Houston’s Arena Theater hosted No Limit Fighting: Redemption, Saturday night. The event, though small in card-size and venue, featured big-name guest appearances by Yves Edwards, a resident of nearby The Woodlands, TX and Sam Hogar, who runs Militich Fighting System in Houston. Both guests are UFC veterans. The show also featured two title matches and a Houston vs. Houston co-main event. Redemption was the perfect name for this card, too, as it turned out.
Without question, the fight nearly everyone came to see was the Heavyweight title fight between reigning champion Richard Blake and another UFC familiar, Edwin “Bam Bam†Dewees from Arizona. Dewees made a name for himself when he impressed on Spike’s The Ultimate Fighter as he covered a profusely bleeding forehead with one hand while still dismantling his opponent with strikes to take away a win before falling to Patrick Cote in a later bout. Coming off a four-loss streak, Dewees was certainly looking for some redemption. He found it.
The first round opened with Dewees softening the champ with a hailstorm of kicks before getting the takedown. Blake reversed but was unable to shake Dewees off his arm, despite standing and slamming the babyfaced Dewees several times. The Lion’s Den AZ fighter rolled over, tightening the armbar, gaining Blake’s tap and his belt just 1:27 into the round.
Dewees stated he knew he would win but “that fight went about 40 seconds longer than I had planned.â€Â
In the co-main event, Houstonians Josh “The Assassin†Lee and Alex “The Superman†Cisne faced off in what was no doubt one of the most exciting matches of the evening. Both welterweights came out swinging with all they had but it was Cisne who got the first takedown. The Superman set up for a triangle choke a la Demian Maia vs. Ed Herman then transitioned to an armbar. Lee escaped the two efforts but could not return to his feet before Cisne sunk a kimura for the tap 2:34 into the first.
The middleweight title was also on the line Saturday night. After being repeatedly warned for groin strikes, defending champion Marcus Gaines lost his belt in the third round by disqualification to Cedric Marks. The fight was finally stopped after Gaines connected so hard with Marks’ atheletic cup it was audible to fight announcer Shannon Ritch and members of the press and Athletic Commission. Marks writhed in pain as he was informed by Ritch the fight had been stopped and he had won.
The crowd boo’d the win as Cedric Marks was awarded his belt. The new champion made it clear he was not happy with that kind of win and would welcome a rematch.
Houston’s Jose Santibanez defeated Lion’s Den fighter Joe Vigil by TKO but the Den returned with a win as Jeff Newbrough took a TKO victory over Joe Crawford. And, Eric Jacob redeemed his own loss from his last fight when he won by TKO due to strikes over C.J. Albrecht.
