Rage in the Cage 147 Complete Recap

The last Rage in the Cage of 2010 took place last night at the Celebrity Theater in Phoenix Arizona, marking another successful year for Arizona’s #1 MMA Organization. It was a packed house even with the UFC and Strikeforce taking place at the same time, and the fans were fully into the fights.

A-train (Aaron Simpson) and Benson Henderson were in the house, A-train was promoting his new gym called Power MMA and Fitness, and Henderson cornering the MMA Lab fighters and talking about his upcoming title fight. Henderson is obviously in the final chapter of his training camp and he was sporting a very nice black eye to prove it.

The seven fights of the night all proved to be very exciting and were graced by local stars like Joe Cronin, 50-year-old Larry Robertson, and Shannon Ritch.

Fight Breakdown:

Fight 1 – Stephen Towne (MMA Lab) defeated Bobby Pompa (Central Boxing) via unanimous decision. Pompa had dangerous striking which forced Towne to revert to his wrestling to win the fight. Towne had very nice leg kicks and ground and pound and used his takedowns to narrowly win each round and the decision for the judges. It was a good opening fight with very explosive elements and a good way to start the night. 

Fight 2 – Leroy Douglas III (Night Marchers Fight Club) defeated Richard Ysaguirre (Freestyle) via knockout 1:39 into round 1. Ysaguirre came out swinging for the fences and lit up Douglas very badly which forced him to bulrush a takedown while rocked. While in the clinch Douglas landed an accidental knee on Ysaguirre whose pace was already slowing. Screams to keep the fight standing came from Douglas’s corner and he set up a nice over hand left counter punch that dropped Ysaguirre. Douglas smelled blood and attacked a turtle up Ysaguirre until he was flat-out on the mat, and fight was over in very exciting fashion.

Fight 3 – Kelly Oser (MMA Lab) defeated Jose Loya (Freestyle) via rear naked choke 1:24 into round 1. Oser came out working the leg kick takedown combo and Loya attempted a guillotine that was in but performed incorrectly. In an awesome scramble across the ring Oser slipped to Loya’s back and secured a rear naked choke that was in too deep to escape. CB Dalloway recently had a choke from a scramble like this one, that’s why I give this fight submission of the night.

Fight 4 – Freddie Contreras (6^th Street Gym) defeated Jeff Thorton (Arizona Combat Sports) via unanimous decision. This was defiantly the best fight of the night! Thorton had two takedowns in the first but took more damage and had some more take down attempts stuffed. Contreras throughout the whole fight tagged Thorton and really beat the fight out of him one combo at a time. In the second Thorton landed a nice right hand that had Contreras rocked, and in the third came out wailing but the steam faded fast and Contreras did enough damage to win the decision.

Fight 5 – Larry Robertson (RITC Training Center) defeated Mike Moritz (RITC TC) via Knockout 1:45 into round one. Robertson for being 50 years old is a Greco roman wrestling wizard and it shows. Somehow Moritz escaped from full mount halfway through the first in a scrambled and started swinging for the fences. Robertson tucked his chin in and an overhand right spun Moritz to the mat knocked senseless and that’s when the fight was over. This was defiantly the Knock out of the year for Rage in the cage.

Fight 6 – Shannon Ritch (Siege MMA) defeated Richard Fry (RITC TC) via arm bar 1:45 into round one. Ritch was clearly too experienced for a newly turned pro Fry, and I would say he has about 175+ more fights than him. Ritch used a hip toss and landed in side mount. Ritch utilized the crucifix and pounded on Fry until an arm was left wide open for the arm bar and that is what sent Fry tapping 1:45 into the round.

Fight 7 – Steve Eldridge (Siege MMA) defeated Joe Cronin (Orion Boxing) via Technical Knockout 1:15 into round 2. Cronin came out and looked very sharp and for a good 80% of the first round was working a very deep guillotine that almost finished Eldridge a few times and rag dolled him around the ring. In the second round Eldridge continued working a takedown and scored a nice one early in the round. Then Eldridge transitioned to Mount and let his hands go on a non defending Cronin. Cronin did great trying to stay awake and dodge the vicious array on punches from mount but was eventually overwhelmed and the ref had to step in and stop it.

Overall it was a wonderful year of fights from one of the best fight promotions on the west coast, and MMA Valor appreciates being able to cover their events on a monthly basis. Be sure to check out the event photos in the Picture section above and stay tuned on MMA Valor for more Rage in the Cage press releases and news.

Tags: Aaron Simpson, Arizona, Ben Henderson, MMA, Rage in the cage, Results, RITC 147

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