Dominique Steele lost his chance to compete for Cage Warriors gold when he failed to make weight on Friday. But the veteran proceeded as planned, besting Karl Amoussou via decision in the main event of Cage Warriors 89. Amoussou was expected to defend …
Dominique Steele lost his chance to compete for Cage Warriors gold when he failed to make weight on Friday. But the veteran proceeded as planned, besting Karl Amoussou via decision in the main event of Cage Warriors 89. Amoussou was expected to defend his welterweight title for the first time before Steele missed weight. Cindy […]
Vinc Pichel Vs. Damien Brown Damien Brown will be high on confidence given that he has not just taken on the likes of Cesar Arzamendia and Jon Tuck, but has also defeated them in the very recent past. Brown is an Australian fighter and won’t be too far away from home when he fights Vinc […]
Vinc Pichel Vs. Damien Brown
Damien Brown will be high on confidence given that he has not just taken on the likes of Cesar Arzamendia and Jon Tuck, but has also defeated them in the very recent past. Brown is an Australian fighter and won’t be too far away from home when he fights Vinc Pichel in Auckland on June 10th in the UFC 110 Fight Night in Auckland.
Brown is a good all rounder and has sharp striking skills which makes him a force to be reckoned with no matter who he is up against. His ground game is also solid and he has been in top physical shape and has been able to fight quite frequently with four competitive fights just in the previous year.
On the contrary, Pichel has not been anywhere as active as Brown. Pichel has been out of action for the previous three years. A sabbatical of such a lengthy duration can make anyone rather rusty upon their return irrespective of how often and how hard you have been training. In fact, this is one of the main reasons why Pichel is an underdog in the fight and Brown is a strong favorite.
However, even though he has been out of action for a substantial period of time, it is not to say that Pichel was not getting results before his temporary retirement. He was on a great run until he was put on the sidelines in 2014 after back to back losses at the hands of Garret Whiteley and Anthony Njokunal. Pichel certainly is an exciting fighter to watch and a fan favorite. He is aggressive and heavy handed.
Prediction – Despite being out of action for three long years, we predict an upset here with underdog Vinc Pichel to win by unanimous decision.
Luke Jumeau Vs. Dominique Steele
Fighting in the 170 lbs category are Luke Jumeau and Dominique Steele who will face on in Auckland Fight Night on June 10th. Luke Jumeau (11-3) is also known as The Jedi and he has been on the raise since he lost at the hands of Jingliang Li and Jake Matthews. Since these two defeats, Jumeau has been able to turn his form around and has looked solid in his last six wins, which have all been victories. His most recent fight was against highly experienced Vik Grujic whom he took on and knocked out in the second round.
Jumeau has five wins by knockouts to his name. Will he be able to add Dominique Steel to this list?
Dominique Steele is actually entering the Octagon to face Jumeau after his previous two fights have been losses. However, these were both unanimous decisions and both were really close calls which could have gone his way on a different day. Prior to the two unanimous losses, Jumeau took on Dong Hyun Kim and knocked him out with a spectacular slam. Jumeau’s strengths are his set of heavy hands and he also has some deadly low kicks in his arsenal which can be really devastating when he connects.
Dominique Steele, will be hungry for a win. He has suffered four knock outs in the recent past and has a lot to prove to himself if not to everyone else. His strategy will be to stay in the fight and run the clock down while tiring out Jumeau and slowly raking up technical points in order to win by decision.
Prediction – while Jumeau is a little bit of a favorite, we think Steele really can change his form with this match with a win by unanimous decision.
Despite not being part of the pay-per-view main card, Danny Roberts and Dominique Steele impressed the UFC brass.
The two were awarded “Fight of the Night” honors Saturday at UFC 197.
Roberts claimed a decision over Steele in one of four FOX Spor…
Despite not being part of the pay-per-view main card, Danny Roberts and Dominique Steele impressed the UFC brass.
The two were awarded “Fight of the Night” honors Saturday at UFC 197.
Roberts claimed a decision over Steele in one of four FOX Sports 1 televised prelim fights.
Demetrious Johnson, who successfully defended his flyweight title with a first round TKO over Henry Cejudo, and Yair Rodriguez were presented “Performance of the Night” bonuses. Rodriguez knocked out Andre Fili with a highlight-reel kick.
Roberts, Steele, Johnson and Rodriguez each earned $50,000.
The live gate inside MGM Grand Garden Arena was announced at $2.3 million with an attendance figure of 11,352.
When I managed to speak to Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney after Bellator 69 in Lake Charles, Louisiana, he spoke very highly of welterweight prospect Andrey Koreshkov, who had just improved to 10-0 that evening. The twenty-two year old Russian fighter earned a spot in this season’s welterweight tournament, where he would quietly improve to 11-0 at Bellator 74 with a unanimous decision over Jordan Smith. At last night’s Bellator 78, Koreshkov looked to make a name for himself against Marius Zaromskis in the tournament semifinals.
But before we get too far ahead of ourselves, let’s talk about the main event of the evening. Former Bellator welterweight champion Lyman Good took the next step towards earning the title back with a second round TKO over Michail Tsarev, although he arguably could not have picked up a more unimpressive victory. This isn’t to say that Good looked bad up until that point -he didn’t – but because the stoppage was, frankly, cheap. Good accidentally poked Tsarev in the eye in the middle of the second round, causing Tsarev to turn to the referee looking for time out. It looked like the referee was about to call for a break in the action, but Lyman Good pounced on “The Lonely Wolf.” The TKO victory was awarded to Good shortly afterwards.
Video of the main event, as well as Koreshkov’s victory, is after the jump
When I managed to speak to Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney after Bellator 69 in Lake Charles, Louisiana, he spoke very highly of welterweight prospect Andrey Koreshkov, who had just improved to 10-0 that evening. The twenty-two year old Russian fighter earned a spot in this season’s welterweight tournament, where he would quietly improve to 11-0 at Bellator 74 with a unanimous decision over Jordan Smith. At last night’s Bellator 78, Koreshkov looked to make a name for himself against Marius Zaromskis in the tournament semifinals.
But before we get too far ahead of ourselves, let’s talk about the main event of the evening. Former Bellator welterweight champion Lyman Good took the next step towards earning the title back with a second round TKO over Michail Tsarev, although he arguably could not have picked up a more unimpressive victory. This isn’t to say that Good looked bad up until that point -he didn’t – but because the stoppage was, frankly, cheap. Good accidentally poked Tsarev in the eye in the middle of the second round, causing Tsarev to turn to the referee looking for time out. It looked like the referee was about to call for a break in the action, but Lyman Good pounced on “The Lonely Wolf.” The TKO victory was awarded to Good shortly afterwards.
Good vs. Tsarev. This fight is why they say protect yourselves at all times, guys.
In the evening’s co-main event, Andrey Koreshkov lived up to his hype with a first round TKO over Marius Zaromskis. Zaromskis couldn’t find his range against the young, aggressive Russian striker, absorbing some hard punches and knees while mounting little offense of his own. Two minutes into the fight, a left hand from Koreshkov dropped Zaromskis to the mat allowing Andrey Koreshkov to drop punches to Marius’ head until the referee waived things off.
Koreshkov and Good will fight each other in the Welterweight tournament finals.
Koreshkov vs. Zaromskis
In non-tournament action, Daniel Straus returned to action last night, opting to take a warm-up fight before his featherweight title shot against the winner of the upcoming Pat Curran/Patricio Pitbull fight. While there’s a lot that can go wrong in these situations – namely the challenger loses and/or gets injured – Straus dominated his opponent, UFC veteran Alvin Robinson, on his way to a second round rear-naked choke victory. Also on the main card, Brian Rogers took to the cage for the first time since walking away from his job as a special education teacher to focus on fighting full-time. Rogers looked impressive against Dominique Steele, showing the aggression he’s known for, but also showing the patience and control he usually lacked. In the end, Rogers walked away with a unanimous decision victory.
One final note: Zoila Gurgel, the current Bellator 115-pound women’s champion who has yet to defend her title, returned to action last night on the preliminary card. In the non-title bout, Gurgel fought 4-2 fighter Casey Noland. Booking the champion in a non-title bout on the preliminary card of an event is already a pretty bad sign, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Bjorn Rebney said before the fight that he’d assess Gurgel afterward. The good news for Gurgel is that she obviously won the fight. However, it’ll be interesting to see how confident Rebney feels moving forward with Zoila Gurgel after watching her lose the first round to a 4-2 no-name fighter who was essentially brought in to lose.
Full Results:
Main Card
Lyman Good def. Michail Tsarev via TKO (strikes), 3:54 of Round Two
Andrey Koreshkov def. Marius Zaromskis via TKO (strikes), 2:14 of Round One
Daniel Straus def. Alvin Robinson via submission (rear-naked choke), 4:51 of Round Two
Brian Rogers def. Dominique Steele via unanimous decision
Preliminary Card
Zoila Gurgel def. Casey Noland via unanimous decision
Jason Butcher vs. Shaun Asher via submission (guillotine choke), 1:32 of Round One
Billy Horne def. Trey Houston via submission (rear-naked choke), 3:30 of Round One
Mikkel Parlo def. Jared Combs via TKO (strikes), 3:51 of Round One
Rob Hanna def. Rocky Edwards via split decision
Justin McNally def. David Blattman via submission (triangle choke), 0:38 of Round One
