Jason MacDonald Continues ECC Dominance
Andy Cotterill Jul 1, 2006
MONCTON, Canada, June 30 — Extreme Cage Combat's first card outside
of its home Province of Nova Scotia was a success, as the Moncton
Coliseum in New Brunswick played host to an excellent event:
Extreme Cage Combat 2 “Collision Course."
Jason MacDonald (Pictures) looked very strong in his match over Jerry Spiegel (Pictures), a late replacement for Stephan Potvin (Pictures). As the fight started, MacDonald bulled Spiegel's back straight to the cage, where he picked him up and almost gently laid him down on his back. With MacDonald in his guard, Spiegel gamely tried to extend his body to prevent getting punched by the long arms of his opponent.
However this only made it easier for MacDonald to twist Spiegel
around and take his back to attempt a rear-naked choke. Spiegel did
a good job preventing MacDonald’s forearm from locking in the
choke, and after a short time MacDonald changed tactics. My view
was partially obstructed, but it appeared like a keylock attempt
was underway, which was immediately changed to a Kimura.
MacDonald has 12 wins by submission, so at this point it seemed like the end of the fight. But Spiegel squirmed out of the hold and the two fighters ended up on their feet. This allowed Spiegel to make his one real offensive, and fairly spectacular move of the fight. MacDonald attempted what would have been a devastating straight right had it have connected. But Spiegel ducked to the side, and as he did so connected with a perfectly placed kick to the inside of MacDonald's overextended lead leg.
Round two started with Spiegel looking extremely fatigued. Once again the round started off with MacDonald putting Spiegel on his back and putting all his body weight on him. After 30 seconds of this, Spiegel had no gas to respond and the referee stepped in to stop the fight, giving Jason MacDonald (Pictures) a win at 33 seconds of the second period.
Victor Valimaki, on loan from the Maximum Fighting Championship (MFC), took the only decision of the evening with all three judges giving him a 30-27 victory over relentless Craig Sloan.
Sloan was incredibly tough and durable, but at 5' 6" he was just not tall enough to get inside the reach of the six-foot Valimaki.
During the initial feeling-out process after the touch of gloves to start Steve Skinner’s fight with Shawn Marchand, Skinner slipped on the canvas and he fell to his back. Marchand capitalized on his misfortune and was on him in a second.
Marchand used a dominating ground-and-pound to keep Skinner on his back for the rest of round one, and continued again to start the second. Skinner valiantly tried to avoid the ceaseless punches raining down on him, but in the end he had become too exhausted and was unable to properly defend himself anymore. The referee stopped it in favor of Marchand at 2:46 of round two.
In the quickest fight of the evening, Eric Beaulieu (Pictures) tapped at 1:16 of round one due to a deeply sunk rear-naked choke from Jesse Bongfeldt.
Dave Scholten impressed when he fought in ECC1 so his fight against another MFC import, Tim Tamaki, was eagerly anticipated.
Unfortunately, referee Ken Wood inexplicably stopped the fight at only 2:17 of round one. Scholten was standing over Tamaki, who was on his back against the cage. Scholten was landing shots, but Tamaki was very alert and doing a good job defending the blows.
Sholten landed a few hits, but Tamaki was not even close to being in trouble. Suddenly the ref started waving his arms to signal the end of the fight. Everyone in the arena, including both fighters in the cage, looked to their neighbors to ask why the fight was stopped.
Scholten, being on the lucky side of the judgment, just shrugged his shoulders as if to say "Oh well, a win's a win." In this case, it was by referee stoppage at 2:17 of round one.
Easily the fight of the night, Atlantic grappling champion Richard Kanasevich looked very strong initially as he tried to dominate the Brazilian Top Team Canada member Nelson Akawui Riquelme on the ground. That's a game plan that might work against most opponents, but when yours comes from a club that has BTT as it's initials, you might want to think twice.
In contrast to Kanasevich's raw power and assertiveness, Riquelme exuded a confidence on the ground that allowed him to weather the onslaught of attacks, including the most serious in a minute-long attempt by Kanasevich to secure a rear-naked choke.
The start of the second period saw the result of the professionally inexperienced Kanasevich's aggressions in round one. He was exhausted. Riquelme took this as a sign to leave the defensive mode and start being the aggressor. Kanasevich gamely tried a few takedowns, but the rested Riquelme easily sprawled and took Kanasevich's back.
The referee made the decision that Kanasevich could not continue due to fatigue, and he called the fight at 2:06 of round two.
Another quick fight, ECC 1 veteran and Jeff Joslin (Pictures) student Bryan Edge tightened up a guillotine choke on Josh Kyrejto enough to have him tapout at 1:33 of round one.
Jay Jenkins and Luke Hatfield fought an excellent fight that, in my opinion, had local fighter Hatfield win the first round due mainly to his persistent aggressiveness and constant attacks. Unfortunately, Hatfield learned the lesson the hard way that fights aren’t scheduled for only one round.
The second round saw him noticeably less energetic, and this was all the reason that Jenkins needed to impose his will on him. Hatfield valiantly tried to take his attacks to Jenkins, but Jenkins was able to avoid and counter, leaving Hatfield looking a little shell-shocked.
When the bell rang for round three, Hatfield was still sitting in his corner with his coach standing beside him with a towel in his hand. It was a gutsy effort, but it was a win by Jenkins.
Extreme Cage Combat's foray into New Brunswick was definitely a success. Even though they only sold about a third as many tickets as their inaugural event in Halifax, the crowd only stopped cheering three times. The first time was so that they could "boo" when told that Dan Severn (Pictures) would not be fighting due to contract issues. The second was so that they could "boo" the incomprehensible stoppage of the Scholten-Tamaki fight and yell, "Fire the Ref!" The third and final time was during the singing of the Canadian and American National anthems. A nice touch, seeing as only one fighter out of 16, Jerry Spiegel (Pictures), was American.
A few final notes, Jay Jenkins piqued the interest of the crowd when he asked for the microphone at the end of his fight. Jenkins pleaded with the crowd to write to their member of Parliament as well as local politicians and ask to have mixed martial arts legalized across Canada. MMA is still banned in the largest Province of Ontario.
Dave Scholten dedicated his victory to teammate Garett Davis (Pictures), whose family apparently is going through rough times right now.
Regarding ECC 3: It will once again be in Halifax in the end of July, likely featuring a fighter you've watched in the UFC in the past three weeks. Also returning will be Victor Valimaki and ECC 1 vets Roger Hollett, Jason MacKay and TJ Grant.
Jason MacDonald (Pictures) looked very strong in his match over Jerry Spiegel (Pictures), a late replacement for Stephan Potvin (Pictures). As the fight started, MacDonald bulled Spiegel's back straight to the cage, where he picked him up and almost gently laid him down on his back. With MacDonald in his guard, Spiegel gamely tried to extend his body to prevent getting punched by the long arms of his opponent.
Advertisement
MacDonald has 12 wins by submission, so at this point it seemed like the end of the fight. But Spiegel squirmed out of the hold and the two fighters ended up on their feet. This allowed Spiegel to make his one real offensive, and fairly spectacular move of the fight. MacDonald attempted what would have been a devastating straight right had it have connected. But Spiegel ducked to the side, and as he did so connected with a perfectly placed kick to the inside of MacDonald's overextended lead leg.
MacDonald hit the canvas like a rock, but "The Athlete" was on his
feet in a split second, looking a little chagrined, before Spiegel
could capitalize on his superior position.
Round two started with Spiegel looking extremely fatigued. Once again the round started off with MacDonald putting Spiegel on his back and putting all his body weight on him. After 30 seconds of this, Spiegel had no gas to respond and the referee stepped in to stop the fight, giving Jason MacDonald (Pictures) a win at 33 seconds of the second period.
Victor Valimaki, on loan from the Maximum Fighting Championship (MFC), took the only decision of the evening with all three judges giving him a 30-27 victory over relentless Craig Sloan.
Sloan was incredibly tough and durable, but at 5' 6" he was just not tall enough to get inside the reach of the six-foot Valimaki.
During the initial feeling-out process after the touch of gloves to start Steve Skinner’s fight with Shawn Marchand, Skinner slipped on the canvas and he fell to his back. Marchand capitalized on his misfortune and was on him in a second.
Marchand used a dominating ground-and-pound to keep Skinner on his back for the rest of round one, and continued again to start the second. Skinner valiantly tried to avoid the ceaseless punches raining down on him, but in the end he had become too exhausted and was unable to properly defend himself anymore. The referee stopped it in favor of Marchand at 2:46 of round two.
In the quickest fight of the evening, Eric Beaulieu (Pictures) tapped at 1:16 of round one due to a deeply sunk rear-naked choke from Jesse Bongfeldt.
Dave Scholten impressed when he fought in ECC1 so his fight against another MFC import, Tim Tamaki, was eagerly anticipated.
Unfortunately, referee Ken Wood inexplicably stopped the fight at only 2:17 of round one. Scholten was standing over Tamaki, who was on his back against the cage. Scholten was landing shots, but Tamaki was very alert and doing a good job defending the blows.
Sholten landed a few hits, but Tamaki was not even close to being in trouble. Suddenly the ref started waving his arms to signal the end of the fight. Everyone in the arena, including both fighters in the cage, looked to their neighbors to ask why the fight was stopped.
Scholten, being on the lucky side of the judgment, just shrugged his shoulders as if to say "Oh well, a win's a win." In this case, it was by referee stoppage at 2:17 of round one.
Easily the fight of the night, Atlantic grappling champion Richard Kanasevich looked very strong initially as he tried to dominate the Brazilian Top Team Canada member Nelson Akawui Riquelme on the ground. That's a game plan that might work against most opponents, but when yours comes from a club that has BTT as it's initials, you might want to think twice.
In contrast to Kanasevich's raw power and assertiveness, Riquelme exuded a confidence on the ground that allowed him to weather the onslaught of attacks, including the most serious in a minute-long attempt by Kanasevich to secure a rear-naked choke.
The start of the second period saw the result of the professionally inexperienced Kanasevich's aggressions in round one. He was exhausted. Riquelme took this as a sign to leave the defensive mode and start being the aggressor. Kanasevich gamely tried a few takedowns, but the rested Riquelme easily sprawled and took Kanasevich's back.
The referee made the decision that Kanasevich could not continue due to fatigue, and he called the fight at 2:06 of round two.
Another quick fight, ECC 1 veteran and Jeff Joslin (Pictures) student Bryan Edge tightened up a guillotine choke on Josh Kyrejto enough to have him tapout at 1:33 of round one.
Jay Jenkins and Luke Hatfield fought an excellent fight that, in my opinion, had local fighter Hatfield win the first round due mainly to his persistent aggressiveness and constant attacks. Unfortunately, Hatfield learned the lesson the hard way that fights aren’t scheduled for only one round.
The second round saw him noticeably less energetic, and this was all the reason that Jenkins needed to impose his will on him. Hatfield valiantly tried to take his attacks to Jenkins, but Jenkins was able to avoid and counter, leaving Hatfield looking a little shell-shocked.
When the bell rang for round three, Hatfield was still sitting in his corner with his coach standing beside him with a towel in his hand. It was a gutsy effort, but it was a win by Jenkins.
Extreme Cage Combat's foray into New Brunswick was definitely a success. Even though they only sold about a third as many tickets as their inaugural event in Halifax, the crowd only stopped cheering three times. The first time was so that they could "boo" when told that Dan Severn (Pictures) would not be fighting due to contract issues. The second was so that they could "boo" the incomprehensible stoppage of the Scholten-Tamaki fight and yell, "Fire the Ref!" The third and final time was during the singing of the Canadian and American National anthems. A nice touch, seeing as only one fighter out of 16, Jerry Spiegel (Pictures), was American.
A few final notes, Jay Jenkins piqued the interest of the crowd when he asked for the microphone at the end of his fight. Jenkins pleaded with the crowd to write to their member of Parliament as well as local politicians and ask to have mixed martial arts legalized across Canada. MMA is still banned in the largest Province of Ontario.
Dave Scholten dedicated his victory to teammate Garett Davis (Pictures), whose family apparently is going through rough times right now.
Regarding ECC 3: It will once again be in Halifax in the end of July, likely featuring a fighter you've watched in the UFC in the past three weeks. Also returning will be Victor Valimaki and ECC 1 vets Roger Hollett, Jason MacKay and TJ Grant.
