Battlefield Fight League: Invasion couldn’t be contained in the cage.
The action actually spilled out the cage door at one point during an otherwise big-league event at Frank Crane Arena on Saturday. The mixed martial arts card had big names, big screens and a big card – with 16 fights, the action went until the wee hours.
Former UFC Ultimate Fighter contestant Jesse “J.T. Money” Taylor dominated Clay Davidson in a bloody unanimous decision in the main event. Taylor was on top of Davidson the entire three rounds, delivering punches and elbows, but never quite enough to force a TKO.
In the semi-main event, Nanaimo Impact MMA’s Graham Spencer and his opponent Roy Bradshaw tumbled out a cage door that hadn’t been properly fastened early in the second round. Bradshaw got knocked out by the mishap and the referee was forced to declare a no contest.
The only Nanaimo fighters to win their matches were Rachael Swatez and Ryan Ballingall. Swatez bloodied and picked apart her opponent Wendy Roy for three rounds before seizing an opportunity to lock in an armbar for the submission win. Ballingall defeated his opponent Dave Logan with an anaconda choke early in the first round.
Impact’s Darcy James tapped out to a chokehold early in the first round of his fight with Mike Chiesa. James’ teammate Mike Ironside was TKO’d by John Elam in the second round after Ironside dominated the first round, nearly scoring a knockout himself.
The other Impact fighter on the card was amateur Dwayne Ganderton, who was TKO’d by mounted punches from his opponent Nik Ramsay in the first round.
The fight of the night was Marcus Aurelio’s submission victory over Ken Tran. Tran had the edge in the first round, avoiding Aurelio’s capoeira kicks and even poking fun at his opponent before Aurelio took over midway through the fight and almost TKO’d Tran with mounted punches at the end of the second round. Aurelio locked in a rear naked choke for the win in the third round.
“I’m here to prove that capoeira is a legitimate martial art,” Aurelio told the crowd afterward.
In other BFL results from Saturday, Ryan Chiappe knocked his opponent Levi Alford out cold with mounted punches in the first round, and Matt Baker also scored an impressive first-round win, knocking out Jose Cornejo with a forearm from the mount position.
Another fighter to score a knockout win was Mike Jorgensen, who was clearly behind in his fight with Darwin Douglas until he caught Douglas with a punch to the jaw midway through the second round.
The night’s closest fight was between Bruno Capdeville and Shawn Albrecht, in which Capdeville scored a split-decision win. Also going to decision were Mike Hill and Bill Fraser, with Hill earning the nod unanimously.
The evening’s other professional fight saw Daniel Swain defeat Tak Sasaki with an armbar submission at the end of a good back-and-forth round of fighting.
The first two matchups of the night were both amateur fights. First Steven Best defeated Jason Noble with a guillotine choke in the second round, then Travis Petersen knocked out Morgan Bentley in the second round.
FIGHT FACTS … Former UFC fighter Denis Kang was in attendance at Saturday’s BFL 7 show and announced he will fight at the May 28 Battlefield Fight League event at Frank Crane Arena, when he will take on Taylor … A scheduled semi-main event between Bastien Huveneers and Mike Hackert had to be cancelled as Hackert didn’t come close to making weight.
sports@nanaimobulletin.com
