Brought to you by Brad Taylor @btaylor868
It was a fantastic night of action at Shock N Awe 14 from the Mountbatten Centre in Portsmouth, as the up-and-coming James ‘Power Weasel’ Pennington (pictured) won back his Shock N Awe Bantamweight Title, defeating Ben Crook in the main event.
After a couple of trades, Pennington landed a spinning back fist and took complete control on a rocked Crook. Working the ground and pound, he opened up Crook and smashed his way through Crook’s guard.
With Crook beaten down, Pennington slipped from his top mounted position into a side control and then floated over into an armbar. Crook had no choice but to tap with six seconds left in the round.
Pennington’s performance was impressive and he now carries extra momentum going into the Cage Warriors Bantamweight tournament on September 14th.
It was the co-main event that stole the show as Benny Carr (pictured above) overcame Kieran Rice in a war of a fight.
Welterweight Carr bought with him a 150-strong contingency and the atmosphere was electric as the Exile-based star made his entrance. Rice, who recently joined Portsmouth’s Gym01, did well to not show even a twinge of fear as “Benny! Benny!” chants rang throughout the start of the fight.
The first round was mostly a close affair, Rice dominated the clinches and ground game but a late slam into back control from Carr almost gave him a submission victory, but the bell rang before anything significant could be locked in.
Then, with the crowd pumped, the second round started with Carr looking to hit a swinging back fist but just missing. A takedown from a clinch gave Carr another chance to take Rice’s back but Rice countered and took over the mount. Carr guarded well and despite a neck crank, Carr managed to get up and rocked Rice with a huge right elbow.
With Rice dazed, Carr took complete control. Chaining punches, elbows and hammerfist blows. Rice looked done and when the referee broke it up the crowd thought the fight was over… Only to find out that the bell had gone for the end of the round.
Carr knew he had the fight in the bag at this point, and was searching for the finish. However, when everyone anticipated a Carr vicory, he almost found himself on the KO receiving end. Shooting a takedown, Carr was knocked down by a huge knee from Rice, who threatened to win it all with the “Hail Mary” comeback.
However, it wasn’t to be as Carr withstood the follow-up and got back up to his feet, where he quickly ended the fight by dropping Rice with a body shot and walking away, only for the reff to signal for Carr to further finish his fallen opponent. Carr reluctantly followed up with two blows to the head before the referee broke it up.
Both men got a standing ovation from members of the crowd and deservedly so. Throughout the fight the crowd never let up and when Carr finally put away Rice, his fans almost blew the roof off.
Also on the main card, Commonwealth Judo Champion, Brett Caswell (pictured above) made his second professional appearance in the cage, defeating Mark Handley by unanimous decision.
Caswell showcased his judo skills, in particular his takedown defence and power in the clinch. The highlight of the fight came towards the end when Caswell hit a full shoulder toss almost perfectly into an armbar just as the third round came to a close.
Although not victorious, Jefferson George supplied one of the night’s many highlights as he landed an audacious front kick on his opponent, Xavier Sedras, to open the third round.
Sedras had taken the fight to the ground and kept it there, but after George attempted a couple spinning heel kicks, Sedras shot in to take down a stumbling George. However, George had other ideas and his front kick shone resemblance to The Karate Kid’s famed crane kick but lacked the ferocity.
Soon after, Sedras took it back to the ground and won the fight via unanimous decision on the mat.
Ed Arthur destroyed Jamie in their bantamweight clash – with the fight being called at 1:51 into the first round.
Arthur caught Pritchard trying to stand up against the cage and landed a barrage of punches and knees to the head forcing a stoppage by the referee.
Flyweight Josh Bangert stopped Joe Laurence via rear naked choke, one of six seen across the entire card on the night. After splitting a round each, Bangert landed a knee to start the third and transitioned from full mount onto the back and the sunk in the hooks on Laurence 46 seconds into Round 3.
The other rear naked choke finish on the main card came from James Morris as he beat veteran Brett Healy at 4:56 into the first round of their featherweight clash. After rocking Healy and working the ground and pound, Morris shifted over into back mount and slipped the arms under the chin for the tap out.
A packed crowd, with some great fights and finishes, coupled with high-quality production value for a local promotion made sure that everyone went home happy and it was money very well spent. It’ll be a few months before the next Shock N Awe event and if they put on another card like this, it won’t be long until they need a bigger location.
Make sure you checkout all our Shock N’ Awe 14 post fight videos by clicking the LINK
PHOTO CREDIT: Mark Blundell http://markblundell.photoshelter.com/gallery-collection/MMA/C0000nC1mQ8mV90g
