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Morrison TKO's UFC Vet Alvin
Robinson
MAGALHAES AND LUDWIG LIGHT UP RING OF FIRE
Saturday,
December 05, 2009 - by Ken Pishna - MMAWeekly.com
(Photos by April Pishna)
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DENVER – With seven UFC veterans on the card at
Friday night’s Ring of Fire, there were several fighters
hoping to use wins in the Mile High City to catapult
themselves into contention for a return to the Octagon.
Chief among them were Ultimate Fighter alums Vinny
Magalhaes and Mike Nickels in the main event. Nickels is
a Brazilian Jiu-jitsu brown belt and local fan favorite,
but Magalahaes is one of the world’s premier black
belts... and it showed at Magness Arena.
He quickly put Nickels on the mat, took his back, and
locked on a body triangle. From there, it was just a
matter of time before Magalhaes would maneuver from
submission to submission until he set up a highly
technical armbar that left Nickels with no choice but to
tap out or lose a limb.
Magalhaes told
MMAWeekly.com after the fight that he is hoping to fight
once a month or every other month for the near future.
After a little more seasoning, he hopes to return to the
Ultimate Fighting Championship roster.
Having spent the majority of his career swinging back
and forth between kickboxing and mixed martial arts,
Duane “Bang” Ludwig says that he is now dialed in on
MMA. It showed on Friday night.
As expected, his
opponent, Ryan Roberts, immediately shot for the
takedown, but Ludwig defended it well, pushing Roberts
onto his back and landing in full mount. Roberts was
able to defend the mount and push Ludwig off and get to
full guard, but that was the beginning of the end.
Ludwig let loose a fury of punches mixed with sharp
elbows that had Roberts tapping two minutes into the
fight.
Surely happy with the win, Ludwig was genuinely
disappointed with the brevity of the bout.
“I’m
definitely getting better. I guess I showed tonight I
was comfortable on the ground,” he said after the fight.
“But I really wanted to scrap tonight. I guess it wasn’t
meant to be. I wanted to get some stitches; I wanted to
earn this paycheck tonight.”
Philadelphia-based,
TEAM COMBAT fighter
Anthony Morrison stepped into
hostile territory, but didn’t wait around to get
ambushed. He immediately took Gracie black belt and
local favorite Alvin “Kid” Robinson to the mat and
unleashed a brutal ground and pound attack to finish the
fight in a blur.
The fight between Ultimate Fighter season 9 alumnus
Cameron Dollar and UFC veteran Kit Cope had some heat to
it due to a war of words between the two on Twitter, but
Friday it would be Dollar’s night. Cope stung Dollar at
the opening bell with a couple well-timed punches, but
Dollar immediately took the fight to the mat and didn’t
relent. The two fought for position on the ground, but
once Dollar locked on a body triangle from Cope’s back,
he didn’t relent until he found the fight finishing rear
naked choke.
“There was a little bit of bad
blood, but Cope’s a good guy. He was stronger than I
thought he was gonna be,” said Dollar after the fight,
burying the hatchet. But that wasn’t enough for Wand
Fight Team jiu-jitsu coach Sidney Silva, who challenged
Dollar to a fight with him on a future event.
Another popular local fighter, Cody Donovan, suffered
the first loss of his professional career in an attempt
to capture the Ring of Fire Young Guns light heavyweight
championship. Eric Smith used his Greco-Roman wrestling
to control the positioning in the fight, doing damage
with a strong striking attack from standing in Donovan’s
guard. He caught Donovan with heavy right hands late in
the opening round then dropped on him to finish with a
flurry to capture the belt.
Preliminary bout
honors go mostly to the ladies. Jen Berg and Kyane
Hampton, in separate bouts, were very impressive for
amateur fighters, as was Vinny Lopez. All three
dominated their respective fights.
Main
Bouts (Professional):
-Vinny Magalhaes def.
Mike Nickels by Submission (Armbar) at 1:19, R1
-Duane Ludwig def. Ryan Roberts by Submission (Strikes)
at 2:05, R1
-Anthony Morrison def. Alvin Robinson by
Submission (Strikes) at 1:09, R1
-Cameron Dollar def.
Kit Cope by Submission (Rear Naked Choke) at 4:38, R1
-Eric Smith def. Cody Donovan by TKO (Strikes) 3:18, R1
-Justin Guthrie def. Ian Berg by Submission (Rear Naked
Choke) at 2:17, R1
-Andreas Spang def. Andre Walker
by Submission (Guillotine Choke) at 2:20, R1
Preliminary Bouts (Amateur):
-JJ Mondragon def. Zach
Valdez by Unanimous Decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27), R3
-Jen Berg def. Sarah Goodlaxen by TKO (Strikes) at 1:23,
R1
-Vinny Lopez def. Shane Lemaster by TKO (Couldn’t
Answer Bell) at 3:00, R1
-Kyane Hampton def. Rachel
Perry by TKO (Strikes) at 2:52, R1
-Oscar Jimenez
def. Husam Alberq by Split Decision (29-28, 29-28,
27-30), R3
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