It is only fitting that a card marked by late replacements, mild
upsets and injuries feature all three in its headliner. Saturday
night at
ShoFight
20,
John
Gunderson needed less than three minutes to hit the trifecta by
locking up a first-round submission upset of fellow
UFC veteran
Karo
Parisyan in front of a scattered crowd inside the O'Reilly
Family Event Center on the campus of Drury University in
Springfield, Mo., to take the promotion’s vacant 170-pound
title.
The Xtreme Couture representative was on his back early courtesy of
“The Heat,” but after working to his feet, he was able to connect
with a powerful left knee that cracked an oncoming Parisyan square
in the eye socket. A desperate Parisyan immediately shot for a
takedown, only to be snared in a guillotine. Perhaps emboldened by
his recent training with new jiu-jitsu coach
Fredson
Paixao, the Texas native jumped confidently guard and forced
the tap just 2:47 into the bout.
“The knee is what set up the guillotine. I got sloppy; he got me in
some pretty s----- positions right off the bat,” Gunderson said
post-fight. “But I felt like I had him when he stuck his head in
there, and I went for it … I felt it go right into the
cheekbone.”
“It wasn’t much of the choke, it was more the knee,” said Parisyan,
who stayed down holding his face in obvious pain after the tapout.
“I couldn’t open my mouth. I didn’t want to take the chance he
could break my chin. That’s the first time I ever tapped out in the
cage.”
The 33-year-old Gunderson, now 33-13-2, entered the bout on just
two weeks’ notice by replacing “Ultimate Fighter” Season 13 alum
Shamar
Bailey after Bailey was surprisingly halted in the first round
by Brazilian
Lucas
Pimenta Borges. Parisyan’s high-profile doldrums continue as
the judo practitioner is just 1-4 in his last five bouts with three
stoppage losses.
Another late replacement was titlebound in Springfield, as
“Ultimate Fighter” Season 3 middleweight winner
Kendall
Grove earned an eyebrow-raising split decision (30-27, 30-27,
28-29) over previously unbeaten middleweight prospect
Derek
Brunson to earn ShoFight’s vacant 185-pound strap.
Brunson, 28, entered the bout on four days’ notice after the
Missouri Office of Athletics would not clear Grove’s original
opponent,
Terry
Martin, to fight. As a result, the title bout was contested
over just 15 minutes and at a catch-weight of 190 pounds.
The Hawaiian started quickly by establishing his rangy striking,
but by the late first round, Brunson’s wrestling reared its head as
the three-time Division II All-American for the University of North
Carolina at Pembroke power slammed Grove to the mat repeatedly.
Unfortunately for Brunson, he was never able to offer clear
dominance, as Grove grappled and punched effectively from his
back.
With the third round winding down, an illegal Grove upkick on the
ground inexplicably prompted referee
Mike
England to stand the fighters up, whereupon Grove stormed a
tiring Brunson with a salvo of late strikes. While it seemed the
late offense might prove formative, it turned out to not even be
necessary: judges Henry Ellick and Ross Swanberg both saw the fight
a shocking 30-27 for Grove, while judge Jerry Griffin reckoned it
29-28 for Brunson, who tasted defeat for the first time in his pro
career.
“I was fighting a 5’8 pro boxer, then last minute, I gotta fight a
wrestler, a cock-diesel wrestler. It kinda screwed me up mentally,”
Grove, now 15-10 (1 NC), confessed after the bout. “But, I’m a
fighter, and now I’m the champ. Next time, I’ll come back even
harder.”
The night went more according to plan for
Strikeforce
veteran
Lyle
Beerbohm, who made a bloody mess of veteran grappler
Marcus
Aurelio en route to collecting three 30-26 scorecards in their
welterweight contest. “Fancy Pants” was strictly workmanlike,
single-legging Aurelio to the mat at will, thwarting his guillotine
and armbar attempts and painting the canvas with his foe’s blood
for the last half of the contest in a dominant shutout.
Ever-embattled journeyman
Drew Fickett,
who proudly entered the cage holding a sign proclaiming his 42 days
of sobriety, lasted just 51 seconds in his 160-pound affair against
Chicago-based Brazilian
Jonatas
Novaes. Novaes quickly landed a head kick that dropped “The
Master,” and never stopped punching while Fickett never stopped
covering up until the inevitable stoppage ensued.
MMA cult figure and notorious troublemaker
Charles “Kid
Khaos” Bennett -- formerly known as “Krazy Horse”-- looked like
he might be on his way to a surprise submission win in his
150-pound contest with local flavor
Chris
McDaniel. However, the Branson, Mo., native escaped Bennett’s
guillotine and predictably took the Floridian out with a triangle
choke at 2:52 of the first round.
Brazilian transplant
Lucas Lopes,
now based in St. Louis, ran over
Bellator
veteran “Smilin’”
Sam Alvey in a
mere 97 seconds into their middleweight contest, blasting Alvey to
the mat and following to the finish.
Virtually unknown Missouiran welterweight
Mike
Brazzle, owner of a 1-1 pro mark entering the evening, shocked
WEC
veteran
Karen
Darabedyan in the first round, pouncing on the blindsided
Armenian with punches and swarming to a stoppage at 4:15 of the
first round. Darabedyan’s teammate,
Sevak
Magakian, fared much better on the night, grinding out a
unanimous verdict over a
href="http://www.sherdog.com/fighter/James-Reese-67516">James
Reese.
MMA Lab product Chris Gruetzmacher used potent elbows both standing
and on the ground to lay waste to
Roli Delgado
at 3:24 of the third round, while his fellow Arizonan
Matt Lucas
easily bested Missourian light heavyweight
Lucas
Overcast, cruising to three scores of 30-27.
Arkansas’
Mike Wessel
hammered
Matt Kovacs,
a local toughman boxing champion from Tacoma, Wash., who replaced
Aaron
Rosa on short notice. Wessel dominated with punches and elbows
before referee
Mike
England mercifully stepped in at 4:50 of the second stanza.
At 125 pounds, hometown favorite
Jacob
Ritchie roused the crowd with a late stoppage of Australia’s
Robert
Sabaruddin, punching him out at 3:28 of the final frame, while
fellow Springfield native
Allen
Gibson dropped unanimous verdict (30-27, 30-27, 30-27) to
Xtreme Couture featherweight
Dustin
Phillips.
In the evening’s bantamweight opener, Tinley Park, Ill.,
bantamweight
Jason
Ignacek earned three 30-27 scorecards over
Gary
Michaels, a late replacement for original foe
Ara
Meridian.
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Rhydon
might be Pokemon #112, but he was drawn up before any other Pokemon,
even his pre-evolution Rhyhorn. A Rhydron’s drill-horn is capable of
crushing un-cut diamonds, and it can knock down buildings with a single
strike of its tail.
