Quijano: URCC 7 heralds MMA boom in Cebu

Saturday, January 14, 2012

I HAD a cracker of a time watching “URCC Cebu 7: Dominate” last Friday. I arrived a little past nine with my favorite judge in tow and found out that I had already missed two matches.

I proceeded to gulp down two Last Rounds to punish myself for being laggardly.

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ETAC VS. TORRE. Yaw-yan Ardigma’s Geronimo Etac was off to an auspicious start, landing several leg kicks in the early going. However, Torre countered well and attempted to take the fight to the ground.

Etac managed to escape from the initial submission attempts, and landed several more kicks, including an eye-catching spinning back-fist. However, at around the five-minute mark, as the fight went to the ground, Torre caught him with an arm triangle.

He held and attempted to counter. However, after they rolled over, Torre again caught him with the same submission attempt, this time with more leverage and Etac was constrained to tap out.

BULLOS vs. DE LARA. Bullos finally got a much needed win with an impressive victory to boost his comeback trail. De Lara came in looking to trade but Bullos opened up the first minute with two takedown slams which got the crowd’s attention.

De Lara, however, demonstrated his resiliency and power and maneuvered himself on the top position and dished out his brand of ground and pound.

“The Prince” gave up his back and found himself desperately locked in a rear-naked choke. Luckily, he extricated himself and before the round ended, locked his own guillotine choke on De Lara. The latter survived as the round ended.

In the second, Bullos again managed to catch De Lara with a guillotine choke as the latter attempted to take him down. Bullos adeptly used his weight to fall back and leverage his power. This time De Lara tapped out.

Bullos demonstrated a more patient and methodical approach and his ground game appeared to have improved exponentially.

Are we seeing a fresh “Prince” ready to reclaim his footing in the local MMA scene?

FOLAYANG. VS. TEIXEIRA. At around 10:30 p.m., it was time for the main event, the moment we have all been waiting for. Edward Folayang was introduced and the crowd went wild. As soon as he shed off his clothing, everybody marveled at his sinewy, muscular body with practically zero body fat.

Moments later, the fight is on. The two combatants meet at the center of the ring. They exchange and for a brief moment, it seemed like Edward Teixeira has clipped Folayang and he went down.

However, he managed to scramble up and resume the battle. A few seconds later, he found himself on the ground with the Brazilian attempting a guillotine choke.

He demonstrated his superiority by escaping and proceeding to punish his opponent with some of the sickest looking elbows to the face. Jon Bones Jones would have been proud.

And just like that, it was all over in 56 seconds of the first round.

Folayang is an exceptional mix of power, skill and speed and on that night he demonstrated why he is the yardstick for Pinoy MMA fighters to emulate.

SUCCESS. The growing popularity of Mixed Martial Arts in Cebu cannot be denied. Kudos to the organizers for finally bringing in the big guns.

Moreover, the event itself was well-orchestrated with a fast, lively pace and very few lulls between fights. And the free flowing beer didn’t hurt either.

HE SAID IT. “I’ve spoken with Rob Goldstein and the most reputable builder of an outdoor facility and they think we can put it all together but ideally, on June 9. If Mayweather is supposed to start serving his sentence on June 1, I think we can ask the judge to postpone it ‘til after the fight.”—Bob Arum (www.philstar.com)

LAST ROUNDS. Are on two dear friends, Serge and Melissa Rocamora, who are in town with baby Luke, their pride and joy. Cheers!

(jingo_quijano@yahoo.com)