In his first time in the MMA cage, Reagan Penn proved as much a phenom as his brother.
Penn, the younger brother of current UFC welterweight contender BJ Penn, won his professional mixed martial arts debut, defeating Paul Gardiner via rear naked choke in just 70 seconds at a ProElite show in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Gardiner came out strong, surprising Penn with a takedown. Penn looked for a guillotine, then quickly scrambled to take Gardiner’s back, where he choked him out without even fully sinking his hooks in.
Gardiner had been 1-0 in his pro career, winning his April debut fight via first-round TKO.
“I did what I wanted to do,” said a smiling Penn, who may have gotten the biggest ovation of the night from the crowd in his home state. Prior to the event, the 30-year-old Penn said he would take his career on a fight-by-fight basis, but the welterweight gave no indication afterward if he planned to compete again.
Andrei Arlovski also emerged victorious on the card, winning for the first time since October 2008 with a third-round TKO over Ray Lopez. Arlovski (16-9) controlled the fight for much of the duration but had trouble finishing the durable Lopez.
Finally, midway through the third, he rocked Lopez with strikes from the top, and continued the hail of punches until the ref pulled him off. Arlovski had lost four straight prior to that.
Despite the fact that the event was called ProElite: Arlvoski vs. Lopez, the show finished with Kendall Grove vs. Joe Riggs in the main event slot, and Grove needed less than one minute to defeat Riggs, forcing him to tap to a standing guillotine choke.
Grove moved to 13-9 with one no decision.
In the other main card fights, Mark Ellis defeated Jake Heun via second-round rear naked choke, Drew McFedries uses strikes to force a second-round TKO over Garret Olson, and promising female star Sara McMann stayed unbeaten, moving to 4-0 with a third-round TKO over Raquel Pa’aluhi.
Filed under: Fighting, ResultsMMA Fighting has ProElite results of Andrei Arlovski vs. Ray Lopez, Kendall Grove vs. Joe Riggs and the rest of the Aug. 27 card from the Blaisdell Center in Honolulu, Hawaii.
MMA Fighting has ProElite results of Andrei Arlovski vs. Ray Lopez, Kendall Grove vs. Joe Riggs and the rest of the Aug. 27 card from the Blaisdell Center in Honolulu, Hawaii.
This ProElite 1 card relaunches the ProElite promotion purchased this year by the Stratus Media Group. Besides the aforementioned matchups, the event will also feature the MMA debut of Reagan Penn, the brother of B.J.
Check out ProElite results below. The main card starts at 1 a.m. ET.
Main Card
Kendall Grove def. Joe Riggs via submission (guillotine choke) – Round 1, 0:59
Andrei Arlovski def. Ray Lopez via TKO (punches) – Round 3, 2:43
Reagan Penn def. Paul Gardiner via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 1, 1:10
Mark Ellis def. Jake Heun via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 2, 2:29
Sarah McMann def. Raquel Pa’aluhi via submission (armlock) – Round 3, 2:53 Drew McFedries def. Garrett Olson via TKO (punches) – Round 2, 4:04
Interview with BJ Penn’s brother, Reagan, who makes his MMA debut tonight. Props: MMAHawaii.com.
Many readers are probably looking for something to do after UFC 134 tonight. Preferably something that will involve a local bar with good drink specials and attractive women. Well, we can’t help you there. But for those hardcore MMA fans among us who don’t have things like “social lives” or “friends” holding you back, Sherdog has you covered with a live stream of ProElite’s return.
The stream begins at 1 A.M. ET on Sunday morning, and no, you don’t have to pay for it.
Aside from the return of Andrei Arlovski against King of the Cage light-heavyweight Ray Lopez, the event also features a middleweight tilt between the recently axed Kendall Grove and Joe Riggs. Both fighters are riding two fight losing streaks into the cage tonight. Also on the card are 2009 NCAA D1 wrestling champion Mark Ellis, UFC veteran Drew McFedries and BJ Penn’s younger brother, Reagan Penn, who is making his MMA debut. Again, you don’t have to pay for it.
Interview with BJ Penn’s brother, Reagan, who makes his MMA debut tonight. Props: MMAHawaii.com.
Many readers are probably looking for something to do after UFC 134 tonight. Preferably something that will involve a local bar with good drink specials and attractive women. Well, we can’t help you there. But for those hardcore MMA fans among us who don’t have things like “social lives” or “friends” holding you back, Sherdog has you covered with a live stream of ProElite’s return.
The stream begins at 1 A.M. ET on Sunday morning, and no, you don’t have to pay for it.
Aside from the return of Andrei Arlovski against King of the Cage light-heavyweight Ray Lopez, the event also features a middleweight tilt between the recently axed Kendall Grove and Joe Riggs. Both fighters are riding two fight losing streaks into the cage tonight. Also on the card are 2009 NCAA D1 wrestling champion Mark Ellis, UFC veteran Drew McFedries and BJ Penn’s younger brother, Reagan Penn, who is making his MMA debut. Again, you don’t have to pay for it.
The decision to hold an event on the same night as the UFC’s return to Brazil is a curious one. Especially considering that the card isn’t especially great, even for a regional promotion. Yet despite the strength of the card, odd start time and lack of television coverage, ProElite managed to secure Coors Light and Monster as sponsors for the event. Well played, ProElite.
Andrei Arlovski (241.3) vs. Ray Lopez (225.8)
Kendall Grove (184.8) vs. Joe Riggs (185)
Mark Ellis (244.8) vs. Jake Heun (236)
Drew McFedries (194.6) vs. Garrett Olson (195.4)
Sara McMann (135.8) vs. Raquel Pa’aluhi (135.5)
Reagan Penn (170.2) vs. Paul Gardiner (169.9)
The days when Andrei Arlovski was one of the most feared fighters in MMA have long since passed. The one-time UFC Heavyweight Champion is set to fight for ProElite MMA on Saturday August 27 in Honolulu, HI. His opponent in the main event will be Ray Lo…
The days when Andrei Arlovski was one of the most feared fighters in MMA have long since passed. The one-time UFC Heavyweight Champion is set to fight for ProElite MMA on Saturday August 27 in Honolulu, HI. His opponent in the main event will be Ray Lopez.
Arlovski has gone 0-4 in his last four fights, with three of those bouts ending via knockout. Two of those knockout losses, to Fedor Emelianenko and Sergei Kharitonov, were particularly brutal. Following his last KO loss, many fans and pundits called for Arlovski’s retirement out of fear for his safety.
Arlovski held an online press conference for the upcoming fight and one of the first questions he was asked pertained to his knockout losses.
The moderator did not even have time to fully pose the question when Arlovski cut in, “Come on, let’s be f*cking serious. I’m already sick of f*cking stupid questions about head injuries and weak chin. It’s f*cking bullsh*t and honestly, it pisses me off. Who says? I don’t know. I’m feeling great. I’m in good shape and everything’s fine. Do I look like a f*cking retired person or something? I don’t understand. Next question.”
Arlovski’s manager then stated Arlovski had gone through medical exams and that the exams showed no lingering head trauma.
It should be noted that Arlovski has a record of 15-9 with seven of those nine losses coming via KO or TKO.
Filed under: MMA Fighting Exclusive, News, ProEliteProElite 2.0, as Vice President of Fight Operations T. Jay Thompson likes to call it, is set to get back on track on Aug. 27 in Hawaii. The organization is looking to reinvent itself after crumbling in…
ProElite 2.0, as Vice President of Fight Operations T. Jay Thompson likes to call it, is set to get back on track on Aug. 27 in Hawaii. The organization is looking to reinvent itself after crumbling in 2008 following Kimbo Slice’s loss to Seth Petruzelli in Florida.
So with its first show in almost three years less than three weeks away, here are some news and notes about MMA’s newest — or not so new depending on how you view them — kid on the block.
* Thompson vehemently denied a Cage Potato report that the organization was close to signing a TV deal with Viacom to broadcast its events on CBS and Showtime in the near future.
“There is absolutely no truth to the report that we are close to a deal with CBS and Showtime,” he said.
Thompson said they are talking to “everyone” in the TV world but stopped short at saying who was the frontrunner. The organization’s Aug. 27 show will stream live on Sherdog.com, but Thompson hopes he will have a TV deal in place by the promotion’s second show.
* Speaking of its second show, Thompson said “early November” in Atlantic City, N.J., is when ProElite’s sophomore event will take place. No specific date or location has been finalized yet.
* One of the main attractions scheduled for the event will be the start of a heavyweight grand prix. But before you roll your eyes at the idea of another heavyweight GP, Thompson says this one will feature mostly “unknown” big men from around the world. Andrei Arlovski and Mark Ellis, who are scheduled to fight in different bouts in Hawaii, could be a part of it if they win their debut fights.
“It will outperform whatever people are expecting,” he said. “I’m very excited about that.”
* Ticket sales for the Aug. 27 event at the Neal S. Blaisdell Center in Honolulu, HI, have been “strong,” according to Thompson. The long-time promoter says he expects to sell at least 5,000 tickets to the event. A sellout would be approximately 7,800 fans.
* When asked about the recent Golden Glory free agents, Thompson said he was “very interested” in having Marloes Coenen fight on the November show. And while he admitted that Alistair Overeem is probably out of his price range, he said Jon Olav Einemo could be the perfect fit for the aforementioned GP. According to Thompson, the lines of communication between himself and Golden Glory head trainer Martijn de Jong, who fought for Thompson in 2002, have just been opened. He sounded very excited at the prospect of signing Coenen.
* Don’t expect any title fights in ProElite any time soon.
“I hate when events do world championship fights with no world championship fighters,” he said.
That’s not to say Thompson is down on the quality of his fighters, but he explained that he needs to build the fighters first before putting them in title fights. And if you followed Thompson back when he was promoting SuperBrawl and ICON Sport, you’ll recall that title fights in those promotions were scarce.
Check out the full lineup for ProElite: Arlovski vs. Lopez and the organization’s new Web site here. A promo for the Aug. 27 can be seen below.
Fabricio Werdum has finally responded to Alistair Overeem’s claims that he should be ashamed of his performance on Saturday night in their Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix quarterfinal match-up. According to Vai Cavalo, Overeem didn’t beat him; he lost the bout on his own by not listening to his corner and instead attempting time and time again to coax “The Demolition Man” into his guard.
“I don’t believe he won, I lost to myself. I could’ve won. The feeling I’m having now is worse than if he has smashed me up and if he was way better than me on the three rounds, winning with a large advantage,” he told TATAME today. “The guys is good, alright, so I’d have to keep my head down and train more. But it wasn’t like that and that made me choked. It was a [mediocre] bout, the fans expected much more, but he didn’t want to the ground at any cost.”
(Clash of styles = boring fight)
Fabricio Werdum has finally responded to Alistair Overeem’s claims that he should be ashamed of his performance on Saturday night in their Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix quarterfinal match-up. According to Vai Cavalo, Overeem didn’t beat him; he lost the bout on his own by not listening to his corner and instead attempting time and time again to coax “The Demolition Man” into his guard.
“I don’t believe he won, I lost to myself. I could’ve won. The feeling I’m having now is worse than if he has smashed me up and if he was way better than me on the three rounds, winning with a large advantage,” he told TATAME today. “The guys is good, alright, so I’d have to keep my head down and train more. But it wasn’t like that and that made me choked. It was a [mediocre] bout, the fans expected much more, but he didn’t want to the ground at any cost.”
Werdum says that one thing he did succeed in doing was throwing Overeem off of his usually dominant striking game.
“You can see that end of the second and third round, when we went to the ground, on the half guard, he just laid there, he didn’t punch me at all, which is what he always does… He didn’t do it, he just held me. But many things happened,” he said. “But me, in particular, wasn’t ok. I trained a lot, I did wrestling trainings, muay thai trainings… I did everything I was supposed to do. But, the way I see it, I have to put much more effort for my next bout so I get stronger, really strong because it makes much difference.”
Pointing out that Overeem was able to use his strength advantage to dump him on his back and to break the clinch, Werdum says that the power disparity was the difference in the fight. He feels that if he had a few more seconds, he could have made The Reem tap out.
“And he used much strength just to hold me there. He followed his game plan and I made a mistake because I didn’t do what we have planned for me to do. When I pulled him to my guard, on the end of the third round, I almost applied a leglock, which was something we trained a lot: pulling him to my guard and grabbing his leg,” he explained.I” did it on the end of the fight, but it wasn’t the right moment. I had the chance to do that before, but it was too late for me to do anything, there were only 10 seconds left, and I couldn’t do anything more.”
A knee injury in the second round Fabricio says may have prompted him to try to pull guard more than planned, but he says that he was put off that Overeem didn’t want to engage with him on the ground.
“I don’t know if the guys really noticed me, but on the second round Overeem got my leg and tried to take me down. Since my leg was stuck on the floor, my left leg, my knee was dislocated. A MMA bout is not only about striking. When I call the guys to fight on the floor, nobody comes. When the guys want to fight me while standing up, I’d go, I’d stand up and try to launch how many shots I could,” Werdum pointed out. “I was doing fine striking, but I paid a high price for not listening to my coach, because that was not my game plan. To call him into my guard, I could do that like one, alright… But, the way I did, it made me tired. Calling him to my guard and standing… Keep doing that over and over again got me really tired.”
Although he didn’t win the bout, Werdum says the fact that he was never really in trouble against a dangerous striker like Overeem was a bit of a moral victory and that he would like a rubbermatch if and when Antonio Silva beats him. As far as who he is fighting next, he believes that it will be against either Andrei Arlovski or Brett Rogers on the same card as the SFHWGP semi-finals.
“Overeem said he’d knock me out and I didn’t see it coming at all. I wasn’t in danger fighting Overeem, he didn’t knock me down… I wasn’t hit by any strong shots, that could almost lead me to a knockout. He never came for me as he always does. There’s a long time since Overeem has been winning his bouts on the first round, on the first minute, right? It’s been a while… And against me he didn’t do it, he didn’t come for it, he didn’t work his ground and pound,” he explained. “I intend to fight on this next phase of the GP, not on the GP, but on the same event, against Arlovski or Brett Rogers, who have also lost. I guess it’d be a good thing for me to fight on this event because I felt I needed to fight more, I stayed without fighting for too long. I was a year off, and that’s a lot of time. I lost the rhythm… I was doing good on the training, but fighting is different. On the day of the bout it’s different.”
“In my opinion, Big Foot will defeat Overeem,. And I guess it’ll be striking. If Big Foot goes like he went went he was with Arlovski, he’ll defeat Overeem. I’d fight on the same event that they would, I don’t know against who, but in case Overeem loses, on the next event we could have a rematch worth the belt, because after this bout we’re even,” he said. “I won one, and he won the other, so we have to do this third match and check it all out. It’s 1×1, so we have to do this bout, because it’s not convincing anyone: not even for him because I made the first move all times, and neither for me because I lost it. ”
MMA
The days when 
ProElite 2.0, as Vice President of Fight Operations 