Top Fighter MMA 2, Gracie Barra CT shines again, Alex Gaze upset by novice.
Images by Eduardo FerreiraRIO DE JANEIRO, October 25th – the fourth fight-event held inside the night club Castello das Pedras didn’t have the theme of last one. When an unnamed Gracie Barra Combat team Vs. Brazilian Top Team pushed the first team mentioned as the winner by dominant 4-2. Like Rio de Janeiro’s promoters enjoy, once again the mix of Muay Thai matches and MMA was fitted on this event; with the two first fights being high-level Thai collisions. Even though a TKO or a KO wasn’t seen on these two fights, the talent of the fours combatants was the tonic of the fight.
The first match-up showed the skilled Claudiere de Freitas (Paulo Nikolai’s pupil) of BTT against skinny (but no less brave) MICHEL of Luciano Gomes. Claudiere dominated the three rounds of the fights and his amazing way of blocking low kicks turned my attention that it’s almost impossible in a Kickboxing/Muay Thai match for a fighter to not connect a low-kick, but that happened to MICHEL who was blocked in all attempts. With a game more polished and with accurate combos. Claudiere controlled the valiant MICHEL to earn aunanimous decision. Paulo Nikolai’s Gleison Mamute and Anderson Grande fought 3×3 rounds minutes too, but the pace was different of first match when Mamute ate a lot of kicks and punches from the tall Grande. The strategy of Mamute sounded a bit weird for me, when in the endof R1 he imposed a lull instead action. With the R1 lost, Mamute turned the pace in R2 and if he had insisted in more straights and crosses he’d knock Grande down, who walked back dizzy of Mamute’s reach. R3 was a replay with Grande surviving, Mamutepursing him around the ring to conquer a split decision.
And the MMA action comes… First two guys to square-off on the ring were Fitness & Saude’s Eduardo Felipe against State of Rio BJJ champion Leandro Brodinho of Gracie Barra CT. Felipe, a smart gnp fighter committed the mistake of accepting the fight with a knee injury and paid for this. This was the Brodinho’s fault that mauled Felipe during the first round and got a mount position. Saved by the bell in R1, Felipe didn’t keep himself much time on the ring when early in R2 he said to the referee: -‘no more’. This was the Brodinho’s debut in MMA and the fight number #9 of Felipe., who now has a negative resume of 4-5. Motivated by Brodinho (as a novice fighter), D’ANGELO (Alexandre Pequeno) tried to upset Will Ribeiro (Boxe Thai Team) in the second MMA match of the evening, and he nearly did. Shooting madly to take Ribeiro down, D’ANGELO frustrated the intention of Will on the feet in several occasions. But D’ANGELO’s excess of will opened gaps to Ribeiro stay on the top when the fight hit the ground and pound the Xzibit’s hair look(D’ANGELO). Punching inside the D’ANGELO’s guard Ribeiro forced D’ANGELO to protect himself open side-control. Without a game plan to counter the one-sided way of taking Ribeiro down, D’ANGELO suffered a lot on the rounds and didn’t get to manage anything to put Ribeiro in danger. End of the three rounds and Ribeiro got the nod by decision. The promoters invited two guys on the crowd to fight.
What??! Yes readers, they stopped the event and offered a few bucks for two guys without MMA experience to show up in the ring voluntarily. The first guy who invited himself was BJJ champion Antonio Braga Netto (GBCT), an unknown opponent showed-up too, but without trunks and mouth piece he declined and an Alexandre Pequeno’s student named LOLITO, replaced him to be punished and armbarred for the Gracie Barra’s Netto. The confrontation between the BJJer Fabio Abreu (Top Brothers) and the Gracie Barra CT Muay Thai wizard Eduardo Pachu was what we can name of the classic grappler vs. striker. Even though Pachu is a GBCT representative, his hands and legs already knocked several opponents down and Abreu knew that. Abreu shot and Pachu forced him backwards with an uppercut, calling Abreu to trade punches, Pachu kept active during whole 2 rounds and knocked Abreu down with two soccer kicks. Luis Cabelinho’s protégé puts Muay Thai Golden Boy to sleep. You, who are able to watch the read about MMA events, know when a fighter is inserted on a card just so the main event is not cancelled. These type of fighters are usually on short notice to fight and their chances of winning the match are very small. Well, very small doesn’t mean impossible and we already saw these situations.
The Muay Thai Golden Boy, Alex Gaze (Boxe Thai Team) was never considered a huge MMA competitor, however his training and Muay Thay resume constructed a reputation in the fight world that even never materialized in reality at MMA imposed respect over his opponents. Gaze would face a 2-0 fighter named Valcenir Chulinha, a brave fighter under Clayton Mangueira in ground game and under 5x times World Kickboxing champion Andre Rouberte at standing aspects. Without any explanation from the organization, Chulinha didn’t show-up and was replaced by young Rogerio Silva. When the fight started, Silva showed his respect to Gaze, tangled weirdly and dropped on the bottom. Gaze was calm, but didn’t unload the flurry needed to finish the fight by strikes when it was on the ground. They re-started the action on the feet and Gaze had a 100% dominance of the fight, however Silva’s respect wasn’t the same that he showed early on the fight. They clinched again and then they went backwards. On this moment Silva landed a brutal straight that connected at Gaze’s face, this one dropped sleeping with eyes opened, following the move Silva got the mount but referee Marcio Barbosa jumped between them to stop a possible massacre over Gaze. The coach of Silva (Luis Cabelinho) celebrated a lot the victory of his pupil and once again we learned that on the sport, the outcome is always unknown. Other Results:
Amilcar Alves (GBCT) def. Rodrigo Freitas (Jorge Turco) by TKO.
Geilton Rodrigues def. Ademir Mineiro (GBCT) by TKO. Gerson Silva (BTT) def. Alberto Ramos (Top Brothers) by TKO. Rafael dos Anjos (GBCT) def. Diogo Oliveira (Top Brothers) by armbar.
Julian ‘Jaba’ Soares (RFT) def. Wesley Cavalcanti (GBCT) by TKO.
Lucio ‘Lagarto’ Rodrigues (GBCT) def. Roberto Albuquerque (Jorge Turco) by armbar.
Alexandre ‘Baixinho’ Barros (GBCT) def. Edson Chulapa(Clayton Mangueira) by tapout due to strikes.