Review,
Post-fight Interviews, & Photos by Spaniard
The first ever professional Muay Thai fight
in Oregon headlined the main event at Midtown Throwdown 2 in Eugene
OR on October 1st. An additional amateur Muay Thai bout,
plus 1 pro & 9 amateur MMA fights, filled out the
fight card. UFC fighter and Eugene prodigy, Evan Dunham, was a special guest signing autographs and taking pics.
Fresh off his latest win at UFC's Fight Night 24, Dunham stayed
in Eugene for the weekend to teach a 3 hour MMA seminar to
a lucky group the very next day.
Evan Dunham
The Main event was a fast paced Muay Thai bout between Midtown MMA's Renato Aquino & Srisuk Muay Thai's Sam Poulton that took place at 140lbs. The fighters came out firing kicks faster than bullets and both
looked to be evenly matched
until Poulton landed some vicious knees in the third that floored Aquino and
Aquino was unable to answer the bell to fight in the final round.
In a rematch that had the crowd split between two beloved
Eugene area teams, fighter Levi Kurtovich from Midtown MMA & NW Training
Center fighter Donnie Evenson met for the second time in the
night's sole professional MMA bout. In their previous
fight, Kurtovich was submitted by Evenson who is a submission specialist by training. The
middleweights came out throwing strikes with Kurtovich landing some good combinations to the body and head.
Then it went to the ground and became a foot war with
Evenson snagging a heel hook that forced Kurtovich to tap at 2:17 of the first round. Evenson credited
the win to his training partners and coaches at NW Training
Center in the NWFS exclusive post fight interview
Fast rising middleweight fighter, Corey
"Agnar" Wyatt, took out heavy handed slugger Travis Napier by Arm-Triangle in the very first
round. But this was only after eating a huge Napier punch to the face
that put him down. Wyatt recovered quickly however and got the submission at 1:17.
In a 165 lb catch weight bout, Redneck Militia fighter Adam Saad took out veteran Desert Dog Christian Graves by doc stoppage at an even 2
minutes of the first round. Saad came out with crisp and clean striking,
landing almost every one. He connected with a huge shot
that instantly had Graves eye swelling up and forced the
doctor to stop the contest. The doctor is there for the safety of the fighters and Graves will fight another
day. Saad yelled at the crowd to stop booing Graves which
is great to see when a fighter sticks up for the other guy
he was just fighting.
Dylan "The Bull" Atkinson from Alive MMA took out Donovan Hernandez from Natural Fighting Concepts at 2:15 by TKO (Ref Stop) after a complete mauling in the first round. Atkinson is another
fighter who is quickly becoming a top ranked amateur on the NW circuit and looking to do big things in the fight world.
In one of the sickest submissions of the year, Midtown MMA's Trevor Close took out Desert Dog fighter Dustin Duffy by Rear Naked Choke after a crazy scramble. The fighters traded huge punches and scrambled around the cage until Close
grabbed Duffy's back and jumped on it to snag the
choke... you just had to be there for this one! Close was declared the winner by RNC at 40 seconds
of round 1.
Another doctor stoppage occurred in a heavyweight bout between Alive MMA's Nick Biron
and Midtown MMA fighter Anthony Mcdonald. Biron landed a strike
at the beginning of the fight that opened a huge gash over
McDonald's eye. If the pair were allowed to fight on would
have been extremely risky for McDonald so the ringside
physician did the right thing in stopping the contest at
20 seconds of the first round. Disappointing for sure for
McDonald who felt he could fight on but its important to
stress safety at this level, that way the fighter can
fight another day instead of possibly having multiple
surgeries and never fighting again.
And last but not least Kane Dixon, formerly of Art of War, came out and put on a great display of striking and cage dominance. Dixon
talked to NWFS about wanting to rejoin AOW and how much fun it was to fight in front of his home crowd. Dixon is still undefeated
after his win by TKO (Ref Stop) at 1:53 in RD 1.
Midtown MMA will host Midtown Throwdown III "541 vs.
503" on November 11th in Eugene. For more information, go
to midtownmma.com.
