Monday 24 May 2010

BAMMA 3 on Bravo - TV Review

It was meant to be the biggest fight in British MA history, but the darling of the tabloid press, Alex Reid, got himself injured. But thankfully a new opponent for Tom “Kong” Watson was found in the form of Matt Horwich for BAMMA 3, shown on Bravo this past weekend here in Britain, with Christian O’Connell, Malcolm Martin and Pierre Guillet handing commentary duties.


The show began with welterweight action as Zach Light faced War Machine. I’m assuming that this is just a nickname, unless he’s changed his name legally. Anyway, the Machine certainly lived up to his name here. Light got the only take down of the fight, but the Machine quickly reversed, took Light’s back, and synched in a rear naked choke, which Light soon passed out to, with all of this taking just seventy seconds. Some great action to start the show with.

After highlights of some of the earlier fights it was on to the Lightweight title fight as Rob Sinclair took on Daniel Weichel. Scheduled for five rounds, this one didn’t make it past the first. Sinclair showed some good defensive work when Weichel tried to take him down, and when the fight did go to the ground Sinclair’s good work continued, and it wasn’t long before his ground and pound was too much for the German to handle, with the referee calling a halt to proceedings, giving Sinclair the impressive title retaining TKO win.

More highlights from earlier fights followed, before we moved on to the main event, with Matt Horwich challenging Tom Watson for the Middleweight title. This was the first fight I’ve seen from a British promotion that went five rounds, and it proved to be a very interesting battle, although early on it looked like it wasn’t going to get past the first round. When the fight went to the ground Horwich took Watson’s back and synched in a rear naked choke. Horwich had the hold in for what seemed like an eternity, but Watson didn’t give up, eventually escaping. From there the action progressed nicely into a back and forth affair in which both men had their moments, with the fifth round ending with Watson going for the ground and pound. So with the fight going the distance the judges were called upon to render a decision, with everyone scoring in favour of Watson, ending what was a very good fight.

In conclusion - as Pierre Guillet said on commentary, BAMMA delivered another good show. The past paced action of the two undercard fights made for great viewing, and the Watson/Horwich fight certainly delivered.

However, although I enjoyed the show, I was disappointed that only three fights were shown in full. Maybe next time BAMMA can give us less chat and a little more action.

And maybe next time Alex Reid will train properly, instead of injuring himself on another reality show.

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