Gladiator Challenge “Cross-Fire”

Gladiator Challenge was looking for a home in Southern California. They signed a four fight contract with Casino Pauma and proceeded to have their “housewarming party” on Saturday, October 25^th in the form of a fourteen fight card: “Cross Fire”

For San Diego MMA fans and participants, there isn’t much more you can ask for… Gladiator Challenge puts on a professional show with high quality fighters and they have found a convenient and unique atmosphere in Casino Pauma.

Here is a rundown of just a few of the highlights from “Cross Fire.”

First off, it’s pretty clear you showed up on a special night when, around 15 minutes before any punches landed, there is an announcement that during intermission a film crew will be shooting footage for an upcoming MMA movie from Lionsgate films. The announcement got better when it was mentioned that a former Gladiator Challenge fighter, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson was in the house since he is in the movie.

Jackson’s presence is a good reminder that, when you are watching Gladiator Challenge, there is a good chance you are watching not only a future Gladiator Challenge champion but, quite possibly, a UFC champ or contender. The pipeline from Gladiator Challenge to the PPV juggernaut is well established.

Around 7:25, announcer Tyson Johnson climbed into the cage and announced the first fight between two 185 lbers, Robert Spangler and Mike Arrellano. The fight started with a hearty and furious exchange of kicks between the two fighters. It wasn’t too long, however, before the fight went to the mat and Arrellano started to dominate. The ground and pound quickly followed and then after just 54 seconds of cage fighting, the fight was stopped due to a verbal tapout.

Just seconds before the end of this fight, metaphor became reality, as an actual – not a proverbial – towel was thrown into the ring.

Some other highlights and observations:

It was great to see some local fighters get a chance to fight in front of a highly supportive home crowd. Robby Peralta from “Escondido by way of San Pasqual” entered the cage to a raucous crowd. His opponent, Willie Gates, walked in to a number of “boo”s (assumedly from the Peralta supporters). This fight had a fantastically manic beginning as both fighters rushed to the middle of the cage and started hurtling out frenetic punches at each other. Shortly after, Peralta slammed Gates down and, while holding Gates in side control, introduced a few knees to Gates’ ribs. Gates was able to sneak in some punches and even had Peralta held down for a bit. Peralta rolled on top though and began to connect with multiple fists and elbows until the fight was stopped for a first round TKO.

Gates stayed down on the mat for a while and was eventually helped out of the ring. This allowed and incited the San Pasqual supporters to get charged up for the next fight between David Diaz and their own Virgil Zwicker. Diaz also entered the cage with a healthy amount of support so this fight between the two heavyweights looked like it had some potential to be a crowd favorite.

Zwicker had one of the more inspiring entrances of the night. He approached the cage while followed by someone hoisting a San Pasqual flag. It sounded as if his entrance music was (and my apologies if I am mistaken) traditional Native American. At this point the crowd really started hopping. A large number of the spectators got to their feet while the 215 lb Diaz glared at the 220 lb Zwicker. At the start of the fight, Zwicker landed a big kick and then slammed Diaz down. Diaz had Zwicker in half-guard as he was pushed up to the fence. Zwicker took Diaz’s back but, somehow, Diaz was able to Houdini his way out. Even he got up, Zwicker took Diaz right back down to the mat and mashed him with some devastating elbows. Then Zwicker took Diaz’s back again and tapped him out with a choke.

There were some fights that were over fast -

Eric baker displayed some slick reflexes when he ducked a punch and decided he might as well take the opportunity to throw his opponent, Daniel Mancha, to the mat. He did, took Mancha’s back and then forced Mancha to tapout 48 seconds into the first round.

After marching out to “Nothin’ But a Good Time,” heavyweight Steve Walston must have decided his entrance music was prophetical because a good time is exactly what he had while facing Cory Parisi. Parisi, in a rare MMA moment, decided to fight with his shirt on. It didn’t matter, in this shirts vs skins showdown, Walston punched him, pushed him, tripped him, slammed his face into the cage and eventually took Parisi’s back and choked him out just 1:20 into the fight.

Georgie Karkhanyan showed that up by 8 seconds when he faced Jeffery Sanchez. At one point, Karkhanyan picked Sanchez up, turned 90 degrees and slammed Sanchez down. This fight ended with Sanchez pounding his fist on the mat to tapout which I assume is never a good sign.

Jack Miles used a couple of vicious knees to propel him to a victory just 1:31 into the first round while Richard Schiller had to resort to an arm bar to finish off Joe Frainee in just 2 minutes and 20 seconds.

The first of two title fights had James Wilks marching into the cage (followed by a giant British flag) to challenge Welterweight Champion Mike Robles. This fight had some interesting dichotomies. For starters, Wilks is 6’1” tall and Robles is 5’7” so, when they had their “stare down moment” while the referee gave his “clean fight” spiel, Wilks practically had to bend over to stare Robles in the eyes. It was a noticeable hunch and did not seem to bode very well for the champ. However, as the fight started, Robles came out and dominated the first round from the outset, throwing Wilks up against the cage and, after some nice knees, Robles slammed him to the ground. All of a sudden, there was Mike Robles, towering over his downed opponent just waiting to fling down a calculated fist. It was a nice reversal of the “stare down” image.

Unfortunately for the champ, when I said the plural “dichtomies” it was because the other dichotomy that came to mind was round one versus round two. While Robles owned most of round one, it was round two where Wilks began to take control. Near the end of the second round Wilks landed a calculated left and Robles fell to the floor. Wilks pounced on both opportunity and opponent and began to pepper Robles with punches. Apparently, though, Wilks wanted to win in a different fashion because he suddenly abandoned his gravity-aided blows to go for a submission which, at 4:27 into the second round, is exactly what he got. Right after the tapout, the two fighters embraced for a few seconds in the center of the ring. Then they announced James “Lightning” Wilks as the new champ. Congrats.

In the other championship fight, where Saad Awad battled Kyle Olsen, a key MMA unwritten rule was further brought to light. That rule is – Do not enter the ring in a mask or a costume. For some inexplicable reason, doing so pretty much guarantees you will leave the ring a costumed or masked loser. There may be exceptions but there weren’t any on this night. Kyle “Spider Man” Olsen came into the cage in some sort of Spider Man garb and there were even some sprays of silly-stringesque “web” seen as he walked up. I’m not saying I don’t find that stuff entertaining. It added to the atmosphere. It was amusing. Olsen seems like a likeable guy. It just, for some reason, doesn’t work. If you want to wear a costume, be a mascot. If you want to wear a mask, audition for “Phantom of the Opera.” Don’t bring it to your MMA fight. I shouldn’t complain of course. It is entertaining and it almost always assures that we, the audience, will get to see a serious and exciting beat-down.

Sure enough, the “Costume Curse” took another victim as Awad quickly annihilated Olsen the arachnid. If the costume didn’t cast an adequately ominous shadow over this fight the first punch did. Awad came out, held up his left hand in the air and promptly landed a heavy right. Needless to say, it only took one minute and fourteen seconds for Awad to take Olsen down, punch him for a bit and then force him to tap. Awad climbed to the top of the cage and celebrated the beginning of his reign as the new lightweight champ.

All in all it was a quality night with big excitement. Even more exciting is there are more fights to come in the partnership between Gladiator Challenge and Pauma Casino. Every San Diego MMA fan should be there for the next one.

Until the next fight breaks out.

185 lbs
Mike Arrellano def Robert Spangler
54 sec. 1st round. Verbal tapout

155 lbs
Brad Ball vs Luis Iniguez
2nd round Draw (Split Decision)

145 lbs
Jack Miles def Joe Bartholic
1:31 1st round. Ref Stoppage

155 lbs
Chris Gomez def Tyler Markel
1:55 2nd round. Armbar

170 lbs
Eric Baker def Daniel Mancha
48 sec 1st round. Tapout

135 lbs
Andrew Brown def Dan Cote
1:56 2nd round. Tapout (Rear Naked Choke)

135 lbs
Robby Peralta def Willie Gates
3:51 1st round. TKO

HWT
Virgil Zwicker def David Diaz
1:41 1st round. Tapout

135 lbs
Dillion Croushorn vs Matt Merrill
2nd Round. Split Decision

HWT
Steve Walston def Cory Parisi
1:20 1st round. Tapout

155 lbs
Richard Schiller def Joe Frainee
2:20 1st round. Tapout (Arm Bar)

150 lbs
Georgie Karkhanyan def Jeffery Sanchez
1:12 1st round. Tapout.

175 lbs “Title Fight”
James Wilks def Mike Robles
4:27 2nd round. Tapout (Submission)

155 lbs “Title Fight”
Saad Awad def Kyle Olsen
1:14 1st round. Tapout