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 Victory is always possible for the person who refuses to stop fighting
– Napoleon Hill
Two title fights, a fifty minute marathon match, and a come from behind victory to go along with seven finishes?!?! Now that is an event ladies and gentlemen. ROV 35: Bad Blood offered up a lot and it delivered some quality stuff. I am extremely grateful to have been a part of it. I was on the edge of my seat many times, and I imagine so were the 7284 that were in attendance. You can read this review, but after you do so go ahead and check out the fights, all were some really entertaining stuff. Pay special attention to our award winners also: Psycho Vaughan for KO of the night, George Steele for submission of the night, and Damien Redman vs Tony Ramos for fight of the night.
265+ Title: Arnie Armstrong def Dick Army via Decision (Unanimous)
Whoa buddy, I know I didn’t expect this one to go the distance, but these guys made it happen and battled it out for 50 minutes. A FIFTY MINUTE FIGHT!!!! I can barely last the walk from my front door to the newspaper at the end of my driveway (I have a lazy paper boy with a noodle arm) without breathing heavy, and these guys fought for fifty minutes guns blazing the whole time? Damn. Save for about a minute of clinching in the third round, this fight was fought pretty much with a distance between the guys just throwing strikes at each other. I’m going to go ahead and just give you the stats now so I don’t have to go in crazy detail about each round. Look, that may seem lazy, but who the hell wants to read a page long review about a fight (okay you got me, the next review is about a page long but whatever)? Besides, each round was relatively the same since the fight was almost all fought standing at a distance. That’s hard to make an interesting review out of besides just copying and pasting the fight to you guys. If you wanna check out this bad boy, then go read the fight, I suggest you do as it was excellent. Alright, so champion Arnie Armstrong threw 201 head punches and landed 76. He threw 55 body punches and landed 22. He was three of 17 for punch combos. For the kicks, Armstrong was four of 16 to the head, 42 of 108 to the legs, and 10 of 29 to the body. He tried nine times to clinch up but was successful only once. In the clinch he landed two of seven strikes. His opponent, Dick Army, threw 46 of 100 head punches, 31 of 51 body punches, and was five of 12 for punch combos. Army was two of 20 for head kicks, 54 of 99 for leg kicks, and 19 of 61 for body kicks. He was six of 10 for strikes in the clinch. Let’s do some math shall we? That’s 433 strikes altogether that Armstrong threw, landing 159. Dick Army threw 343 and landed 163. Should we combine them, why not? Together these cardio machines threw 322 of 776 strikes! Good gracious. Every round was pretty close except the last, which was dominated by Armstrong. The judges seemed to have a hard time scoring this one: Judge 1 scored it 49-46 Armstrong, Judge 2 score it 49-48 Armstrong, and Judge 3 scored it 50-46 to Armstrong. The second judge gave a tie to rounds one and four while the third judge scored round three a tie. The rating was a 78 percent. It didn’t win fight of the night, but I thought it should have. Seriously, I couldn’t give this fight justice with a real review where I go through each round. It was a bloody bloody war where each round served as a battle. Go check it out for yourselves and you’ll see what I’m talking about.
For anyone that wants to hear what the fighters had to say about this one, here’s some Q and A with Dick Army. Arnie Armstrong has not been able to be reached for comment.
Stremphf: What went wrong in this fight?
Army: I think I was a little too cautious out there, Armstrong's KO power was a concern going into this fight so I didn’t want to get over aggressive and leave myself open to a big counter. And perhaps I overestimated his clinch a little and shouldn't have avoided fighting there. But you know it wasn’t a devastating KO loss or a beat down, it was a back and forth fight. Everyone else has been left flat on their back by Armstrong and I wasn’t rocked at all so that shows I got an iron chin.
Stremphf: How will you bounce back from this?
Army: You can best believe I'll be fighting for that belt again, my next opponent is gonna be in for a world of hurt.
145 Ibs Title: Damien Redman def Tony Ramos via TKO (cut) at 8:35 of Round 5
He had just less than a half minute to go. That’s it, after that time was over he would be crowned the new featherweight champion. He would defeat a fighter who some say he had bad blood with. He was going to wear that belt. And then it happened, the doctor was called in. The fight was called and his victory slipped from his grasp, a grasp that some say was air tight. Well they were wrong. Damien Redman wins another victory because of a doctor stoppage via cut. He has won his previous six victories this way. What do some say about that? That he is lucky? Well, I call BS. I think this has more to do with Redman’s intelligence of going after cuts than just getting lucky. I think he agrees, when asking Redman how he felt after “stealing” the victory from his opponent, he answered with, “You say I stole the fight? I say I was patient and used the 50 minute fight to my advantage to pick my shots. He slowed down towards the end and I stepped it up.” I agree, when Redman sees blood he goes after it, like an unfed shark in the open waters of the ocean. He sees red and he goes crazy. I think you can attribute these victories via cut because Redman is an intelligent hungry fighter who never quits. Every round would have most likely gone to the challenger. At least the commentator thought so, he praised Ramos’ dominance after the bell of each round. After dominating the first round, Ramos received the cut that would hinder his dreams just past the second minute in the clinch, when Redman landed a nasty elbow. Redman continued to go after the bloody thing. He clinched up at the beginning of the third round and continued to throw strikes at it. That went on until Ramos broke clinch just past the sixth minute and took his opponent down. He was able to control and strike well on the ground, including rocking Redman at the end. Round four featured a lot more in and out clinching. Again, Redman went after the cut of Ramos. It really started to bleed half way past the seventh minute. Ramos was able to land a takedown at the end of the round. Along with the good control he showed earlier in the round, he was able to keep the points on his side of things, much the same as the previous rounds. The last round rolled around and all Ramos had to do was survive. Redman had other plans as he tried desperately to keep things close up so he could elbow the hell out of that cut. This is exactly as he did. The cut looked like it could end the fight at about 5:45, when it really became opened up. It continued to just get horrible halfway past the seventh minute. The ref could do no more at 8:35. He called in the doctor, who had to do his job and protect Ramos from hurting his cut even more. Redman successfully defended his belt. Stats wise, Redman was 13 of 16 standing up. He tried 161 times to clinch, being successful 13 of those tries. In the clinch he was 11 of 20 punching and 33 of 79 with elbows. Ramos was 17 of 86 standing up. He was five of 18 for takedowns. In the clinch he was 18 of 45 punching and one out of 13 for takedowns. On the ground he was 19 of 46 striking. The fight rating was a 41 percent, but got an excitement boost when Redman ended up making the comeback victory, although a lot would probably say that a doctor stoppage sucks. His manager had this to say when asked about his fighter’s intelligence and heart: “Well early in his career in his first Title Fight, he dominated for 4 rounds before getting caught in a sub. He knew it wasn't over until it is over and was slowly chipping away and in the end came away with the belt.” He’s saying his fighter learned from that fight and uses that knowledge in every match he goes into. I think that is evident. Ramos didn’t quite agree with his opponent. When asked if he deserved an immediate rematch, Ramos answered with, “Clearly the better fighter lost this fight. After dominating the whole fight, the ref decided to stop it via cut. Obviously I don’t agree with the ref’s decision at all and I would like an immediate rematch. I would just like to ask Redman a question, do you really feel like you won that fight? After been dominated for almost 5 rounds and then winning via a lucky cut, do you truly feel like the better fighter?” If I was Ramos I would be pissed too. As far as an immediate rematch goes? Sign me up, I would love to see these two fighters go at it again. Until then though, Damien Redman remains the champ.
205 Ibs: George Steele def Juan Tamad via Submission (Triangle) at 2:22 of Round 1
The shortest fight of the main card came in the third match of the night’s main card between these two veteran light heavyweights. Tamad connected nice with a jab at the beginning of the round which gave Steele a nice cut. Steele didn’t want to contend with the standup of Tamad so he took him down soon after. He then bombarded his opponent with submission attempts in-between controlling his opponent and not letting him move/breath. Four submission attempts passed with Tamad defending them well. Then the fifth one came just past the second minute. It was a nice triangle that Steele was able to sink in which forced Tamad to tap and end this puppy in the first round. The fight received a rating of 41 percent. Tamad landed one out of two strikes standing and two of four from his back. Steele was one of two for takedowns. On the ground he threw no strikes and was one of five with submissions. The submission victory gave Steele sub of the night honors. Both warriors have fights under offer.
170 Ibs: Frank Underwood def Hannibal Barca via Decision (Unanimous)
A close decision victory was earned by Frank Underwood. The winner flirted between clinching and distance. When Barca was able to get around his opponent’s height advantage he was able to take the 10 points for those rounds. However, he was not able to do that enough and earn a victory. The first round featured no clinching, Underwood was able to use his height advantage to keep his opponent back with a barrage of punches and kicks. The second round featured only about just over a minute of clinching. Barca tried to control in the clinch, but he ended up actually landing enough quality strikes to keep Underwood on his toes. Distance wise, this is one of those rounds where Barca was able to get around Underwood enough and land strikes. It was a close round, but most gave it to Barca. The third round was much like the second, with some in and out clinching while Barca was able to move quickly and pick his shots, which landed well. Again close, but most gave it to Barca. Hannibal Barca just couldn’t keep it going the last two rounds. His movement was poor and Underwood was able to use his height advantage to keep his opponent back and loose with more punches and kicks. He dominated the last two rounds to earn himself the victory. The judges scored it 49:47, 48:47, and 48:47. Underwood was 43 of 76 punching in the stand up. He was 60 of 123 kicking. In the clinch he was seven of 16 striking. Hannibal Barca was 48 of 104 punching and 13 of 43 kicking. In the clinch he was four of eight striking. The fight rating was a solid 85 percent. Neither fighter has a fight set up yet, with Hannibal Barca currently unsigned at the moment. It is unknown whether he’ll be back or not.
265+ Ibs: Oleg Ljashko def Robert Sullivan via (TKO) Strikes at 1:40 of Round 3
The first fight of the main event started out close, but had a change of pace with a nice knee in the second round that turned the favor toward Oleg Ljashko. The majority of the first round was spent in the clinch. Ljashko initiated it just after the starting bell rang. He received a nice cut after Sullivan landed a good knee to the head. The fight continued moving in and out of the clinch toward the end of the round. Each fighter traded nice shots and neither could really gain the upper hand control wise. It was close, with the commentator giving the first round to Ljashko. The second round featured a lot more in and out of clinching, with Ljashko getting the upper hand. Halfway through the second he kneed Sullivan and rocked him with it, also giving him a cut. Sullivan wasn’t really able to recover from this. Ljashko out struck him the rest of the round, showing his dominance control wise also. Again, the third round pretty much started in the clinch. Some decent shots were traded before Ljashko cracked Sullivan with a nice uppercut. Sullivan fell back against the ropes with Ljashko just unloading on him. Sullivan wasn’t able to recover and the ref had to jump in and stop this fight. The rating was a nice 66 percent. Ljashko was seven of eight standing up and successful with all 14 clinch attempts. In the clinch he was 46 of 72. Robert Sullivan was zero of two standing up. He was 12 of 58 clinching. Ljashko has a fight under offer while Sullivan will face Saure Zbeissa on 7/25.
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