November 1st, 2002, Silver Legacy Reno, Nevada was home to King of the Cage "Sudden Impact." On a cold Fall night, things quickly heated up as a sold-out crowd waited anxiously to watch a line-up filled with veteran competitors as well as, up and comers. Even though the original main event was to be Pele vs. Bobish, with Pele failing his eye exam, the new main event between heavyweights Paul "Headhunter" Buentello vs. Mike "Mak" Kyle didn’t disappoint fight fans. And for those fans that were not able to make it out to Reno, Nevada, were now able to stay in the comforts of their own home and view it on Direct TV (PPV). Some non-mma celebrities like (Alfonso Ribeiro of "Fresh Prince of Bel Air" and Sean Patrick Flannery of "Body Shots" and various other feature films) chose to watch it live. Some highly anticipated matches included the KOTC debut of Dennis "Superman" Hallman against Betiss "Super" Mansouri, Dan "The Beast" Severn against Mark "The Bear" Smith, and Paul "Headhunter" Buentello versus Mike "Mak" Kyle.

In the first dark match of the night, Chad "Concrete" Davis of Team Bad Intentions met Roberto "El Matador" Ramirez from the Chicago Fight Team. This was to be a 3 round bout. As the fight commenced, Davis came out with some pretty strong leg kicks. Both were banging away. A lot of movement came from Davis, making it difficult for Ramirez to keep him down. Ramirez got caught with a hard right, which made him stagger back into the fence. Davis got in several shots to the body making Ramirez fall to his back and trying to get Davis into his guard. Davis is in the half guard, power punching away at his opponent. Davis steps through and pounds away at Ramirez’s head. The punches are too overpowering and Ramirez taps to stop the punishment. Chad Davis won in the first round at the time of 2:51 by Tapout.

In the second dark match of the night, Brian Foster met Sean "Black Mamba" Gray from Shootwrestle USA. Foster, who used to be out of John Lober’s camp was representing himself. In this much-anticipated re-match, Foster scored the first bodylock takedown on Gray and immediately got side-control. With lack of movement, the ref (Herb Dean) stood the two fighters up. Here, Gray became the aggressor by throwing a punch/knee combination, driving Foster backward, and attempted to take Foster down but ran into some difficulty, as Foster managed to stay on his feet, countering the takedown attempt. Foster controlled the guard but Gray managed to pull a reversal from the half guard and slammed Foster for a takedown but the round ended.
In round two, Gray comes forth with a bodylock and leg trip, taking Foster down. From the side position, Gray proceeded with hard knees to the body and elbows to Foster’s head. Foster gave up his back and Gray took advantage of trying to sink in his hooks and throw some hard punches. Gray then, looked to submit Foster by taking his arm and working to get a Kimura. Foster submitted to the submission and tapped out. Sean Gray won at a time of 3:06 by Tapout (Kimura).

In the first match of the main card and the opening of PPV live, we saw Jimmy Walker of Team F.A.S.T. versus Gary Grate of Charles Gracie Academy. Both opponents came out swinging for the fences. Neither fighter made any attempts to keep their guard up. Instead, they preferred to take it on the chin and keep on swinging. Jimmy got caught with a straight punch. Grate moved in for the takedown and worked into the mount. A strong Walker, used the power in his hips to reverse Grate’s positioning into the guard. Grate, comfortable on his back, couldn’t seem to stop Walker from muscling him away from the fence and proceeded to pound away at Grate. Grate worked to get a triangle and Walker punched away at Grate’s body. Walker got caught in a triangle but Walker fought to keep his left arm from going across his neck, allowing Grate to sink in the choke effectively. Walker got out and the crowd roared at his ability to muscle his away out of the submission attempt but Walker looked gassed. The two fighters were up and Grate threw a knee and the two clinched. The round ended, allowing Walker to recover from amazingly defending himself against Grate’s submission attempt.
In round two, Grate started off strong with a leg kick but Walker, now recovered, threw a combination and a solid shot to the body. Walker swung with a big overhand right but missed and Grate shot in for the takedown and got Walker onto his back. Grate worked from the guard but got stood up by the ref. The confusion in the crowd started to vocalize. Fans went nuts by yelling in protest against the ref’s decision to stop the fight and then having to end the fight. Grate illegally head butted Walker on his forehead. Referee Larry Landless requested that a point be taken off but because Walker could not continue, Grate was disqualified and Walker won. At a time of 1:31 of round 2, Jimmy Walker won by disqualification (intentional head butt).

In the fastest match of the night, Chad Bannon from Team Villain went up against local favorite, Rick Collup from Reno Academy of Combat. As the match started, both opponents came out swinging. Bannon managed to catch Collup with a straight right to the jaw, causing the ref (Steve Mazzagatti) to jump in and stop the fight. Although Collup got caught, he looked as if he could still continue, which made the crowd, once again chant their objections. Nevertheless, in a whopping 20 seconds, Chad Bannon won by KO in round one.

Jason House of Team Jan Jira met up against James Fanshier of Worsham’s Team X. Both fighters had veteran non-mma fighters in their corner. House who had former Muay Thai champ, Saeksan Janjira in his corner, was favored to win this bout over Fanshier who had Sanshou champ, Cung Le in his corner. This was by far one of the most exciting bouts of the evening. Fanshier came out aggressively out of the two and got the first take down, maneuvering immediately to take control on the ground. Fanshier obviously dominating what looked to be a timid House, threw shots to the body and showed lots of movement. Both opponents are back up on their feet and House awakens his game as he throws solid knees and elbows. Fanshier got caught by a beautiful forearm strike to the forehead, which staggered him. House closed the distance with a takedown of his own but Fanshier managed to control the position from the top, but the round ended regardless to see what was to become of that moment.

In the second round, Fanshier shows his takedown skills as he gets a beautiful high throw, which made House land with a huge "thump." House recovered quickly as he managed to maneuver to get Fanshier’s back but is up way too high. House moves downward on Fanshier’s back and goes for a rear naked. House looked as if he had nothing behind his shots to the body. He looked to be a bit gassed. House moved sluggishly and dominated the position but the ref (Herb Dean) stood the two fighters up for tape stoppage. When the two fighters faced each other once again, House threw a knee and a hard leg kick, which knocked Fanshier’s leg from under him, but the bell rung preventing House from following through to finish the fight.

In round 3, Fanshier shot in for a double but House fell into the guard. House, then quickly maneuvered to submit Fanshier, who ended up tapping out via armbar. This submission came out of nowhere and there was a moment of silence due to the confusion of what had just taken place. Nevertheless, a winner was announced. Jason House won by armbar in the 3rd round at a time of 36 seconds.

Veteran Dennis "Superman" Hallman of Victory Athletics debuted at KOTC, going up against Bettis "Super" Mansouri of Mansouri Combat Grappling. A trimmed down (170lb) Hallman focused hard on his opponent. It looked as if Hallman had been working on his standup more, as both fighters came out from their corners, Hallman (dressed in Muay Thai shorts) showed off a confident never-before-seen stand-up game. He threw nice striking combinations, some solid leg kicks, effective knees, and a high kick to Mansouri’s head. Mansouri went in for the clinch and tried to take Hallman down via single leg. Hallman, who wanted nothing to do with Mansouri’s ground game, kept it standing up. Mansouri reversed the take down. Hallman immediately took control of the top position, whilst in his guard, throwing high knees and forearms at Mansouri, obviously making it very uncomfortable for him to stay on his back. Mansouri tried to maneuver out of that position and gave up his back, which Hallman jumped on. Hallman then, threw some solid shots at Mansouri’s face, then maneuvered onto his back and worked a triangle. An impressive Hallman locked in a tight triangle, making Mansouri tap. Dennis Hallman wins by tapout (triangle) in the first round at a time of 3:39.

In the last of the feature fights, Seth "Silverback" Petruzelli from Kokopelli’s Gym faced Rocky Batastini representing himself. This match was nothing short of a war. Batastini worked to be the aggressor from the getgo but Petruzelli managed to avoid getting taken down by Batastini. Petruzelli threw several shots at Batastini, including that of an illegal blow to the back of Batastini’s head. The ref (Steve Mazzagatti) stopped the match and requested that two points be deducted from the judge’s scorecards against Petruzelli. After getting substantial amount of recovery time, Batastini got the takedown on Petruzelli but Petruzelli worked from his back and got the triangle on Batastini. Batastini rolled over trying to get out of it but Petruzelli pounded on Batastini’s face with two hard shots. The referee stopped the match with Batastini lying motionless on the canvas. He looked to be out cold, possibly from the choke. Seth Petruzelli wins by TKO at time of 4:04 in the 1st round.

Dan "The Beast" Severn out of Michigan Sports Camp proved that age is not an issue when fighting MMA, unless that is, of course, your opponent looks to have way less experience than you do. In this case, the underdog was Mark "The Bear" Smith from Team Bas Rutten. Smith goes in for the shoot but doesn’t get the takedown. Severn rolled into guard, bypassing Smith’s attacks. Smith seemed to have a hard time taking Severn down and Severn took advantage of that. Severn got Smith’s back and rolled him over. Severn got side control and proceeded to throw knees and elbows. Severn then got a hold of Smith’s arm and attempted a keylock submission. As he moved to the mount, he cranked on the arm and Smith tapped, only to release "The Beast" within Severn. Dan Severn won by Tapout (keylock) in the 1st round at a time of 2:56.

In the main event of the night, Paul "Headhunter" Buentello of American Kickboxing Academy met Mike "Mak" Kyle from Primal Tribe Fighting Club. This was by far, the fight of night that had the crowd roaring to their feet. Originally, the main event was to supposed to be Pele vs. Bobish but Pele failed to pass his eye exam. Stepping up to that spotlight in a live on Direct TV KOTC, were Buentello (pronounced--’Bwen-Tello’) and Kyle. A quiet but very ready Buentello had trained for this match severely, knowing that this match would be the one to boost his career as a fighter into the big leagues. Kyle on the otherhand, was not so quiet about his match against the "Headhunter." He was in fact, very vocal about the whole thing, stating his confidence in knocking Buentello out. However, with the stand-up skills of both fighters, one thing was for sure, they’d both come out banging, ready to throw leather, and only one would have to lose, most likely by KO.

In the first round, a somewhat timid Buentello kept it on his feet but seemed to have some difficulty getting his shots in on Kyle. Kyle looked to be a bit more aggressive as both fighters started swinging away. Buentello seemed to have trouble getting past Kyle’s reach, who stood to be more physically intimidating. However, as the two continued to attempt to take shots and throw combinations, it was Buentello’s 1-2 combo that caught Kyle, making him stagger backward. Buentello was a little slow on following through and Kyle was able to make it through till the round ended.

With Buentello’s cornerman Crazy Bob Cook coming in and awakening a frustrated Buentello by letting him know that he’s not following the game plan (in not so many words either), Buentello started the next round, knowing what he had to do. Kyle started the round off with strong leg kicks at Buentello but Buentello (not wanting to "go out like that") boosted up his movement and seeing an opening, threw a powerful straight right to Kyle’s jaw. From there, Buentello immediately followed through and connected with a left hook that took Kyle out of commission, knocking him down. Ref Herb Dean stepped in and the fight was over. Buentello came out with a big win and a big KO! At a time of 1:24 in the 2nd round, Paul Buentello won by KO.

-MMARR