HOUSTON, TX, March 26, 2012 – So I hear it was another adventurous this weekend for both the Texas and the national MMA Scene. This writer was off doing something entirely different than watching fights for a change, instead opting to spend the weekend in sunny Austin with my beautiful wife but everybody can relax now, I’m back and actually writing in first-person for a change to share my opinions on all the action that went down this past weekend.

The Ultimate Fighter Roundup – Las Vegas and Brazil Editions

First of all, I see that this past week’s episode of The Ultimate Fighter: Live saw new school triumph over old with Justin Lawrence winning his eliminator with old Chute Boxe BJJ coach Cristiano Marcello in picture-perfect fashion – with a faint 2, power 3 combo called on by coach Lloyd Irvin. Definitely a beautiful finish in the 2^nd live fight of the season on TUF and one that may have put Lawrence in the driver’s seat definitely headed into the next round of fights. Next week’s announced matchup between Myles Jury and Al Iaquinta should also produce another frontrunner as coaches Dominick Cruz and Urijah Faber continue to send out their top fighters early on this season. It’s been a risky strategy by Cruz so far but one that’s definitely paid off for him as he’s now knocked off two of Team Faber’s best in consecutive weeks. We’ll see if he can continue this trend next Friday night.

Speaking of exciting fights and reality television, did anybody catch the season premier episode of The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil yet? The first episode was made available on UFC.com and it did not disappoint as the elimination fights to get into the house showcased some rather impressive talents. Guys like Rodrigo Damm, Serginho, Pé de Chumbo, and more showed enough skill to prove to me that they could be a force in the UFC down the road. Aside from that, and subtitles aside, these Brazilian fighters showed the kind of raw emotion and a passion that doesn’t seem cookie cutter at all. Subtitles aside, this season to me seems like it could be vastly more compelling than the American version this time around. That’s all good to me since I’ll be following both anyways.

Here’s the final 16 for the inaugural season of TUF Brazil.

Middleweight

César Mutante
Leonardo Macarrão
Francisco Massaranduba
Delson Pé de Chumbo
Daniel Sarafian
Sérgio Moraes
Renée Forte
Thiago Bodão

Featherweight

Wagner Galeto
Anistávio Gasparzrinho
Hugo Wolverine
John Macapá
Godofredo Pepey
Rony Jason
Marcus Vinícius Vina
Rodrigo Damm

Bellator 62 – Lloyd Woodard Surprises; Texas Fighters Shine on Undercard

Continuing a streak that began in Shreveport a week prior, Bjorn Rebney and the Bellator crew put on another impressive performance on with the Bellator 62 event they co-promoted with Ultimate Warrior MMA down in Laredo this past Friday.

The main card saw the opening round of the season 6 lightweight tournament come to a finish with Lloyd Woodard, Rick Hawn, Brent Weedman, and Thiago Michel all advancing to the next round of action. Weedman and Woodard impressed in particular with the former scoring a von flue choke to finish J.J. Ambrose while Lloyd pulled off what many consider an upset over Patricky “Pitbull” Freire in the second round of their action-packed fight. Not sure how they will seed these guys for the next round of action but a Woodard vs. Hawn finale would definitely be an exciting one that many fans would be sure to want to see.

Elsewhere on the Bellator 62 undercard, some of our very own Texas fighters impressed as they looked to make the most of the opportunity to shine on the national scene. Sean Spencer, Chris Jones, and Luis Vega all performed well in winning their bouts against fellow Texans Joseph Daily, Steven Peterson, and Sonny Luque respectively while Douglas Frey fell victim to a TKO via  Rad Martinez of ESPN “Outside the Lines” fame in his fight. An exciting submission battle between Dave Jansen (winner) and Jacob Kirwan capped off the prelim action from Laredo. All in all, it was a great card. Let’s hope Bellator comes back to Texas soon and showcases some of these Texas talents on future shows wherever they are.

Kimbo Slice Moves to 4-0 in Boxing

Former UFC vet and streetfighting legend Kimbo Slice (Kevin Feguson) was back in boxing action taking on debuting Brian Green this past Saturday night. Any thoughts on this fight and finish?

Ascend Combat – Kevin Aguilar stays unbeaten with main event win over Rey Trujillo

In his pre-fight interview, Houston’s Rey Trujillo intimated that the plan was to go up to Shreveport and pick up an easy win at Ascend Combat but his opponent Kevin Aguilar of Team 515 had other plans. By all accounts, the two had an exciting back-and-forth battle headed into the second round. It was then that “The Angel of Death” out of Longview was able to secure a triangle choke over the Houstonian to pull off the victory and bring his record up to an undefeated 5-0. At just 23 years of age and with a deep amateur background to go along with his pro wins thus far, Aguilar is undoubtedly a prospect to keep an eye on and perhaps one of the top pound-for-pound prospects in the state at the moment. With this win now behind him, the sky’s the limit from here for this young man.

Also performing on the show from the Houston area was the “Afro Samurai” Akira Smith. Making his return to the cage after over a year of inactivity, the 4OZ fighter was able to win convincingly over former Ascend amateur flyweight champion Cole Nailey by first-round TKO. If memory serves me correct, I believe this was Akira’s first showing at 125 lbs. after fighting at bantamweight in the past. That’s great stuff as he definitely adds some depth to the Texas scene at flyweight if he stays in this division.

Ascend Combat returns for their next shows on May 19th and August 4th. They always feature up-and-coming Texas talents in addition to some of the best up-and-coming fighters from Louisiana so make sure to pay attention to what they’ve got in store if we don’t bring it to you here first.

So that’s it for now guys. We’ll leave you with this highlight video of the main event between Kevin Aguilar and Rey Trujillo from this past Saturday night in Shreveport.