MAIN CARD SHANE DEL ROSARIO VS LOLOHEA MAHE SARAH KAUFMAN (c) VS ROXANNE MODAFFERI - WOMEN'S BW CHAMPIONSHIP CORY DEVELA VS BOBBY VOELKER MIKE KYLE VS ABONGO HUMPHREY CAROS FODOR VS THOMAS DIAGNE UNDERCARD Brent "Mankill" Knopp VS Ryan Hayes Taurean "Black" Washington VS CJ Marsh Chris Inman VS "Smokin" Joe Hernandez "Psycho" Scott McDonald VS Doug Kay Drew "The Eternal Fire" Brokenshire VS Mike Minniger Jamen "Chainsaw" Olney VS Levi Alford Frankie Orr VS John Elam Wendel Horton VS Keith Mortuiccio TIME FRIDAY JULY 23, 2010 PRELIMS AT 5:30PM PT HOW TO WATCH LIVE ON SHOWTIME 11PM ET/PT INFO Undefeated heavyweight prospect Shane Del Rosario (9-0) will attempt to extend his unblemished streak when he faces fellow heavy hitter Lolohea Mahe (4-1-1) in the main event of a STRIKEFORCE Challengers Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fight card at Comcast Arena at Everett, live on SHOWTIME® at 11 p.m. ET/PT (delayed on the West Coast), on Friday, July 23. Unbeaten STRIKEFORCE Women's World Welterweight (135 pounds) Champion and former ballet dancer Sarah Kaufman (11-0) will put her perfect record as well as her crown on the line against international star Roxanne Modafferi (15-5). In other featured action, Abongo Humphrey (7-1) will take on Mike "Mak" Kyle (16-7-1) at light heavyweight (205 pounds). I'm a fan of Kyle, for both his personality and his style (and especially for dethroning the hyped Tony Lopez in KOTC). Ron "Abongo" Humphrey doesn't have many big wins, but his only loss is to Brett "Grim" Rogers. Is Mak in trouble here? Shane Del Rosario also interests me as an unbeaten prospect (seven knockouts and two submissions in his nine wins) taking his first real test.
Decent fighters, I don't know how their challengers card make money cos sometimes the cards are weak. A fight night card in UFC has guys that are often on PPV cards.
People will buy tickets to see live MMA even without there being household names, as long as the pricepoint is reasonable enough. The Bellator that was staged here in Boston (the first sanctioned MMA event in Massachussetts history...and IB was there!) was fairly cheap compared to going to a boxing match, and while it didn't quite sell out the small opera house there was a good turnout, with a fair mix of diehard MMA know-it-alls and casuals just curious to see some fights. Some upper-class people rubbing shoulders with some blue-collar folk. The biggest name on the card by far was Roger Huerta (who they were building up to be the face of the promotion before Curran upset him), and even he doesn't have the recognizability of some middle-tier UFC veterans. That Moosin card in Worcester (a short drive from Boston) with Pudzianowski vs. Sylvia was dirt cheap...cageside cost about the same as an average concert ticket. UFC 118 began selling out at some price levels almost as soon as it went on sale. Maybe it's a unique situation here where it wasn't available for the longest time, so it's just the novelty of it that draws people. :conf In this case ShoMMA is in Everett, Washington - I'm not sure if they've ever hosted mixed martial arts before. There certainly aren't any household names on the card - or even names that some diehards would instantly recognize - although anyone with HDNet will recognize Mike Kyle from his King of the Cage exploits, as they replay KOTC pretty frequently. It will be interesting to see how well they pack the house. The key, like I said, is to make the cost of admission attractively low - as low as can be afforded and still turn profit. That's how you pack 'em in without star power.
This is running from 11pm EST to 2am, so for those that want to watch Friday Night Fights first (10pm-midnight) you can still catch most of the action live afterward, particularly the triple co-feature. :good
SHANE DEL ROSARIO VS LOLOHEA MAHE Shane's stand up looked pretty impressive. A fight with Arlovski would definitely be interesting, and a good step up in competition. SARAH KAUFMAN (c) VS ROXANNE MODAFFERI - WOMEN'S BW CHAMPIONSHIP Pretty boring fight with a nice finish. That slam didn't look all that devastating, but I guess landing on the back on your head is never good. CORY DEVELA VS BOBBY VOELKER Voelker didn't really deserve the win, but it wasn't that huge of a robbery, really. Decent fight, but not overly memorable. MIKE KYLE VS ABONGO HUMPHREY Easily the best fight of the night. Kyle has put together a pretty decent string of victories, and has earned his title shot if he gets one. I don't know how well he would fare against the wrestling of Mo, assuming he retains the title. CAROS FODOR VS THOMAS DIAGNE Fodor pretty well dominated this. Came close with a couple of submissions that appeared to be pretty deep, and knocked down Diagne twice in the first. Again, decent, but not very memorable. OK night of fights. A little bit too much action-less clinching on the cage for my taste.
Thomas Diagne's kicks were pretty good I thought Abongo was going to win didn't watch devela vc voelker Roxanne could've won but I thought that she was going to get KOed before but not with a slam Sahen del rosario vs Lolohea Mahe I wasn't paying attention correct me if I'm wrong but did Lolohea lose to a knee in the belly? 1- Lolohea gets hit by a knee in the head in the clinch and stays in clinch 2- Lolohea gets hit by a knee in the belly and starts to fall 3- Shane tries to hit with the knee again when Lolohea starts to fall but hits his own arm 4- 2 or 3 uppercuts missed by Shane while Lolohea was falling 5- Lolohea protects himself in the ground Ref stops
I think the knee either hit his liver or injured a rib, since he did appear to go down from a body shot.
This was a pretty exciting card up until the first round of the women's championship match, although even that one produced a funny moment in the end - and it was actually a pretty impressive display of strength for a 135lb woman. Voelker pretty clearly lost 29-28...I'm not sure how two judges wound up having it flipped around. It especially sucks for Devela to do earn it but not get the win at home. Fodor should work on his striking; as that easily could have been his first TKO win instead of his first decision win with a few tweaks...although Diagne showed a good chin. Mak will be a huge underdog against Mo, but I'll be rooting hard for him. :good He's got a very ordinary style, nothing flashy, kind of a jack of all trades and master of none but he's always in shape, fun to watch and has a great personality. Arlovski will most likely get KTFO by Del Rosario. BTW, to all intents and purposes, Lahe was finished off with a knee to the head. Everything that came after that was academic. His eyes rolled back in his head and it was just a long, delayed reaction before he went down. In the meantime, Del Rosario landed some knees to the body and some punches to the head but they didn't matter. It was the knee to the head.
I swear I heard Mahe say something about his ribs when he was crumpled up against the cage after the fight ended. I think it was the knees to the body that finished him.
I was impressed with Del Rosario, very nice moves for a big guy. Hopefully the fight with Arlovski gets made, cos it would be a barn burner until someone gets ko'd.