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KOTC 33 Recap/Gallery II
February 20, 2004 Soboba Casino San Jacinto, CA
It was a cold and rainy day in Southern California this past Friday but at Saboba Casino in San Jacinto, California, things were all heated up. King of the Cage 33 returned with a great line-up filled with expectations that didn't disappoint. The theme for the night was expect the unexpected.
One of the first things that surprised me was that King of the Cage bantamweight champion Charlie Valencia was fighting. KOTC was suppose to retire his belt and have Bobby Gamboa fight Dave Rivas for the vacant title. Charlie was going to have knee surgery later on in the year. But when Dave Rivas didn't make weight, Charlie, being the warrior that he is, took the fight on little notice. As KOTC 33 began, we were treated to some great under card bouts.
Randy Velarde against Bryson Vanderboard was an incredible bout with action going back and forth until Velarde got the mount and started to throw punches and Vanderboard had to tap.
Referee extraordinaire turned fighter Larry Landless also had an exciting match against Tony Berg. Good action with Larry ending the fight with a mata lion.
And the Chad Davis vs. Mike Seal fight was awesome and I didn't expect the outcome even though you always know it's a possibility. When Davis got the triangle, he put Seal to sleep. Seal was out for a bit but ref Herb Dean got in there and Davis awoke and looked to be alright although a little groggy.
Romie Aram had a good bout with Michael Penalber. At one point in the fight, from my vantage point, Romie nailed Penalber with a left and Penalber went down and looked to be out but Romie followed him down throwing punches and it looked like the following punches woke Penalber back up and Penalber immediately got right into the guard. He recovered and the fight went the distance and Romie got the decision.
One of the unexpected thing I saw for this night was when the ref stood up "Scary" Jerry and Dan Severn during their fight, Severn fell back and landed on the mat - he motioned Jerry to come on down but Jerry would not have any of that, flipped Severn off and motioned with his finger to get back up. The crowd was getting into it.
And Charles "Krazy Horse" Bennett jumping onto the top of the cage at the start of his fight with Shad Smith was like, well...Krazy. Bennett motioned Smith to come and get him but the ref would not have any of that so he got Bennett down and Bennett went into fight mode and it looked like he was going to try to take Smith down but out came the punches and 40 seconds into the fight, the ref stepped in to stop it because, while Smith was still on his feet, he was on the way down from the flurry of punches from Bennett.
And can you believe we had a Tyson/Holyfield incident. Well, maybe not quite Holyfield/Tyson but let me tell you what happened. During the second round of the Richard Solis \ Carlos Garcia fight, I heard Garcia scream "he's biting my ear, he's biting my ear." Only it was so loud, the ref never heard him. The fight ended up going the distance. I could see Garcia was bleeding from the ear but I didn't see the actual bite nor did anyone around me. After a short conference among officials to investigate, it went to the scorecards and Solis was awarded the decision.
I could keep going on and on but needless to say, if you can afford to get the pay-per-view, it's worth it.
In closing, I want to say I was very impressed with Charlie Valencia and his performance with little or no training for his fight. Props to Joe Stevenson and Joe Camacho for putting on a good show. And much Respect to the ring girls who did their job with grace even though it was very cold that night. And to all who participated, Great job!
Til next time, AL
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Tedd Williams, AL Nava and MC extraordinaire Tyson Johnson |
"The Enforcer" Brad Verrett with his Beautiful wife Celia. |
Keep dreaming fellas
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(2/21/04)
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