Universal Reality Combat Championship light-heavyweight champion Nicholas Mann gained another accolade, this time as URCC Superfight titlist at the expense of current middleweight champion Froilan Sarenas.
Held last Saturday night as the “URCC 21: Warpath” main event at the SMX Convention Center in Metro Manila, Philippines, the Australian frustrated his Pinoy opponent throughout their 20-minute tiff (two rounds of 10 minutes each) with superior standup striking and impregnable wrestling defense.
More impressively, the Aussie representing Team Hybrid Yawyan landed powerful leg kicks on the Submission Sport fighter during the few times the latter went supine on the ground in futile attempts to lure the former into his guard.
To top it all, in the second round, it was Mann who took down Sarenas from the clinch. Landing inside the guard, Mann was only fleetingly threatened by a submission hold: a triangle-choke attempt from which he quickly slipped out in a split-second.
With Mann peppering him with strikes mostly in the standup, coupled with his inability to wrestle his opponent to the ground, Sarenas, the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu purple belt, was clearly beaten and neutralized by his bigger foe.
Mann also looked like the better physically-conditioned fighter, as he has never been more ripped in any URCC fight, and his dominant performance made him truly deserve the unanimous decision victory.
In one of the more thrilling undercards, Miguel Alo of S.P.R.A.W.L.—PHL battered and submitted Mario Sismundo of Nat Kick, PHL, by armbar in the second round. The crowd was chanting “Manny! Manny!” during the bout as Sismundo looked like a dead ringer of boxing great Manny Pacquiao.
However, the former Philippine wrestling team mainstay took down the kickboxer at will throughout the fight and unleashed vicious punches and elbows in his ground-and-pound.
When the fight was stopped with the tapout, Sismundo’s bloodied face looked less like Pacquiao’s and more like Antonio Margarito’s—post Pacquiao.
The following are the complete results courtesy of Wesley De Souza’s article in PROMMANOW (all winners on the left):
Nicholas Mann wins vs. Froilan Sarenas via unanimous decision (superfight)
Roy Doliguez wins vs. Alvin Ramirez via unanimous decision (superfight)
Jerson Estoro wins vs. Reysaldo Transmonte via unanimous decision (bantamweight fight)
Will Chope wins vs. Angelito Manguray via rear-naked choke in the first round (lightweight fight)
Mark Striegl wins vs. Alcer Lozada via rear-naked choke in the first round ( featherweight fight)
Jonathan Sumogat wins vs. Mark Joseph Abrillo via rear-naked choke in the first round (flyweight fight)
Miguel Alo wins vs. Mario Sismundo via armbar in the second round (featherweight fight)
Rasel Iniong wins vs. Mark Dialogo via armbar in the second round (pinweight)
Isaac Tuling wins vs. Charles de Tomas via tapout due to fatigue (bantamweight fight)
Adam Cacay wins vs. Fred Lim via armbar in the second round (pinweight fight)
URCC is the longest-running international professional MMA promotion in the Philippines.
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