Henning Svendsen vs. Jim Wallhead (Welterweight)

An underrated grappler, Roughouse fighter Wallhead instead used his fists to bash Scandinavian Svendsen to defeat in 2:06 of the first round.  Wallhead had a major height and reach advantage and used them, along with his disciplined boxing to hurt Svendsen with a nice left hand.  Stuffing a desperate takedown attempt, Wallhead then unloaded with a barrage of lefts and rights by the fence for an impressive TKO win in an action-packed opener.

Paul Rodgerson vs. Aaron Behan (Featherweight)

Doncaster based Rodgerson made a winning debut, stopping the local favourite 1:34 into the second round.  Behan dominated the opening session, taking late replacement Rodgerson down early and throwing fast, if ineffective, shots on the ground.  Rodgerson defended well though and was going for a triangle choke as time expired.  Behan again took his opponent down early in the second, but was quickly reversed.  From there, Rodgerson threw plenty of soft-looking punches and elbows until the referee intervened for the TKO.

Sami Berik vs. Samy Schiavo (Lightweight)

Frenchman Schiavo totally outclassed the eccentric Berik, finishing him with a rear naked choke2:32 into the fight.  Schiavo countered a kick to the body with a perfect takedown and quickly shifted into side mount.  He then worked skilfully for the submission; softening up Berik with some good punches to the head before applying the choke for a truly dominant win that snapped a 3-fight losing streak for the talented Schiavo.

Brett Healey vs. Ray De Burgh (Featherweight Cage Kickboxing)

Locals Healy and De Burgh (who looks like a mini-Marvin Eastman) went to a majority draw in a crowd-pleasing scrap under kickboxing rules.  Fought over 3 x 3 minute rounds, this was a high-energy, evenly matched brawl where both men went all out for the finish.  Technically raw at times, the action was still non-stop and certainly got the crowd excited.

David Bielkheden vs. Steve Dawson (Welterweight)

Sweden’s fearsome Bielkheden served up the night’s most brutal finish, leaving Dawson fast asleep on the mat after a pair of vicious right hands just 50 seconds into their predictably one-sided fight.  The smaller, less experienced Dawson stepped in with just a couple of days notice (after injury forced Ross Mason to pull out) and never looked like troubling one of Europe’s very best fighters.  Bielkheden dropped him with a heavy right hand almost immediately and followed up with some heavy shots on the ground.  Dawson somehow survived long enough to land an illegal upkick (Bielkheden’s knees were down) but once they were separated and restarted on the ground, Bielkheden was clinical and merciless.  Bielkheden excels at striking through an opponents guard and a nasty right hand was enough to KO Dawson.  Making sure, Bielkheden followed up with another.  Immediately put in a recovery position by referee Marc Goddard, Dawson got fast medical attention and got up after a couple of minutes.  Still looking wobbly, one of his teammates hoisted him up by the waist and carried him down the ramp.

Marcelo Salazar vs. Alex Cook (Middleweight)

Wolfslair fighter Cook scored the first of his team’s three wins TKOing Salazar 3:02 into the second round.  He had to survive a tough first round though.  Salazar floored him with a right hand early and went on to dominate the opening session with some good wrestling and fluid submission attempts.  One dramatic sequence saw them rolling across the mat with Salazar going for leglocks and Cook desperately defending.  Salazar took him down in the second as well.  Another Salazar takedown seemed to confirm his dominance but as he sat back, looking for another leglock, Cook escaped and seized his chance.  Landing on top the Englishman wasted no time in pounding on his opponent.  Oddly, Salazar’s mat skills seemed to completely desert him as he just lay there, taking shots and offering no defence, forcing the stoppage.  Whether tired or just terrible at defending once in a bad position, Salazar’s behaviour seemed odd but Cook earned his impressive come-from-behind win.

Dorian Lapaj vs. Chris Rice (Middleweight)

This was awful.  An unusually flat, uninspiring Rice took a unanimous decision over the inexperienced Lapaj but really, neither deserved a win as they did so little.  The first round was pretty good with Lapaj busy with kicks and utterly relentless with a guillotine attempt.  However, late in the round both men were on the feet, circling, stalking and posturing but not actually doing anything.  Unfortunately, they did the same thing for the rest of the fight.  A tired Lapaj seemed interested only in backing away while the methodical appeared content to flick out some jabs and the odd leg kick.  The generous Sky Dome crowd of more than 2000 fans only started booing this feeble contest in the third, but by the final bell, they were heartily sick of it.  Rice took the decision based on having done slightly more but this was a major disappointment.

Jakob Lovstad vs. Henrique Nogueira (Light heavyweight)

‘Striking Viking’ Lovstad took a pasting from Mike Bisping last year but got a little revenge on his Wolfslair teammate Nogueira with a 3rd round submission win.  ‘Chocolate’ Nogueira took the first, if only by taking Lovstad down quickly and maintaining the dominant position for much of a slow opening round.  Repeated guard passes from the Brazilian were fended off by the lanky Norwegian and by the end of the round Nogueira was noticeably more tired.  Lovstad landed a good knee to Nogueira’s belly early in the second and after blocking a takedown, took the Brazilian’s back.  Unable to sink in a choke, Lovstad neatly switched to a full mount and threw several solid punches.  Some appeared to lack power but the sheer accumulation of shots were taking the fight out of a gassed out Nogueira.  With many of his punches and elbows blocked, Lovstad went for an armbar and when Nogueira escaped, Lovstad was back on top and bashing away (though many of him weren’t exactly powerful) as Nogueira went completely into survival mode.  A big round for Lovstad (anyone who thinks the first round of Penn-GSP should have been scored 10-8 needs to see this for comparison), I did not expect Nogueira to come out for the final five minutes.  Bravely, he did, but the utterly exhausted ‘Chocolate’ quickly fell prey to another submission attempt by the busy, well-rounded Lovstad and the fight ended with a rear naked choke just 47 seconds into the round.

Hakim Gouram vs. Gulyas Zsolt (Light Heavyweight)

Bald, short and tubby, Hungarian Zsolt looked like an overgrown baby compared to the lithe, clearly well conditioned Gouram.  Gouram countered Zsolt’s charging takedown with some nice clinch work and an amusing attempt to throw Zsolt headfirst through the fence.  It quickly became obvious Gouram (based in Holland and with Fabiano Scherner in his corner) was the better fighter and he secured a takedown of his own before going for an armbar.  Zsolt stopped that but Gouram easily shrugged off the resulting Kimura attempt and instead set up another armbar, this time finishing it off perfectly for the submission win 1:38 into the round.

Markus Hipp vs. Mario Neto (Heavyweight)

Wolfslair boss ‘Sukata’ Neto just walked through MMA debutant Hipp for the night’s quickest finish in a mere 36 seconds.  An aggressive ‘Sukata’ immediately got a beautiful double leg takedown before unleashing a ferocious barrage of lefts and rights by the fence.  Hipp never stood a chance and after what seemed like 20 or 30 punches, Marc Goddard ended the slaughter to the delight of the crowd and what appeared to be the entire Wolfslair.

CWFC Welterweight title: Dan Hardy vs. Diego Gonzales

Roughouse welterweight and CWFC champion Hardy made no mistakes this time as he took some sweet revenge on Gonzales in their grudge match, forcing the TKO just 19 seconds into the third of what looked like developing into another Hardy classic.  There was no touching of gloves this time as both men came out fast.  Gonzales hit an early takedown and had Hardy on his back against the fence.  It was a rough couple of minutes for the Nottingham entertainer as Gonzales was all over him, working for position and landing one or two hard elbows.  A Hardy reversal saw Gonzales on his back, holding guard and pressed against the fence.  With supporters screaming for Hardy to back out of danger he threw some beautiful elbows which the slick, dangerous Gonzales took before going for an armbar.  Using his near-miraculous ability to avoid submissions for the first time of the night, Hardy pulled his arm free and punished the Swede with a couple of left-handed hammerfists, some hard right elbows and a couple of bodyshots.  Again Gonzales went for an armbar and this was already started to look much like Hardy’s total war with Matt Thorpe last November where he won the vacant belt.  In response to Hardy’s busy punching to head and body, Gonzales started swiping away with backhands before going for his third armbar.  Again, Hardy defended with poise and shrugged off some short elbows from the bottom before landing some serious left hands just before the bell.  An excellent first round that Hardy earned with his greater striking success.

Round two started with Gonzales doing surprisingly well in the striking exchanges.  He landed some nice punches before going for a takedown and after dealing with Hardy’s sprawl and a peppering of punches to the head, Gonzales finally got it and Hardy was on his back pressed up against the fence.  Working in Hardy’s half-guard, Gonzales threw a good short elbow but Hardy used the opening to take full guard.  Some excellent groundwork from Gonzales saw him going for a rear naked choke and some great defence by Hardy saw him escape, reverse positions and put Gonzales on his back.  Hardy worked in some good strikes with his right hand, going for a variety of punches, elbows and hammerfists.  A pair of fast armbar attempts by Gonzales couldn’t break through Hardy’s patient, composed defence and ‘the Outlaw’ scored with a couple more right hands before Gonzales went for yet another armbar from the guard.  A fast sequence of right hands, a vicious elbow, some punches to head and body had Gonzales covering up as the round ended.  Again, Hardy’s never-ending striking earned him the round but judge’s verdicts were unnecessary here as early in the third round (of a scheduled five) Hardy landed high kick and they both tumbled to the mat.  Whether it was that or a follow-up strike from Hardy, I couldn’t tell but he opened up a huge gash over Gonzales’ right eye, forcing a stoppage and giving a slightly anti-climactic ending to a thrilling fight.

CWFC Super Heavyweight title: Antonio Silva vs. Tadas Rimkevicius

The monstrous Silva gave Rimkevicius what is becoming his trademark first round mauling, defending his title with a TKO win 3:23 into the fight.  They swapped jabs early and the Lithuanian at least landed one good punch on the Wolfslair behemoth (it’s more than most people have managed) but Silva replied with a heavy jab of his own before throwing out a high kick and then going for a takedown.  Huge, immensely strong and with very solid technique, few people can stop Silva’s takedowns and Rimkevicius was no different.  Dumped on his back, with half-guard and pressed against the fence Rimkevicius was in trouble.  Silva threw a couple of hard lefts before landing a big right hand to the face and keeping up the pressure with several more lefts and rights.  It was obvious Rimkevicius was on the way out and a devastating barrage of some 11 right hands (9 of them hammerfists) ended it in brutal style.