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Last Friday, the Pierre-Charbonneau Center was home of TKO 22 in the beautiful city of Montreal. Once again, TKO proved why they are the number one promotion in Canada, handing out a very professional show, with a great level of talent Eight fights was a bit short, but it didn't finish too soon and the intermissions weren't too long. Hats off to Stéphane Patry! Here is my recap of the fights.
Last Friday, the Pierre-Charbonneau Center was home of TKO 22 in the beautiful city of Montreal. Once again, TKO proved why they are the number one promotion in Canada, handing out a very professional show, with a great level of talent Eight fights was a bit short, but it didn’t finish too soon and the intermissions weren’t too long. Hats off to Stéphane Patry! Here is my recap of the fights. Martin Désilets (2-0) TKO Round 1 (2:30) Lance Evans (1-2) (Heavyweights)
Pumped up, Désilets ran into Evans, who calmly tried to get his game going, with some clinchwork. After a few random dirty boxing exchanges, Désilets went for a body kick that hurt Evans and then on it was all Désilets. He chased Evans down, tagging him repeatedly with punches while Evans was trying to answer back. Désilets ended up knocking Evans out cold with a hook that made the big man crash unto the canvas, halfway in the first round. Dave Parizeau (2-1-1) TKO Round 1 (0:29) Mike Turner (1-1) (Featherweights)
This was a total blowout. Using his superior reach, Parizeau went ballistic from the start, using knees and punches. Turner rapidly fell due to a thunderous body kick and the referee quickly decided to end the fight, while Parizeau was in position to inflict some more damage to a downed Turner. It was a very impressive performance from the young Team Legion fighter. Samuel Guillet (3-1) UD 3 (29-28X2) (30-27) Tyler Jackson (2-2) (Lightweight)
Strangely paced, but interesting this fight picked up in the first round when Guillet, after a long confrontation in the clinch, finally got Jackson on his back and quickly made his way into sidemount and full mount. Jackson made his way out, than back to his feet, but Guillet had scored more points with his ground work and his crisp boxing, so he got away with the first round. Guillet started the second round with a lightning fast double leg takedown that tumbled Jackson down to the mat. This round was all about Guillet working on his ground and pound, hitting Jackson a lot from the guard, but never getting any devastating shots in. Both guys tried to trade submissions, a guillotine from Jackson and a triangle for Guillet, but nothing got through before the bell rang to end the second round. In the final stanza, Guillet got some shots in with his boxing, wobbling Jackson into the ropes. He chased down Jackson and tried to finish the job with the big punch for most of the round, but it wasn’t there, so he shot again for the takedown, as Jackson was achieving good body work with his fists. The round ended as Guillet was pounding away from the half-guard. Great win for Guillet against a very strong opponent who lost but seems to have all the tools to be a dominant MMA fighter. Chris Horodecki (1-0) TKO Round 2 (2:52) Stéphane Laliberté (6-6)
I was intrigued to see how the eighteen year old wonder from the Tompkins camp would fare in his debut against a rugged veteran like Team Legion fighter Stéphane Laliberté. Who isn’t the best fighter in the world, but always comes to fight. Horodecki quickly showed he has a plethora of talents by peppering Laliberté’s legs with leg kicks , then taking him down with the double underhooks. It almost turned sour for the young man as Laliberté, renowned for his physical power was able to reverse Horodecki for his back and take a tight guillotine, but the newest member of Team Tompkins in TKO showed great patience while jerking out of the submission. As the fight got back up, Horodecki ended the round in impressive fashion with a spinning back kick and another takedown, seconds before the bell was rang. Horodecki picked up things where he left off in the first round, showing crisp Muay Thai combos, tagging Laliberté with punches and kicks repeatedly. Caught in the middle of the fury, Laliberté tried a wild spinning back kick that had Horodecki smiling and Laliberté’s cornerman yelling “DON’T DO THINGS LIKE THAT!” The incredible Tompkins cardio had the better of opposition again as Horodecki finished the job on an exhausted Laliberté with a high kick that sent him down tapping. Horodecki was very impressive for an eighteen years old fighter and while he is not yet on the level of the Hominicks and Stout in Muay Thai, showed a more complete game that might get him very far in MMA. Thierry Quenneville (8-3) TKO Round 1 (2:46) Max Marin (5-6)
Big step up in competition for the game Thierry Quenneville, after a crushing victory over the unexperienced James Haourt, Saturday he faced Max Marin, who is well renowned in Western Canada, and owns a victory over highly touted Ryan Diaz. In Quenneville’s other higher profile matches he had lost to the same Ryan Diaz and to the heavier Blake Frederickson, so it was make or break for him and he didn’t let his fans down. Quite honestly he looked stronger and badder than ever as he energetically took down a very aggressive Marin, cutting short the exchanges. Quenneville resisted a triangle choke attempt from the crafty Marin, slamming him down to the canvas and as Marin got back up, Quenneville started to place his punches, shots that seemed to disturb Marin’s game. As the fight got back down, Quenneville smacked Marin with four consecutive unanswered punches that stopped the fight. I know there is a controversy about that ending and that not everyone claims it was legit, but I had the best view possible for that fight and couldn’t argue referee Philippe Chartier’s job for once. Even if Marin didn’t agree to the stoppage, I sincerely think if the fight would’ve continue, it would’ve been dangerous for him. It was a dominating performance for Quenneville who left the shadows behind and entered the TKO featherweights title picture. Marvin Eastman (10-5) Submission Round 2 (2:55) (Side Choke) Yan Pellerin (8-8)
I recognize it I was wrong to predict Pellerin as the winner of the fight. Who I thought was a glory of the past revealed himself as still in the game. Eastman showed what international level is all about. After defending Pellerin’s shoots brilliantly, he slammed the local pride down himself. No real offense was mounted in the first round if not for a spinning back kick in Eastman’s groin that caused a long pause in the fight and a flurry from the American that touched hard, but too late, as the bell rung. This last flurry though, gave him the first round. As the second stanza kicked in, Eastman tagged Pellerin with a right hand that shook him big time and sent him down to his guard. From there, an agile Eastman went to half guard and from there locked the side choke without even passing into side mount. A true exhibition of power and agility by the “Beastman” and he hinted in he might be back to fight another local fighter, Patrick Côté. Mark Hominick (8-4) TKO Round 3 (4:25) Ryan Diaz (10-9)
What happened in this fight is easily summable. As we all thought, Diaz started to trade with the dangerous Team Tompkins member on the feet in a five round fight, the first in TKO history. The first round went well for him as he kicked Hominick repeatedly to the body and to the legs, looking to stop this perpetual movement machine that Hominick is. Then, the legendary Tompkins cardio kicked in and as Diaz’s energy level was falling down, Hominick was staying the same with relentless body attacks that sucked the cardio out of Diaz.
The second round was more of the same as Hominick started to mix body punches with head punches that made Diaz bleed from the lip. As the fight went on, Hominick was more and more dominant and Diaz was shortly out of answers for the fast hands of the fighter from London, Ontario. The referee Yves Lavigne, stopped this onslaught at the end of the third round, crowning Hominick the TKO world championship. Very dominating performance from Hominick, who can stop him? Steve Vigneault (11-4) TKO Round 2 (0:30) Jason St-Louis (9-5)
The Lionheart was back in action after two years out of the ring and some painful memories of his past losses. Good sign, it didn’t go badly right away for him like in his prior defeats and he had time to set a foot in the fight. Basically, Vigneault pressed the action for most of the first round showing his usual good boxing and some surprisingly good clinch. He got double underhooks on St-Louis, neutralizing any offense from the fighter from Ontario, except maybe a takedown, seconds away from the end of the round. The second round saw Vigneault press the action a lot more with his jab. As soon as St-Louis caught him with a good hook, Vigneault countered with a thunderous right hand that sent St-Louis to la-la land in a great comeback from the crowd favorite!
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