MONTREAL, Sept. 29 — The Bell Centre, home to the National Hockey League’s Montreal Canadiens in the heart of this city’s downtown, played host to professional mixed martial arts for the first time Friday night.
In the main event an estimated 5,000 fans saw TKO lightweight champion Sam Stout (Pictures) look to avenge his career-debut loss to Jay Estrada (Pictures). After his last showing in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, Stout had many critics — and facing the same man who choked him out over three years ago was no easy task.
The fight started with Stout looking to bang on the feet, but Estrada silenced the crowd when he took Stout down almost immediately. While doing his best to contain Stout, he worked from half-guard to guard looking to inflict damage upon the champion with punches and elbows.
After a lull in the action, referee Steve Mazzagatti brought the fighters back to their feet, where surprisingly Estrada began to find his mark with numerous jabs and straights before taking the champion back down to the mat to finish the round.
Round two began with Estrada looking visibly winded and Stout the fresher man. After a very brief exchange, Estrada secured a takedown and looked to work the champion again on the ground. Stout reversed Estrada and found himself in top position where he unloaded punches and elbows.
Looking to lessen the damage, Estrada exposed his left arm. Stout took little time in latching on and extending. Estrada tried valiantly to roll out, but made matters worse and was forced to tap to the armbar at 1:21 of round two.
Mark Hominick (Pictures) found himself on this night standing across the cage from tough French-Canadian Samuel Guillet (Pictures), who was a late replacement for Ivan Menjivar (Pictures). Guillet, having only taken the fight on about a week’s notice, was given the task of facing the former flyweight champion.
From the opening bell Hominick peppered his opponent with low kicks, the first of which left a noticeably large welt on the back of Guillet’s leg and echoed throughout the arena. With every kick the crowd gasped and Guillet stumbled.
After taking numerous vicious leg kicks, Guillet managed to take the former champion down to the mat with approximately a minute left in round one, when a solid elbow caught Hominick on the nose, possibly breaking it, the former champ stated after the fight.
Round two was virtually a mirror image of the first, with Hominick firing low kicks and Guillet taking them. After being dropped a couple of times from chopping kicks, Guillet again managed to take the former champion down to the mat, this time with two minutes remaining in the round. With his opponent working from the guard Hominick was poised and showed no signs of panic, as he never appeared to be in any real danger.
Heading into the third and final period it was clear Guillet was fading, and the damage of Hominick continually working on the submission fighter’s legs had taken its toll. At this point Guillet’s legs looked like raw meat and the hurt fighter constantly switched his stance from conventional to southpaw to avoid the blows.
Luckily for Guillet’s sake, the fight, which Hominick dominated on his way to a unanimous decision, was only three rounds. Hominick stated his next fight would be against Hatsu Hioki (Pictures) for the title he lost in March of this year.
TKO heavyweight champion Icho Larenas (Pictures) was back in action for the first time in a Stephane Patry-promoted event since winning the title in April of 2005. Krzystof Soszynski, fresh off a win over in the IFL, was looking to accomplish what he called “one of three goals” — to become the TKO heavyweight champion and arguably the best heavyweight fighters in the country.
From the get go it was Soszynski utilizing straight punches to frustrate the Montreal native. With every looping Larenas punch, Soszynski had an answer, opening up an early cut over the right eye of the champion.
An unintentional knee to the cup by Larenas in the first round forced action to come to a halt for a moment and Soszynski was given time to recover. Once restarted, Larenas managed to get the takedown and work some offense of his own, but no significant damage was scored.
Round two saw yet another unintentional foul from the champion as Soszynski was the recipient of a thumb in the eye. After another brief timeout, the fighters resumed and Soszynski continued to find his mark, opening up numerous cuts on the face of the champion.
It was clear Larenas’ vision was impaired by the flow of blood, but he continued to battle on. As the fighters stood up from their stools to began the third of five rounds, the doctor was called in to check on the condition of Larenas’ lacerations and it was then determined the champion could not continue, giving the TKO victory and heavyweight title to Soszynski.
Undefeated light heavyweight prospect Martin Desilets (Pictures) squared off against his toughest opponent to date in British Columbia’s Todd Gouwenberg (Pictures).
From the start, the two began swinging for the fence like they were looking to behead one another. This fight saw its fair share of clinching and dirty boxing, with both fighters taking their lumps. Gouwenberg managed a takedown but looked close to being caught with a Kimura from the bottom. With the help of Bill Mahood (Pictures) in his corner, Gouwenberg trapped his own arm, preventing it from being extended, and managed to escape. Until the sound of the horn he inflicted damage to Desilets on the ground.
Round two opened with the fighters back, slugging it out, and Desilets looked a little worse for wear. After a series of body shots, each of which prompted grunts and groans from the Quebecer, Gouwenberg appeared to be getting stronger.
Throughout the round Gouwenberg peppered his opponent’s body with punches, both on the feet and briefly on the ground. At the close of the round Desilets was visibly affected by the body shots as he returned to his corner.
The final round saw a desperate Desilets looking to end the fight with one punch, but at this point both fighters were fatigued and even the most solid of shots don’t appear to be doing any real damage. Gouwenberg was clearly in control of the fight and the two dirty boxed and clinched throughout the final five minutes en route to a lopsided decision win for Gouwenberg.
Stephane Dube (Pictures) defeated James Martinez (Pictures) by referee stoppage after Martinez apparently took a finger in the eye and retreated attempting to cover up. Dube took full advantage of the referee’s missed call and pounced on his opponent until the referee called a stop to the action at 1:16 of round one. Look for a rematch between these two in the very near future.
Tyler Jackson (Pictures) made very quick work of Donald Ouimet (Pictures), winning by elbow dislocation at 0:37 of the first round.
Chris Clements (Pictures) pounded out a win over newcomer Steve Pouliot by TKO referee stoppage at 3:16 of round one.
Steve Claveau (Pictures) kept his winning streak alive, putting the hard-nosed John Fraser (Pictures) to sleep with a triangle choke at 3:17 of round one.
Dave Pariseau submitted Jacob McDonald (Pictures) at 2:42 of round two with a keylock.
Daniel Boissoneault stopped Yves Lemelin at 2:16 of round one.
Roy Doepker finished David Fraser via rear-naked choke at 4:57 of round one.