Fight Report

Showtime EliteXC served up another entertaining show tonight in San Jose, CA. The card was headlined by Frank Shamrock and Cung Le and their bout did not disappoint. Le’s standup left Shamrock with a scuffed up face, a broken hand, and title-less. Despite getting owned on the feet, Shamrock only attempted two takedowns in the first round. Complete report below.

Fight #1 – Joey Villasenor vs Ryan Jensen

Faster than Ambien! Stronger than Temazepam! It’s Joey Villasenor! If you’re having trouble sleeping all you need is one solid right hand from Joey Villasenor and you’ll be resting peacefully in no time.

Winner: – Villasenor by KO at 4:45 of rd 1

Fight #2 – Mike Kyle vs Wayne Cole

Mike Kyle? What’s this guy doing in the cage? I thought he was banned forever. No difference to Wayne Cole though. He took Kyle down and easily tapped him with an armbar.

Winner: Wayne Cole by armbar at 0:42 of rd 1

Fight #3 – Gilbert Melendez vs Gabe Lemley

Melendez dominated Lemley. He was bigger, faster and more powerful and he proved it both standing and on the ground. The end came in round two when Lemley curled himself into the fetus position while Melendez pummeled him to a TKO.

Winner: Gilbert Melendez by TKO at 2:18 of rd 2

Fight #4 – Drew Fickett vs Jae Suk Lim

Fickett ended this one quickly. Lim scored a nice takedown but Fickett reversed it in like .5 seconds. As Lim tried to stand back up, Fickett sunk a deep Guillotine and forced him to tap.

Winner: Drew Fickett by Guillotine at 1:14 of rd 1

Fight #5 – Frank Shamrock vs Cung Le

Rd 1 – All standup. Both guys landed some good shots but Le got the better of it by a bit. Shamrock tried taking Le down twice and at the end of the round motioned to his opponent that he’d be going to sleep soon.

Rd 2 – All standup. Le clearly won this round and he even wobbled Frank with a kick halfway through.

Rd 3 – What an awesome round. Brilliant stuff from both guys brought the crowd to its feet. Le landed an excellent spinning backfist and then swept Shamrock’s leg. Frank came back with a short right that staggered Le. Le absorbed a beating and came back with a pair of solid left kicks to the head at the end of the round. Shamrock was unable to answer the bell for the fourth due to a broken arm.

After the fight Shamrock said “Cung Le broke my right arm with a kick. I could hear the bones clicking and I just kept trying to fight through it.”

Winner: Cung Le by TKO at 5:00 of rd 3.

IBF Middleweight Champ Arthur Abraham (25-0, 21 KOs) scored yet another beautiful late rounds KO in Germany. This time his victim was the slick Elvin Ayala (18-3-1, 8 KOs) who is best known for taking Contender star Sergio Mora to a draw in his last fight.

Abraham started slowly but came on in the late and middle rounds. He knocked Ayala down in the fifth but Ayala wasn’t terribly hurt. The KO in the twelfth was a different story. Abraham connected with a gorgeous inside left hook/uppercut that resembled Razor Ruddock’s famous punch in the early nineties. Ayala was out the moment the punch landed. He dropped to his knees and slumped forward on the canvas with his arms splayed lifelessly about his head. Ayala turned out to be fine, and showed great sportsmanship after the bout.

Official time was 2:32 of round 12.

Tonight, at the Morongo Casino Resort & Spa in Cabazon, CA, Joel Casamayor (36-3-1, 22 KOs) stopped Michael Katsidis (23-1, 24 KOs) in one of the most exciting fights of 2008.

Casamayor nearly knocked out Kastidis in the first round after he floored the Aussie twice with precision lefts. Kastidis managed to make it through the round but it didn’t look he was going to survive much longer once his beating resumed. In fact right after round two, Casamayor’s corner exclaimed “This is an easy fight!” Although true at the time, the fight was about to take a U-turn.

In the fourth, Kastidis finally hurt Casamayor. Although Michael continued to eat a lot of blows, he was now shaking the shots off while Joel appeared to tire. At age 36, Casamayor was slowly succumbing to his younger opponents non-stop aggressive style.

Kastidis’ best round came in the sixth when he avenged one of the early knockdowns. He hurt Casamayor to the body and followed up with a left and a right that sent Joel through the ropes, and onto the ring apron. Casamayor barely made it back into the ring but was able to survive the round.

By the end of the eighth Kastidis’ pressure had given him a one point lead on my card but his tremendous effort in turning the fight around cost him a lot of energy. Casamayor began to land with more frequency in the ninth and despite losing a point due to a low blow, took the round. Referee Jon Schorle’s questionable point deduction was about to become moot as another U-turn emerged.

Determined not to let the momentum get away from him, Kastidis stepped up his pressure in the tenth. He came out firing rights and lefts at Casamayor, and walked directly into a huge left hook. The blow took Kastidis’ legs from him, and as he fell he reached for the ropes to hold him up. He was on the canvas for only two seconds but even after Schorle gave him the mandatory eight count, his legs were still Jello. Schorle allowed the bout to continue but Kastidis was done. Casamayor landed two more lefts, and a right that snapped Kastidis’ head back, and the fight was stopped. Official time was :30 of round ten.

It was a tremendous fight, and a tremendous victory for Joel Casamayor. When asked if he’d like a rematch with current Lightweight Champ Nate Campbell (Joel beat him by UD in Jan. ‘03) Casamayor said he’d rather pursue lucrative bouts with Manny Pacquiao or Juan Manuel Marquez.

In a rematch of their exciting 2004 fight that ended in a draw, Manny Pacquiao (46-3-2, 35 KOs) dethroned WBC Super Featherweight King Juan Manual Marquez 48-4-1, 35 KOs) via Split Decision at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, NV

The fight was a slugfest. Both guys suffered cuts and hurt each other several times. After swapping the first two rounds, Pac upped the violence by landing a short left hand that floored Marquez. It was the only knockdown of the fight, and proved to be the difference on the scorecards.

Juan Manuel battled back from the knockdown beautifully. He opened a cut over Pac’s right eye with a punch in the middle rounds. Later Pac opened an even nastier cut over Marquez’ right eye. Back and forth the fight went. Marquez did well when he was able to counter Pac’s charges, but when he couldn’t, he got beat up.

In the opening of the tenth round Marquez ate another huge left from Pac that nearly sent him down. It turned his body 90 degrees but somehow he survived and came back to win the last two rounds. Unfortunately he was a point shy from a draw on my card (114-113 for Pac).

Official scores were 115-112, 114-113, and 112-115.

WBC/WBA Cruiserweight Champ David Haye (21-1, 20 KOs) dismantled WBO Cruiserweight Champ Enzo Maccarinelli (28-2, 21 KOs) in just two rounds tonight in London, England.

Haye tagged Maccarinelli with a powerful right hand that buckled him into a corner. Maccarinelli tried to straighten his legs and tie Haye up, but Haye landed another brutal right that dropped Maccarinelli. Maccarinelli stood back up but he was stumbling around in a circle while arguing with the ref. The fight was stopped at 2:04 of rd two.

After the fight Haye said that now he’s cleaned up the Cruiserweight division he’s going to add some life to the sucky Heavyweight division. “You got Klitschko disgracing that division” Haye told Showtime announcer Al Bernstein.