MMA is in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the Arab Emirates, to stay, and made some noise in getting there.
Following April’s UFC 112, Abu Dhabi Fight Club made its debut with a respectable card featuring the likes of Jeff Monson, Rameau Sokoudjou and other international stars.
Jeff Monson and burly Russian Shamil. Photo: Publicity
But the one who made the most noise was a Brazilian, a Rio de Janeiro native living in the country teaching Jiu-Jitsu to children. With a potent punch 17 seconds into the fight, Marcão Oliveira knocked out France’s Johan Romming and is now one of the favorites to win the ADFC GP, with a one million dirham (350,000 dollars) reward at stake. For the knockout, Marcos took home close to 13,000 dollars.
But the most heavily anticipated bout of the evening left something to be desired. Jeff Monson faced a game Shamil Abdurahimov, and the less-famous Russian opponent proved his worth, beating Monson by unanimous judges’ decision.
Another big name on the card with his hands full was Rameau Sokodjou, who was caught off guard by a battery of solid kicks from the USA’s Dave Herman. However, Dave threw two knees to his opponent’s head while the Cameroonian was grounded, and was duly disqualified. It wasn’t the way he wanted to win, but Sokoudjou goes through to the October-15 semifinal in Abu Dhabi.
In the first bout of the tournament, England’s Neil Wain knocked out Poland’s Przemyslaw Mysiala at 4 minutes of the second round, and is still in the running.
The evening couldn’t come to a close without an exhibition of local talent. And Hassan Al Rumaithi, adoptive son of Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed, went balls to the wall against his Italian opponent, mounting and concluding the fight with strikes.
Now the best submission of the night went to Brazil’s Maiky Reiter, another South American living in Abu Dhabi. He quickly dispatched his Iranian opponent with a first-round submission.
Check out the complete results and share your predictions: who should face who in October’s GP semifinals?
ADFC 1
ADNEC, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
May 14, 2010
GP – 1st Stage
Marcos Oliveira knocked out Johan Romming 17 seconds into R1
Neil Wain knocked out Przemyslaw Mysiala at 4min of R2
Rameau Sokoudjou defeated Dave Herman via disqualification
Shamil Abdurahimov defeated Jeff Monson via unanimous judges’ decision
Other fights
Hassan Al Rumaithi defeated Silvino Valenti via desistance (strikes from the mount)
Malik Omarov knocked out Arzan Quasid at 1:20 min of R1
Michele Mirabella defeated Aymen Ben Ali via TKO in R2
Maiky Reiter submitted Abbas Molhah at 1:53 min of R1