The Golden Acorn Casino October 15 2005 Campo, California
It took Brad Doerges (webmaster), Dave Mandel (photos), and myself (writer) seemingly four hours to get to Campo, California. I had no idea where Campo was, Brad told us it was in San Diego. He lied; it was over 40 minutes outside San Diego. I wonder if Sherdog lies to his staff as well? Or does he chauffer them in a giant RV? Luckily for Brad the Golden Acorn Casino, although seemingly in the middle of no where, was easy to find.
The first fight was underway and I was already amazed. Total Combat Dolls were spread out all over the arena (a giant tent) dancing to their own rhythm. They all looked to be dressed in Halloween costumes and showing enough skin to easily distract me during a fight. Luckily they were whisked away during the fight and somehow reappeared right after a fight. They even did an intermission show between the fights that showed they were more than good looks. I was also impressed by the production value of this show, seems like you don’t have to be the UFC to have good shows in the US.
It was a battle of local yokels all night as Grant ‘Windstorm’ Whitmer accompanied by Dean Lister and Melchor Menor representing Lister Training Center took on Crazy Ryan from SD Fight Club who was accompanied by Charlie Kohler.
It was an up and down battle for 3 hard fought rounds. It was the only fight to go to the decision. I had Crazy Ryan drawing with Windstorm. The webmaster had the same scorecard as I did. Windstorm ended up taking the decision as Ryan was deducted a point in the second round for an illegal knee to an opponent who is on all fours. Ryan had Windstorm finished a few times but Storm hung on strong and weathered Ryan’s storm and was able to win with head and arm takedowns and effective positioning.
Daniel Torres from IV Combat Grappling fought Ruben Vera from Ma Du Entertainment. Vera, who was cornered by up and comer Nam Phan, was powered by Pho’ that night as he got the takedown and finished the RNC moments into the first round. He had to be the skinniest fighter I have ever seen, but boy was he a man.
Next Cody Culkin of Pro-Pain fought Brett Cooper from Sub-Fighter. Will we someday see MMA-Fighter vs Sub-Fighter? Anyways it took Cooper a minute and a half to TKO his way to a victory over Culkin.
Corn “Rezdog” Zwicker from Team Magnitude (who had the loudest pop from the audience) had an impressive showing against Tom Hubert of Black Tiger Dojo. He rushed in like a man on fire unloading punches and vicious GNP. All Hubert could do was hang on, bloodied up until round two. Round two was underway as it was more of the same, there was a nice armbar attempt by Hubert who in my opinion was not T-Boned enough to finish that armbar and Zwicker easily jumped over him and passed to sidemount. From there he ended up in north south position. A position he seemed to have never seen before, where Brad and I were screaming at the top of our lungs to finish with a Kimura which he had perfect position of doing considering he had the guys head and arm tried up in a reverse triangle. Confused and after asking the referee what he should do, he Mongolian chopped his way to a doctor’s stoppage.
Brent Stuchlick of Lister Training fought Eber Saulido. This was the most stand up action we saw all night as Stuchlick TKO’ed Saulido early in the first round.
Patrick Speight of SD Fight Club took on Brandon Adams of Magnitude. Speight was too much as he out struck out position Adams gaining mount in the first and then again in the second round, pounding away until the referee called a stop to the contest. Basically in this event, every person who was mounted lost. Either they got TKO’ed or gave up their backs to a RNC. No one ever heard of shrimping? A little jiu jitsu anyone? Helio would roll over in his grave if he were dead…
Chris Davis of Black Tiger took on Daniel Vasquez of 5150 Fight Club. Davis came out dancing like he was Travolta with his pants on fire. He went in the ring, threw a few punches, caught a flying knee in mid air and countered with a big slam, got reversed, did a textbook armbar for the submission victory then Saturday Night Fevered his way out of the ring.
Josh Griggs of Team Quam rear naked choked Ulysses Cortez of IV Combat Grappling in the first round. Mount, punch, give up back, RNC, tap, tap, tap, rinse, and repeat.
Brandon Magna of SD Fight Club (the event is almost team vs. team) fought Jared Rollins of No Limits. Magna seemed to be getting the better of Rollins early in the first round, but Rollins was much less fatigued as he kept coming on strong in the end of round 1 eventually opening up a big cut with an elbow from the bottom. In round 2, in a big flurry where Magna ended up on the ground either falling down to a punch or exhaustion, Rollins followed up with a knee and was disqualified for kneeing a downed opponent. To me it seemed like the knee was good because Magna was getting up and only had one hand on the floor and was no longer on his knees. The referee saw otherwise. Legendary trainer Colin Oyama was not pleased as he unleashed a flurry of verbal NHB on the referee.
Tim Carey of American Freestyle submits Toby Imada of 228 Gym in the first round with a RNC. Imada was in way over his head.
Alex Garcia of City Boxing followed to the ring by up and coming UFC fighter Brandon Vera took on Jeff Harwell of KO Fitness. It ended as quickly as it started as Garcia grabbed a hold of Harwell and KO’ed the KO Fitness fighter with suplex.
Julian Rush of Fight Science took on Eddie “Dirty” Sanchez of Team Magnitude. It was a slobber knocker as both men traded bombs that mostly missed. They tired quickly as the first round came to a close as they desperately tried to finish each other, trying to avoid the second round. Sanchez could be seen telling his corner that he was tired and he wanted no more, but his corner kept him in the fight. In the other corner Rush was not able to answer the bell, as he seemed more tired than even Sanchez and had to lie on the ring floor for a good five minutes. He did not look to be in great fight shape, as society may deem him overweight. I like to call the gut, a fuel tank; a fuel tank that burns gas fast.
Jeremy Jackson of Team Freedom took on Christian Vargas in the main event. Early on Vargas caught Jackson with a high kick and dropped Jackson. Jackson kept his cool and clinched with Vargas, getting the takedown and trying to work the ground and pound. He eventually got reversed and tried some submissions from the bottom. Both men got back to their feet and to my surprise; it was Jackson going for the takedown again. He got it with an inside trip and eventually got mount, Vargas gave up his back and tried to stand as Jackson did the inevitable and cinched in the choke for the victory with some improved ground skills.
Comments? Post your Thoughts in our Forum
Report by
Sam “Soju” Yang
MMA-Fighter.com Reporter
Sam@mma-fighter.com
