- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Cage Fighting Championship 18 rocked Sydney Harbour on Friday night as Jesse Juarez defended his welterweight title against Manny ‘Chalate’ Rodriguez in a five round battle that took place entirely on the ground.
The American, representing Body Shop Fitness, controlled Rodriguez for 25 minutes in a showing that was not appreciated by the crowd, given the explosive card that precluded the main event.
However, it was enough for the judges to award a unanimous decision win (45 -50, 45-50, 47-49).
Fight of the night honours had to go to Corey Nelson and Robert Whittaker who spent 9 mins and 40 secs tussling back and forth which charged the Big Top with excitement.
Throughout the bout the crowd was loud, as it went in between stand-and-bang to the ground with a rear-naked choke attempt late in round 1.
Whittaker from early on had been going for the arm and after surviving the barrage of punches, switched to gain dominant position on the ground for the armbar to finish the match.
In other fights on the main card American Antonio McKee defeated Jai “The Tooth Fairy” Bradney with six seconds to go in the first round by choke, and Priscus Fogagnolo defeated Andrew Profilli in what was a bloodbath of a match.
The crowd was on edge after an earlier doctor stoppage due to cuts, hoping that a result would be made. The referee stopped the bout twice in order to allow the cut to be cleaned and checked.
Once deemed ok to continue, Fogagnolo maintained the dominant position, raining down on Profilli with punches and elbows until the ref called a stop to the match due to strikes in round 2.
The undercard fights set the scene for the night, with no bout going further than the first round.
Jamie Rae surprised the crowd favourite Adam Sarkis, who controlled the majority of the round, through quick transitions to gain position and then unleashed a barrage of elbows and punches to win via ref stoppage (strikes) with 45 seconds remaining on the clock.
Regan Wilson was convincing with his win via rear naked choke over Mo Kandeel and Kian Pham showed the value of experience over his win for Mike Lim via guillotine choke at 1 min 34 seconds in the first round in the battle of the flyweights.
The fight between Michael Morcombe and Josh Payne ended in disappointing fashion as the doctor had to intervene and call an end to the fight at the end of round one due to a deep cut above Josh Payne’s eye which was impeding on his vision.
Let’s get ready to rumble! Pick a fighter and place your bets with PlayUp for great odds. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.