HONOLULU, Jan. 20 — Of the four remaining competitors for Rumble on the Rock’s 175-pound tournament, which will culminate April 7 in this city, only Frank Trigg (Pictures) could legitimately claim he was favored heading into his fight Friday evening at the Blaisdell Center Arena.
The final tournament bout of the evening saw Trigg (13-4-0) go to the judges for the first time in his career, as he beat fan-favorite Ronald Jhun (Pictures) (30-27, 30-27, 29-28).
Save the final 20 seconds of the opening round, when Jhun, 23-16-2, went for but could not finish an armbar from the guard, Trigg was the early aggressor.
A takedown in the first minute allowed him to knee Jhun to the head while the Hawaiian was forced into a bad position. Yet with the submission attempt, Jhun energized the crowd and took that momentum into round two. The heavy-punching Hawaiian wouldn't let his hands loose, but he did scrap well from the bottom.
The two fought in the center of the cage and with Jhun starting to score on the outside, Trigg went back to his safety net, once again putting Jhun on his back.
With 40 seconds remaining in round two, a questionable stand-up led to Jhun again scoring on Trigg, who by now appeared fatigued.
In the final period, Jhun still refused to string his punches together, offering instead what seemed like a series of one-punch combinations rather than the rat-tat-tat punching he’s done so well previously.
Playing it safe for the first half of the round, Trigg again fell victim to a quick stand-up by referee Troy Mandaloniz, this time as he was setting up a side-choke. Because of this, in the final minute of the fight Jhun landed his best punch of the contest — the back end of a rare one-two combination. Trigg answered in kind with his most explosive double-leg takedown of the night, finishing with side-control.
The final period was a tough round to score (Sherdog.com had it 10-9 for Trigg and overall 29-28 in his favor), but Jhun’s indecisiveness on the feet cost him dearly.
The upset of the night belonged to young Carlos Condit (Pictures), who needed just 17 seconds to stop UFC veteran and Hawaiian-fan favorite Renato Verissimo (Pictures) (5-3-0). With the arena rocking in anticipation of their man, “Charuto,” advancing to the next round, Condit countered the Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt with a knee to the face as he shot in for a takedown.
“Charuto” stumbled to the floor and Condit, a now 14-2-0 fighter out of Albuquerque, New Mexico, moved in, dropping several punches before connecting with another heavy knee. Additional strikes removed any doubt, and referee Larry Landless (Pictures) moved in to save Verissimo.
Jake Shields (Pictures) showed flashes of grappling brilliance in his convincing decision victory over former UFC middleweight champion Dave Menne (Pictures). Throughout their 15 minutes in the cage Shields shot off Menne’s punches as if he knew exactly when and where they were coming.
During stretches Shields was incredibly active from the top. He passed guard numerous times, working from both side-control and mount against Menne, a man who’s not used to getting put on his back or out-worked on the floor.
Between rounds, Shields’ corner worked professionally, refreshing their fighter in advance of another five minutes of action. Menne, however, stood alone in the cage for nearly half the break before finally being brought a stool and drink of water.
Menne, despite this, stopped Shield’s takedown attacks twice to begin the middle period. Instead of playing on the feet with Menne, who looked meager while weighing in at 175 pounds on Thursday, Shields pulled guard, where he nearly sunk a fight-ending triangle choke.
When Menne had Shields in trouble it was during transitions. If Shields couldn’t finish a takedown, Menne took his chance and connected with knees. But against the controlling former SHOOTO 167-pound champion, those opportunities were few and far between.
Up two rounds to none heading into the third, and having worn Menne with strikes and grappling, Shields started the final period by methodically finishing a takedown and controlling position, before passing to side- and full-mount. A missed armbar put Shields on his back, but the Cesar Gracie-trained fighter had little trouble with Menne there.
In the final 45 seconds, Shields secured back-control and tried to end the bout by submission. But against a man as crafty and experienced as Menne, it would not come and each of the three judges at ringside rendered the same verdict: 30-27 Shields.
One major failing of mixed martial arts is its lack of standardized rules and regulations. That shortcoming smacked Brazilian Anderson Silva (Pictures) across the face tonight much harder than his opponent, Yushin Okami (Pictures), ever did, as the former SHOOTO champion and PRIDE veteran idly watched a fight he thought he’d won by knockout go to the guy across the cage.
Okami had very little for the Silva, who moved up in weight in recent years. Fighting at 175 the Brazilian looked skinny, though Okami, an inch taller at 6’ 2”, appeared to be equally slender.
As far as movement there wasn’t a contest. Silva flowed in the cage, shifting angles and closing distance at will. For the first 120 seconds the bout was his — and there didn’t appear to be any change in that in the offing.
Okami, showing no desire to stand and trade, made no real effort to bring the bout to the floor, though he finally put it there and sat high in Silva’s closed guard.
Scoring his only effective strikes of the fight, Okami looked comfortable in the position, though as he’d learn moments later, there is no comfortable position when you face a man who is used to the Vale Tudo-style bouts of Brazil and the less prohibitive PRIDE rules.
Silva swung his long right leg past Okami’s arms and planted the bottom of his right foot on the Japanese fighter’s face. Okami fell back, obviously hurt, and he would have taken more punishment had referee Troy Mandaloniz not held Silva back before he could regain composure.
There was no doubting the strike was a foul, but it took several minutes before Silva was made aware of this as his corner man, Murilo Bustamante (Pictures), helped explain the situation.
Okami was given every chance to recover, though even if he’d been lucid the disqualification still could have been warranted. Okami could not continue and Mandaloniz waved off the fight just 2:33 after the opening bell.