Las Vegas was about to embark on something special on this special November night. Shooto would have a sanctioned show for the first time in Las Vegas. Two female competitors were supposed to make history in being the first two females to ever fight a sanctioned MMA fight in Las Vegas. Promoter Barry Meyer with Tuff-N-Uff promotions wanted to pay tribute to the evolution of the sport of MMA on it’s 10th year anniversary in the states. He would later face some obstacles just as the sport did since it’s beginning. Two of the top main fights he had promoted he had to cancel from the card. Marvin Eastman’s match was cancelled because the fighter he was supposed to face failed his medical examination. The match I was really intrigued to watch but was cancelled was Erica Montoya vs. Jaime Lyn. The story was Jaime Lyn fell off the escalator in the back and doctors would not allow her to fight later on.

The show was held in the Orleans Casino Mardi Gras Ballroom in Las Vegas. The show was being filmed for J-Sky Sports in Tokyo, Japan. On hand to witness the fights was Floyd Mayweather Jr., Marco Ruas, Pedro Rizzo, John Lewis, Caesar Gracie, "Crazy" Bob Cook, Chris Brennan, Marvin Eastman, Romie Aram, and Dana White.

The first bout of the night was a kickboxing match between two tough females Brenda Lopez and Rachel Duangsima. The fight lacked any action, as both competitors wanted to win badly. The two exchanged back-and-forth during the whole match. All three rounds the girls got some nice shots on each other to the crowds delight. It made it tough on the judges as they scored the fight in favor of Lopez in a split decision.

Las Vegas local Albert Torres vs. Eric Osario would be the second bout of the night in a kickboxing match. Torres controlled the fight by clinching up with Osario and throwing knees to the body of Osario throughout the whole match. Clearly Torres was the stronger of the two fighters. The two exchanged some nice combinations at times, but Torres would clinch and knee Osario against the ropes at anytime he felt uncomfortable. Torres won via unanimous decision over Osario winning all five rounds of the fight.

The third fight of the night saw another Las Vegas local Rick Davis achieve victory over Nick Ertl in a back-and-forth battle. Davis is also a fulltime third grade teacher in Las Vegas. The beginning of the first round Davis looked like he was in control of the fight until later in the round Ertl caught him with a punch. Nick Ertl trying to finish the round strong took down Davis late in the first round. Second round we clearly could see Ertl had no business trying to exchange strikes with Rick Davis as he had no offense and kept dropping his hands as well. Davis would later make Ertl pay for not keeping his hands up and knocked him out with a spinning back fist. The devastating knockout got the crowd going wild and left a nice shiner on Ertl’s right eye.

Aaron Riley’s fight seemed to last as long as his entrance music did. The song was "Like Mike" which Riley only can be compared to his last season with the Wizards or his illustrious minor league baseball career (Okay, I was pushing it with the minor league baseball reference). Riley is a tough kid with big potential and he was very disappointed with his loss to Sam Morgan. The fight started off with both fighters standing and feeling each other out. Morgan scored a nice takedown and Riley would soon return the favor. Riley was looking good on the ground passing Sam’s guard to side control. From side control he would try to get knee-on-belly arm bar which Morgan escaped from. Morgan would eventually get Riley to tap out by arm bar from the guard in 2: 41of the first round. Sam Morgan then showed a lot of class and gave a lot of respect to Aaron Riley in his post-fight interview.

In what had to be the upset of the night mixed martial arts veteran Shonie Carter lost to American Kickboxing Academy fighter Jon Fitch. As the fighters were being announced Carter pointed toward President of the UFC Dana White who was sitting in the front row. Carter feels he has been overlooked by the bigger promotions. This was the worst night for him to prove Dana wrong because how he was schooled by up-and-coming fighter Jon Fitch. At the start of the fight Fitch showed his strong wrestling background. He went for takedown after takedown until he got Carter down to the ground. Carter would later scramble out of the bottom. At the closing seconds of round one Fitch tried to perform a back suplex on Shonie for a strong finish to the round. Fitch went after Shonie with a takedown at the very start of round two and tried to control Carter on the mat. He later would eventually get Shonie’s back with his hooks in and get full mount while he drops down shots on a now bloody Shonie. The round ended with both on their feet striking and a desperate attempt for Shonie to land his trademark spinning backfist that nearly missed. As the third round began Shonie tried his best to survive the final round. Fitch feeling the fight was in the bag took Carter down again to control him until the end of regulation. Suddenly Carter tapped to end the fight in the third round. He would later roll over and throw up in the middle of the ring. Jon Fitch beat Shonie Carter with a great display of his wrestling skills.

This was Javier Vasquez’ first fight back since he tore his ACL in his knee fighting Alberto Crane at the King Of The Cage. His first fight back and he showed he still deserves a chance to fight in the bigger shows. He came to Las Vegas facing a tough opponent by the name of Rob Emerson who trains out of Marco Ruas gym. Emerson in the first round showed he was going to be a tough fight for Vasquez as he showed he had a great sprawl for all of Javier’s takedown attempts and showed some good stand up skills. The first round was Emerson’s best round. The second round we saw Vasquez going for the takedowns again while Emerson would try to fight him off by sprawling. Vasquez scored a nice takedown as he lifted Emerson off his feet and took him down hard. Vasquez was becoming much more aggressive as the fight went on. The third and final round Vasquez looked more confident in this round because he was out striking a timid Emerson. He was standing with Emerson and would take him down with ease now. He passed Emerson’s guard when he took the fight to the ground and worked for a submission. He would lose the mount when he was tossed off going for a sloppy and wild arm bar attempt. Javier Vasquez won the fight via split decision over Rob Emerson. It is time for Javier Vasquez to get a UFC shot and stir up the 155lbs division. -MMARR-

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