Recap – Colosseum Combat XXXIV

Colosseum Combat XXXIV sold out the National Guard Armory in Kokomo, Indiana on Saturday night, where the standing room only crowd witnessed 11 action-packed fights.

Check out a full recap of the event below.

Performance Awards

Performance of the Night: Jameson Sharp
Fight of the Night: Jameson Sharp vs. Daniel Head
Submission of the Night: Cameron VanCamp
Knockout of the Night: Chris Heffernan
Dollar Beard Club Beard of the Night: (Ring Announcer) Brady Davis

For full results from Colosseum Combat XXXIV, click here.

Sharp Striking

Jameson Sharp (3-0) stepped in the cage Saturday night with less experience than his opponent with this only being his third pro fight and Daniel Head (12-11) coming in to his 23rd professional fight. Also many thought that he was the underdog for the fight but none of that was a factor to Sharp.

Sharp striking was the key to his victory Saturday night. He cut Head late in the first round that caused him to have  trouble seeing and Sharp took advantage.

Sharp even showed great takedown defense throughout the night, only getting taken down twice but he mangeg to get to his feet both occasions. Head was able to hold down Sharp in the third round but with 45 seconds left Sharp got to his feet and ended the third round with a great combination of punches. The judges scored the fight 30-27, 30-27 and 29-28, while we had it 29-28.

Next Champ?

Jeremy Pender (12-11) and Brandon Clawson (3-2) met Saturday night for the main event at Colosseum Combat XXXIV. This bout had a lot of hype behind it and they didn’t let the crowd down. It was a back and forth war in and in the first round Pender got cut above his left ear, causing him to bleed all over his opponent.

But Pender came out in the second and was able to take Clawson’s back and sink in the rear naked choke and put him to sleep.

With this being Pender’s second win in a row with Mark Slater the talk has come up of his next fight being for the Colosseum Combat Bantamweight Championship. Lloyd Carter who won the Bantamweight title over another Cincinnati native back last year at Colosseum Combat XXXI would set a great main event at the next event.

Rising amateurs

Casey Schile (1-1) found his first win in the cage when he jumped to guard and switched to a arm bar, getting the tap out win. I’m usually not a big fan of pulling guard in a MMA fight but he had a game plan and pulled it off flawlessly.

Six foot tall Damion Swoke (6-0) moved his record up to an impressive 6-0 Saturday night after his TKO victory over Randall Shaffer (0-2). Swoke’s striking was on point and had a capoeira feel to it with a lot of spinning kicks and foot work always working. Swoke even showed some great takedowns throughout the fight that helped him win the fight. Swoke is definitely a name to keep a eye on and he may be looking for a title fight in the near future.

Kyle VanCamp (8-4) pulled of a comeback win when he found himself in trouble with the submission game of Craig Edmonson (1-1). But he did’t panic and got back on top and finished the fight in the first with the referee pulling him off of his opponent.

The fight between Mahu Mendoza (2-1-1) and Champ Janson Golighty (4-1-1) was a rematch fight for the Amateur Bantamweight Title from CC XXXI where that fight ended in a Unanimous Draw. This fight almost ended the same way.

Mahu was warned in the first round for an accidental knee to the head to a ground opponent and then at the end of the second Golighty secured an arm bar with about 15 seconds left and Mahu did the right thing by using his other hand so his arm wouldn’t get extended, but in the middle of him doing that he was trying to use his foot to kick Golighty’s grip apart and kicked him in the head a couple times.

The bell rang to end the second and the ref took Mahu to the middle of the ring and deducted a point. We had Mahu winning the first round and the second but with that point deduction we had it it 19-18. So the fight went to the third round and early in the round Goilighty got the take down and looked like we were going to have another draw but during the takedown an horrible event happened when Mahu dislocated his elbow and he had to verbally tap due to it and Golighty got to keep his belt.

We talked to Colosseum Combat promoter Mark Slater after the event and asked him if he had the next event scheduled yet and his response was no but he did tell us that he was in talks with a much bigger venue. That was great news because he had to turn away people at the door.

Stay tuned to BluegrassMMA and we will let you know when Colosseum Combat XXXV will be happening.