I’m cageside at Arena Houston for Lone Star Beatdown 10. This local Houston promotion has experienced quite a bit of success in the market, and the crowd looks decent for this show.
We have fourteen (!) fights tonight. I’ll be liveblogging while my computer battery lasts, so stick with me if you’re the type that likes to support local mixed martial arts. I’ll update after each round with any relevant information.
The show was supposed to start at 8pm, but they’re apparently waiting on the ambulance to get here before starting the fights. With fourteen fights on the card, I cannot imagine any scenario that would have me home and in my bed by 2am. We’ll see.
And now we’re fifty minutes past start time, but apparently the ambulance crew has arrived and we’re going to get started shortly.
Jayson Pilosi vs. Tim Escobedo (205)
Ring card girl gets a giant reaction while Pilosi comes out. Pilosi is making his MMA debut. The other dude is 5’8″, 245 pounds. They both gas within a minute. Pilosi gets a point deducted for what appeared to be a perfectly valid knee to the face, but then ends the fight with a barrage of punches.
Winner: Jayson Pilosi (2:02 of round one)
Dominik Bukovicky vs. Jeremy Morris (170)
Round One: Bukovicky lands a hard kick to the side and then gets a half guillotine choke in. Morris gets his head out and they exchange punches. More work against the cage.
Round Two: More of the same, but with Morris landing an absolute ton of wicked body shots. He may have broken a rib during this round.
Round Three: Not much action in this round. I think it’s clear that Morris won the fight, likely 29-28. Morris has lightning fast kicks but can’t seem to finish them up. And I swear that there’s a dude sitting behind me who screamed “BREAK HIS JAW” no less than 50 times.
Winner: Jeremy Morris (30-27 decision)
Julian Vega vs. Vicente Gama (155)
Gama comes to the ring draped in a Brazilian flag.
Round One: Vega shoots in for a massive takedown and instantly gets full mount. Gama slips out, but Vega takes him down again and moves very smoothly into a rear naked choke for the submission. Very, very impressive – this kid has a bright future ahead of him. He’s light years ahead of everybody else on this show thus far.
Winner: Julian Vega by submission
Hey look, a fight in the crowd. The guys from the losing camp apparently didn’t take too well to that one.
USACA FEATHERWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP
Jeremy Hontz vs. Dominic Rodriguez
USACA stands for United States Amateur Combat Assocation, by the way. There are two USACA title matches on tonight’s show – the featherweight and lightweight titles will both be defended.
They open the fight with a great promo video building up the fight. My compliments to whoever put this video together; it’s very well done.
Round One: Rodriguez looks strikingly like a third Noguiera brother. Both guys are undefeated. This is also a good time to mention that the announcer on this show is terrible. Like, one of the worst I’ve ever heard. Hontz with the takedown. He lays on top a lot during this round, with Rodriguez almost securing an armbar until Hontz does a nice slam to break it. This round was almost all Hontz.
Round Two: Hontz gets a kneebar but Rodriguez slips out. Good back and forth BJJ action in this round with plenty of reversals. I believe Hontz takes this round also.
Round Three: Hontz takes him down almost immediately. Plenty of calls to stand them up whenever it goes to the ground, which shows you how much education we need at the grassroots MMA level. Hontz takes this round.
Round Four: Hontz takes him down with a flying guard and basically keeps him there. Rodriguez tries punching but Hontz reverses and falls into the guard. Not much else happens and this one could have gone either way, but I’ll give it Rodriguez for the punches from the top.
Round Five: Rodriguez with a spinning back kick, but he falls down. Hontz LOCKS an armbar, but Rodriguez somehow escapes it. He has to be double jointed. Hontz is back on top, and he’s just too strong for Rodriguez. Hontz will take this round and the fight.
Winner: Jeremy Hontz by decision
And that’s it for me, as my laptop is nearly out of battery. I’ll finish up the recap later.
