BAMMA rocked the LG Arena in Birmingham last night, December 14, finishing off the year with BAMMA 14 and a highlight card packed with a host the UK’s best talent.
In the main event of the evening, top British welterweight Paul Daley (34-13-2) was back on BAMMA with another vintage ‘Semtex’ performance. Fronting his powerful stance, it wasn’t long before Daley targeted the lead leg of Brazil’s Romario Manoel da Silva (23-12), resulting in some noticeable bruising complete with a limp. Daley maintained the pressure with strikes from multiple angles to the head and body of Da Silva. Following a brief exchange, ‘Semtex’ faked a right hand before exploding with a left uppercut, sending his opponent upwards and unconscious before hitting the ground.
BAMMA World Lightweight Champion Mansour Barnaoui (11-2) surprised audiences with his destruction of UFC veteran Curt Warburton at BAMMA 13. Now far from a virtual unknown, the Frenchman they call ‘Tarzan’ took to his first championship defense against yet another UFC veteran Colin ‘Freakshow’ Fletcher (9-4).
‘Tarzan’ came out wildly with straight punches, Fletcher responded with shots of his own but was unable to catch up with the Frenchman’s pace. A strike saw Fletcher fall backwards, however the Englishman was back to his feet shortly after. Amazingly, the duo began to exchange once again. With a determined look upon his face Fletcher got the better of the encounter as the champion tumbled backwards. Down but not out, Barnaoui survived a D’arce Choke attempt and impressively countered to secure Fletcher’s back with a body-triangle. The champion masterfully adjusted to trap Fletcher’s arm (BJ Penn Style), before forcing a Rear Naked Choke submission.
Highly respected veteran ‘Judo’ Jim Wallhead (25-8) bounced back with a more aggressive performance, having lost a close split-decision to American Eddy Ellis for the BAMMA World Welterweight Championship at BAMMA 13. In rounds one and two the striking was fairly even as the rangy Florent Betorangal (14-9) attempted to out-strike the more experienced crowd favourite. Wallhead made the difference with takedowns from where he controlled the Frenchman on the ground. The scorecards may have been split upon the final round however, Wallhead snatched a memorable knockout in the third by pressing forward and securing a single leg against the cage, lifting his opponent and plunging him downwards. The shocking force of the takedown was enough to knock Betrognal unconscious.
Kicking off the main card, Max ‘Power’ Nunes (12-1) came out focused and determined to come back strongly from the first defeat off his career. Following a loss to Jason Jones back at BAMMA 13 for the World Light-Heavyweight Championship, the London based Swede came in 20lbs lighter having made the impressive drop to middleweight for the first time, a division of which the 6’3” contender looks perfectly suited to.
In a challenging contest Nunes took on BAMMA’s top 185lb contender, Romania’s Ion Pascu (7-4). Fighting with a clear hight and reach advantage, Nunes took to round one calmly and looked to surpress the explosive Pascu against the cage, also looking to land some stylish jumping knees from the clinch after a degree of ‘feeling out’ striking early on.
The bout took a turn in round two as Pascu dropped Nunes with a punch and proceeded to look for the finish. Having suffered a cut, Nunes covered his face and eventualy found his feet once again where the Swede wisely sat back and waited for the round to play out.
Round three came and Pascu appeared to be growing in confidence and builing momentum, however Nunes swiftly slipped under the Romanian’s strike and took full advantage of the takedown opportunity before maintaining the top position and firing strikes to claim a unanimous 29-28 decision victory.
Also on the card, the BAMMA Lonsdale British Welterweight Championship was up for grabs with Wayne ‘Mayhem’ Murrie (17-5) claiming the domestic crown with a first round victory over Michael Johnson by way of first round Rear Naked Choke in the first round.
Full results:
WELTERWEIGHT BOUT
PAUL DALEY DEF. ROMARIO MANOEL DA SILVA
VIA KO, RND 2, 1:42
BAMMA WORLD LIGHTWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP
MANSOUR BARNAOUI DEF. COLIN FLETCHER
VIA RNC, RND 1, 4:00
WELTERWEIGHT BOUT
JIMMY WALLHEAD DEF. FLORENT BETORANGAL
VIA KO (TAKEDOWN), RND 3, 21 SECONDS
MIDDLEWEIGHT BOUT
MAX NUNES DEF. ION PASCU
VIA UNANIMOUS DECISION 29-28
BAMMA LONSDALE BRITISH WELTERWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP
WAYNE MURRIE DEF. MICHAEL JOHNSON
VIA RNC, RND 1, 3:23
FEATHERWEIGHT BOUT
TOM DUQUESNOY DEF. JAMES SAVILLE
VIA REFEREE STOPPAGE, RND 2, 4:04
WELTERWEIGHT BOUT
LEON EDWARDS DEF. WENDLE LEWIS
VIA KO, RND 1, 1:20
MIDDLEWEIGHT BOUT
HARRY MCLEMAN DEF. MATT HOWARD
VIA UNANIMOUS DECISION, 30-27
FEATHERWEIGHT BOUT
ANDY CRAVEN DEF. ZI SHAH
VIA HEELHOOK, RND 1, 37 SECONDS
LIGHTWEIGHT BOUT
TIM WILDE DEF. JEFFERSON GEORGE
VIA TKO (CUTS), RND 1, 3:42
WELTERWEIGHT BOUT
TIM MENZIES DEF. JAMES SAMUDA
VIA STOPPAGE, RND 3, 3:16
MIDDLEWEIGHT BOUT
MATT HALLAM DEF. CURTIS WIDMER
VIA TKO, RND 1, 2:15
BANTAMWEIGHT BOUT
ED ARTHUR DEF. BEN REES
VIA TKO, RND 1, 5:00
Photos: Mark Blundell | BAMMA
