December 20, 2012

San Manuel Casino and Bingo

KING OF THE CAGE: VIGILANTE

by: Jonathan King  Photos by John Walsh The Clinch Report

Once again The King of The Cage promotion put on an amazing event of Mixed Martial Arts. The fight card featured 3 title fights, and a stacked under card that saw several upsets.

The Night began with an amazing .9 second knockout. King of The Cage stall-wort, and 185lbs contender Johnny Cisneros walked into a counter right hand from Joshua Aveles that immediately twisted and folded ‘The Tattooed Terror’ leaving him unconscious  and supine. The crowed was in shock, even the Aveles fans seemed stunned by the quick finish. Next for Aveles is a title shot at the 170 lbs division. As for Johnny Cisneros, its back to the drawing board. Suffering his first professional loss, was undoubtedly a rough dose of a reality for Cisneros. Fortunately though, his pedigree and skill will certainly carry him through this setback.

The first of three title fights saw Marvin Garcia vs. Justin Robbins for the vacant KOTC featherweight title. The first round featured a back and forth affair exhibiting some excellent striking and effective counters by both fighters. Garcia maintained a great pace, and stalked Robbins throughout the fight. Once on the ground, he was able to secure the victory via guillotine choke in the second round becoming the promotions strap holder in the 135lbs division.

The second title on the line belonged to David Gomez, who had been riding a 5 fight win streak coming into the fight. As the current champion Gomez had the crowd on his side, a ton of momentum, and a few defenses under his cap. His opponent Sam Liera, simply had a desire to become champion. Round 1 began with Gomez landing several hard strikes to the challenger Liera’s head, however they did little to deter the advances of the pugnacious challenger.  Halfway through the frame, Liera landed a huge left hand counter that immediately moved Gomez backwards. Showing a champions will, Gomez fought of the cage valiantly moving the scrap back to the center of the cage. His smile was replaced with a look of uncertainty, and Liera swarmed.  Shortly thereafter a counter left hand from Liera again rocked the champion as he fell to the canvas. A few unanswered hammer-fists from Liera forced referee Mike Beltran to step in to stop the fight at 4:42 of round the very first round. The winner Sam Liera is now the reigning KOTC Welterweight Title holder.

The final title bout of the evening featured KOTC Heavyweight and Super heavyweight Title holder and MMA legend Tony”Kryptonite” Lopez against a very savvy and well decorated fighter in his own right Trevor Prangley. Early on, Prangley was able to land a few heavy counter shots, that set up a few take-downs  Lopez however fought actively from the bottom, and Prangley seemed unable to provide any offense in Lopez’s guard. After two rounds of Prangley dominating with his smothering ground game, the referee began to stand up the fighters. after Prangley was unable to advance position. Here is where Lopez began to take control. Once standing, Prangley’s exhaustion was evident. Lopez landed at will, as Prangley was standing right in front of him, with very little if any head movement. In the fourth round a huge left hand from Lopez rocked Prangley, and sent him to the canvas. As Lopez moved in for the finish, and inadvertent knee seemed to hit Prangley in the head, forcing the ref to step in and halt the action. Consequent replays show the knee landed towards the neck area, and not the head. Prangley complained to ringside doctors that the knee may have broken his jaw, so the fight went to the judges score cards in the middle of the fourth round.  The judges awarded a technical decision to Trevor Prangley, who is now the KOTC Light heavyweight champion. *Interesting side note The Clinch Report’s photographer John Walsh caught the left hand that broke Prangley’s jaw proving it was not the knee that caused the damage!