Hey Dale, here's my review for the recent event.
G #21 BOAGRIUS vs MCGILLICUTTY Review
Taking place in London on June 4th, 2016, G #21 was held by the GENERATION 270K ID organization in the Camden Conference Centre. It featured 10 fights, with its main event being a 265+ lbs. title fight.
How Everything Went Down
Vitor Nogueira vs Adam Bastien
Starting off the event was a 145 lbs. fight between Bastien and Nogueira. The two fighters started the night off in a big way by going the distance. The two fighters seemed to have very opposite tactics in the fight. Nogueira seemed to be trying to stay as close to Bastien as he could by going for takedowns and clinches galore every round. Bastien, primarily being a boxer, did his best to keep the fight standing up, not going for clinches or takedowns really until the third round. Bastien, being aggressive throughout the fight and able to consistently block Nogueira’s attempts to clinch or go to the ground, kept the majority of the fight in his comfort zone which allowed to him to dominate Nogueira throughout and easily get the victory via unanimous decision.
Ely Scrubs vs Taiga Jim
With both competitors having very strong boxing, it was no surprise to see almost the entire fight be fought in the standup. On paper, the fighters almost look like clones of each other, having very similar stats. From bell to bell, this fight was a straight up slugfest. The two exchanged punches and kicks basically the entire time. Jim’s tactic was to be aggressive and attack Scrubs’ legs. This did pay off, causing Scrubs to develop a limp early in the second round. Scrubs’ motto seemed to be quality over quantity, as he didn’t go for nearly the amount of strikes that Jim did but made each strike he did land count. This led him to a victory. He let Jim tire himself out and then attacked. Late in the second round, he connected with a strong punch which led to a rocked Jim. He proceeded to knock Jim to the ground and finish the fight with a flurry of punches from mount with only seven seconds left to go in the round.
Conor The Highlander vs Canis Majoris
Majoris came into this fight with an advantage over The Highlander in every fight style except BJJ, with The Highlander holding a black belt compared to Majoris’ brown belt, and boxing, with the two fighters being equal in that category. That being said, it was no surprise to see The Highlander be the aggressor, trying to compensate for his disadvantages by attacking early and trying to land as much damage as he could. Although he didn’t come out victorious, the tactic did work in a way. After two and four-fifths rounds of mostly going toe-to-toe in the standup game, he managed to rock Majoris and it looked like The Highlander might pull off the upset win. However, Majoris stayed with the tactic he had been using the entire fight: Absorb and use opportunities when you can. Majoris saw an opportunity to get into a better position and did, pulling off a sweep to put the Highlander on the bottom and put himself in mount to limit damage coming towards him. In the end, Majoris’ countering and dodging abilities paid off as he was awarded the unanimous decision victory.
Drei Silker vs Lee Murray
The first round of this fight seemed to be an opportunity that each fighter took to feel each other out. It wasn’t until about two minutes and thirty seconds in that either fighter made an attempt to go away from the standup. Murray went for a clinch then that ended up working in Silker’s favor as he was able to secure a takedown from there. Soon after, Silker showed off his BJJ skills by going for a triangle hold twice in rapid succession. Murray escaped both attempts and the round ended.
Murray started the second round by immediately clinching with Silker, which was odd considering he had just been taken down and almost submitted from the clinch just minutes ago. Silker broke the clinch but Murray followed up with another just seconds later. Once again, Silker made Murray pay for clinching by gaining the upper hand and once again taking the fight to the ground. It seemed like déjà vu of the first round as Silker wasted no time going for submission attempts on Murray. On the seventh attempt, Silker’s persistency paid off as he was able to lock in an armbar from guard and, due to all the damage had inflicted earlier, make Murray finally tap at 3:59 of the second round.
Annakin Drako vs Marv Miller
Although my job is to write a review of this, I can’t help but insert my own opinion into this. Drako was severely outmatched from the start. It was as if whoever set up this match had a score to settle with Drako and put him in an unwinnable match for revenge. I’ll explain. For stats, Drako had ratings of 5 for boxing, 4 for muay thai, 9 for wrestling, and a BJJ brown belt. Miller ratings were a 10 for boxing, 6 for muay thai, 14 for wrestling, and a BJJ purple belt. Drako had a small advantage in the BJJ category but was grossly outmatched in all others. He was not given a fair chance. Now on to the review.
Miller started the fight by going to the ground to fight with BJJ which must have been baffling to everyone as that was the one category he was outmatched in. Now in his comfort zone, Drako wasted no time getting to a dominant position with a good reversal. After about a minute of stalling and missing punches, Drako decided to try submissions. He attempted submissions with intervals of strikes in between each until the end of the round.
At the start of the second round, it didn’t take long to see Miller boxing skills come into play, as he cut Drako’s head with the first punch he threw. The moment Miller saw blood, he didn’t look back. He continued to attack the head with punch after punch. Drako tried to stop the onslaught by attempting takedowns three times, failing each time. With Drako tired and cut and Miller with seemingly unstoppable momentum, it was obvious how the fight was going to end. Miller connected with a massive punch to the head which was enough for the ref to stop the fight a minute and 56 seconds into the second round for the sake of Drako’s well being.
Charles Vane vs Dylan Todd
This fight was almost over before it even began. Within the first few seconds of the fight, Vane landed a hard left that cut Todd open. Todd attempted to limit the damage going forward by clinching with Vane twice but was quickly pushed away both times. Woth Vane’s boxing skills being extremely better than Todd’s, it didn’t take long for Vane to rock Todd and eventually score the KO victory just a minute and 17 seconds into the fight.
William Holbert vs Anthony Bourdain
The first strike thrown in this fight cut Holbert open, which obviously gave him a disadvantage going forward. From then on, the fight was fought mainly in the clinch against the cage with both men showing off their muay thai and boxing abilities. Bourdain, being the better of the two in muay thai, dominated in round one, trying to soften up Holbert for more punishment in the second round.
With the bell signaling for the start of round two, Bourdain looked to pick up right where he left off. He immediately went after Holbert with a body kick and head punch. That was all that would be needed to end the fight as Holbert hit the ground just 10 seconds into the round. Bourdain easily picked up the KO win.
Eugene Gael vs Sameh Mahmoud
Gael managed to cur Mahmoud about 30 seconds into the fight but couldn’t capitalize as Moahmoud was able to clinch to avoid more severe damage. Gael eventually broke the clinch but not before receiving some damage from Mahmoud. The last three minutes of the fight were mostly fought in the standup with Mahmoud making the bigger impact of the two fighters on the first round.
Gael started the second round with a clinch but broke it about 45 seconds later after not having much success. Mahmoud scored a takedown about two minutes in but was tood up by the ref about two minutes and 30 seconds later after not doing much but controlling position and stalling. After the standup, Mahmoud scored another takedown but with barely anytime left in the round, he wasn’t able to really do much but get points on the scorecards from it.
With round three, Mahmoud immediately went back to the ground. Gael decided to try some BJJ with 4 submission attempts from guard but with each to no avail. A standup from the ref was short lived as Mahmoud went right back to the ground with another takedown. Gael managed a reversal at the very end of the round but couldn’t do anything from the top before the bell.
With his great wrestling and clinch and ability to control the fight, Mahmoud easily picked up the win by unanimous decision.
Troy Kirkland vs Walter Kurtz
Kirkland wasted no time starting the fight by clinching with Kurtz. Kurtz was able to break the clinch less than a minute later and score a takedown but couldn’t do anything as they were stood up by the ref shortly after. Kirkland managed to get a cut on Kurtz and move into another clinch but was quickly broken up by Kurtz like last time. The judges gave the first round to Kurtz.
The first half of the second round was very similar to the first with a series of clinches and breaks. Kurtz got even with Kirkland by cutting him about a minute and 30 seconds in. the second half was fought completely from the standup with Kurtz using his advantage in the boxing department to deal as much damage to Kurtz as possible.
More clinches came in the third round at a pretty steady rate. Kurtz being the more skilled of the two fighters once again had no problem in outdoing Kirkland.
Solid performances in all three rounds impressed the judges enough to reward him the victory via unanimous decision.
Orpheus Boagrius vs Conrad Mcgillicutty
After nine fights, this is what the crows had been looking forward to: The superheavyweight title showdown. Shortly after the start of the fight, Boagrius initiated a clinch with Mcgillicutty. This is where the fight would stay for the rest of the round. While both fighters did well in the clinch, it was Boagrius’ performance with repeatedly landing good punches that stood out among the commentators.
After dominating the first round, Boagrius came out swinging with and knocked down Mcgillicutty with his first punch of the second round. Mcgillicutty sprang back up to his feet only to receive another huge punch that cut him. With Mcgillicutty no doubt stunned from the rapid damage he received, Boagrius was persistent in pursuing Mcgillicutty. This all culminated just before four minutes passed when Boagrius landed an uppercut to stun. Despite the massive damage received, Mcgillicutty was once again able to shake off and survive Boagrius’ onslaught. However, this hope in surviving the round would be short lived as Boagrius didn’t let up on his attack and landed a huge right after pushing him against the cage. The ref stopped the fight and Boagrius got the KO victory after 4:20 of the second round.
Overall, the event’s card was full of entertaining fights as the crowd seemed to like it because most of the fights were mainly fought from the standup.
