Bantamweight: Mike Wootten (7-0) vs Antoine Gallinaro (7-1)
The Victoria Warehouse, Manchester. Sept 13 – Typical of the 135lb division, the contest began with energetic movement and strikes from both fighters in a feeling out process before Liverpool’s Wootten snatched a single leg takedown heading in to his opponent’s guard from where elbows were dropped upon the face of Gallinaro.
The Frenchman got back to his feet and suddenly stunned Wootten with a straight right hand. Gallinaro looked for the finish and pulled a guillotine choke attempt, but was unable to complete the submission, allowing Wootten to regain control of the round with more strikes from within his opponent’s guard.
Prior to round two the cutman did some good work on the face of Wootten who’d sustained a potentially worrying cut upon his eyelid. The Englishman came out and avoided taking punishment to the eye by once again out-grappling the sambo black belt to secure another takedown against the fence. Controlling his opponent on the ground, Wootten buried his face away from harm against the chest of Gallinaro before opening up with bursts of ground and pound. Wootten’s strikes became increasingly more vicious until Gallinaro gave up his back allowing Wootten to sink in a rear naked choke submission.
