Carnage 19 - Review

[Rain]

Carnage 19 occured at Hayashi's Lounge in London with 2000 seats sold out and 7 astonishing MMA contests going through. It had the largest attendance of all Carnage events, the biggest event rating of 135.25 and 4 world title bouts to admire.

Bout #4

Carnage Heavyweight championship

©Eito Itasaki (4-1) vs. James Myres (3-4)

This fight was really welcomed by the fans mostly by the magnificient amount of heart brought to the octagon by James Myres. Despite being quite a big underdog, Myres started of the fight by landing some nice, accurate strikes with his hands, countering the head kick attempts by the champion really well. In the second minute of round 1, Itasaki landed a beautiful head kick to the jaw that knocked down and opened up a cut on the challengers forehead, but Myres got right back up and absorbed the onslaught from Itasaki before the champion decided to clinch. Inside the clinch, Eito shown absolute dominance - it was even hard to watch Myres continually wincing from these knees to the body. Not to mention the ones to the head and great elbows to the face and temple - James Myres was badly rocked and getting worked up like an untrained farang in Thailand. Luckily, James was saved by the bell, but not for long - Itasaki unleashed a kicking barrage in the second, dropped Myres again. Yet again he got up, and the crowd went wild like if they we're wittnesing Rocky live, but the cinderella story was over when Itasaki kicked him right in the neck and as James dropped, a few hammerfists on the floor made the referee jump in to save Myres.

Eito Itasaki (5-1) retains Heavyweight title by TKO (Kick and Punches) in Round 2.

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Bout #5

Carnage Lightweight championship

©Golden King (4-0) vs. Rhys Coulthard (7-1)

The champion Golden King is brawler who loves to grind out these victories. Dig deep, lots of punches, high volume and high paced action, and most importantly - pressure. In the first round it was looking like Coulthard is really having his way with King - keeping him on the outside, he managed to counter his pressuring style with sharp counter shot that were staggering King. The secong started out pretty similarly, with Coulthard having the edge in this contest with his counters, but then, Golden was able to stop his movement by pressuring him up against the cage. King started working him up with lots of dirty boxing, and the same went on up until round 4 - Coulthard was tired, his movement became slow, and King was still coming, breathing in his face and creating these little shortcuts for his hooks and uppercuts. It seems that in round 4, Coulthard started to understand he's not winning the fight this way, so he just bit down on his mouthpiece, focused his last bit of energy, and tried his best to overcome King's tenacity. Yet, it wasn't enough as in the fifth Rhys looked faded and just kept eating shot on the inside.

Golden King (5-0) retains Lightweight title by Unanimous Decision (49-46, 49-46, 49-46).

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Co-Main Event

Carnage Featherweight championship

©Axel "Warrior" Zinith (5-1) vs. Jermey Moe (5-1)

This one was a truly spectacular contest that ended in a flashy knockout. Zinith came out and just kept trying to wrap around the legs of Jermey, looking to avoid the striking and turn this into a grappling contest since the opening bell. Jermey was having none of it - stuffing all the takedown attempts of the champion, Jermey landed some good shots and a beautiful spinning back fist was one of them. Zinith seemed frustrated, and this is where Moe capitalized - a picture perfect left-right hand combination sent Zinith's mouthpiece flying, and the champion's numb body just collapsed on the canvas.

Jermey Moe (6-1) earns Featherweight title by Knockout (Punches) in round 1. (KO of the Night)

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Main Event

Carnage Middleweight championship

(MW C)Chris Johnson (8-1) vs. (WW C)Cody Paris (8-0)

Now this has been the most hyped and anticipated bouts of the evening - the superfight between Carnage Welterweight and Middleweight champions! Cody Paris moved up in weight to try his luck in the middleweight division for Chris Johnson's belt. Johnson gave Cody a warm welcome to the division with a Fight of the Night performance. What we could see right from the beginning is that Chris has a very lanky frame, he's very tall even for a Middleweight. Being 195 cm tall, while Cody is only 175 cm... We all know that the faceoff was a little bit awkward! The fight begun with the shorter Paris instantly diving under and scoring a shoot takedown on Johnson. Instantly, Chris started showing a lot of activity on the bottom as he continuously tried to get a kimura lock or a guillotine choke finish. Paris kept his composure, succesfully defended against the attempts, and landed some short ground and pound just to work Chris up. Paris spent the whole round on top, landing some shots, and in my opinion winning the round. Next two rounds go roughly the same way - Paris shooting for the takedown instantly, getting side control soon and just working Johnson up from the while defending from numerous of beautiful submission attempts. Paris is now winning this 3-0 in my books. Up to round 4, that starts with another instant takedown - Paris is just ragdolling the bigger man! Having won 3 rounds, Paris is looking to make a statement - he secures the mount, start raining bombs from there and hurts Johnson very badly. Luckily, Johnson managed to regain half guard and survive - but that is certainly not enough to win. Paris postures up again and lands with a beautiful elbow to the forehead, and this is where Johnson capitalizes - he quickly strangles around Paris's neck, squeezing with the last bit of energy he has left. Paris is intelligently not allowing Johnson to regain guard, but he quickly wriggles out and jumps while wrapping his legs tight around Paris's waist, securing an extremely tight guillotine choke! We can hear Cody gobbling and here comes the tap! What a comeback!

Chris Johnson (8-1) retains Middleweight title by Submission (Guillotine) in round 4.