Budo Fights served up their 8th installment of Mixed Martial Arts action at the Midtown in Bend OR this past weekend, dubbed 'Local-Motion' due to having a massive amount of locals on the card. There were some issues that presented themselves at weigh-ins (fighters blood work, clearance from the commission, and pro's pulling out) which ended up cutting the entire card in half. Yet the staff at Budo Fights worked diligently to present the fans with a good line up and in the end the fans were nothing but pleased with action-packed fights all night long.

A catch-weight bout between Midtown MMA's Levi Weikel & Hometown favorite Desert Dog fighter Phil Gebauer was moved to the main event and what a war this professional MMA bout turned out to be. Weikel looked very good, yet Gebauer wasn't going to be finished easily. Gebauer even had Weikel in submission trouble a couple times in the bout, almost catching Weikel in a triangle late in the second. Levi smelled blood after Gebauer's submission attempt and totally turned up his striking in the opening bell of the third round, finishing Gebauer by TKO @ 2:07 into the round.

The Budo Fights Amateur 205 lb Title was up for grabs and 503 West Coast Jiu Jitsu's Jason Pittman was all submissions against the veteran independent fighter Jared Matthews. Matthews went for a takedown early but got in trouble as Pittman went for a submission. After Mathews defended that attempt, Pittman took his back and sunk a Rear Naked Choke at 2:28 in the first round to become the new Budo Fights Champion.

In a winner-take-all submission match, "General" JT Taylor & Shorty "Pitbull" Weikel - both high name pro MMA fighters  grappled for two 5 minute rounds for $400 bucks and they were both after that cash! Shorty was explosive in his movements, and then it was JT mounting Shorty, but neither could get the tap for the full purse. So, after the 2 rounds, the match was declared a draw and they split the cash.

My pick for NW Fightscene's 'Fight of the Night' was an amateur bout between Victor Submission Academy fighter Alex Corrales & last minute replacement Arsenal Combat's Jake Burns. Corrales told NWFS pre-fight that he had been training with David Converse to work on his wrestling and when he came out in the first against Burns and immediately went for the shot, you could tell his training had paid off. Corrales got that takedown but Burns was still the bigger fighter and was able to get back up and hold Corrales in the corner, working some great dirty boxing on the cage and forcing Corrales again to take it to the ground. Round three is where Alex took the fight after sweeping Burns and getting top position. Burns looked tired and wincing for breath and you could tell Corrales smelled victory as he was all over Burns, finally sealing the deal with Rear Naked Choke with only 1 second left in the final round.

Desert Dog Dustin Duffy & veteran amateur Brandon Nunn from Team Chaos gave the crowd a show with some killer striking and fun ground performances as they went three rounds in an all-out war. Nunn started out strong with some dangerous leg kicks and Duffy finished strong with a tight Rear Naked Choke at 51 seconds into the third round. These two kept smiling at each other the whole bout, as both were throwing tough hard strikes and landing them. This was a great fight!

Budo Fights VIII was a terrific show for the fans and those who caught the live stream. Budo Fights is already planning their next adventure Sept 9th, so make sure to check out budofights.com for updates.