With the announcement made Wednesday morning by Sonnen that his new opponent was Jeremy Horn, mainstream MMA media took notice and came to the show. Does anyone know what happened to Sonnen’s original opponent? Who cares! This was the fight of the night, and was also a rematch from their fight six months ago in Extreme Challenge, which Horn won by a doctor's stoppage due to a cut. Sonnen took that fight on short notice, and Horn felt he owed Sonnen the rematch.
As the first round started, Sonnen wasted no time in taking Horn to the ground and working his ground-and-pound. Horn worked some nice elbows and a few submission attempts from his guard, but was unable to secure a lock. The round ended with Sonnen throwing punched in Horn’s guard.
As round two started, Sonnen took Horn to the ground immediately after the bell and proceeded to work the same strategy as he did in round one. In what was the best action sequence of the night, Horn slapped on a triangle that Sonnen barely slipped out of. Horn then transitioned into the armbar, but once again Sonnen was able to get out of the lock. After a brief scramble, Sonnen ran after Horn, who was expecting a shot but caught a flying knee that rocked him. After the knee, Sonnen took Horn to the ground again, where he was close to finishing the fight with a guillotine, but Sonnen slipped out once again. A few moments later, Horn reached up and was able to finish the fight with a guillotine choke 2:35 of the second round.
Sean Sherk wasn’t getting paid by the hour, and it showed as he got the win after just 55 seconds in the first round. Sherk started the match against Brodie Farger by using his amazing shot to take his opponent down. From there, Sherk improved position and secured the North-South choke that forced Farber to tap. This was Sean Sherk’s eighth straight win, and once again shows that Sherk should be fighting in the UFC or Bushido.
During the pre-fight interviews that were shown on the big screen, Dennis Hallman played games with his opponent, Mike Seal, by saying his discipline was karate with practice in board breaking, all the while showing off some karate chops and a dragon ball at the end.
All jokes aside, Hallman came into the ring with a plan against the six-foot-three Muay Thai fighter by executing a takedown immediately after the bell, sinking his hooks and securing the rear-naked choke. Seal made a valiant attempt to escape by throwing a dozen or so punches while being choked that bruised Hallman’s face, but they weren't enough. Seal chose not to tap and lost consciousness at the 50-second mark of the first round, giving Hallman the win in his first match since his UFC loss against Frank Trigg.
After what seemed to be a very long intermission, the heavyweights were ready to take center stage at Sportfight, but it didn’t last long. For those who were in attendance, I hope you didn’t blink, because James Irving’s sparring partner, Jeromy Freitag, landed a right hook to the dome of Santino Gerano that knocked him out cold just 14 seconds of round one. Gerano was out for a brief moment, but later regained consciousness and was able to stand up on his own. Look for big things from Freitag in the future, as he says he is ready to fight wherever and whenever.
With David Terrell’s recent knockout win in the UFC and Nick Diaz’s knockout over Robbie Lawler, people are starting to take notice that Cesar Gracie fighters can bang on their feet. Tony Sanza from Team Cesar Gracie was looking to keep the fight on the feet against Reno native Adam Torres, who was equally willing to stand and trade with his opponent.
Sanza landed the cleaner punches along with some nice leg kicks, while Torres landed the occasional haymaker to the top of the head of Sanza, which didn't seem too effective. The best offense Torres was able to mount was when he landed a few strikes inside of Sanza’s guard after a scramble from a takedown towards the end of round one.
In the second round, Sanza was able to connect with a left hook to the jaw of Torres, dropping him to all fours, then securing the rear-naked choke at the one minute mark of the second round.
The second fight of the night pitted Billy Miles against Team Quest standout Matt “El Suave” Horwich. The first round proved to be very exciting, as both fighters tried to take the fight where they wanted, with Horwich wanting to go to the ground at all costs while Miles was content to keep it standing. After a few attempted takedowns, Horwich settled for the half guard position, where he tried to secure a hold on the much stronger Miles. Miles stood back up the first chance he could get, ready to bang on the feet again.
At the start of the second round, Miles looked like he was a little gassed, but that didn’t stop him from starting the round off fast with some nice punches that connected to Horwich’s head. Horwich weathered the storm and took advantage of the situation by taking down his gassed opponent, sinking his back hooks, then securing the choke 59 seconds into the second round.
Antonio Banuelos started the night off with a quick knockout of Brandon Shuey at only 22 seconds of the first round. In fact, it was so quick that when Bruce Buffer asked Banuelos what he hit him with, Banuelos replied, “ I don’t even know.”
A candidate for funniest moment of the night came courtesy of the big screen right before the main event. The screen showed a clip of Matt Lindland from downtown Reno thanking the fans for coming out to his show. He then told everyone to “Sit back, enjoy the fights, and try a nice cold Coors Light.” This clip was taped from the night before, but when I looked around, I saw that Budweiser was sponsoring the show and had their banners everywhere, with no Coors Light in sight.
All together, this was a good show, with no fights going to decision. Sportfight will hold their next show in Oregon on October 23.
See official results here.