Sometimes in life there is a vast discrepancy between what is supposed to happen and what actually does happen.   This was the continuing theme of the night on Friday, September 29th, when Elite Fighting Championship held its second show “Ultimate Decision” at the PNE Agrodome.   Originally, the EFC Light-heavyweight champion Marvin “The Beastman” Eastman was schedule to face Vernon “Tiger” White.  This bout, however, was scrapped after Eastman injured his hand in training.  Fortunately, Victor “The Matrix” Valimaki had the guts to step in as a last minute replacement and take on the “Tiger”.  This was the most unexpected battle with a tiger since the Seigfried and Roy incident.

In the opening bout, Logan Boucher from Suitela Fitness in Delta managed to put three rounds of heavy ground and pound squarely on the jaw of Calgary’s Pete Adamcik.   At one point, it looked like Adamcik had locked on a rear naked choke, but Boucher powered his way free and secured the victory by a third round TKO due to a cut.

Len Tam from Universal Mixed Martial arts controlled a squirrelly Brian Edge for three rounds on his way to winning a decision.  Edge, a BJJ fighter from Team Joslins, seemed content to look for submissions from his guard.  Tam pounded away from the top position and looked to be stuck in a triangle choke at one point.  Again, however, the top fighter powered out and won with ground and pound.

Anthony Vagay brought the pain to Mike Grant in the third bout, rocking his much taller opponent early with punches and then keeping the pressure on.   Dazed from strikes, Grant shot for a takedown and found himself tapping to a guillotine early in the first round.

Marcus Vinicious returned to the EFC ring after an unfortunate disqualification in their first event and made short work of Dave Pogson.   Following the opening bell, Vinicious unleashed a series of spinning head kicks which clearly made Pogson re-think his agenda.  Choosing to grapple, Pogson shot in and clinched, only to find himself dumped onto his back and mounted.  From here, Vinicious moved quickly into an armbar and secured the first round submission. 

Gumb Phenueth came into the EFC ring looking like he was ready for a Muay Thai match.  His opponent Tim Thurston had other plans and, moving into an upper body clinch, went directly from the takedown to the mount and a head-squeeze/neck crank submission in round one.

In EFC’s first-ever female MMA match, Liz Posener defeated Karen Oliver by strikes from mount in the first round.  Securing the takedown, Posener found the mount position early and went for an armlock; but Oliver managed to fight her way out.  Impressively, Posener found her way back to the mount and rained down damage until the ref was forced to stop the contest.

Asia Balliet listed his favorite fighter as “Giant Silva” in the event program, but wasted no time showing the fans in attendance that he was the real deal, taking down Marcus Hicks from Calgary in the opening seconds and unleashing a barrage of brutal ground and pound – including a crushing elbow strike that opened a cut and forced the doctor to stop the fight.

In what was easily the most bizarre fight of the night, Hardeep Singh from Franco Pankration managed to snatch defeat from the mouth of victory in his fight with Calgary’s Adam Laporte.   Both fighters looked to counter-punch, but while Laporte kept his hands up, Singh held his down and away, seeming to invite strikes.  Amazingly, Singh was able to consistently land the more damaging shots and had Laporte bleeding badly at the end of the first round.  During the second round, Laporte landed an unintentional strike to Singh’s groin.  Referee Kevin Dornan gave Singh the legal five-minute rest break to recover; and it was during this break that insanity reared its ugly head.   Apparently, a fan in the crowd felt Singh was ’faking it’ or was ’a sissy’ or some such nonsense and shouted his opinions at the downed fighter.  Hearing this, Singh tried to climb out of the ring and fight the fan.  Cooler heads prevailed, thankfully, and a few moments later the fight was back underway … and by this I mean the one with Laporte.  Singh, clearly ahead on the judges scorecards, seemed to now have no desire to fight and found himself immediately taken down and submitted via Americana.   Later, Singh seemed to be in good spirits and commented that he “just didn’t want to get hurt”.  Very odd indeed.  Laporte, battered and bloody, earned a submission victory in the second round.
 Blake Lirette came into the EFC ring with a reputation as a lethal striker and World Kickboxing Champion.  His opponent Jerry Elliot, made no attempt to conceal the fact that he would quickly go for the takedown.  Oddly, Lirette’s first jab of the fight found its way into the eye of Elliot, who took a five minute break to recover before deciding he was unable to continue.  Much to the disappointment of the crowd, this fight was declared a no contest. 

Morganti Jiu Jitsu fighter Cesar Narita made short work of Sean Fewer from Maple Ridge, taking down the much taller fighter with an unconventional throw before mounting him and applying an armbar at only 43 seconds into the first round. 

Chris Ade KO’d Leonard Carter in just eleven seconds with a crushing right hand that landed squarely on the jaw of the fighter from Seattle. 

Garret Davis and Myles Merola put on the show of the night with a back-and-forth battle where the tables turned more than a furniture factory in an earthquake.  Davis seemed to be the larger, more amp’ed up fighter while Merola, the smaller fighter, looked to pick his moments to light up the face of the Vancouver fighter.  The first round was very close, with both fighters taking turns knocking each other around the ring.  The second round ended with Davis pulling what looked to be a very tight guillotine on Merola.  In the third round, Davis was able to take Merola down and control him on the mat.  Merola managed to escape and land some damage, but it was too little too late in the judges’ scorecards; and Davis was awarded the decision.

In the semi-final fight, Blake Frederickson from Revolution Fight Team walked away with the Elite Fighting Lightweight belt, after submitting “Furious” George Kassimatis by armbar in the first round.  Kassimatis seemed to be the aggressor early on, and managed to put Frederickson on his back.  From here “Furious” George began raining down shots.  Frederickson kept his composure though, and locked out an arm in the first round.

Last-minute replacement Victor “The Matrix” Valimaki took over for hand-injury-victim Marvin Eastman and stepped into the EFC ring to face Vernon “Tiger” White.  From the opening bell, Valimaki was clearly having a good time and seemed to smile throughout the rough striking exchanges.  Midway through the opening round, “Tiger” White sustained a poke in the eye and fell to the ground.   After the required rest-break, White seemed frustrated and overwhelmed by the strength of Valimaki, who repeatedly took down the Lions’ Den fighter and scored hard and often for the rest of the match.   White landed a hard shot to the head of “The Matrix” in the second round, but was unable to capitalize; and seemed oddly relaxed while Valimaki mounted him and pounded away.  At one point, Valimaki secured the rear-body grip on White and “The Tiger” dropped into a turtle position; where he remained for a curiously ill-advised amount of time while the larger Edmontonian dropped bombs upon him.  After three rounds of clinching, takedowns and destruction, “The Matrix” was awarded the unanimous decision. 

Fourteen fights and five-and-a-half hours later, EFC 2 “Ultimate Decision” came to a close.   For more info about this and other Elite Fight Championship events, visit www.elitefights.tv