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The
1st Carnage at the Creek held last September at the Little
Creek Casino
saw some fantastic amateur MMA action (check out the fight
videos here),
plus an appearance by MMA star Tito Ortiz w/ his equally
famous girlfriend Jenna Jameson. This past Saturday at
Carnage at the Creek 2, promoters Tad Bremer and
Christopher Cope stepped it up a notch with Carnage at the
Creek 2. As the sold-out crowd of 1900+ strong filled the casino's Skookum
Creek Events Center, local band FUZE
rocked the house. Then, before the fights started,
Christopher Cope introduced former UFC Heavyweight Champ Frank
Mir,
former UFC Middleweight Champ Rich
Franklin,
current WEC Lightweight Champ Jamie
Varner,
and the NW's own MMA legend Matt
Hume
to the crowd. Before the fights and during the
intermissions, both Mir and Franklin signed autographs and
posed for pictures with appreciative fans.
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Frank
Mir
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Rich
Franklin
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Jamie
Varner
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Matt
Hume |
Reese
Andy |
Tad
Bremer-Christopher Cope |
The
fights themselves were great as matchmaker (and IFL
Fighter) Reese
Andy,
put together a card that did not disappoint. There were 9
amateur bouts on the undercard with fighters representing
such tough schools as West Coast Fight Team (Kennydale,
WA), Twin Dragons (Aberdeen, WA), AMC (Kirkland, WA), Brazilian
Jiu-jitsu Spokane, Twisted Genetiks (Boise, ID), Team
Psycho (Tacoma, WA), Clan Jacobs, and Arizona Combat
Sports (Tempe, AZ).
2
professional fights made up the dual main event. The first
bout which certainly was the fight of the night saw ex-IFL
Tigershark Bristol Marunde (West Coast Fight Team) going
up against the Ultimate Fighter Season 3 dropout Noah
Inhofer (Miletich Fighting Systems). Marunde came out
throwing hard leather, catching Inhofer with a volley of
shots that dropped him twice, but Inhofer would not be
finished and he was amazingly able to come back and
counter with some hard combos of his own. The 2nd round
went much like the first with both fighters pressing the
action on the feet in a true slugfest that went back and
forth, and which had every fan on their feet. Unfortunately, Inhofer was unable to continue in the third
as he was unable to see clearly and the victory went to
Marunde in a fight he dedicated to his brother Jesse who
recently passed away.
Marunde
had this to say after the fight. "The game plan was to keep it on the feet and beat him to the punch and I did that right off the bat. I saw it plain as day, we were in the clinch and I came with a right hook to his temple and I saw him drop. I think that's what kind of started it off because he just got dazed. I thought the ref was going to stop so...
the first round was a sprint for me, throwing bombs as hard as I could because I thought the ref was going to stop it. So, I pretty much gambled on him
[referee Joe DeRobbio] stopping it. I wasn't pacing myself and in the
2nd round you could see that I didn't have a whole lot left because I gave it all in the first round. After that it was like I just needed to keep moving and just kept telling myself to keep punching, keep punching and eventually he'll go down."
In
the last bout of the night, Mario Miranda, who was
cornered by AMC's Matt Hume, took on Joe Vedepo, an
undefeated independent from Iowa. This was also a great
high-energy fight with the action mostly taking place on
the mat as both combatants showed off their
ground-fighting and submission skills. Miranda had Vedepo
in what looked to be a fight-ending armbar in the 2nd
round but Vedepo showed great fortitude and was eventually
able to get himself out of it. Vedepo was truly spent
after the 2nd and nearly threw in the towel but he gutted
it out (literally) and continued. Miranda however had more
fuel left in his tank and after gaining mount, he rained
down strikes, forcing Ref DeRobbio to stop it midway
through the 3rd.
Carnage
at the Creek 2 was a high production event with big
screens showing all the action and replaying the
highlights. A number of cool vendors were on hand
including Vicious
Fightgear,
Hooligan, Blood Oak, and Jacknut Clothing.
Carnage
at the Creek 3 will be at the Little Creek
Casino in late summer and the main event will feature ex-IFL
fighter Travis Doerge going up against Alaska Fighting
Championship veteran Julio Paulino.
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