BALTIMORE, M.D. - One of the most entertaining sporting events in Maryland this year had everything, almost. Shogun Fights II, a mixed martial arts event held at the 1st Mariner Arena, was a follow-up to the highly praised Shogun Fights event headlined by Promoter John Rallo.

 

Rallo’s Shogun Fights II boasted a thrilling, well-run event that included some of the East Coast’s brightest underground talent, starting with a large crop of athletes from locally in Maryland. The event also had a classic high-level fight ambiance to it, beautiful women, a dichotomy of family fun and “boy’s night out”, star power and the winningest Olympic athlete ever in Michael Phelps—you know, the minimum for a great event.

Let’s Get Ready To Rumble

The First fight featured hometown kid, 5’ 6” Rick Desper, who previously had a 2-1 record,  went up against Delaware’s 5’10” Steven Baker in a battle between super lightweights. Baker jumped out on Desper, getting the Maryland native into a headlock early in the first round but couldn’t sink it in to finish him off. Throughout the fight, it was clear that Baker had the advantage, scoring two takedowns early. The bout ended with a Desper victory as the fighter out of Rallo’s Ground Control was able to get Baker’s back and submitted him with a deep-set arm bar.

One of the most intriguing fights of the night occurred between Cole Pressley and Brian Van Hoven. The bloodiest by far, Pressley and Van Hoven’s matchup was definitely in the running for fight of the night. The first two minutes of the fight saw an active Pressley maneuvering his way around the octagon to get Van Hoven into multiple submission holds.

Pressley dug his hooks into Van Hoven multiple times but could never get in tight enough to finish the job. Van Hoven, who came into Saturday night’s fight with a 3-0 record, could have his time in the marines to thank for his elusiveness. When van Hoven was 18 he joined the United States Marines and served his country for 10 years. While in the Marines, Van Hoven picked up on Greco-Roman style wrestling—an extremely difficult wrestling technique to master, which uses all upper body and is widely praised for its use of spectacular throws.

Van Hoven demonstrated some of these Greco-Roman principles throughout his match. Van Hoven started out by breaking Pressley’s rear naked choke attempt with a spectacular slam followed by a series of melees that opened Pressley up. But Pressley kept coming in the following rounds and Van Hoven kept landing the tenacious fighter on his head.

One slam in particular that got a stirring reaction from the crowd was a slam Van Hoven had on an arm bar attempt that landed Pressley on the top of his head and as his cranium bounced off the mat his neck gave way in a gruesome manner that looked worse than what it actually was—says the man who sat comfortably outside of the cage watching. With his eyes and nose bloody, and a mouth pooling with blood, fatigue began to set in affecting Pressley’s ability to be aggressive as he defended for the remainder of the match, mostly on his back, followed by a trail of blood. Pressley would say after the match that he was cut inside of his mouth and had to gargle and the blood out as it pooled in his throat, all while trying to avoid strikes from Van Hoven. Van Hoven won by unanimous decision keeping his record spotless—minus all the blood—at 4-0.

Substitutions

Three of the night’s matches involved substitutions, which is common in MMA because of the rigorous training and intense simulated sparring.

Mike Paschall, 6’0” 165 pounds, went up against Quinton McCottrell who subbed for Glen Hoffman. McCottrell, nicknamed “the Ninja” displayed very good balance, as he never gave up his mount eventually winning by submission over Paschall out of local area team Ground Control.

Johnny Curtis (2-2), a wrestler, was notified on Monday that he would be fighting Joe Stripling out of team 302 BJJ.  Both fighters were at a disadvantage as Curtis is a wrestler but Stripling had trained to match up against a striker in Chris Sydnor who was hurt prior to Saturday’s event. Curtis, out of Herndon, Virginia entered on short notice and left the octagon short of breath but victorious. A broken nose, wooziness and “dead tired”—the spoils of war. “I (usually) stay in decent shape,” said Curits.  “I wasn’t in the shape I would have been in had I had longer to prepare. I felt healthy enough so I put it in the Lord’s hands…went out and did it.” All three judges scored the fight 28-27 in favor of Curtis.

The third substitution involved crowd favorite and firecracker Justin Hickey (2-1-0), a 21-year-old, 5’7” welterweight out of Virginia. Hickey was matched up against 5’11” Brett Thomas out of team Damage Inc. Thomas (2-0 entering Saturday’s matchup) was originally supposed to square off against Ryan Mackin, a 5’9” out of Rallo’s Ground Control unit. Mackin was suffering from a painful kidney stone, which sidelined him. “I feel bad for him,” said Rallo. “He’s the hardest worker in the gym.

There are times I got to tell him to stop training.” Hickey came out swinging and was all over Thomas as soon as the clock hit 4:59. Midway through Hickey’s barrage, Thomas somehow through out a right that caught Hickey, slowing the fighter who was notified two days before that he would be in the event, but not enough to get a victory. Hickey won the fight and afterwards openly explained his journey into the octagon. “I actually took the fight yesterday so I only had two hours to cut the weight to make weight,” said Hickey. “Man I’ll fight anybody, I wasn’t worried about it. The only thing I was worried about was my wind cause I was out partying two nights ago.”

“Mentally I’m like I just got to get him before he gets me.”

Baby Hercules! “Have you ever seen me fight before?”

“A lot of people look at my height (and doubt) but I got power. You going to see it tonight though. I guarantee every time I swing a punch, (the crowd) going to feel that in their gut.” Germiyale Adkins out of 302 BJJ and Newark, Delaware was confident before his fight against ground specialist Dave Daniecki.

The 5’7” Adkins known as “Baby Hercules” entered the match as an underdog in everyone’s minds but his own—as one reporter said during the fighter’s intros “Daniecki is one of the nastiest (fighters) I have ever covered. You watch, if he gets him on the ground, it’s over.” Daniecki, submission specialist out of Ground Control stood 6’ and worked the octagon cerebrally.  Daniecki immediately got Adkins on the ground, a place where the stout power puncher did not want to be, or so everyone assumed. “I got wrestling,” said the charismatic “Baby Herc” Adkins. “I’m not on the ground cause I don’t want to be there.” Daniecki was able to masterfully work his way into a kimora attempt but Adkins was able to pop out of it. On Daniecki’s second attempt at a Kimora, the match appeared to be over as the crowd began to sit down and Adkins’ supporters out of 302 BJJ all of a sudden got quiet. But Adkins popped right back out of the kimora a second time more like “Baby Houdini” getting the crowd anxious as yet another hometown fighter, Daniecki, seemed to be in for more than he bargained for. “Man you see this right here,” Adkins said pointing to his forearm after the match.  “Can’t nobody just easily get me locked up, I’m so compact that it’s almost impossible.”

And with such a build, Adkins was simply a physical anomaly that Daniecki’s submission techniques simply had no answer for. To the crowd’s disappointment, yet another Baltimore favorite fell. In a split decision 30-27/ 28-29/28-29 Adkins won and made good on his promise as most of his blows that caught Daniecki on the side of the head and jaw got “Ooh’s” from the crowd live and “Aah’s” after the replays.

MAIN EVENT

The scheduled main event took place between Heavyweights 325 lb. Deon West out of Ohio and 315lb. Ryan McGowan out of Ground Control.  After 22 seconds McGowan was pulled off of West, as the referee had to stop the fight capping off Ground Control’s most dominating win.

In other fights, Jason Hillicker (arm bar) defeated Bobby Huron from Greg Jackson MMA boasting a resume of training partners ranging from Rashad Evans to Keith Jardine. Jacob Kirwan from Fredrick, Maryland probably had the most controversial win as referee Fredo Yamasaki deducted a point for grabbing the cage in order to prevent a takedown by Steve De Angelis out of Pellegrino MMA. Kirwan won on a  29-27 decision despite Yamasaki signaling he had lost a point.

The event that took center stage however had to have been the matchup of 6’ grizzled veteran James “Binky” Jones against Jimmy “the Kid” Hettes. The 40-year-old Jones, known as “The Baltimore Submission Machine” entered the octagon proceeded by waving flags of the United States and Maryland, amid the loudest cheers of the night and followed by the largest entourage in Baltimore since Sheila Dixon’s last trip to the mall. Hettes, meekly entered the ring, and even more humbly left. With the crowd on it’s feet and as boisterous as it had been anticipating that their home grown star Jones would give them a show—Hettes wouldn’t allow that. “I didn’t want to come in and win to spite the fans,” said Hettes. “I’d rather come in here and show the fans all the training I’ve been doing and how much better I’ve gotten. So instead of trying to win my fight (as much) I wanted to win everyone’s respect.”

As Hettes and Jones got into the clinch, “the Kid” whipped around as quick as the audiences’ eyes could adjust to the blur and in 28 seconds submitted Jones, a fighter he grew up watching. “That’s my whole game plan. I try to get in and I don’t try to out-power my opponent. I like to use my footwork and my speed and when I’m on the ground, that’s where I feel more comfortable. I really (admire) Binky. He knew I looked up to him and after the fight we shook hands and he wished me well in my career and if he (reads) this I just want to say thank you to him again.” Hettes is 5-0 winning all of his professional matches by submission and the future looks just as bright for the 22-year-old as it does for John Rallo’s Shogun events.

A shogun product, Kris McCray out of Dumfries, Virginia and the Army Reserves will put the DMV on the national MMA map this spring when Ultimate Fighter is aired on Spike TV. McCrary is a contestant on the show and promises that—“It’s off the chain man…we’re all about fighting (this season).” McCray claims, “This season is definitely going to be the best season of the Ultimate fighter, make sure DCsportsbox.com gets that out there, DMV all the way man.”

Consider it out Kris.

An overall splendid event that is a must for fight fans in the area, Rallo encourages all to be on the lookout for announcements on Shogun III.