PureCombat - Fearless Fight Results and Pics

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Tulare, CA - I really don't know how to explain it but I think Tulare might have the best MMA fans in the Valley. For the second time, PureCombat returned to the Tulare International Agricultural Center and for the second time the fans were as energetic as I have seen them. I don’t know if it was because of the great card Al and Shelly put on, that had great fighter support or the people of Tulare just love MMA that much. The chants were deafening as the crowd called out “D C, D C, D C, D C” or called out for the Rhino, Travis Hughes, TJ Faustino Caballero, Marc De La Cruz or any of the other fighters. I love the venue it offers plenty of room for vendors, ample room for seating it is a great place for mixed martial arts. PureCombat will not be able to return to the Tulare Ag Center until March, due to the world renown Tulare Ag Show held every year, and I cannot wait until then but there next show in January will be suffice to carry me over till then. I have to hand it to the PureCombat team because besides the late start, the show was well organized and flowed without a blemish through the night. Nice job! I love going to shows where the fans are that excited to see a fight or in this case all the fights.

Eight bouts with the majority of them being “off the hinges”, as some would say about something really exciting, is what was provided last night in Tulare. Opening up the night with stellar performances were TJ Faustino Caballero and Travis Hughes. Both pro-debuters, trying to make it in the fight game, came out swinging for victory. The fight went the entire duration of three rounds but not a moment was dull, Caballero won every round in the judges’ scorecards but Travis had not quit in him as he took advantage of every opportunity he had to land some strikes. TJ won the fight because he was able to get more takedowns and ground and pound throughout the fight than Travis but I would be glad to see any one of them back in the cage.

In a fight that seemed to have a bit of Bad Blood between camps, the Cleber Luciano trained and Visalia’s own Josh Herrick and Samurai Dojo’s Joe Morales’ fight ended quicker than it took to introduce the fighters. Both fighters clinched up early, Morales got the slam/takedown and Herrick sunk in the triangle choke. Morales tapped at 26 seconds into the fight.

One of the not as exciting fights of the night was between Carlos Costa and Drew “Lil Bitt” Bittner and the reason I say it was not as exciting was because Bittner won every round, hands down. Bittner would get the takedown early in the rounds and try some ground and pound but Costa’s defense was good enough to prevent maximum damage. Bittner was declared the winner after three rounds by all the judges with a score of 30-27. Congrats “Lil Bitt”.

In the first leg of the semi-finals for the 155 lb tournament, Exeter’s Marc De La Cruz faced off against Josh “Clark Kent” McCartney. The fight started off well with both fighters exchanging early but once they connected each other with a few solid shots, they became a bit hesitant to attack. The second round started off how the first ended, boring, but McCartney quickly changed that by landing a clean uppercut and some strikes that landed De La Cruz on the canvas. Moments later the ref stopped the bout at 1:26 into the second round declaring a TKO victory for Josh. I would like to see De La Cruz polish off his striking for his next fight. His ground game is there but seems to lose it once he gets in some big exchanges. Josh McCartney moves on to the finals in January.

WOW! Is all I can say for Angela Samaro. She was expected to take the fight to the ground but instead relied on some clean striking that had great combinations and some vicious uppercuts to take on Leann Jenkins. We have to give it up to Leann as well as both fighters were exchanging blows for the first minute of the fight but it was Angela who landed more punches by the bunches. At 1:54 into the fight, Samaro landed a monstrous overhand right that crashed Jenkins to the mat. The ref stopped the bout moments later, not sure if it was declared a KO or TKO but either way Angela “Walking Tall Against The Rain” Samaro (LOL) walked away with the victory. At 135 lbs, I think Al and Shelly should really look into setting up this fight with Valley favorite, Zoila “The Warrior Princess” Frausto. And yes, I will take credit for matchmaking this fight if it happens (LOL).

The second leg of the 155 lb tourney brought out another great fight as the crowd favorite Darren “DC” Crisp went up against hard nose fighter Doug Hunt of Bakersfield. With the chants of “D C” echoing through the tent of the Ag Center, Doug kept up with a relentless pace that did not allow Darren from getting up off of his back for most of the fight. Crisp needed this fight to stay on its feet and Hunt knew he had to work the ground and pound if he wanted to be victorious. Doug Hunt executed his game plan a bit better than Crisp as he had Darren on his back for most of the three round fight. It was not until the beginning of the third round that Darren landed a few big shots that stumbled Doug, almost ending it. Hunt was able to scramble for the remainder of the fight and score a few more takedowns while doing so. The fight was scored 29-28 in favor of Doug Hunt who will face his own teammate Josh McCartney in the Finals of the 155 lb tournament.

Bakersfield’s Rodney Rhoden came prepared to give the fans a battle and that he did give, dominating the first two rounds of his bout against Buhawe fighter John “Wild Child” Reedy. Rhoden had better lungs in this fight as Reedy gasped for air throughout the fight and Rodney took advantage of it by scoring a 10-8 round in the second round (the way I saw it) and giving Reedy one hell of a run for his money in this fight. John looked frustrated with every failed takedown attempt but in the third round he finally succeeded and was able to mount Rhoden. Reedy followed it up with a few punches to loosen Rodney up and then he secured a rear naked choke that made Rhoden tap at 1:51 of the third round. Reedy has another fight coming up in December, let’s hope he uses this fight as motivation to continue training straight through until his next bout.

In the main event of the evening, the Rhino fan packed Ag Center stayed on its feet for the entire course of this fight between 2 fighters that were not afraid to give it their all and trade punches with each other. Doug “The Rhino” Marshall and Keith “KO Kid” Berry went toe-to-toe in this short 1 round mini-war. Both came out swinging, both landed vicious punches, both fighters seemed to have the fight in the bag but only one could take home the victory. Jabs, hooks, uppercuts, overhand-rights were being thrown all over the cage but once there was a small break in the action, Doug went for a takedown and the fight went one-sided from then on. Following a mount, Marshall let loose an onslaught of heavy hitting punches that eventually caught up to the “KO KID” and knocked him clean out. The fight was stopped at 1:41 into the fight. We hope Keith Berry will be fine and recover quickly as he had to be carried out on a stretcher. No word was given of his condition after the show, as soon as we hear anything we will let you know. Keep him in your prayers as it is never good to have a fighter end up with a serious injury. Once again, thanks for tuning in to BloodyMayhem, we are your Central Valley’s # 1 MMA News Source and soon to be # 1 in California, if you don’t believe it check the website rankings and our numbers trump any other local site by big margins. Thanks again for supporting the site and we will continue to improve to give you the fighters and fans the best MMA experience outside of the cage. Thanks to Al and Shelly for giving us a great spot cage-side, it is always appreciated. Stay tuned for more MMA action coming your way.