One of the fastest growing sports in the world, Mixed Martial Arts, made its return to Rutherford County on Saturday with a 14-amateur fight card at Smyrna’s Hooptown.
By the end of the long night, the event had a little of bit of everything.
One local gym, Nemesis, finished the night with a great record and even added some more fighters for its ever growing gym.
The main MMA trainer at the gym, and the promoter of the event, Danny Jones, said about 800 fans showed up for the card.
Jones added each card he has put on in the area the attendance has increased each time.
“I’m glad the fans are supporting us,” Jones said.
The card was headlined by a co-main event that included Nemesis light heavyweight fighter Wesley Sullivan facing Alonzo Alverez.
After the fight, Sullivan said he fought with a broken hand, but he wanted to use his wrestling skills he learned in high school to take control of his opponent.
It worked, especially when Sullivan put Alverez down with several big slams. He finished the fight with a TKO in the second round.
“I just wanted to wear him out and he wanted to go to the ground,” said Sullivan, who improved to 14-4 after the fight. “That is my world.”
Bantamweight fighter Corey Robinson won the other co-main event over Brian Adkins.
Besides Sullivan, Jones has another fighter at the gym that he wants to turn pro in the near future, welterweight Itai Triado.
Triado was in an interesting situation on Saturday, in which in he had to fight someone that knew him from their days as high school classmates.
In the week leading up to the bout with Robert Weiker, Triado said they never had any issues with each other, but they hardly hung out outside of school either.
Just like Sullivan, Triado slammed his opponent to the mat with a loud thud and then used his ground and pound skills to end the fight early in the opening round.
“Once I got mounted on him,” Triado said after the fight, “I just kept punching, and I hit him in the back of the jaw. I was excited with the win.”
As for the fan turnout, Itai said he sold about 50 tickets during the days leading up to the card.
Other Nemesis winners from the card, included featherweight Alex Anderson, heavyweight Taylor Yeager and lightweight Ronnie Lawrence, and each of them faced different issues during their matchups.
After Anderson stepped into the cage for his bout with Keaton Firpo, the officials told him he had to take the tape off his ankles.
He said after the fight, it was no big deal, but he usually tapes his ankles before a fight.
On the other hand Ronnie and Taylor had to fight bigger opponents, but each of them used submission moves to end the fight.
At the end of their fights, each said he saw the fight go to the ground and a choke hold opened up and they took advantage of the situation.
The two losses by Nemesis came in hard fought showdowns.
Lightweight McKenzie Lee lost in a Muay Thai rules match to John Deason.
Some of the differences including wearing head gear, and they were only allowed to use kicks and punches to the head and body.
They were also not allowed to take the fight to the ground.
Light heavyweight Mike Bissett was fighting in his first MMA bout, after having fought 58 boxing matches and becoming one of the best amateur fighters in the nation.
However, his opponent Brent Smith took the fight to the ground and finished it early in the opening round by a submission.
Bissett was in good spirits after the loss, but he added he will work on his ground game.
Bissett lost his first boxing match in 2005, but a couple of years later he was ranked No. 2 in the nation.
“I liked fighting in the cage a lot,” he said after the fight. “I wish I would have trained more for it, but I will be back.”
Jones hopes to be back in Rutherford County in the near future and wants to keep growing the sport. |
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