HONOLULU, March 31 — A epic night of fights at Oahu's Neal S. Blaisdell Arena was punctuated by a truly spectacular main event title fight, where Robbie Lawler (Pictures) knocked out Frank Trigg (Pictures) to become the first two-time ICON Sport middleweight champ.
Almost as soon as the fight started Trigg put the strategy that led him to victory against Kazuo Misaki (Pictures) just last month on display, scoring a double-leg takedown and putting Lawler on his back.
But Lawler wasn't worried.
"I let him take me down the first time," Robbie claimed after the fight. "He took me down twice, right to my butterfly [guard]. I expected his ground-and-pound to be a lot better than that."
But this fight was not going to be decided on the mat. After controlling most of the first round, Trigg was knocked down with a big left hand from Lawler in the second.
"I knew it was pretty close to being over [then], but I wasn't going to rush it," the first two-time ICON sport middleweight champion said after the fight.
"When you hit guys with those shots you can go in there for the kill and get tired. I've done that before," Lawler admitted. "I knew all I had to do was keep touching him like that and eventually I'll hit him with the good shots and he's gonna be done."
And that's exactly what happened. Lawler dropped Trigg once more in the second round, and followed up with a knee to the face that bloodied the champion's face.
The third frame was a back-and-forth battle that saw both fighters land heavy punches and knees. Trigg was relentless with his attack, but Lawler scored the cleaner shots, staggering Trigg throughout the round.
The fight moved into championship territory as the fighters exchange combinations in the fourth round. Trigg attempted a takedown but Lawler powered through and got to his feet. The young Iowan moved forward with a viscous combination of right and left hands that found their mark and put Trigg down and out cold.
"I knew I had to catch him with [punches] three, four, and five, not just the one, two, and three," Lawler explained after the fight. "So that's what I did. I caught him with at least four clean, crisp punches, and one good one at the end."
The fallen champion walked out of the ring with the help of his corner men, and was given oxygen in the locker room before leaving the arena in an ambulance.
"I just want to wish Trigg the best," Lawler somberly stated following the fight. "At first I disliked him a lot … but I hope he recovers."
Brazilian transplant Renato Verissimo (Pictures) looked dominant again, scoring his second consecutive first round technical knockout from the mounted position.
"Charuto" survived an early flurry of punches from the undefeated Lars Haven (Pictures), and put his opponent on the mat with a double-leg takedown. Verissimo threw some punches, moved to half-guard, then quickly to mount where he began a barrage of punches that forced referee Yuji Shimada to stop the fight at 2:09 in the first frame.
Fan-favorite Jason Miller made his return to the ICON ring after losing the middleweight belt to Frank Trigg (Pictures) last December.
Never one to disappoint, "Mayhem" put on a show. Displaying an improved stand-up game, he landed a combination that dropped Hector Urbina (Pictures) to a knee, where Miller utilized the north-south position and let loose with a series of knees to his opponent's head.
The former middleweight champ then turned Urbina over to his back where he was able to stand over him and land a right hand which was followed by a flurry of punches that forced the referee to call a stop to the action at the 1:11 of the first round.
"At Team Quest we've been working on this thing where I posture up and, boom, punch down on a guy," Mayhem explained after the fight. "It didn't take much, you know. Just one [punch]." Hawaiian fighter Po'ai Suganuma, fresh home from a tour of fights in Japan and now training at B.J. Penn (Pictures)'s Mixed Martial Arts Academy, had his hands full with Nate Carey.
The fighters exchanged strikes on the feet, with Suganuma landing the better shots in the middle of the ring, but Carey worked hard from the clinch, almost locking in a standing guillotine choke in the first round.
Suganuma, a Hawaiian state wrestling champ, showed off his grappling abilities by scoring numerous takedowns, including a nice throw. Po'ai controlled nicely on the ground, transitioning to different positions, but found himself in trouble a few times when Carey was able to secure top position and rain down punches.
Ultimately though, it was Suganuma who would come out on top, winning a 29-28 unanimous decision.
Pro-boxer turned MMA fighter Jeremy Williams kept his undefeated record intact, taking out Charles Jones in a light heavyweight match.
Jones was able to take Williams down throughout the fight, but the multitude of body shots landed by the former boxer paid dividends later in the fight when Jones was unable to continue due to exhaustion.
In state title action, Alaskan born Justin Buchholz made short work of Marshall Harvest, knocking him out with a beautiful right-left-right punch combination at just 31-seconds of round one to win the lightweight belt.
Kala Kolohe Hose, a former heavyweight, scored his second consecutive first round KO opening up with a powerful combination of punches that ended with an uppercut that put Ron Verdadero on the mat 38 seconds into the match.
Hawaiian brawler Kimo Woelfel earned himself "Fighter of the Night" honors, scoring a unanimous decision victory over Dereck Keasley (Pictures) in a back-and-forth battle.
Wolfel almost won the fight in the first round when Keasley apparently knocked himself out after scoring a big takedown, but the Team Wolfpack fighter was able to recover after he was woken-up by a series of punches from Wolfel.
Late replacement Scott Anderson (Pictures) took the fight to PJ Dean (Pictures), taking him down at will, and grinding out a unanimous decision win.
Ryan Lee (Pictures) pounded his way to a unanimous decision victory over Jay Bolos.
In the opening fight of the night, Dwayne Haney was able to lock in a triangle choke that caused Devon Damo to tap at 1:09 of the second round.