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Rumble at the Roseland 51

Rumble 51 opened with a subtly different energy than previous events. Chalk it up to a short card and, therefore, a light house with 1/3 less of the matchups that usually bring rival camps and enthusiastic family to the stands.  Or it could be due to Matt Lindland's headlining of Strikeforce at the Rosegarden during the previous night's live broadcast. Too, the Strikeforce event included FCFF favorites Jason Sharp and Pro Escobedo on the undercard, plus other hometown stars, so Portland's MMA weekend dollars were stretched thin.

But the Rumble event did not suffer for talent and drama. TSN's Jeff Alden started the card, pairing up with Roury Hanaoka in the first fight. It seems like the Aldens are popular openers for FCFF- but Jeff's top level strategy was countered in an unexpected upset; Roury Hanaoka's great boxing and wrestling hid a secret talent for BJJ, delivering to Alden a defeat via triangle, early in the second round. In the bout two, Team Quest's Brad Hannah threw a fast, well-timed inside kick that set up his Lincoln City opponent, Chuck  Cooper, for a TKO. Hannah gave props to a clearly disappointed Cooper, saying of the powerful looking Cooper, "he's a beast", and Hannah was glad to have caught an early opportunity to neutralize him.

Team TSN quickly took back their high ground with Tyler Piertzyk's win over Joe Perkins. The fight proceeded with surprisingly fast paced barrages where great moves from both fighters managed takedowns and reversals that ended with a Rearnaked Choke and a Tapout from Perkins. West Coast 503 brought out Chris Kidby with their usual high energy and crowd pumping, and Kidby rolled that boost into a fast start, and a double leg take down of David Garibay. Garibay responded with his own cool headed try at a triangle. But Kidby couldn't be stopped and regained side control that gave him the eventual high mount, and then he just let loose, at will, with his fists. The fight was stopped at 1:58 in Round One, with a TKO due to strikes.

Bout five showed the crowd some great slams and big escapes between Raul Camacho and Fortino Sanchez. Check out the 'images' link  Rumble 51, page 5, and you'll see a series of stills that could come straight from a UFC recap- lots of aerial moves and sheer grit.

The fight moved fast, at one point with Camacho taking a top position, then flipping to Sanchez in top control, then again; the two battled back and forth furiously- double legs into slams, chokes into flips- right into Round three and a final, fast guillotine by Sanchez over Camacho for the Tapout. A nice start for Sanchez, a newcomer to mma, who is fresh off from his career as a High school wrestler.

The sixth fight saw a split decision go to Touch M Up's Janna Piper over Maygen Sato, who drove all the way from Idaho. The crowd was clearly divided over the decision, Sato putting up a skilled defense to Piper's almost driven determination. Sato arrived at weigh-ins solitary and focused, looking like the lean and cool eyed competitor that she was in the fight. But Piper's furious pace won the day.

In bout seven, Cody Randall showed his grounding as a collegiate wrestler, and a coach at OSU, against Geo Davenport. Using good side control and an eye to the scoring via a steady hammer fist, Randall took the win over Davenport in 1:55 of Round one with a Tapout due to strikes. Then it was Baker and McAlexander- billed as a kind of grudge match. What  proceeded was rousing  and entertaining battle between two big guys that ended with Baker's win over McAlexander in 2:25 of Round One; aTKO due to strikes.

The Welterweight Championship bout saw Chad James ushered into the cage by Scott McQuarry in full Team Quest regalia via his corner gear sporting Clinch Gear and Full Tilt Poker logos. The crowd was reminded of James' coaching pedigree, fresh off the Team Quest representation at the previous night's Strikeforce, broadcast nationally from the Rosegarden Arena. Unfazed by the competition's showy gear, CJ Beard from Idaho looked prepared and ready to fight. Both competitors broke out of the corners so fast that if you blinked you might have missed it. But what a 19 seconds! Chad James got position first, though, with a wicked-fast arm bar on Beard, for the win. Beard left the cage visibly disappointed and the crowd was just as disappointed on his behalf, feeling robbed of a great contest by two, very prepared fighters. The crowd definitely wanted to see more of CJ Beard.

Rumble 51 got a look at the long absent Josh Bennett- a past Heavyweight Rumble star- as Team Quest's corner coach for Darrin Starks. But Starks' opponent, Touch M Up's Dominick Frederickson quickly took the Champion's belt for Middleweight, in a Round 1 Tapout due to Guillotine Choke.  But, regardless of the short duration, it was the fight of the night. Because, like the fight between Beard and James, what a oneminute, 32 seconds!

Both fighters came out with ferocious and fast grappling, ground game and more grappling. In the end, Starks kept his cool throughout a fierce headlock that might have defeated a less resilient fighter. Starks, unable to break Frederickson's grip, and Frederickson, finding an unwilling-to-tap Starks, drove Starks straight for the cage wall for an end-it-now slam. Starks deflected the slam, though, leaning into the headlock and using the backwards drive from Frederickson to climb two steps up the cage wall while still in Frederickson's headlock. Starks' horizontal drive, straight out- from halfway up cage wall- drove both fighters back to the center of the cage to land in a full stretch slam. And what composure in a clinch! Frederickson retained the Guillotine, while Starks was still conscious enough to tap. Later, at Henry's on Burnside, Starks said after Frederickson had sunk such a deep choke Starks was fighting on pure instinct before he knew it would be 'lights out'. He said he could feel the cage coming at his back and deployed the only offense left to him; climbing backwards up the cage wall, while locked in a full, standing Guillotine. It was a spectacular finish.

The 11th fight saw a swift KO to Jake Zeliff, by Kevin Fox that gave the Light Heavyweight belt to Kevin Fox in only 31 seconds, one of several swift bouts for the night. But the upset of the night was Patterson over Morris. Jake Morris, a long time FCFF favorite, met his wrestling waterloo in the pure mma striking of Touch M Up's Clint Patterson. Morris seemed unable to deflect the momentum of Patterson's whirlwind strikes and he found himself giving up his back, with no wrestling tools left in his toolbox, against a pure ground and pound flurry that ended in a TKO due to strikes.

Rumble 51's short card and creative match ups left nothing to be desired for a crowd who saw the best of everything a fan wants to see at a top level mixed martial arts competition. The FCFF never fails to please the mma appetite.

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