HOUSTON, TX, May 26, 2012 – Exciting amateur MMA action was on tap for Houston MMA fans last night with Garcia Promotions presenting a full fourteen fight card for the crowd in attendance at the Humble Civic center last night for Cage Combat 9.
Let’s go through a recap of the highlights after these quick results below.
Cage Combat 9 – Quick Results from May 25, 2012
Cesar Del Angel over Martin Garcia by unanimous decision
Mike Dunn over Josh Cooper by submission (triangle choke), RD2
Sijin Kurian over Hugo Delafuente by split decision
Kody Williams over Martin Walker by unanimous decision
Joe Whichard over Alex Medina by TKO (could answer bell), RD2
Chris Rivera over Victor Lomax by TKO (punches), RD1
Alex Chhang over Hector Cortina by split decision
Brandon Gauthier over Raul Rodriguez by unanimous decision
Edgar Juarez over Tony Stolfa by submission (triangle / armbar), RD1
Mike Eaglin vs. Kolby Adams – No Decision (Doc Stoppage, illegal knees), RD1
Gregory Diaz over Leville Simpson by disqualification (illegal knees), RD3
Ramiro Cortina over Randy McCullough by TKO, RD1
Ryan Hollis over James Deherrera by submission (armbar), RD1 (125 TITLE)
Ryan Spann over Jared Perez by unanimous decision (170 TITLE)
TXMMA Fight Night Awards
Fight of the Night – Alex Chhang vs. Hector Cortina
KO of the Night – NONE
Submission of the Night – Ryan Hollis, 1st round armbar over James Deherrera
Two new champions crowned for Garcia Promotions
In the featured bouts of the evening, GP saw two new champions crowned for their organization in the flyweight and welterweight divisions.
In the main event of the evening, ATT Beaumont’s Ryan “Superman” Spann and American Revolution (Corpus Christi)’s Jared Perez battle it out in a five round war of attrition that saw the razor-close bout go to the judges’ scorecards. The bout was characterized by Spann using his lengthy reach and long jab to try and keep Perez at bay on the outside while Jared looked to use leg kicks and short combinations to get inside and take the fight to the ground. The two seemingly stalemated wherever the fight with neither gaining a considerable advantage.
In the end, the judges at ringside saw it as a unanimous decision win for the Beaumont native and Ryan Spann is now your new Garcia Promotions welterweight champion.
The co-main event feature saw another belt on the line as Hard Head Hitter Ryan Hollis out of Cleveland, TX faced off against James DeHerrera of Windy Sports and Fitness in College Station. The bout wouldn’t last long as Hollis quickly went to work on the fight hit the ground, latching on a lightning quick armbar that would force DeHerrera within two minutes of the first round.
With this, Ryan Hollis now earns the title of Garcia Promotions flyweight champion along with our TXMMA submission of the night award for Cage Combat 9.
Undercard Highlights and Top Performers
Aside from the two title fights, the venue had a few other notable performances and was not devoid of controversy.
43 year old Dr. Gregory Diaz out of ATT Beaumont made his debut at the event against 4-3 Laville Simpson out of Twin Wolves. The radiologist performed well early on in the bout using his collegiate wrestling background to dominate the first round of the contest. His opponent was resilient though and came back stronger later in the bout with both his takedown defense and striking – specifically some punishing knees to the sternum of his opponent. Unfortunately the bout would take a turn for the worst in the third round as Simpson landed an errant knee flush on the jaw of Diaz as he was closing in on another takedown attempt. Knees to the head (reinforced or otherwise, such as was the case here) were not legal at this event forcing the referee to call a halt to the action and award the DQ win to Diaz.
Despite the ending, both fighters showed something in this bout with Laville showing his resiliency in the face of an overwhelming wrestling attack early on and Dr. Diaz showing that even at 43 years old, he could come in and compete with a fighter 22 years his junior.
Impressing elsewhere were Alex Chhang and Hector Cortina in their fight. Both fighters refused to back down at all and put on a standup display that wowed the crowd and earned them our TXMMA award for Fight of the Night.
Likewise, Hector’s older brother Ramiro Cortina impressed in his dominating performance over Randy McCullough.
Team Tooke’s Brandon Gauthier also did the same in pitching a shutout over Raul Rodriguez in their bout with his dominant boxing-based attack, as did Chris Rivera of ACS using his ground game to set up his strikes to finish his opponent.
The rest of the night’s winners also did well. Look up on the quick results or watch the match videos to see the rest of these highlight performances.
Photo Gallery and Match Videos
You can view a select collection of photos from this event to tag and share on our TXMMA Facebook Page. Also don’t forget to visit Mike Calimbas Photography on SmugMug for the complete gallery of photos available for ordering prints, posters, and other custom merchandise.
Complete fight videos for Cage Combat 9 (completely raw, unedited) are now available online and can be viewed via the Texas Grappling Channel (that’s right, I’m taping MMA too). Make sure to subscribe to the channel on YouTube for additional videos from the Texas MMA, BJJ, and submission grappling scene.