Last Friday's Ring of Combat was one of the most exciting yet. Pete Sell was in another war, but things didn't turn out well for him. There were fighters from Canada, the Republic of Georgia and Brazil, as well as America and other countries, even NJ.
The place was sold out by 8pm and the joint was rocking. Lou Neglia's shows are always an event. Here's some breakdown of the event by Shawn Baran:
The main event of the night and arguably the fight of the night belonged to Tom DeBlass and his Russian opponent, David Tkeshelashvili. The two fighters went to war for three grueling rounds. DeBlass controlled the pace and landed more strikes in each round. Tkeshelashvili kept coming forward in a terminator like fashion, but was bested on the feet and on the mat. The Russian proved to be a tough opponent to say the least. DeBlass had his work cut out for him, but managed to pull out the unanimous decision victory.
Tkeshelashvili obviously came to fight, but despite a few decent takedowns, seemed to be a little overmatched by DeBlass’ skill set. Tom dropped the Russian early in the fight with a quick punch and landed effective striking throughout the fight. When the fight spilled to the mat, Tom used some great Jiu-Jitsu to sweep from guard to mount and got David’s back on more than one occasion. Tom was a little frustrated after the fight as he had hoped to finish his opponent, but Tom took home the win, retained his Light-Heavyweight Title, and his unbeaten streak remains intact.
It was not such a good night for Team Serra, however, as two of Serra’s Champions were dethroned last night. Peter “Drago” Sell was knocked out in the second round by Canadian, Nordine Taleb. Taleb used some great footwork and movement to keep Sell guessing while landing some solid strikes and great combinations. Sell had no answer for the Canadian’s attack and took a few punches too many before succumbing to Taleb’s strikes. Nordine put on an impressive performance and took the ROC Welterweight Championship back to Canada.
Al Iaquinta came to defend his Lightweight Championship for the first time and despite a good start, got taken down and submitted for his troubles. Pat Audinwood brought his A game last night and after eating a big punch early on, was able to recover and land some punches of his own before scoring a takedown. From there Audinwood used his long limbs to grab a hold of Iaquinta’s arm and despite some great defense from Iaquinta, was eventually able to sink in the armbar and get the first round tapout and the ROC title.
Deividas Taurosevicus had the comeback of the night, last night. Tauro was dropped and huirt early by up and comer, Marlon Moraes. Moraes capitalized on his efforts and when the fight went to the mat, Moraes took Deividas’ back and was able to secure what appeared to be a very tight choke. However, his position against the cage prevented him from using the leverage he needed to really sink in the choke. Taurosevicus was able to escape, reversed the position, and secured his own rear naked choke and got the tap out victory near the end of the first round. It was a great performance of perseverance from Deividas and a successful title defense.
Amazing show!