On Thursday evening, ProElite.com brought the mixed martial arts fanbase an event from Sao Paulo, Brazil known as Fury Fighting Championships. The event was part of a three-fight package at ProElite.com that also included Cage Rage 24 and will include Icon Sport coming up on December 15th. Since my Chicago Bears were running their horrible offense into the ground, Fury FC was on my platter for the evening, and it was more impressive than I actually expected.
Entertainment shock value
One of the more provocative entertainment events I've seen in some time was definitely the Fury FC 5 event. Before any of the fights began, Fury FC set up a Brazilian model competition that strutted nearly 30 or 40 girls onto a runway to show off their Brazilian hotness in ju-jitsu gis. Later, it was learned that the promotion's owner also owned a gi company, hence the connection. After a small photo op with the girls in gis, the event moved on to the swimsuit competition. Let me just say that ring girls galore isn't exactly something people really care about, but 30-40+ Brazilian models strutting their bodies down a runway and selling their assets is hard to avoid. All in all, not relevant to MMA, but I must say, interesting concept to get people in the seats.
Fight card delivered
After the flaunting of Brazilian models on the runway, the card was underway with two Muay Thai fights in which one resulted in a fairly fast knockout. After some exciting exchanges, the event moved onto the MMA portion that was very interesting for a number of reasons. First, the Under 83 KG tournament featured two big name MMA camps, Brazilian Top Team and Chute Box. Specifically, Rousimar "Toquinho" Palhares of BTT and Daniel Acacio of Chute Box. From early reports before the event, a bet was made between the two camps. Rudimar, head guy at Chute Box, bet Mario Sperry a Toyota Land Cruiser or known as a very expensive Lexus SUV in the States that Daniel Acacio would win the Middleweight tournament. Sperry accepted the bet and said that "Toquinho" would win the tournament.
With this huge bet on the line, both fighters had the possibility of matching up against each other in the tournament's final. This made the event a bit more personal for both fighters. Acacio defeated Andre Mikito in the first tournament fight of the evening after Mikito basically exhausted himself and gave up. Acacio put the beatdown on him rather convincingly. "Toquinho" easily disposed of Fabio "Negao" Nascimento by a stunningly quick ankle lock that appeared to have injured Fabio badly once he tapped out. Fabio was visibly in a lot of pain and had to be helped up and out of the ring due to the injury. The two wins set up a Brazilian Top Team vs. Chute Box final that actually had fans watching on ProElite.com getting excited for such an obscure event that people really haven't seen.
In the championship battle, Rousimar "Toquinho" Palhares showed that Brazilian Top Team is superior and that he is the #1 Middleweight in Brazil. Much like his previous fight, he worked Acacio into the corner, and then quickly moved to an ankle lock and twisted. Acacio tapped out immediately, earning "Toquinho" the victory, the equivalent to $40,000 American, the much revered bet between Sperry and Rudimar, and hugs and kisses from his beautiful fiancee in the ring. It was a great tournament with some excitement and added hype due to the bet.
Other matchups
There were some other notable fights to mention. In the alternate bout, Jorge Michelan submitted Leandro Batata with an armbar from the guard in round 1. Michelan, although visibly less beefy than Batata, was able to use a slick ground game to defeat him. Impressively, Antonio Braga Neto completely dominated Fabiano Antorino and ended up defeating him by key lock. Neto mounted Antorino multiple times, had his back multiple times, and was beating on him extensively. Antorino somehow defended some of the rear naked attempts, but Neto eventually mounted him again and again and wore out Antorino.
In the international bout of Brazil vs. Japan, Rodrigo Ruiz took on Otsuka Takafumi. The Japanese fighter didn't melt under the pressure of the Brazilian crowd as he stopped Ruiz by strikes in the second round. He showed some great well-rounded mixed martial arts skills during his fight and some considerable ground tactics as well. After the fight, Takafumi was challenged by someone who entered the ring. If anyone can tell me who that was, it would be appreciated. Takafumi accepted the challenge, so we will probably see another international fight in Fury FC between Brazil and Japan.
Overall perception of the event
I was fairly impressed by the smaller Brazilian promotion. They definitely had some good production of the event. The camera work wasn't amazing and neither was the angles at times, but overall, not a bad deal at all. The ring was reminiscent of the PRIDE ring. White canvas with the sponsors labeled on it, brought back memories of PRIDE. The lighting was perfect for the matching, highlighting the fighters and not the crowd standing nearby.
There were some odd instances during some of the fights. One in particular was that there wasn't people around the ring for support on the sidelines like PRIDE had. The referee was responsible for watching hands grabbing the ropes with no real help from the outside. This wasn't a big problem however. The bigger problem was that during one of the Acacio fights, his opponent fell out of the ring onto the floor and hurt his back to an extent. He had to be helped back into the ring and then given some time to recover.
Overall, some good talent, great fights, an exciting tournament with the added wager story also involved, and of course, Brazilian models in bikinis before the fight. Well, irrelevant to say the least. What was relevant was that the promotion did a pretty good job producing this event, although the commentary was horrible and the camera work was less than stellar. ProElite is rumored to now be interested in buying the promotion, and it may work out to be a great idea in getting Brazilian talent into the MMA mix. Thumbs up!