LAS VEGAS, May 12 -- World Extreme Cagefighting light heavyweight champion Doug "The Rhino" Marshall needed just over two minutes to retain his belt against the game but overmatched Justin McElfresh (Pictures) on Saturday night.
"That's what I call 'KD: Knocked Dead,'" a jubilant Marshall yelled immediately following his destruction of McElfresh.
And while Marshall didn't exactly knock his opponent "dead," he certainly proved that he is a good enough fighter to retain his title and make some noise in the growing 205-pound weight class. Marshall landed over a dozen flush loopy overhand rights from about a minute into the fight until the end, which saw McElfresh downed and on his gloves and knees.
McElfresh started off the bout nicely, using his vast reach advantage to nail Marshall with a few stinging jabs. The punches seemed to annoy the WEC champ and he had a somewhat difficult time in getting inside the reach of the taller challenger. However, McElfresh seemed to change plans early on and decided to close the gap onto the smaller Marshall -- a move that wound up smothering his own power and paving the way toward victory for Marshall.
After a short stint of clinching and in-fighting, Marshall landed the first of many right hands. McElresh was shaken instantly but he refused to back away until it was too late. Marshall pounced all over his stumbling foe and within moments, the fight was over. McElfresh was knocked out at the 2:16 mark of the opening round, his title hopes dashed.
"The WEC is the top of the food chain baby," Marshall shouted. "And I'm the one with the target on my back. Anybody who wants to fight me they got to call up the WEC and they can find me."
Marshall's immediate future is uncertain but it's likely that the organization is clamoring to set up someone else for the exciting "Rhino" to try and bulldoze.
The "Mayhem Monkeys" were out in full affect tonight as Jason "Mayhem" Miller was poised to electrify the capacity crowd inside the Joint in the event's co-feature. Miller claimed that he has never been more pumped up for a fight before in his life and promised to impress everybody in attendance.
Entering the WEC cage sporting a full-blown suit and tie, Miller faced Japanese fighter Hiromitsu Miura (Pictures). "Mayhem" started off the bout by peppering Miura with stinging leg kicks and from there he scored a textbook double-leg takedown. The American middleweight quickly passed Miura's guard and seized back-control, making it seem as though "Mayhem" was going to end things with a quick rear-naked choke.
Miura was too savvy on the ground, though, and defended the submission attempt perfectly. The rest of the round saw Miller trying everything he could to score that submission but he couldn't.
Miura started off the second round by keeping Miller at bay with pesky jabs and loopy right hands. Miller actually looked a bit tired midway through the five-minute period and as Miura continued to befuddle his foe with awkward strikes, the tide clearly swayed into the Japanese fighter's favor.
As the minutes wore away, Miller looked more and more like a confused, weary and beaten fighter. Miller tried twice late in the stanza to take down Miura, but Hiromitsu sprawled perfectly and by round's end he was bombarding Miller with a series of punches.
"I really took that second round off," a jovial Miller told Sherdog.com after the fight. "I was just trying to save my energy for the third round because that dude was tough. He had that Japanese spirit, that samurai spirit."
"Mayhem" certainly didn't take the third and final stanza off, though, as he nearly submitted Miura on several occasions in the period. Seconds into the third, Miller unintentionally kicked Miura square in the groin, a strike that almost caused an end to the skirmish. Miura lay flat on his back for a few minutes after the assault and almost was unable to continue after the allotted five-minute rest. But luckily for the fans in attendance, he summoned the strength needed to continue.
Once the fight resumed, Miura dove in to attempt at a surprise kneebar, but Miller keenly avoided it and rolled Miura over onto his back. Within seconds, Miller stretched out his opponent's legs and applied a sinister "banana split" and almost pulled off the submission.
Somehow the pliant Miura escaped the submission but he quickly fell into a rear-naked choke. Again, as in the opening round, Miura properly defended the choke. Miller basically had to ride out the rest of the round and he would have won, but Miura again was able to slither out of the hold and miraculously got the fight back onto the feet. All he needed to do was land a wild haymaker or two, but that sort of fairytale ending would never happen, as Miller avoided any sort of fight-ending bombs.
In the end, Miller's fantastic groundwork and cage generalship won him the contest, and the three ringside judges agreed. All three officials saw it 29-28 for Miller, as did Sherdog.com.
"Man that's what I call one tough Japanese man," Miller shouted afterward. "Damn! He must have some samurai spirit in him or something. I thought I had him but he was tough, man."
Undefeated Cuban defector Ariel Gandulla narrowly escaped with his unblemished professional record intact, as he squeaked past the tough Gary Padilla (Pictures) by split decision.
The light heavyweight affair wasn't anything to wrote home about as the in-cage action was spread out in random spurts, but the stronger Gandulla did enough to persuade the judges that he deserved to win. Neither man was ever in danger of being taken out and aside from a punch that slightly wobbled Padilla early in the second round, neither fighter was ever hurt. Gandulla was awarded the victory with scores of 29-28 (twice) and 28-29.
Lightweight contender Sherron Leggett almost got caught in an omoplata in the first round and it was a wonder if his left shoulder was going to separate completely. Somehow, though, even after Charlie Kohler (Pictures) perfectly rolled Leggett onto his stomach and stuffed the somersault, the Wisconsin fighter slipped himself out of the rare submission.
Once Leggett escaped the arm lock, he found himself being flipped onto his side courtesy of a slick armbar. Again Leggett escaped and reversed his foe, and from there the fight was all his.
After Leggett pretty much dominated the rest of the first round, he goaded Kohler into a slugfest early in the second round and eventually pinned him along the fence. In an attempt to escape the harm, Kohler found himself on his knees with nowhere to go -- Leggett had him trapped perfectly.
Leggett bombarded Kohler with vicious knees to the ribcage and a barrage of left hands to the face. Eventually, after a bloody Kohler couldn't escape, referee Yves Levigne had no choice but to stop the mugging. The official time of Leggett's impressive stoppage win came at 2:25 of the second.