LAS VEGAS, June 10 — Marvin Eastman (Pictures) vowed before he stepped foot into the cage tonight that it was basically do or die for him and his mixed martial arts career.
Eastman, a veteran of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, King of the Cage, the World Fight Alliance, et al, absolutely had to win and when it was all said and done, one could argue that “The Beastman” looked better tonight than he has in the past three or four years, including his bouts in K-1 and in professional boxing.
Eastman’s triumph over Guida highlighted a World Extreme Fighting card held inside the Orleans Arena just off The Strip, a victory that he had to earn throughout every second of every minute of every round.
Guida came to fight as he refused to budge or play the role of stepping stone and he made things a bit hairy for Eastman from time to time in the contest.
But that’s not to say that Eastman didn’t dominate his foe, either.
Marvin seized control of the bout literally seconds in after he landed a sizzling three-punch combo that rattled Guida’s head. Guida, who hails from Chicago, took the shots well and plodded forward. Eastman bounced another sharp combo off his opponent’s face and again, Guida seemed unfazed. This was a pattern that ensued virtually from start to finish.
“I hit him with some good shots out there,” Eastman said. “I knew that if I kept to my game plan, I’d bust him up sooner or later. He’s tough.”
As the rounds wore away, so did Guida’s good looks. First his mouth began dripping blood, so much so that it wouldn’t have been a surprise had he lost a tooth or two. Then his the area around his eyes puffed up, which led to a slight laceration over his right eye. A cut under the eye followed, and finally a busted, bloody nose.
At the close of the allotted five rounds, Guida’s face mirrored that of someone who drove their Yugo head-on into an ice cream truck; he was almost unrecognizable, yet he still came forward trying to get his hands on Eastman.
The official scores heavily favored the Las Vegan, allowing Eastman to win with the lopsided scores of 50-45 on all three scorecards in front of rabid fans and thousands of empty seats. The victory also allowed Eastman to walk away with the WEF light heavyweight title, a strap he was unable to win the last time he met Guida. It was a loss that has plagued Eastman and he was determined not to let his concentration slip again.
Guida wound up catching Eastman in a guillotine and submitting him midway through the third round back on April 1 after Eastman appeared to be easily winning. Eastman lapsed for a few seconds and was caught in a tight standing guillotine. This time around, however, Eastman’s sprawl was superb and he nullified everything Guida tried, which led to Eastman basically having his way with his opponent and tearing him apart for five torturous rounds.
“I am planning on keeping this belt for a while,” Eastman said immediately following his win. “I want to get all those belts out there and to let everyone know that I’m coming for you. I’m going to dominate.”
In the chief support bout, Thailand’s Thonglor Armatsena (Pictures) had to pull a rabbit out his hat to score a last-minute victory over Joe Calavitta.
Thonglor could not get his strikes off for the life of him for the first two rounds of the battle as he was routinely taken down and/or slammed hard onto his back. Calavitta attached beautiful submissions onto his frustrated foe, but the Thai fighter was able to escape every one of them.
Over and over Calavitta rained down hammer-strikes and elbows onto the face of Thonglor and there were several times in the fight when referee Jon Schorle warned Thonglor that he was going to stop it. Somehow, though, Calavitta was unable to finish his beaten, swollen and bloody counterpart, even after gaining side-control and mount several times in the bout.
Then, with a little over a minute left in the fight, Thonglor connected with a moderate high kick and followed with a knee to Calavitta’s jaw. Calavitta shot for another takedown, but Thonglor somehow sprawled away and dished out a swift left hook and landed another critical knee to Calavitta’s jaw.
Calavitta was badly wobbled by the series of strikes and was then taken down by Thonglor, who then applied a perfect guillotine from his guard. Schorle then halted the contest, which was ruled a technical submission in favor of Thonglor. The official time of the stoppage came at 3:33 of the third.
WEF Dark Bouts
Gina Carano made history tonight by participating in the first female MMA bout in Nevada history. She also made history by scoring one of the quickest knockouts in a woman’s fight when she pummeled a hapless Leiticia Pestova in only 39 seconds.
The stunning Carano scored a takedown and eventually ground-and-pounded her way to an easy stoppage win. It was her MMA debut and she made the most of it. Carano, typically a Muay Thai fighter, appears well on her way to a successful career in MMA as well.
Alan Belcher (Pictures) was awarded victory when he submitted Evert Fyeet at the 2:04 mark of the first round with a fantastic toehold. The bout seemed to be as equal as they come, but Fyeet made the mistake of giving up his foot to the submission-slick Belcher, who eventually made his foe’s blunder work in his favor.
Harris Norwood (Pictures) opened the evening with a scorching one-kick knockout over James Martinez (Pictures), knocking him cold at the 2:08 mark of the first round. It was an impressive win for Norwood, who was actually spat at after the fight by a still woozy and angry Martinez.
Gray Maynard won a unanimous three round decision over Brent Weedman, winning via tallies of 30-27 on all three judges’ scorecards. It was an entertaining battle and Maynard deserved to win it unanimously.
Stefan Struve scored an impressive first round submission over the tough Marcus Sursa (Pictures), catching him in a triangle choke 3:01 into the fight.
Angelo Artuna made his pro debut a memorable one by escaping virtually every submission in the book by the jiu-jitsu savvy Adam Arrendondo. Artuna wound up pummeling Arrendondo via vicious ground-and-pound and eventually scored the stoppage win at 3:18 of the first.