Cage Raiser 1 Wrap Up

by Jeff "8th Street Wolverine" Barney

May 15th's Cage Raiser 1 was another successful if not crazy night of fights. Here is how things went down as I saw it.

Fight #1

Juan Magana of Glenwood Springs, Colorado defeated Tanner Ellenberger of Paonia, Colorado by first round TKO in their 170lb amateur MMA bout. I was in the dressing room during this fight but was told that a left head kick was the beginning of the end for Ellenberger who came back to the blue corner warm up area quite bloody.

Fight #2

8th Streets Brandon Crispen won with a dominate performance over Billy "The Kid" Martin in there welter weight MMA bout. Both fighters threw a few early strikes standing before Crispen got a body lock take down on Martin in the neutral corner. Crispen landed strikes from inside the guard as Martin moved to a higher guard looking for a possible triangle or arm bar. Crispen passed the guard eventually working to mount and landing multiple punches and elbows until the referee stopped the fight when Martin was unable to defend himself. I was very impressed with the calm and confident ground work shown by Brandon in this fight and look forward to seeing the progression of his career.

Fight #3

Angelo Archuleta of Grand Junction who boxed out of Impact but now represents both Impact and 8th Street once again did more ground work than boxing in his third amateur MMA bout against the very tough Dan Hudak of Glenwood Springs. Hudak performed well in the first round with both fighters exchanging a few strikes before it went to the ground with Angelo ending up on bottom. Angelo tried for a arm bar from the guard but Hudak was able to slam his way out of it passing the guard and eventually working his way to the mount. From there he landed some good punches with Archuleta turning to his side and then giving up his back before eventually escaping the bad position. In the second round Archuleta came out throwing strikes standing and Hudak looked for the take down. Angelo reached back instinctively and grabbed the fence for a split second and landed on top. The referee didn't catch him on the fence grab and Angelo quickly took his opponents back, softened him up with some punches and finished the fight with a rear naked choke. Great back and forth action in this fight and the crowd really appreciated the effort put out by both athletes.

Fight #4

Josh "The Machine" Kissel out of 8th Street put on a clinic in what from I understand was a rematch of a three round war from earlier this year in Montrose with Guy Love. Love out of Montrose spent the majority of the fight trying to escape from one bad position after another before finally tapping to a armbar half way through the first round.

Fight #5

Mike Rush of Grand Junction was supposed to take on Pecas McClellan of Paonia, Colorado but before the fights even started one of the fighters, I would assume Rush because he was in the other warm up room, dislocated his shoulder warming up. Unfortunately this would be the first of three fights to be scratched from the card during the show.

Fight #6

Kyle Gilje of Moab, Utah and 8th Streets Cory Bendetti put on what I and many others called the fight of the night. Gilje ended up winning the split decision improving his record to 1-1 and bumping Cory down to 0-2. The first round started with Kyle landing the better strikes standing and then looking for a guillotine choke standing and then trying to finish it once Bendetti got the only take down of the fight. Cory fought his way out of the choke after about twenty or thirty seconds and threw a few effective strikes from Gilje's guard before the ref brought the fight back to the feet. Bendetti looked re-energized throwing crisp combinations before the bell rang. Round two saw more of the same stand up action Gilje seemed to slow down a little but Bendetti pace seemed to increase landing sharp strikes and controlling his opponent while he had him against the fence. The third round looked a lot like the second but Gilje seemed to get a second wind while Bendetti never seemed to slow and showed no ill effects from his 15 + pound weight cut. Gilje did catch Bentetti with a front kick that knocked him down against the fence for a split second and also landed three right low kicks in a row on him. Cory returned some good low kicks, landed a left hook that sent Gilje sideways into the cage and drove him from one side of the platform to the other with a punching combination and finished with a hard Thai kick to the ribs of his opponent. Great back and forth action beginning to end. The judges saw the 29-28 for Bendetti, 29-28 and 30-27 Gilje. I know I'm bias because I am one of Cory's trainers, but I don't know how the third judge called it a shutout for Kyle Gilje. It was a fight that could have gone either way for sure, and both camps seem open to the idea of a rematch.

Fight #7

I was in the back warming up for my fight during this one but Zach Harvey out of 8th Street made quick work of Riverton Wyoming's Matt McOmie with the fastest victory of the night by a TKO with what I was told was a huge overhand right.

Fight #8

Another one bites the dust. Kirk "The Riot" Piatt of Grand Junction was scheduled to face Trakon "The Bull" Johnston of Moab but Johnston some how kicked a chair while warming up minutes before the Harvey fight and badly injured his ankle and was unable to fight. How this happens I have no idea.

Fight #9

In the first ever sanctioned professional kick boxing match in Grand Junction I took on Eugene "Crazy Legs" Coulston out of Windriver, Wyoming. Coulston was a late replacement who took the fight on less than two weeks notice when it turned out that my scheduled opponent Sergio "The Savage" Lopez was under suspension by the boxing commission due to not making weight on a fight card three weeks ago in Montrose. "Crazy Legs" put up a good fight and I have to say that I felt a lot of ring rust from my over two year lay off from the ring. Coulston threw some good punches at me landing a few and some kicks and knees when we were in the clinch. I was able to land a couple of decent leg and body kicks. I threw a couple of superman punches one that missed and another that grazed Eugene, also backed him off with a left front kick, but to me the turning point was a left hook that I landed on him that stopped his early flurry of punches. I think the punch that was the beginning of the end for Coulston was a left hook that I landed over the top of his shoulder from the Thai clinch. I saw he was visibly rocked and I threw a volley of punches at him and he dropped to his knees. Referee Eric Hines came in and sent me to the neutral corner he started an eight count and then waved off the fight at 1:56 of the first round. I would like to thank Eugene for taking the fight so that all of my training would not have been for nothing. After the fight Sergio came to the ring and we both agreed to fight in one of Alex's next shows. The crowd really seemed to appreciate the non-stop action of a kick boxing match so hopefully this opens the door for more of them to be on the card in future shows.

Fight #10

This was to be the co-main event of the night, but disaster struck once again as it turned out that Denver fighter John Sargent who was supposed to meet 8th Streets own Mike "The Bone Collector" Smith had preexisting stitches on the back of his leg from an accident that had occurred a week before. This also came to light at the same time as the 8th fight was canceled. It is a shame that a great fighter like Mike goes through everything to get ready for the fight, makes the weight cut and then doesn't get to fight due to a mistake on his opponents part.

Fight #11

In the Main event of the evening Logan Hancock battered John Ross with a huge non stop barrage of punches and knees while Ross relentlessly but futilely looked for take downs. Referee Tim Mills mercifully stopped the beating at 1:15 of the first round. After the fight Logan announced that he would be having eye surgery and would be out of the ring for the next year. Best of luck to Logan from myself and everyone at 8th Street.

Even with the late loss of three fights the show was a great success and I'm sure it raised a lot of money for Impact's Amateur boxing program. The other thing I was happy to see was the fact that there were no fights out of the ring at this show which always puts a damper on a good night of fights. Congrats to everyone who had the guts to step into the ring.