Senkai Promotions made a serious jump in standard with their second show on Saturday 5 March at the D4 Hotel. Here’s how it went down.
By Fergus Ryan
Battlezone 2 was bigger and better in every sense following the promotion’s successful debut in November last year. The new Battlezone format included filming the weigh-ins which was posted on a number of websites shortly after.
The improved quality of the event’s production was probably best highlighted by the fighter entrance area; complete with large screen displaying the combatant’s stats. The fighters dwelled momentarily on a raised stage, allowing an energy to build in the crowd, before commencing the walk to the cage.
Similar to Battlezone 1, the junior bouts set a pretty high bar for the amateur and professional fighters to hurdle. Sean Paul Power put on a repeat performance walking through some heavy shoots to ultimately finish Colm Lough in a mounted triangle in a carbon copy of his Ballezone 1 victory.
If you like watching fighters standing around in their jocks, you’ll love the Battlezone weigh-in:
In the title fights, Ryan Kelly (PCCB) defeated Henry Fadipe (Lucan MMA) by TKO (Elbows) in the first to take the middleweight belt while Rimantas Pukas took the heavyweight strap home to Lucan MMA by defeating Abou Sow of France.
Opinion was divided on who took fight of the night honours but the most commonly mentioned fights seemed to be Konrad Iwanowski’s (Team Ryano) stoppage of James Kirwan and Paul Redmond (Team Ryano) and Artem Lobovs’ (SBG) three-round war.
- Robert Morrison (Antrim MMA) defeated Graham Dinh (Team Ryano) Submission (Kimura) Round 2
- Sean Paul Powers (Team Ryano) defeated Colm Lough (Antrim MMA) Submission (Triangle Choke) Round 2
- Adam Caffrey (Rush Fight Academy) defeated Axel Ricthor (Strabane Fight Team) Decision (Split) Round 3
- Mark Walker (Antrim MMA) defeated Hughie O’Rourke (Team Ryano) Submission (Armbar) Round 1
- Anthony Carrick (Lucan MMA) defeated John Halligan (Extreme MMA) Decision (Split) Round 3
- Ian Molphy Rush (Fight Academy) defeated Carl O’Rourke (Legends MMA) TKO (Punches) Round 3
- Anesh Bugwandeen (Informed Performance) defeated Casey Walsh (Team Ryano) Decision (Split) Round 3
- Sean Ryan (Combat Fitness Centre) defeated Andrius Sokolouskis (Extreme MMA) Unanimous Decision
- Luke O’Neill (Antrim MMA) defeated Peter Doyle (Team Ryano) Submission (Guillotine Choke) Round 2
- Konrad Iwanowski (Team Ryano) defeated James Kirwan TKO (Punches) Round 2
- Stephen King (SBG) defeated Alan Byrne (Extreme MMA) DQ (Illegal Knee to Head) Round 3
- Grant Carroll (Informed Performance) defeated Barry McGuigan (Antrim MMA) Unanimous Decision
- Paul Redmond (Team Ryano) defeated Artem Lobov (SBG) Unanimous Decision
- Ryan Kelly (PCCB) defeated Henry Fadipe (Lucan MMA) TKO (Elbows) Round 1
- Rimantas Pukas (Lucan MMA) defeated Abou Sow (France) Submission (Rear-Naked Choke) Round 2
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