HOLLYWOOD, Calif., May 12 Hes been anxiously waiting for over a year, and now with his victory over San Diegos Brodie Farber (Pictures) (7-3) in the main event of Pangeas Fight Enterprises The Beginning card, middleweight Brian Warren (9-4) can finally focus on avenging his unanimous decision loss to Cung Le (Pictures).
Nobody knows Im a jiu-jitsu guy first and kickboxer second, said Warren afterwards.
But really it was his conditioning that Warren believes won him the fight.
Before the second round started, he saw me jumping up and down, and I could see right then and there his confidence go down, said Warren of Farber, who had perhaps used all his energy in the first round fighting off an ankle lock that Warren had applied, despite being taken down by the aggressive starting Farber.
So now with the victory, San Bernardino native Warren looks towards the rematch with Le June 9 in San Jose only this time it will be under what Warren called my rules. The loss to Le in their first scrap was in a K-1 event, while the pending Strikeforce card at HP Pavilion features mixed martial arts competition.
I guess people are doubting his MMA skills, said Warren of Le, but me, Im comfortable anywhere, standing up or on the ground.
Rancho Cucamonga native and crowd favorite Gabe Ruediger (Pictures) (4-2) came back from almost certain defeat and caught Savant Young (Pictures) (4-4) in an armbar at 1:29 of the third round in their scrap.
Ruediger, who displayed a great chin, which really means he was wearing plenty of overhand rights and straight lefts, also had trouble with Young on the ground. Displaying great ground defense, Young was simply overpowering.
Ruediger, fighting for the first time since losing his WEC lightweight title to Hermes Franca (Pictures), failed to finish Young in the first round with a triangle choke, which Young slammed his way out. In fact, Ruediger seemed to have no answer for the Los Angeles native Youngs game.
Even after taking Young down in the third round and passing his guard Ruediger had trouble breaking through Youngs defense until he finally was able to apply the finishing armbar.
The under card action went as follows:
Middleweight James Smith (6-1) of Manhattan Beach finished Chicagos Jason Chambers (Pictures) (16-5-1) at 1:55 of round one with a heelhook in a battle that featured all jiu-jitsu and virtually no striking. Chambers, who fights out of Hollywood, attempted to muscle his way out of the hold, instead ended up twisting his knee and was unable to continue.
Middleweight Steve Magdaleno of Torrance tapped out an aggressive Joe Calavitta of Riverside with a triangle choke at 2:45 of round three in their professional debut.
Welterweight Scott Epstein of Queens, New York but fighting out of Hollywood earned his first pro victory (1-1) as he tapped out Riversides Reuben Duran (0-1) with a rear-naked choke at 2:40 of round one.
Boulder, Colorado native Conor Heun also won his debut over Martin Hench (debut) of Santa Clarita with a rear-naked choke at 2:54 of round two in their middleweight fight.
Crowd favorite Travis Gambino from the South Bay, in his debut, outlasted Victorvilles Lucas Taber (1-1) to pull off a split decision victory by the scores of 29-28 twice and 28-29 in their heavyweight standoff.
In their debut, heavyweights Candelario Gomez of San Bernardino and Rafael Ramos of Sun Valley treated the crowd to a slugfest that was called off when Ramos ran out of gas and tapped out at 1:40 of round two while taking shots to the head.
Heavyweight Edgar Cruz of Guadalajara won his debut with a technical knockout over Bakersfields Randy Bullard 51 seconds into round two.
Middleweight Jonathan Romero grounded-and-pounded his way to a 30-27 unanimous decision over Isamu Hamaru.