Krazy Kage Kombat Kindles Kiva

Report and photos by Chris Cozzone

A krazy horse with a mouthful of gold that does a backward flip into the cage from the top of the fence.

The return of Elvis Presley, or was that really just ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ champ Diego Sanchez sporting a new look?

And a jailbird who flew took a circuitous route from his jail cage to the fight cage, disappearing, then reappearing to take on the “Dream Snatcher.”

You never know what you’re going to see—or not see, as in the case of the flyweight KOTC title fight between Albuquerque’s Ed Thomaselli and Rich McCorkal that was scratched last minute.

But, last night at the Kiva Auditorium in Albuquerque, a half-capacity crowd turned up to see 16 bouts—seven pro, nine amateur—at the latest installment of King of the Cage.

Expect the unexpected.

Such was the case of Albuquerque headliner Rob Smith when a right hand out of nowhere chopped, dropped and stopped him just moments after the first round bell.

Despite fighting 20 pounds over his norm to fight at 195, Miguel Gutierrez (6-2-1) of El Paso’s Club Bushido had been warning everyone that he was here to upset.

He wasn’t joking—Smith never knew what hit him.

A big right hand right out the starting blocks sent Smith plummeting to the canvas with Gutierrez in hot pursuit, finishing the job with a furious combination on a defenseless Smith before the referee’s rescue at just eight seconds into the First.

With his nose gushing blood, a bewildered Smith was tended to for several minutes, and helped out of the cage while Gutierrez pumped his fists overhead.

Horse meat

Preceding the night’s biggest upset, Charles “Krazy Horse” Bennett (11-7-1) astounded the crowd, and his opponent, Theo McDonald (1-5), with his bedlam behavior before grounding and pounding McDonald into horsemeat.

With the opening bell, Krazy Horse clambered up the cage, then dropped down like a demon on a mystified McDonald, pursuing him around the cage with his right hand cocked and waiting. Before he could land a felling blow, Krazy Horse switched tactics, picking McDonald up and hurling him to the matt with a spine-crunching collision. Rather than take advantage on the ground, Krazy Horse stood back up and waited. After McDonald got on his feet, Krazy Horse went back to his right hand before taking him down yet again. There, on the mat, he overpowered McDonald with the ground-and-pound before the ref stopped the slaughter at 4:40.

Once again, Krazy Horse clambered up the cage, then did a mind-blowing backward flip into the center of the cage, where he landed hard, then popped up, with a krunked-out mouth of gold teeth.

Villasenor thumps Gonzales in mismatch tuner

The first main event of the night featured KOTC Middleweight champ Joey “the Dream Snatcher” Villasenor (17-3) who entered the auditorium thinking his fight with Socorro’s Michael “Thumper” Gonzalez (1-2) had been nixed.

Gonzalez, who’d been released from jail the morning of the weigh-in, had showed up only to disappear there, then, again, reappear, shortly before the show began. The fight was hastily put back together.

Gonzalez was in way over his head.

Villasenor opened up with a spinning back kick that floored Gonzalez. In less than a minute, while Gonzalez held on to Villasenor like a drowning man to a buoy, the champ had clamped a choke hold that had ‘Thumper’ thumping the canvas at 1:05.

Villasenor is UK-bound next week where he headlines another KOTC card.

Jackson-Persey a no-contest

In another main event, this one at superheavy, long-and-tall Maurice Jackson and short-and-fat Tim Persey fought for little over a round before the bout was ruled a no-contest after Persey was on the receiving end of an unintentional kick to the throat.

Round One was spent standing up, with Jackson leveling kicks at Persey, who sought to fight his way inside. Persey was staggered coming in with a big right hand but he closed the distance and slammed Jackson into the fence, rattling the entire cage and the cheap utility lights hoisted on opposite ends. Jackson and Persey spent the remainder of the first round snoozing on the canvas.

In the opening moments of the 2nd, a kick to Persey’s throat had him on the canvas, struggling to breathe. He was attended to by lightning-fast paramedics and soon recovered.

Feature fights

In the opening pro bout, females Victoria Remington and Camille Minitrez went at it. Minitrez, though, was no match for Remington, who worked her way into a rear naked choke hold win at :57.

In the second match, Germany’s Mario Stapel (10-6) defused Shannon “the Cannon” Ritch (32-48), winning by armbar at 4:43 of the first round.

Stapel took Ritch down early, for a bit of ground-and-pound, but Ritch retaliated with punches as Stapel sought an armbar. To free himself, Ritch stood up and slammed Stapel to the canvas; when that didn’t work, several punches to Stapel’s face broke the hold. Ritch took control, slamming several punches and dropping elbows into Stapel’s face. It looked like closing curtains for the German before he slipped into another armbar—this time it held and he was declared winner.

In the final feature fight, Jared Rollins (2-1) used his right hand to TKO Steve Lapoint.

For the first minute, good striking action from both opponents thrilled the crowd—but Rollins proved the bigger and stronger fighter, dropping Lapoint to the mat where he hammered into submission when the ref stopped the bout at 2:34.

Amateur undercard bouts

On the all-amateur undercard portion of KOTC:

Johnny Velasquez of Albuquerque won by TKO after giving James Means a mean pounding at 1:34.

California’s John Browkosky had Michael “the Bull” Harris quitting by armbar halfway through the round.

Gabino Morantes took down, then hammered the hell out of Thomas Padilla from Socorro, winning by TKO at 1:27.

Frank Kirmse won by rear naked chokee hold at 2:57 over Jeremiah Purpero.

Socorro’s Richard Montano decisioned Wade Stringer of Albuquerque after two rounds of grappling.

Alamogordo’s Josh Kerlin had Albuquerque’s Adam Foulton tapping out at 4:00 after getting winded.

Lucas Taber of California won by rear naked choke hold in the first round over Rocky Ramirez.

Kyle York had an easy time with Socorro debuter Leroy Montoya, pounding him into a tapout at :57.

Germany’s Daniel Weichel put the guillotine hold on Mike Lucero at 3:40.

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NOTE: Sorry for the photos. The cage was lit for a candlelight dinner and most photos taken had the fighters looking like blurry shapes in a sandstorm.