Saturday, June 26, 2010

Legend FC 2 - MMA in Hong Kong

on Thursday June 24 - for only the second time in history - Hong Kong was witness to an exciting evening of Mixed Martial Arts fighting. Legend Fighting Competition was back for its second event. many of the champions from the first event returned in attempts to establish winning streaks. and some of the best fights of the night came from these matches.

Legend also made a broadcast deal with Kix action channel. well-known MMA and K-1 fighter Vaughn "Mr. Blud" Anderson was on hand as the special commentator. Kix also broadcasts Dream from Japan and Strikeforce from the USA, so it's a big deal to have a relatively new fight organization pick up broadcasting alongside these giants. i'll make an update when i find out the broadcast date.



Thomas Fan was again the head referee. many TRIQUEST members provided assistance. Ah Yiu was the official time keeper. i was rules official, and judge assistant. the rough guys were ring safety and security: Joseph Lee (our Krav Maga instructor), Andy Chan (our Kali instructor), Ken, Victor, Ah Lung (a.k.a. Tree) and Jimmy. ringside photographers were Terence Yam and Boyee (great stuff!).

most of the match ups were even; over half of the fights went to decision. Takuma Wakabayashi's superior BJJ overwhelmed Wang Zhen in the first fight, and he won by RNC in the first round. Zhang Lipeng and Tony Rossini were two of the bigger fighters of the evening, and their strength didn't disappoint the crowd. both went for some impressive takedowns and throws, but Tony's edge in BJJ got him the win via armbar. the third fight was between two 'youngsters' - Kevin Belingon (22) and Jo Nam Jin (19). Kevin completely frustrated and dominated Jo on the ground for the last two rounds which earned him the win and the fight of the night.



Pat Crawley and Li Jingliang also went to judge's decision, and Pat's edge got him the win. Zhang Tiequan's BJJ training clearly showed when he made quick work of Daniel Digby, a purple belt himself, via guillotine choke in the first 30 seconds of the night. the final undercard fight between Rob Hill and Kwon A Sol went to the judges' scorecards, and it was a close one - Rob's aggressive style and Kwon's escape artist skills could have made it go either way.

the main card fights were definitely crowd-pleasers. with only 2 fights each, it was the crowd's affection for hometown hero Kenny Yeung that put him as the favorite. his kickboxing skills were paired up with Taiwan fighter Justin Lee's strong BJJ. the crowd was stunned and then went wild when Justin caught Kenny with a damaging right that sent him stumbling, and then followed up with a knockdown and ground-and-pound until the referee called the fight at only 45 seconds, giving Justin a decisive and commanding victory.



the second main fight pitted Legend FC 1 winners Matt Cain and Bae Myung Ho against each other. both experienced fighters, they put on 3 rounds of a great fight. Bae's striking seemed to dominate, but Matt was able to catch him in a few strong chokes during takedown attempts that had the crowd certain he would go out. but Bae's incredible strength got him out each time, and he won a unanimous decision.


the final fight of the night was a hotly contested battle between Legend FC 1's champions Adrian Pan and Yu Woo Sung. both fighters showed real heart and determination, with good skills in all areas. Adrian proved he was the stronger fighter and won by unanimous decision.
full results can be found at the Legend homepage.