February 19, 2011 – The Austin, TX area was abuzz last night as Strikeforce: Challengers 14 went down at the Cedar Park Center about twenty minutes away from the Texas capital.
Highlighted by spectacular finishes in four matches involving in-state talent, the event proved to be an exciting one for the live crowd in attendance and Showtime television viewers alike.
As far as performances go for our home state fighters, it was a mixed bag with two scoring big with spectacular submission victories. The other three fought their hearts out but were unable to secure the victory this time around. Win or lose, all five fought admirably and added the meat of the value to this event.
Let’s go through their performances along with the rest of the card.
In the quickest and most decisive submission victory of the night, Brasilia native and Saul Soliz protégé Carlo Prater was able to dispatch opponent Bryan Travers within the first forty-five seconds of the fight. “Neo” was able to capitalize on the first opening his opponent presented, scoring a beautiful trip takedown to set up the anaconda choke immediately. Walking the submission around and eventually finishing the fight from the top position, this win puts Prater back on the back as a force to be reckoned with as he now improves to an overall record of 26-10-1.
Equally impressive in victory, Austin resident and Phil Cardella-trained BJJ brown belt Ryan Larson made a spectacular splash in his Strikeforce debut, upending the highly favored Erik Apple. Scoring first, Larson hit a clean double-leg takedown in the first to begin his control of the action. He did much of the same in controlling the grappling action in the second round. From there he was able to set up a beautiful triangle/armbar submission from the back to finish the fight with less than two minutes to go in the second round.
Fighting admirably on the card for Texas but not coming out for the victory, three other fighters represented the state in the Strikeforce cage. In the first bout of the evening, Nick Gonzalez fell as David “Tarzan” Douglas wasting no time in coming after the Rudy Vasquez student, tagging him with a left that dropped “The Ghost” prior to taking his back and hitting the choke for the victory.
Also in action as Lee Higgins of Urban Jungle who fought against the one they call “Natural Light” in Ryan Couture. Higgins fought admirably as the two traded jabs for a large portion of the bout in between grappling exchanges that saw Higgins defend well against a multitude of submission attempts. Couture was finally able to finalize his will in the third as he dropped Higgins with a beautiful right hook out the clinch before securing the back triangle en route to the RNC victory. It was sad to see Higgins lose as he fought admirably in defeat. I’ve consumed many Natural Lights near the Austin area in my day so I guess this victory will just have to be one more.
Finally in the first fight of the night on the undercard, a pair of Austin area unbeatens did battle as Dennis Dombrow of Vandry BJJ and Leander, TX native Drew Pendleton did battle. It ended up being Drew’s night as he was able to score a beautiful guillotine choke off a takedown attempt to force the tap in the second round.
To cap of the action, Pat Healy scored a unanimous decision victory over Lyle Beerholm in the main event of the evening. “Bam Bam” proved too much for “Fancy Pants” as he was seemingly able to get the better of the grappling exchanges that defined the fight on the way to the close decision. Also winning on the undercard was Aaron Lan Franco, who scored a TKO victory over Thomas Diagne in the first round.
Author Note: We at TXMMA.com pulled double-duty in state events last evening as Paul Erickson was ringside taking photos at this Austin Strikeforce Challengers event while I was at the Legacy Amateur Series in Houston. Stay tuned on the site for more from this event in the form of his always-impressive photography work.