With Uppercut, Johnson Wins War Gods Title

FRESNO, Calif. -- Lavar Johnson had little trouble Saturday disposing of Sean Souza for the new War Gods heavyweight title.

In fact, it was the least competitive fight of the evening. Johnson came out testing the distance with his jab. It looked as though he wanted to stand, but then Souza slipped while throwing a kick.

Johnson followed Souza to the mat and rained down effective punches from the guard. When Souza managed to regain his feet, he was obviously punch-drunk and hurt. The rest of the fight was Johnson chasing Souza around the ring, landing punishing power shots that would have dropped most fighters.

Just when it appeared that Souza owned an iron chin, Johnson landed an uppercut that put him down and out for the night at 2:51.

Brian Cobb and Marcus Levesseur put on one of the more entertaining battles of the night. Levesseur, who reportedly has an impressive amateur record, certainly made Cobb work for his takedowns. In return, Cobb tried to finish constantly and from every position. He jumped up for a standing guillotine in the first, and he ended the round on the ground, squeezing an arm-in guillotine for all he was worth. Levesseur refused to give up, though.

Cobb took Levesseur down to begin the second period. Levesseur retaliated with a nasty up-kick that landed cleanly, and Cobb reacted immediately and impressively. He followed Levesseur to the mat, mounted him, took his back, flattened him out and sunk in a fight-ending rear-naked choke at 2:35 of round two. The victory stretched Cobb’s win streak to eight and improved his overall record to 14-4.

Dusty “The Rooster” Arden continued his winning ways with a split decision over Joey Armstrong. The loss snapped Armstrong’s five-fight win streak that had begun two years ago.

The fight was disappointing. The one thing you can usually expect from a “Rooster” fight is that it will not be boring. Arden tried his best to engage, chasing his opponent around the ring while throwing four- and five-shot combinations, but Armstrong seemed content to slow down the action and look for a counterpunch that never came.

Armstrong’s main offensive weapon was a leg kick that he threw constantly but didn’t seem to have anything behind. In the end, Arden took a decision in a rather boring kickboxing match.

Also notching another win was up-and-coming heavyweight Brandon Cash. All four of Cash’s professional fights have been victories, and they have all been in the last six months.

Cash dominated his fight with Liron Wilson from the beginning. He came out looking to strike, but Wilson went straight for the takedown. Cash, who has a background in wrestling, reversed the takedown and punished Wilson with strikes from the top. By the end of round one, Wilson was bleeding and obviously hurt.

Round two began with Wilson landing a perfect high kick, smashing Cash right across the jaw. Cash, unfazed, took Wilson down and began looking for submissions, almost catching an arm triangle.

The action slowed in round three. The fight devolved into two big, winded heavyweights swinging for the fences and hoping to land that one big shot. It didn’t happen, and Cash earned an obvious unanimous decision at the final bell.

The undercard featured local high school teacher Ben Holscher making his professional debut against Walter Hughes in a match that looked like an old Sean Sherk fight but with submission attempts. Holscher dominated, putting on a grappling clinic for the unanimous decision, 30-27 on all three cards.

Rounding out the undercard, James Cook stopped Raymond Castro with the increasingly popular knee to the liver at 2:59 of round one; Tommy Vargas won a unanimous decision over Johnny Mancilla; and John Reedy arm triangled Philip Golff at 2:05 of round one.