So you're listening to the hammer, this is our recap of MMA The Reckoning from Casino Ram and Erelia Ontario, April 2nd, which was Saturday. I'm Greg and with me is Steve. And this was the very first MMA show ever in Ontario. UFC 129 starts, that's on April 30th, and this actually beat them to the punch by about a month. And that's awesome. Dana Whites and everyone's been trying to get MMA and Ontario for what seems like years. And yeah, this was the kickoff, kind of historic. And all the major Canadian media were there, you had, you know, the score was covering it. Showdown Joe was there, etc. So it was a pretty big deal, a pretty big event, and a really fun night. So I guess we should talk about some of the fights. There were eight fights in total, and we'll just go through them for you. The first fight was Joel Powell versus Brent Dusbury, and this was in the Walterweight Division. Now, Powell, he came in with kind of a lackluster record at 1 and 2, and Dusbury was 5 and 0. So I expected Dusbury to do a lot here, but Powell wound up controlling the fight. In round one, there was a pretty good exchange. There was Jabs Hook's good combos. Powell got a takedown and then started some ground and pound. Dusbury, pretty much all he could do was maybe attempt a triangle, but he didn't get it. And then they wound up breaking up, going back up on the feet, the fight, the round ended on the feet, and then in round two, Powell immediately, back to the takedown, went for Kamura, didn't get that, but then grounded, pounded, elbows, punching. It was pretty much Powell's round almost all the way, and eventually Powell just got Dusbury's back in rear naked choke, 454 around two. Yeah, right at the end of round two, and a great fight to start off, what I really thought was cool was the announcer came on afterwards and was like, "Hey, Joel Powell, you just won the first sanctioned MMA fight in Ontario." Like, that's huge, and this guy's actually from my hometown. Yeah, he's a Hamilton guy, so yeah, this is pretty cool. He looked great. I mean, good wrestling, he controlled almost the entire fight, his ground and pound was pretty vicious, and it was an exciting fight to watch. So started the night off nicely. Yeah, unlike the second fight, Misha Serkinah versus Ayan Shir Devara, and Misha, he's from Latvia, but he fights out of extreme culture in Toronto, and apparently there's a huge buzz around this guy as being one of the future light heavyweights, at least coming out of Canada, and I don't know, I didn't think it was a great fight. Well, I think it was a case of Misha through a lot of good combos, but it was two pretty big guys. I mean, this is light heavyweight, and Shir Devara, he's more of just a guy who's got a really rock chin and a solid guy, but he gassed pretty early and didn't really throw much, so Misha would hit him, he would take it, and then not really return fire. So this was the only fight that wound up drawing some booze from the crowd. I didn't think it deserved to be booed. I mean, compared to the rest of the fights in the card, this was probably the worst and least exciting, but it was still a pretty decent fight. Yeah, and Misha Serkinah, he looked good, but if you're going to gas in the second or third round, you're not ready for that next level yet. He needs to stay at this level for a little longer and then keep winning, but it seems like he's training with the right guys, and he's got some power, but he has to work on his gas tank. Yeah, for sure. So I mean, he wound up taking most of the fight, it went to a decision, it was unanimous. There was one 10-8 round given by one of the judges. It was basically, the rounds just went, you know, there was some stand up, there was some ground work, there was like lulls here and there where the crowd would boo. Misha deserved the decision, of course, and 10-8, I actually agreed with 10-8, I thought that, what was it, the second or the third round? I think it was the third round. At the very end of the third round, he actually exploded with about 30 seconds left, not a takedown, got some ground up and went to go take his back, and then the bell round. Yeah, it was, I think it was the third that wound up being the 10-8 for the one judge, but I mean, it was a well deserved win. It's just, I'd like to see Misha fight somebody who's got a little more gas and a little more impressive fighter. So anyway, we moved to Jason Sago and Taylor the King Solomon. Now, Sago is funny, Sago actually came out to Kung Fu fighting, which is pretty hilarious, but, you know, he seemed like a pretty fun-loving guy going in there, and Taylor took a year and a half to get his ring gi off. He was just sitting there trying to pull that gi off, felt like an eternity, and he finally got it off, and then his chairs got this pile of clothes on it, so this is kind of a comedic fight to start off, but this was actually really exciting. This was a light wave out, and they were both pretty aggressive on their feet. Solomon was a little bit more aggressive. He threw a lot of quick strikes, a couple head kicks. Sago shot, scored the takedown, and then Solomon tried a guillotine, Sago wound up getting the mounts, this was a pretty, his, he started his ground and pound, and it was pretty slow and very methodical. The crowd wanted it to be a little quicker and a little more aggressive, but Taylor Solomon was just covering up to such a degree, I mean, he had, and we were thinking while we were watching, we were saying, you know, throw some body shots, you know, Sago really should have gone to the body, and that probably would have opened it up a bit. In a lesser way, he kind of looked like Lesnar in the car one fight where he just had his hands up in front of his face to be correct, but it's not like he was taking the beating that Lesnar was taking that fight, because he really turtled up, and it was, the crowd didn't like it, which I don't blame him. But, so anyway, Solomon wound up pulling off this really cool escape where he used the cage to kind of walk up and over Sago when he wound up on top of Sago, anyway, they got to their feet, Sago got another takedown, finished the round on top, basically, I mean, I think he won the first round based on the takedowns, even though Solomon was throwing more strikes on the feet, in round two, Sago took another takedown, more of the same, he got them out again, but this time, instead of, you know, sort of wasting some ground and pound, which was really not effective in the first round, he got the mount and he sank in an armbar, and he went for the tap out, which he got 325 around to, and it was pretty impressive armbar. It was really a very textbook, he realized that Solomon was just covering up, so he grabbed his arm and just, you know, cinched it and it didn't take long. The fourth fight was Dean, the renegade amassing her, he was one of the guys from the British season of the Ultimate Fighter, and he actually trains in roughhouse with Ross Pearson and Dan Hardy and all those guys, Ross Pearson was actually at the show, I was very impressed to see that, I saw Ross Pearson going like, you're the man, Ross. Greg is one of the biggest Ross Pearson fans, partially because you guys have the same last name? Yes, that's most of it, but he also has a great fighter, he wanted me over with the Seaver fight that he had a little while back, but anyway, back to the task at hand. Yeah, Dean was in this fight, Dean was fighting Matt McGrath, Canadian, and this welterweight fight was, it was okay, big job McCarthy was the ref too, which was cool, that was the first fight he wrapped this night, and Ramon was kind of back and forth striking, you know, occasionally take down a tap, you know, so clutch and nothing really all that impressive, but then Dean bloodied McGrath's face with a couple of big, big shots, and then McGrath's course of takedown. Yep. Round two comes out, same deal, Dean's winning the standup fight, and then McGrath gets the takedown, and that controls the rest of the round, and controls the rest of the round, and it's pretty much how the fight went, and we're even saying partway through the fight, like, oh, there you go, it's just like, just like Dan Hardy's, the Rocco style, you know, you can win on your feet, but if the guys got some wrestling, you're in trouble, they've got some of the best striking in MMA when it comes to camps, when you look at Pearson and you look at Dan Hardy, and you look at the guy we're going to talk about a little later, Jason Young, these guys can all strike like magicians, they are awesome strikers, awesome kickboxers, but they just are so bad at wrestling, they've really got to work on that because they're not going to win fights, they're going to lose more fights than they win with this lack of wrestling ability, they've really got to work on that. And then by the end of the fight, it was the exact same story, and Matt McGrath, his face was all cut up, he got hit more, but Dean was just taken down so much, and he lost the unanimous decision, 30-27, 30-27, 30-27, which has to be considered an upset, since, you know, like, he was, you know, Renegade was on a season of the ultimate fighter, and when it grabs, he's a bigger man, and McGrath had an even record coming into this. He has a record 5-5? Yeah, like, so yeah, this is actually a very, very big win for Matt McGrath, yeah. So anyway, we go to a fight that I actually enjoyed a lot, well, I enjoyed all these fights, but anyway, Rob Hill versus Spencer Rohovey, now, Rob Hill's an Aussie guy, it was kind of funny on the, on the little package before the fight, they spelt him, they spelt Australian as Australian. Yeah, we got to be honest, it says it's Australian, and that it's a featherweight bow of 145, but it was actually, it was actually interesting, it was a catchweight, but both of the guys were qualified lightweights, so, because Rohovey was about 152, and Rob Hill was about 156, so they both should, it should have just been a lightweight by, but it got announced as a catchweight, which is kind of interesting, but anyway, on to the fight itself. Rohovey started off with a pretty cool push kick that stunned Rob, that stunned Hill a bit, but then he came in and pulled guard, which was, I found to be a little odd, Hill was on top, he wound up getting his back, he wound up mounting him, looking really good, and Rohovey escaped, made a little comeback, a really good combination on the feed and sooed there, and then Hill dragged Rohovey to the ground again, that this was kind of funny, Rohovey just threw these awesome upkicks, there's about five or six of them, in a row, in a row, I thought Rohovey was going to go down, but he, he ate them all, I actually know, I thought Hill was going to go down, but he ate all these upkicks from Rohovey, and the round ended, I still thought Hill took that round just because he took him down a couple of times, and then in the second round, Rohovey threw in a legal kick, kicked him in the groin, kicked Hill in the groin, and so they had the little fight stoppage after that, just to sort of, you know, give him the five minutes, fight resumed, an awesome standing exchange, these guys were throwing a lot of really great bombs, and it was pretty, it was pretty cool, and then Hill eventually caught a kick, through Rohovey to the ground again, so he's on top again, finally Hill came down, locked in the arm triangle, and another submission, 142 and a round two, so Hill looked really good, Spencer just, you know, he was on his back too much, and he eventually succumbed, one thing that knows things about these fights, so I noticed about these fights that night, with the exception of the light heavyweight belt, they were all fairly competitive, even though they got one, like, none of these guys looked like they were being thrown into the wolves, like they were very back and forth fights, and that continued with the six-fight of the night, oh, this fight was amazing, Jorge Britto versus Jason Shotgun Young, and Young fights out of Blackfist as well, so he came out with all those guys, and this was just a back-and-forth stand-up battle, like, Rail won, they were just throwing punches and kicks back and forth, Young blocked a head kick, and then his spinning round house that actually connected well, it was spinning back fist, and then Britto hit a spinning back fist, then, you know, heavy, heavy ground and pound, somehow, after getting just pounded badly, Jason Young recovers, you know, rocks, he rocks Britto with a straight right, and then the second round, it's just a huge knees in the clinch for Young, they're just going back and forth, just beating each other, beating each other, and then Britto is taking, like, it takes a massive knee to the head, keeps getting back up, gets a takedown, I don't even know how this guy can get a takedown, I could not believe how, he was wobbling all over the place, Young had knocked the sense out of him, but he still, Britto still managed to get a takedown, which, I guess, I don't know if you want to attribute that to his toughness or to rough houses, problems with wrestling, that could very well be, but I'm like, that huge knee, and then Britto recovers and gets a takedown, I'm like, I can't believe that guy's got the fight left in him to do this, but you're probably right, that was pretty impressive, I don't know, either way, I mean, I give Britto a lot of credit for hanging in there, because he was definitely getting the worst of these exchanges, but it was just too dumb to quit, it was great, and then they get back to their feet, and they clinch more, and Young just keeps dropping Britto, Britto keeps getting back up, like, this is the lightweight, it's taking huge shots and just not giving up, round three, Young continues to win the stand-up, and then they start swinging wildly, it was like Garcia, Garcia and Young, and Young, the first fight, and their body shots, and Young just drops Britto again, it was really Britto, and in the adjacent Young, a one by unanimous decision, 29, 27, 29, 28, and 29, 28, this show is going to be airing on the score in Canada later this month, I think it's April 21st and April 28th, it's airing in two parts, this is the fight if you're in Canada to tune in and watch, it's worth seeing this show and watching this on the score, just to see this fight, it's a fairly, I wouldn't say it's a one side, there's a clear winner to the fight, but the pure violence, it was going to see some violence, so go away to watch this fight when it airs, so then we go to the, pretty much the biggest name on the card, even though it wasn't the main event, I would say Chris LaPola, Shamar Horodetschi was the big name on this card, especially the event being in Canada, and he's a London Ontario guy, and he was facing David Castillo, who was an American, who actually came out wearing an American flag, so that didn't go over well, there was a couple of America sucks, you know, yells, and a lot of booze there for him, I guess he was trying to play the heel roll or something, but anyway, this fight was very, very short, well not very, I mean it went almost the length of round one, but it felt short because basically almost immediately into the fight, Horodetschi caught a kick from Castillo, throw him to the ground, just sat on top of him and grounded him slowly, and again methodically, and just, you know, controlled the entire round, and then at 4.24 he got his back, rear naked choke, and just finished it up, so it really didn't look like he even broke a sweat. The most decisive victory of the whole night. Oh yeah, by far. Horodetschi really needed it, he was cut from the WBC in December, and I think prematurely he had two more. He had one, two fights, and they went in there in a row, went in there with Donald Soroni, and got beat on the very last WBC show, and Zufa cut him, and he never got a shot in the UFC when they bought the WBC, and it's definitely a victim of circumstance. There's no shame in losing to Donald Soroni, and Horodetschi, you know, I guarantee that it's in his, he's going to win some fights, and they'll probably give him another shot. I was asked the guy in the press conference. Oh my God, that guy. Well, we're at the Postbury Press Conference, do you want to tell it? Well, basically we're at the press conference, and we were thinking of asking, the press conference didn't last very long at all, it was pretty short, it was only about four or five questions. Showdown Joe asked about the gate, and asked Misha about how he's a big prospect, and what he needs to improve. And obviously, because it's Showdown Joe, the questions are really great, intelligent, he's been doing it forever. And we got caught off guard when they ended the press conference. Yeah, I was still typing up the report, but I wish that they had ended it one question early. Yeah, well, this guy, he asked, and this was a question that would have been relevant if worded the right way, but he, I would have asked, okay, well, do you think this is enough to get you into that UFC class, this win, decisive win? But he asked the question in a way that was, did you hear back from Joe Silva? Did you get your text message from Joe Silva? Yeah. It's been like, the fight was like 20 minutes ago, and it was a kind of a snarky way of asking the question. And according to Steve Showdown Joe isn't really impressed with that either, but the moment idiot, but the only, the only, like, obviously, where does he hasn't gotten the text message in the last 20 minutes, the only response he can give is, no, Zufa didn't call me. Yeah. So it totally like deflates the guy after he's just won the fight. After he had a huge win with 5,000 people cheering for him. And it's basically just, it's all a matter of wording, you know, word the question differently, so it doesn't sound like you're demeaning him for not getting an immediate call from the biggest organization in the world. Like, come on. And he asked Chris, and he also asked Jordan Maine, who's got a great record, but his name isn't really out there. I mean, does he have the skill to be in the UFC? Most likely, but he's just not, he's 21 years old, you know, he has time. Don't make him feel bad about not getting an immediate call from Joe Silva. It was just, I don't know, it was just an awkwardly worded question. I'm sure he didn't mean it that way, but it just came off like really kind of douchey. Anyway. Let's go, you mentioned Jordan Maine. He was in the main event against Josh Berkman, former UFC fighter. And Berkman, he was, he was removed from the UFC after three straight losses, but he gets good competition. Yeah. I mean, he lost a sell, he lost a hazel it, and he lost a mic switch. Yeah. Like, there's no shame he'll lose the guy's like, "Swick." Yeah. And so, so he's, so now Berkman's here, and he's, he's been eventing the show, and Jordan Maine, a Canadian, right? Yep. Yeah. So he looked great. He was, Berkman was throwing like lots of headkicks and wild punches, but really couldn't connect with anything. Maine had great reach, sitting jumping knees, and as the fight went on, he started winning more and more of the stand-up. I guess as he was finding his range. Yep. And the first round, yeah. I mean, I'd probably give to, I'd probably give to Maine, but it could go either way. Mm-hmm. Second round has this crazy slam where Berkman grabs Jordan Maine in like high angle body slams into the ground. Like, this is Hogan and Andre, like, like, yeah, it was like, it was like wrestling. More and all of it would be impressed. Yes. And it was, it was, it was huge. The crowd exploded. It was fantastic. And then, and then, but Maine recovered so quickly from this, and just gets Berkman up against the cage, he's doing the dirty boxing, goes into round three, and, and Berkman is good. You know, as good as he is, he isn't as seasoned as he is. You, you just can't, you just can't put up with a guy who's this young with this much range and this is just all around game, and Jordan Maine looked incredible. He won the, he won the decision 30, 27, 29, 28, 29, 28. I, I thought it would be 29, 28, so, I mean, good, good, good, really good overall, really great judging. There was, there was nothing where I thought was good. There was also a bunch of finishes too, so they didn't get a ton of chances. Yeah. But I mean, every decision that came out, I thought was legitimate, and I thought was properly judged, at least in my opinion, but which is, which you think, okay, well, judging should always be that way, but it really hasn't been recently, so to see, to see the judges really doing a good job, it is something to be, something to be impressed with, I think. Yeah. So, and out of this cart, who do you think are the guys to watch? Jordan Maine, for sure. Yeah, definitely. He's, he's the biggest prospect there. I'd like to see more Amisha, just based on his reputation, Jason Young was probably the most impressive out of everybody. I think so too. He should, he had the lightweight division in the UFC is so, so, so stacked right now, because I would really like to see him get a shot, because his, his offense is great. And then, unfortunately, Hori Bruno, he, you know, just because he got, he got solidly beaten in that fight, but I, I'd love to see a tough guy like that, get a shot somewhere. Yeah. But everyone really put it on a good show. I mean, you can't really pick one or two guys, like, he'll look great, uh, Dean just needs to work in his wrestling, Sago looked really good. Even Solomon, I mean, he was doing some good stand up and, and Powell, like every, every fight, the winner of every fight won pretty impressively. And even a couple of the, the losers really, uh, showed something as well. So I definitely got the feeling this is one of those cards where there are guys here that are moving up and you will see them in UFC slash strike force, you know, someday. I think Hori Dechke is one more fight away from getting some kind of call on some kind of show. I'm surprised that he's not slated and well, I guess it's too close to the Toronto show to slate him in, but definitely the next time they come to Canada, uh, they need to fill in. Well, even if honestly, Dana will probably put him on the card in a Canadian show, uh, or he might even get in earlier. Who knows? Yeah. Uh, but yeah, in the next British show, you, you can probably see Jason Young on there. I, I'd love to see him fight again. Like, I'm actually going to go into my way and see, see the next Jason Young fight that I, that I can't. And you know, so what do you think of the other productions that this is a, in a casino ramma in, in a really Ontario and it seats about 5,000s and I don't think, I don't think there's a bad seat in the house, you know, jam packed, crowd was into it. Yeah, it was, it was a really, it was really actually pretty good. I was, I was impressed with the production value. I don't know how it's going to come out on TV, but, uh, I mean, I thought it was better than Strike Wars challengers. Yeah. Oh, the entrance ramp with their name on the screen about them and the little pyro and stuff. Like it was definitely no worse than a strike force show. No. When it came to, when it came to production. I don't know. I mean, there were a couple of glitches here and there like one, well, they put the wrong name up once. Oh yeah. Right. But that was, that was a small thing, a little glitch, but other than that, I mean, the camera work was really good, the camera men knew what they were doing, the second the ref got in front of the camera, changed camera angles because we were watching the monitor as well. We had, we had very good, very good seat stand by the cage, but every once in a while, you know, we've, we've, there's hasn't been MMA in Ontario, we haven't really seen my live MMA. Well, we saw, we saw it once in Taiwan, that was, but I mean, this was a different experience because we were so close up. So, but, but whenever the fight went, you know, behind an area, you couldn't see looking up in the monitors, excellent excellent camera work as good as, as good as any promotion I've seen. Yeah. It looked very professional. The ring looked professional. They had the, you know, John McCarthy, Eve Levine, Dan Murgliata, they were the refs for the events. And obviously they, they always do a good job, but so, Eve Levine's had a couple of slip-ups, but, but he did, he did, he did, he did well that night. Yes. And yeah, the announcer hit, hit the notes and yeah, it was, it was just overall done without any problems or issues. And it did not feel like small time. Yeah. There's some idiots in the crowd, but that's to be expected. Oh, yeah. Yeah. There's the, the ring girls and they're, I must say, very attractive ring girls. Very, very thin. Yeah. Really thin. One of them, I was a little worried for her health, but I mean, they, they were, she goes up there and one guy decides that he's going to yell cheeseburger at her and he just keeps on yelling this and he's calling her Starvin Marvin. And it's just like a really jerky thing to do. He's drunk guys in the casino and an MMA show, like I get, I get it, but how, how obnoxious and just not even clever and when it's, no, it's awful to do. But if you're going to do it, at least be clever, he's, yeah, just yelling cheeseburger randomly. It's like, do you want to go get one and leave us alone? Kind of, kind of, kind of made me embarrassed to be there. The ring girls not going to go out with you because you yell cheeseburger at her. Like, come on now. But, but yeah. So, but overall a really, really good show and they said that they're going to be putting on a second show July 16th, I believe. So, you know, hopefully we can be there and, and it cover, hopefully some of these guys can come back and I'm looking forward to it. This was for the first ever MMA show in Ontario. I thought they did a fantastic job. Yeah, it was, it was well done. Anyway, so that's, that's our little spiel about the MMA The Reckoning Show. Hopefully it's aired on Thursday, April 21st at eight o'clock and the second part will be aired on Thursday, April 28th at eight o'clock and it will be on the score. So I would definitely recommend that, maybe take a look at it. I mean, if you're listening to this, you know, the results, but I still say it's definitely worth watching. And I definitely say check out that David Young fight even though the, yeah, for sure. Even if you know the result, it's worth checking out the David Young, the Jason Young fight. That's sort of the Jason. Yeah. Anyway, so that's all we've got to say and we'll be back on Wednesday doing a live show talking about the Strike Force DS versus Daily Card. Yep. Which will be really exciting. So we'll see you then. Bye. Bye.
