After previewing the Battlezone 4 event last week, Fergus Ryan gives us the low-down on what happened on fight night.
By Fergus Ryan
Senkai Promotions held its fourth instalment of Battlezone last Saturday night (12th November) in the Regency Hotel in Dublin. The event was a sell-out with the 800 fans in attendance treated to some top class MMA fights. The ‘Night of Champions’ saw the light-heavyweight, welterweight and featherweight straps up for grabs and, incredibly, all 3 titles changed hands.
The first title fight was a classic ‘new school v old school’ mixed with a touch of ‘grappler v striker’ as well. Conor Dillon walked to the ring with the title on his shoulder and a head full of confidence. A notoriously physical trainer, Dillon had adopted some gymnastic training techniques to add more explosive power to his takedown attempts. Paul Cowzer, a decorated amateur boxer, was looking to gain some revenge for Rush Fight Academy after Dillion beat Gary Morris to take the title at Battlezone 3. Cowzer seemed to have Dillon’s number as he was able to stay out of range, stuff his takedown attempts and counter punch with both accuracy and regularity. An extremely close fight, Cowzer managed to shave it on the judges scorecard.
Next up was the light-heavyweight title tilt between Rimas Pukas of Lucan MMA and Karl Moore from the Fight Academy of Ireland. In keeping with most fights of the evening, Moore only needed one round to take the title. A heavy punching southpaw who had spent time in the heavyweight division, Moore looked both comfortable and competent when the fight hit the mat. Using an active guard he was able to latch on a fight-finishing triangle choke.
In the main event John Redmond looked to avenge a previous loss to John Michael Shiel and stop a 3 fight skid that started with the aforementioned loss. In stark contrast Shiel was undefeated in 5 before taking on the Rush Fight Academy’s man. The fight only lasted a round but was packed with action. Both were happy to throw bombs, which unfortunately didn’t turn out too well for Redmond. Shiel dropped his foe and followed up quickly with some ground ’n’ pound to take another middleweight belt back to SBG.
Results
Welterweight Title:- John Michael Shiels (SBG) defeated John Redmond (Rush Fight Academy) via TKO Round 1
Light Heavyweight Title:- Karl Moore (FAI) defeated Rimas Pukas (Lucan MMA) via Submission (Triangle) – Round 1
Featherweight Title:- Paul Cowzer (Rush Fight Academy) defeated Conor Dillon (Brazilian Top Team/No Fear MMA) via Decision
Sean Crowe (FAI) defeated Konrad Iwanowski (Team Ryano) via Decision
Ryan Curtis (Primal) defeated Fabio Vitti (Lucan MMA) via Submission (Rear Naked Choke) Round 1
Graham Mc Cormack (The Boxing Clinic) defeated Niall Molloy (Team Ryano) via TKO Round 1
Rob Wynne (Primal) defeated I-B-Sani (Lucan MMA) via Submission (Triangle) Round 1
Kevin Doyle (Coolmine BJJ) defeated Aaron Skelly (Rush Fight Academy) viaTKO Round 1
Shane Lanigan (Tuatha de Danann) defeated Karl Kavanagh (Team Ryano) via TKO – Round 2
Robbie Byrne (Team Ryano) defeated Aidan Devlin (FAI) via Submission (Guillotine) – Round 1
Blaine O’Driscoll (Lucan MMA) defeated Stephen Rogers (Xtreme MMA) via TKO Round 1
Battlezone 4 will be screened on Setanta Ireland in the coming weeks.
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