Cage of Honor 26 7/19: BK Exclusive Event Coverage

[BK NEWS]

This past Saturday was an incredible night of fights, not only on a national level, but also on a local level, as Fight for Honor presented Cage of Honor 26 at the historic Memorial Hall in Joplin, Missouri under the rules of the Combat Sports Commission. 20 fights were scheduled for the evening and neither the pace nor the adrenaline let up on the packed crowd, as high-quality fights were delivered one right after another from start to finish.


Starting things out right for the night, Bantamweights Josh Lown and Tim Kivette put on an excellent display of their respective grappling prowess in a high paced fight filled with close submissions and dominant positions constantly being swept away that had the crowd going crazy for three straight rounds as they laid it all on the line. An exhausted Lown won the close split decision for his dominant positioning, but both fighters won over the crowd for their display of talent and heart and they couldn’t have set the tone for the night more perfectly.


Following the grappling centered match in the first bout, Light Heavyweights Jermaine Brownfield and Jared Dopps engaged in a stand-up exchange filled battle that had both reeling throughout the fight. Towards the end of the first round Dopps strength began to show, as he had Brownfield hurt and going into round two he knew it. Jared sprawled out of a takedown attempt and controlled his way into a nicely executed triangle choke from there, winning 46 seconds into round two.

The lovely ring girls

The next match-up of the night featured two local Welterweights in Brady Gershtner and Derek Blakenship both from Carthage, Missouri. This one would not last long though, as Gershtner put on the pressure and overwhelmed Blakenship. Brady scored a takedown into mount and followed it up with solid ground and pound to open up a successful armbar for Brady, all within 1:46 of the first round.


The fourth bout of the evening was an evenly matched contest, with TCB Fight Factory’s MMA-appropriately named Ian Freeman facing off against Phillip Stewart in a Welterweight contest. Stewart controlled the action the first round doing marginally better work on the feet and threatening with submissions and almost locking an armbar as the bell sounded. Coming into the second round though, Freeman found the answer for Stewards game and reversed their roles quickly, getting an armbar 58 seconds into round 2.

Brenton Garrett punishes Kenny Anderson as the referee prepares to stop the fight

Featherweights were next up, as another TCB Fight Factory fighter in Nick Ray would face off against local Eddie King and his highly renowned hot-pink shorts. These two battled for positional control in a whirling dervish of action, featuring more transitions and sweeps than should be legal in a bout as both were unwilling to cede control to the other. Eventually King was mounted, and in a move that shocked the audience, actually threw up a clean strike to his opponent’s jaw that sent him stumbling off of him in a highlight reel worthy and rarely seen kind of KO.


The next bout of the evening featured superman punches, jumping head kicks, slams and smooth submissions all within 1:20 of round one, with Nick Patrick defeating Blaine Miller with a side-choke in this exciting, yet short-lived Welterweight match-up.

Jared Dopps and Jermain Brumfield meet in the cage

In the first referee stoppage of the night, Matt Mendoza landed some strong punches to fellow Middleweight competitor Thomas Wood before Mendoza got full mount and continued pounding away at Wood until the referee stepped in at 2:11 of the first round.


Next up at Welterweight was another TKO stoppage, as Auney Casteneda used his takedown and ground and pound skills to stop his game opponent in Brian Misner by 1:02 of the second round.


The eighth bout of the night featured Heavyweight standout and local favorite Brenton Garrett against Kenny Anderson. Garrett showed why he was such a favorite as he utilized a plethora of stances and strikes, each well placed, fast and accurate before going straight to mount off a takedown. After that, Brenton began unleashing brutal ground and pound against Anderson, who was just never able to get his momentum going against Garrett’s onslaught, and the fight was stopped at 1:06 of round 1.

Mendoza's strong and aggressive punches claim him the win over Wood

Switching gears from the big boys, the next bout was an action-packed Featherweight fight between Albert ‘Spidermonkey’ Mendoza and the locally loved Kurtland Johnson. Johnson started out strong and hard, but Mendoza stayed undeterred and willing to weather whatever it took to get his chance at the win. Mendoza’s constant threat was his guillotine choke, which Johnson was able to somersault out of in round 2, but by round 3 he was finally able to perfect it and force the local favorite to tap out 43 seconds into round 3. A brief scuffle came after the two were separated, but order was quickly restored despite the crowd’s resentment at seeing Kurtland’s loss, as he still fought one hell of a good fight.


The eleventh fight on the cards was for the Featherweight title and featured stand-outs Eric Lawson and Andrew Carrillo. Local favorite Eric Lawson did more than challenge for Carrillo’s belt, as he took it in surprisingly quick and effective fashion, forcing a tapout by rear naked choke 49 seconds into round one and crowning a new champion at 145 for the organization.


Mike Saunders went up against the intimidating Brian Roberts next in a Light Heavyweight bout. Roberts’ use of distance for his kicks was excellent, but Roberts’ strength and chin along with his boxing combinations, head movement and determination proved a difficult task to fight against. The only time the action stopped for these two was during an accidental blow to the back of the head in the second by Roberts. By the third round both were exhausted, but still going all out. Roberts went for a beautiful 1-2, but Saunders was waiting for it and set it up for a takedown and some nice ground and pound. Unfortunately for him, Roberts took advantage of his positioning up to use that ground and pound and locked in a tight guillotine to walk away with a hard fought victory 1:02 into round 2.

In the first fight of the night Josh Lown and the light footed Tim Kivette evenly fought to an eventual Split Decision for Lown

The Middleweights came out to fight next, as Wesley Wilson and Charles Byrd came out and Byrd left with what has to be the most violent knockout of the night, attacking as the ten second warning went off to end the round and removing his opponent from consciousness before it ended at 2:59 of round 1 with brutally effective ground and pound.


LB McCraig and local fighter Damen Moore were the next fighters to enter the cage for their Lightweight bout. LB’s control of distance on the feet and positioning on the ground eventually won the fight for him against a very good opponent in Damen Moore. LB used his kicks to find the range for his takedown to sidemount and then flowed into mount, unleashing a steady stream of ground and pound to get the TKO win at 1:34 of the second round.


In the next bout Welterweights Melvin Jordan and Johnathon Gouvion squared off for only 16 seconds in the opening round, as Jordan unleashed hell on earth with a constant barrage of punches that floored Gouvion before the audience could blink. It was an undoubtedly impressive use of aggression and ability from Jordan.

Nick Ray slams the popular Eddie King to the ground before they begin scrambling like crazy in their action-packed bout

Bantamweights Tim Elliott and Mike Berry were next to the cage, but weren’t in there long, as Elliott landed a huge shot to the very game Berry’s jaw that sent him back, but not out. Berry tried to get a takedown after recovering a bit, but Elliott locks in a tight guillotine off of Berry’s shot. Berry tries to fend it off for as long as he can and break free, but eventually succumbs to it as Elliott won’t let it go and Berry taps out to give the victory to Tim Elliott by guillotine at 25 seconds in round one.


Jay Ganci and Daniel Rider were the next two mixed martial artists to step into the cage at Bantamweight. Both showed formidable boxing skills against one another, but Jay quickly changed tactics with a leg trip to send it to the mat in his guard. Rider held onto Ganci’s upper body to keep him from posturing, but that only led to a well-prepared Ganci posturing up anyway and then driving Rider’s head into the mat repeatedly all the way across the cage to break the hold. Once they reached the other side of the cage though, Rider was already fighting unconsciousness and the fight was stopped at 1:12 in round one via impressive KO.


Light Heavyweights John Bryant and Jesse Beck squared off next in a back and forth fight that showed off a variety of skills for both men. Bryant looked like he was going to have a broken arm at the end of round one, where Beck had a fully extended armbar applied as the bell sounded. However, the resilient survivor Bryant shook it off and once it hit the ground he had Jesse on his back and delivered punishment until Beck gave up his back, where Bryant locked in a quick rear naked choke to capture the win in round two.

Albert Mendoza shows off his foot speed against local favorite Kurtland Johnson

In an odd turn of events, the only female fight of the night, featuring Elise Hall, was called off before it started. Hall was declared the winner via forfeit. She was welcomed into the ring and promised an opponent soon to make up for it, as well as the default win. Hopefully she’ll get to show off her skills and training soon though, as she seemed at least as disappointed as the crowd by the turn of events.


The final fight of the night came next, with David Rickles going up against Ernest Freeman for the Welterweight title. Both showed excellent boxing skills and then started changing things up a bit with Rickles going for and landing a nice leg-kick followed by Freeman looping off a punch from an odd angle up close that sent local favorite Rickles into the cage. Rickles immediately shot in from that though and scored a takedown on Freeman and secured mount quickly before going for an armbar that Freeman clinched his hands away from. Rickles stayed undeterred and used the opening to land several hammer-fists solidly to Freeman’s ribs until his grip loosened and the armbar was locked on quickly ending the fight 2:33 in round one.


Demonstrations of exceptional grappling and striking technique were in abundance at Cage of Honor 26. The variety of techniques used and amount of finishes in highly competitive bouts was indicative of a level of heart and ability that made for one hell of an impressive night of fighting by any standard. If the future of Mixed Martial Arts is in the hands of competitors such as these, we can all rest easily.


Special thanks goes out to Aron Boswell at Fight for Honor for his patience and hard work, DCBooks and Chivo for their help in keeping me sane and their immeasurable help, the Combat Sports Commission for doing an excellent job at keeping MMA events functioning smoothly and safely, and most importantly, the fighters, for putting their hearts on the line and allowing us to witness the Art in MMA.





--Joe "Dragomort" Tuey