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Following a miserable two-year stretch, Jens Pulver has started 2011 off on the right foot -- sort of.
Pulver, 36, came close to finishing his opponent with punches in the opening frame. Choate survived, however, and gave the smaller and seemingly tentative “Little Evil” trouble with range in the second and third rounds.
In the end, scorecards of 29-28, 29-28 and 28-29 gave Pulver the narrow decision, after which the Washington native revealed that he had injured his foot -- by then discolored and grotesquely swollen -- in the first five minutes of the bout. The win was Pulver’s second in a row, his first such stretch since April 2006.
On the CCC undercard, former World Extreme Cagefighting bantamweight champ Chase Beebe bashed Louisiana’s Steve Kinnison over three rounds to earn 30-27 scores across the board, while female notable Felice Herrig grounded and pounded Andrea Miller for a stoppage at 3:30 of the first round.
‘Hamderlei Silva’ Wins Again
Deep veteran Seo Hee Ham successfully defended her CMA KPW women’s 115-pound title on Sunday with a two-round unanimous decision over Anna Saito at Gladiator 15. The win inside Kawasaki City Gymnasium in Kanagawa, Japan, was the South Korean’s third in a 10-day span and came just two days before her 24th birthday.
Prior to besting Saito, “Hamderlei Silva” -- as Ham has been dubbed for her frenetic and reckless standup style -- earned a unanimous nod against Jewels standout Saori Ishioka at Deep “52 Impact” on Feb. 25. Ham then scored a second-round technical knockout of the experienced Megumi Yabushita in a kickboxing bout at Gladiator 14 on Feb. 27.
Also victorious at Gladiator 15 was Ryuta Noji, who retained his CMA KPW heavyweight belt by stopping South Korea’s Hee Seok Song in the show’s main event. The big men slung leather for 63 seconds until the karateka felled Song in a corner and pounded away, forcing referee Kenichi Serizawa to intervene. Noji has now won three in a row since losing to Yoshiyuki Nakanishi in the April 2010 finals of Deep’s light heavyweight title tournament.
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Quick Hits: Croatian middleweight standout Zelg Galesic made a successful return to action following a 16-month layoff on Saturday at OMMAC 9 “Enemies” in Liverpool, England. Recovered from a serious ligament injury brought on by a Kazushi Sakuraba kneebar, “Benkei” looked his old self in knocking out Lee Chadwick with a straight right hand at 2:40 of the opening round ... Nine-time UFC vet Luigi Fioravanti picked up his fifth consecutive win and second of 2011 on Saturday at the Seneca Niagara Falls Casino and Hotel in Niagara Falls, N.Y. The “Italian Tank” took a unanimous decision over Team Bombsquad middleweight Mike Geurin at Raging Wolf 11 “Mayhem in the Mist 6.” ... Canadian welterweight Cory MacDonald submitted Chris Vorano with a triangle choke 2:12 into their bout at Ultimate Generation Combat 26, which took place Friday at Metropolis nightclub in Montreal. The Kingston, Ontario, native improved his professional record to 12-2 and won his seventh straight since losing to Jonathan Goulet in July 2007. Also on the bill, Xtreme Couture Toronto teammates Misha Cirkunov and Michael Imperato needed a combined 90 seconds to secure respective wins against Ricardeau Francois (56-second technical knockout) and Jonathan Belair (34-second rear-naked choke submission).
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