get their boss who some minutes later turned up and said of course she could keep them! All this time the people behind us were waiting.  We were by this stage very angry as were those around us. The person next to me had a pack of playing cards removed yet I had two packs in my bag and nothing was said about them, no logic!

I had to throw away a can of insect repellent, and some hairspray that I had just purchased, everything into a bin bag while the security guard stood with a smirk on his face.

Now at least 30% of the audience were females and they were almost all accompanied by males this was going to take a long time.

If the signs had been by the entrance, if somebody could have walked down the queue telling people what they could not bring in, they could have removed them in advance.  It would have made a big difference.

The show started at around 9:15 pm with a large number of people still trying to get in.

As for the event itself: I loved the energy, the fights and fighters were all top notch, but the start really put such a cloud on the event it was a great pity.

I do hope the URCC will take my rant on board and for future events make it better, it almost spoiled a great event.