Bushido Team Shines in Night of Quick KOs
Tim Leidecker Oct 2, 2007
LEIPZIG, Germany, Sept. 30 -- After running its first shows at
"Haus Auensee," a small location for only 1,000 fans, the Free
Fight Championship moved to the much larger "Kohlrabizirkus" --
this city's equivalent to Madison Square Garden -- last
October.
FFC booked the venue again for Sunday and a sell-out crowd of 2,500 enthusiastic fans helped set an Eastern German record. While that doesn't sound like a large gathering, the stage of development of German MMA is comparable to the United States circa 1993 or the UK three years ago, so drawing a crowd of this size is considered a success, especially for an "MMA only" card with no boxing or kickboxing matches as additional draws.
The Bushido Free Fight team was featured prominently in 10 of the
night's 11 fights and came away with eight victories.
Marko Zschörner, the heavyweight fighter turned FFC promoter, was up first in his clash with Czech Pavel Botka.
After some scrambling on the ground during which both men went for leglocks, the "Bulldog" managed to take Botka's back and transition smoothly to an armbar finish.
With his third victory in four months secured, Zschörner now had the time to not only corner his numerous fighters, but also make sure the event went as planned.
Slovakian wrestler Martin Boizik and the "Berlin Bull" Franco Schulze tested the cage's stability in another clash of the heavyweights. Schulze was especially pumped and ready to go after falling short to Lithuanian HERO'S veteran Tadas Rinkevicius in April.
Being the heaviest fighter on the card at 275 pounds, Schulze had little trouble bullying Boizik, 30 pounds lighter, in the clinch. On the ground the heavily tattooed fighter from Germany's capital took a leaf from Zschörner's book and armbarred the Slovakian for the victory.
In the night's technically most skillful fight, Bushido team's Artjom Kotelewetz took on Vienna-based Brazilian Ivan Rodrigues. Even though both fighters are known for their ground-fighting skills, a dogged stand-up battle developed from the first ring gong. Rodrigues expectedly managed to escape a guillotine choke and punish Kotelewetz with a barrage of stomps and soccer kicks.
Then he made a grave tactical mistake. Instead of finishing the fight with strikes on the ground, Rodrigues went for a leglock that Kotelewetz countered straight away.
The crowd jumped out of their seats and rewarded the hometown fighter with thunderous applause. Driven by the energy from the audience Kotelewetz went for some vicious ground-and-pound, which prompted Rodrigues' corner to throw in the towel.
The next fight was just as wild even though there were another two "Big Bad Boyz" in the ring in Ilja Skondric and Lars Weber. Both men started to brawl straight away and from the huge power punches thrown, fans were just waiting for one of the fighters to go down.
Weber changed the course of the fight and used his weight advantage to push Skondric against the cage and started choking the Slovakian veteran standing up.
Unlike Radovan Kuca, whom he managed to take with the exact same move in their April fight, Skondric managed to get free and again both fighters went at each other standing up.
Weber pushed the pace maybe a little too hard as he ran into a counter punch and was finished with some brutal knees for only his second career defeat. The man from Gera promised to be back for his "home game" when the FFC comes to his hometown in January of 2008.
In the main event versatile Brazilian Igor Araujo granted Sascha Kress a rematch from their exciting first fight in April.
While Kress managed to push the Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt to his limits that night, he received a lesson in grappling skill this time. From the first bell Araujo took his back, went for a rear-naked choke and transitioned effortlessly to a scholastic armbar. Since he hardly got into a sweat, the former pupil of Aldo Caveirinha did some pushups for good measure and once again proved why he is among the better middleweights in Europe.
On the undercard, Bushido team newcomers Benjamin Brinsa, Christian Lo Re and Silvio Haufe all won their fights via knockout. The duel between Mischa Mihnjak and Henrik Nitzsche had to be scrapped due to the former severely injuring his arm while warming up.
Injury also prompted Pavel Bechthold to verbally submit to Klaus Gaydosik after five minutes of frenzied action. Ric Schreiter won his tune-up fight against Nenad Brezovec before challenging Czech knockout artist Vaclav Pribyl for the FFC welterweight (165 pound) title in January. Last but not least Mark Henning finished Ilja Skondric's compatriot Dusan Skondric with knee strikes.
FFC booked the venue again for Sunday and a sell-out crowd of 2,500 enthusiastic fans helped set an Eastern German record. While that doesn't sound like a large gathering, the stage of development of German MMA is comparable to the United States circa 1993 or the UK three years ago, so drawing a crowd of this size is considered a success, especially for an "MMA only" card with no boxing or kickboxing matches as additional draws.
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Marko Zschörner, the heavyweight fighter turned FFC promoter, was up first in his clash with Czech Pavel Botka.
Zschörner received a huge pop from the crowd for entering the cage
to "Auferstanden von Ruinen" -- the national anthem for the former
GDR -- and wasted little time in putting away his opponent.
After some scrambling on the ground during which both men went for leglocks, the "Bulldog" managed to take Botka's back and transition smoothly to an armbar finish.
With his third victory in four months secured, Zschörner now had the time to not only corner his numerous fighters, but also make sure the event went as planned.
Slovakian wrestler Martin Boizik and the "Berlin Bull" Franco Schulze tested the cage's stability in another clash of the heavyweights. Schulze was especially pumped and ready to go after falling short to Lithuanian HERO'S veteran Tadas Rinkevicius in April.
Being the heaviest fighter on the card at 275 pounds, Schulze had little trouble bullying Boizik, 30 pounds lighter, in the clinch. On the ground the heavily tattooed fighter from Germany's capital took a leaf from Zschörner's book and armbarred the Slovakian for the victory.
In the night's technically most skillful fight, Bushido team's Artjom Kotelewetz took on Vienna-based Brazilian Ivan Rodrigues. Even though both fighters are known for their ground-fighting skills, a dogged stand-up battle developed from the first ring gong. Rodrigues expectedly managed to escape a guillotine choke and punish Kotelewetz with a barrage of stomps and soccer kicks.
Then he made a grave tactical mistake. Instead of finishing the fight with strikes on the ground, Rodrigues went for a leglock that Kotelewetz countered straight away.
The crowd jumped out of their seats and rewarded the hometown fighter with thunderous applause. Driven by the energy from the audience Kotelewetz went for some vicious ground-and-pound, which prompted Rodrigues' corner to throw in the towel.
The next fight was just as wild even though there were another two "Big Bad Boyz" in the ring in Ilja Skondric and Lars Weber. Both men started to brawl straight away and from the huge power punches thrown, fans were just waiting for one of the fighters to go down.
Weber changed the course of the fight and used his weight advantage to push Skondric against the cage and started choking the Slovakian veteran standing up.
Unlike Radovan Kuca, whom he managed to take with the exact same move in their April fight, Skondric managed to get free and again both fighters went at each other standing up.
Weber pushed the pace maybe a little too hard as he ran into a counter punch and was finished with some brutal knees for only his second career defeat. The man from Gera promised to be back for his "home game" when the FFC comes to his hometown in January of 2008.
In the main event versatile Brazilian Igor Araujo granted Sascha Kress a rematch from their exciting first fight in April.
While Kress managed to push the Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt to his limits that night, he received a lesson in grappling skill this time. From the first bell Araujo took his back, went for a rear-naked choke and transitioned effortlessly to a scholastic armbar. Since he hardly got into a sweat, the former pupil of Aldo Caveirinha did some pushups for good measure and once again proved why he is among the better middleweights in Europe.
On the undercard, Bushido team newcomers Benjamin Brinsa, Christian Lo Re and Silvio Haufe all won their fights via knockout. The duel between Mischa Mihnjak and Henrik Nitzsche had to be scrapped due to the former severely injuring his arm while warming up.
Injury also prompted Pavel Bechthold to verbally submit to Klaus Gaydosik after five minutes of frenzied action. Ric Schreiter won his tune-up fight against Nenad Brezovec before challenging Czech knockout artist Vaclav Pribyl for the FFC welterweight (165 pound) title in January. Last but not least Mark Henning finished Ilja Skondric's compatriot Dusan Skondric with knee strikes.
