MAGALHAES AND LUDWIG LIGHT UP RING OF FIRE
Saturday, December 05, 2009 - by Ken Pishna -
MMAWeekly.com (Photos by April Pishna)
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
