The second of my British MMA double bill sees us going back to Wembley Arena in London this past Saturday as Murilo “Ninja” Rua challenged Tom “Kong” Watson for the Middleweight title at BAMMA 6, shown live on Syfy here in Britain.
The broadcast began with action from the middleweight division as Matt Ewin faced Ivan Salaverry.
Salaverry took this fight at two week’s notice after a three year absence from the fight game, and he certainly looked like a man who’d been out of it for a few years.
Ewin, one year old than Salaverry at 41, looked in great form as he stalked his man around the cage, connecting with a series of crisp blows.
Ewin fought the perfect fight, taking his time as Salaverry looked to get rid of the rust.
The only real ground action came in the third when Ewin took the take down. They didn’t stay there for long though, and although Salaverry upped his game a little towards the end of the fight it wasn’t enough as all three judges scored in favour of Ewin.
The middleweight action continued as John Phillips took on Frank Trigg.
Trigg was looking to make a big statement after being cut by the UFC last year, and make that statement he did, scoring with the early take down and going for the ground and pound immediately.
It was a brutal performance from Trigg as he quickly opened up three deep cuts on Phillips’ head. The red stuff was soon flowing into Phillips’ eyes, so the referee stepped in, checked with the doctor, and called the fight off, giving Trigg the TKO win.
The main event saw Murilo Rua challenging Tom Watson for the Middleweight title.
This proved to be a tremendous fight. As soon as the action began Watson went to work, rolling off a series of combinations and devastating kicks to Rua’s lead leg.
It was brutal watching Kong going to work like this. Rua scored with only one take down but didn’t have much time to go to work.
The end came in the third round. Rua’s left knee and face were swelling up badly, and as a flurry sent Rua crashing to the mat his corner threw in the towel as the referee stopped the fight, both coming to the same conclusion at the same time, giving Watson the tremendous TKO win.
Filler material rounded out the show as Che Mills faced Marcio Cesar in the welterweight division.
This one featured some nice grappling from both men, first from Mills and then from Cesar.
The Brazilian looked the stronger when on the ground, but when Mills re-established control a sustained period of ground and pound saw the referee stepping in to give Mills the TKO win.
In conclusion - another strong and very enjoyable show from the BAMMA crew here, with four very good fights show, topped off nicely by the excellent main event.
Tom Watson’s demolition job was certainly the highlight of the night and must certainly put the Kong man up with the likes of Michael Bisping and Dan Hardy as Britain’s top MMA fighters.
So in all BAMMA 6 gets the big thumbs up from me.
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