CALGARY, Alberta, Canada, Feb. 1 -- Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (Pictures) defeated Todd Gouwenberg (Pictures) in the main event of Hardcore Championship Fighting: "Destiny" Friday tonight in a manner that was not predicted by many.
Coming into the fight, most expected that Gouwenberg could have an advantage on the feet while Nogueira's big advantage came the ground. In reality, it was the exact opposite as Gouwenberg more than held his own against the Brazilian on the ground.
Round one started off with both fighters tentatively pawing at each other before clinching up against the cage. Nogueira got a takedown but could do nothing effective inside of Gouwenberg's half-guard. The process was repeated twice more in the round as Nogueira would get a takedown but never put Gouwenberg in any real danger on the ground.
"I was expecting him to be as good on the ground as he was," said the 31-year-old Brazilian after the fight. "I heard he had been training a lot of jiu-jitsu with Denis Kang (Pictures) and he was very good. I tried to submit him but he had very good escapes."
The second round was more of the same, with Nogueira getting takedowns but not being able to do much while on the ground. The tide turned late in the second after Gouwenberg managed to scramble back to his feet. Nogueira connected with a hard body shot that took the wind out of Gouwenberg. Nogueira stalked his opponent around the cage landing knees to the body and punches to the head before the referee finally stopped the fight at 4:34 of the second round.
"He's very strong and he has good technique," said Nogueira, who moved to 13-3 with the victory. "His defense was good but he eventually gave me the chance and I took it. I trained a lot of boxing and Muay Thai for this fight cause I heard he was good at standup. I was able to keep my distance and connect with the straight left and I managed to avoid his tie up attempts."
Gouwenberg was clearly disappointed with his performance following the fight.
"I got tired faster than I thought I would," said the product of Langley, British Columbia. "Maybe it was the altitude. I didn't let my hands go. He was catching me. He was much stronger than I thought he was going to be. I thought I was going to be stronger but I wasn't."
Nogueira has a three-fight deal with Hardcore Championship Fighting but he isn't thinking about his next fight right now.
"I've got a 6 a.m. flight to Las Vegas tomorrow morning and I am very excited to see my brother fight," Nogueira said of his twin Rodrigo, who fights Tim Sylvia (Pictures) for the UFC interim heavyweight title Saturday. "I think he is going to win."
PRIDE veteran Gegard Mousasi (Pictures) defeated Brazilian Evangelista Santos (Pictures) with some controversy.
After the initial feeling out process, Mousasi managed to get the fight to the ground and immediately went to side-control. From there, he managed to tie up Santos' right arm with his legs and pinned his left with his right arm allowing him to throw unanswered blows to Santos' head with his left.
Santos appeared to be doing a good job of dodging the blows while forcing Mousasi to constantly regain his balance before throwing strikes. It appeared that few of Mousasi's shots were doing any real damage but the referee thought otherwise and stepped in to stop the fight at 3:42 of the second round. Santos was up off the mat before Mousasi was to dispute the stoppage.
"I wanted to stand and trade but it ended up on the ground," said Mousasi, who moves to 19-2-1 with the victory. "It's not my decision when the referee decides to stop the fight. I can only punch till the referee stops it. It's out of my hands."
Heading into the fight, Mousasi was confused about its date and found himself having to cut weight on short notice.
"I thought the fights were on Saturday night and the weigh-in was going to be today so when they asked me to weigh-in yesterday, I wasn't ready," he said. "I had to cut a lot of weight and that made me a little ill heading into the fight."
Ill-effects of the five-pound weight cut in just over an hour were minimal at best, as Mousasi put together a very impressive performance this evening.
In his first defense of his HCF lightweight title, Thomas Schulte (Pictures) made quick work of challenger Garrett Davis.
Davis started with a bang by catching a Schulte kick and connecting on a punch that sent Schulte to the canvas. However when Davis came down to try and finish the fight, he was met with a powerful up-kick that allowed Schulte to take Davis' back. It was only a matter of time before Schulte defended his title with the rear-naked-choke victory just 1:15 into the first.
"I was going to try and win with punches but him catching the kick brought the fight to the ground," Schulte said. "I passed his guard and hopped onto his back. At first he was defending it pretty well but I kept swimming and working for it and I got it.
"I wasn't expecting it to be that quick. I was ready to go for 25 minutes but here I am talking to you instead which is nice."
In his fight with UFC veteran David Loiseau (Pictures), Jason Day (Pictures) took a step up in competition and passed the test, albeit not necessarily with flying colors.
Loiseau opened the fight by trying a flying axe-kick. That was the highlight of the round as the remainder was rather uneventful on the ground with Loiseau inside Day's guard. Both fighters were passive in the first round with neither committing to any serious striking or submission attacks in a close first round.
The second round was a near carbon copy of the first with Loiseau opening with a high kick before settling in to clinch work along the fence and ground work with Loiseau in Day's guard. Towards the end of the round, Day managed to reverse and get on top of Loiseau and landed some blows that forced Loiseau to turn over and give his back. Time expired before Day had a chance to take advantage of it.
Round three was much the same as the first 10 minutes. In the end, it came down to a close decision from the judges. When Day was announced as the winner via a split decision, a loud chorus of boos came down from the stands. Sherdog.com score the bout 29-28 for David Loiseau (Pictures).
"It depends on how they scored the first round," Day said after the fight. "I won the second round with my final flurry and he won the third round because of his takedowns. It all depends on how you scored that first round."
"I definitely though I won that fight," a visibly upset Loiseau told Sherdog.com. "Other than his flurry at the end of the second round, I thought I controlled the whole fight under than those 30 second or so. Day told me after the fight that he thought I won the fight."
Derrick Noble (Pictures) turned a lackluster fight into one to remember by landing a crushing KO blow to his opponent, Brendan Seguin (Pictures).
After an uneventful first half of the fight, Noble threw a left kick that Seguin managed to block. But while Seguin was busy blocking the kick, Noble connected with a right hook that caught Seguin flush on the chin and sent him down to the canvas. Noble followed him down to the crown and landed one more shot for good measure before the referee stopped the fight 4:34 into the second round.
After the fight, Noble said he plans to move down to 155 pounds.
Mike Pyle (Pictures) controlled his fight with Damir Mirenic (Pictures) on rout to picking up a submission victory early in the second.
Pyle controlled the whole first round, which was drowned out by deafening chants for former UFC heavyweight and light heavyweight champion Randy Couture (Pictures), who was cornering Pyle for this fight. Controlling the fight on the ground, Pyle attempted a couple different submission attempted but Mirenic defended well.
The second round saw Pyle take the fight to the ground and grab an exposed arm of Mirenic's. Twisting it behind his opponent's back, Pyle got the Kimura victory 1:24 into the second round.
"I kept softening him up, waiting for him to turn," Pyle said. "I stayed on top and one step ahead. He eventually gave me the arm and I took it and got the win."
Undercard
Andrew Buckland did not win the first eight minutes of his bout with Dan Chambers (Pictures), but the record books will only show that he won in the end. After being in trouble in round one and the first half of round two, Buckland landed one punch that changed the course of the fight which allowed him to get a Kimura victory 3:19 into the second round in a great come from behind victory.
Ariel Sexton and Myles Merola both had their moments in the first round, but the second round was Sexton's as he achieved victory thanks to a rear-naked choke at 1:08 of the second round.
Miodrag Petkovic put on a leg-kicking clinic. For three rounds he slowed Tim Hague down by landing a wide array of kicks and strikes to his left leg. Hague tried many bull rush takedowns to get the fight to the crowd, but with limited success. Petkovic's leg kicks were rewarded with a split decision victory.
Nabil Khatib (Pictures) survived a treacherous first two minutes with Lucas Rota to control the rest of the fight on rout to a unanimous decision victory. Following Rota's initial barrage of punches, kicks, and knees, Khatib controlled the rest of the bout on the ground on route to the victory.
Opening the evening, Juan Barrantes couldn't get his rear-naked or triangle choke attempts to work, but his armbar attempt forced opponent Fabian Cortez to tap 2:20 into the first round.