Ultimate Chaos: ?Lashley vs. Sapp? from The Gulf Coast Coliseum in Biloxi, Miss., on June 27, has come to a close.
Prior to the live pay-per-view (PPV) event, headliner Bobby Lashley referred to his main event fight against Japanese icon Bob Sapp as a ‘train wreck.’ In an unintentionally humorous case of foreshadowing, “The Dominator” had also perfectly labeled the entire production.
Or as I labeled it, “whack-on-whack crime.”
Credit to Lash — he lived up to his moniker by dominating Sapp from the opening bell. As usual, “The Beast” came barreling forward like a man on a mission, then folded up faster than the American flag at an Arlington burial once the former WWE wrestler took him down and started grinding him into little pieces.
All part of the plan according to Lashley:
?Going up against Bob, you always expect the big bulls. I had to take him down, cover and pound. The first thing is to win: ground-and-pound to wear the big man down. He has a big punch. I used my ground-and-pound and got out of there.?
It was hardly mixed martial arts finest hour, but you can argue that it was forward progress for the aspiring Lashley. He puts another feather in his cap while Sapp has to go back to the drawing board and try to figure out where to go from here.
The former K-1 superstar has been finished in three of his last four bouts — and hasn’t looked even remotely competitive in any of them. Whatever mojo he had that kept him pugnacious against Jerome Lebanner and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira earlier in the decade seems to be long gone.
And “The Beast” isn’t making any excuses:
?I got a good shot in the eye and was unable to see. He got me in the eye. No excuses, He got me down today and controlled it. Give it up to Bobby Lashley.?
Speaking of fighters who are now a mere shell of their former selves, we should probably address Pedro Rizzo and his inability to chew solid foods after being bludgeoned into unconsciousness by Gilbert Yvel.
I don’t want to call his knockout over “The Rock” brutal, but it looked more like Afa the Wild Samoan trying to crack open a coconut with his bare hands than an actual MMA fight.
The big topic of discussion following this fight will of course be the late stoppage.
Yes, the referee could have probably gotten in there in time to prevent the last one or two punches and yes, Yvel probably could have spared Rizzo the extra punishment, but I’m leaning more towards “heat of the moment” than “foul play,” especially in wake of the Sokoudjou incident at DREAM 9.
“Resident” Yvel remarked in his post-fight comments that he’ll be facing Paul Buentello at Affliction ‘Trilogy’ on August 1, whereas Rizzo will likely be facing a CAT Scan and a lengthy suspension.
After that, “The Hurricane” wants a crack at a title:
?I want to move up to (fight) the champions because I want a belt. I?m learning the ground game. What I did tonight was be patient, relax, and kick-off.?
Also coming out of Saturday’s event a little worse for the wear was Randy Hedderick. Despite dropping “The T-shirt guy” in the first round with a couple of stiff rights, he was unable to finish the gutsy Affliction Veep and had the tables turned in the latter part of the second round.
Atencio managed to survive the early scare and shatter Hedderick’s nose after some rough-housing and ground and pound to finish the second frame. When Hedderick was unable to answer the bell for the third, the Internet boards immediately lit up with the word “FIX” because as we all know, whenever a fighter is injured and unable to continue, it automatically means someone has been paid to take a dive.
I would caution any conspiracy theorists that did not watch the actual broadcast to try and catch a replay. No promotion that broadcasts an event that grainy and staffed with commentators that inept has enough money to pay anyone off. I would be surprised if they had enough green to cover the fighter’s purses.
It will probably be a little easier now that they don’t have to spend any money on Din Thomas.
In what for now looks to have been an unfortunate misunderstanding, “Dinyero” came in a bit heavy, got a verbal “OK” from the commission to continue, then was forced to try and re-cut the extra weight after re-hydrating following a request by the Javier Vasquez camp.
He didn’t make it.
Thomas became seriously ill trying to lose the weight and was pulled from the card. Fortunately for Vasquez, Mark Kergosien was on stand-by and ready to fight in his place.
Not that he did anything I would consider fighting — Vasquez choked him out in just under a minute with a suffocating guillotine.
And that pretty much sums up the overall event: It ended and there wasn’t really anything to show for it. Things moved at a brisk pace due to all the finishes but it was the stoppages that made this event tolerable and not the actual fights.
The production values were one step above the “Sylvia vs. Mercer” video promo for Adrenaline III, the announcers were annoying and clueless (save for Petruzelli) and the fights were mostly lopsided affairs. Bobby Lashley predicted a ‘train wreck’ and that’s exactly what we got.
The man may not have great skills just yet, but he does have great insight.
