Toninho Fúria Unifies Bitetti Combat Belts

Toninho Fúria unifies two Bitetti Combat belts / GRACIEMAG archive photo

The Bitetti Combat promotion wrapped up 2012 this Sunday, Dec. 9, with a thrilling event at Rio de Janeiro’s Flamengo Gymnasium. The 13th installment of the MMA show featured riveting match-ups, two title belts at stake and a hard-fought flyweight GP. The featherweight champion of the event, Toninho Fúria, moved up a weight class to beat Andre Nogueira and unify the his belt with the lightweight strap. Also, Pedro Silveira overcame Sandro China to win the interim bantamweight belt, and Pedro Nobre won two fights on the night, becoming the flyweight GP champion.

The evening’s main event was between BTT’s Toninho Fúria, who had Murilo Bustamante and Milton Vieira in his corner, and Andre Nogueira, a Team Nogueira representative. The bout started out fast-paced, with Fúria going on the offensive without giving Nogueira a chance to respond. Doing well to absorb the punishment dished out by Fúria, Nogueira kept afloat and went into the second round better prepared. Nogueira started to pull the pieces together, landing solid takedowns and pounding from top position, but Fúria was relentless, working his way back to his feet every time his opponent would put him on his back. In round three Fúria brought on more pressure to cinch the fight, thus unifying the belts in two Bitetti Combat weight classes.

After the main event, the promoter, Amaury Bitetti, shared some words about the athletes.

“Great fight! Andrezinho held out until the end, but Toninho was also tough and won it. Both of them deserve to be in the UFC, that I’m sure of,” said Bitetti.

In the flyweight GP, Pedro Nobre, who took a close unanimous decision over Eduardo Kiko, went on to face Matheus Nicolau, a Nova União representative who qualified for the final by beating Denison Silva. The fight seemed evenly matched early in round one. The athletes traded blows on their feet until Nobre connected with a solid string of strikes on Nicolau, who kept his feet while eating strike after strike until the referee stepped in to signal a technical-knockout win for Nobre, winner of the under-57 kg GP.

Another highlight of the night was the hard-fought clash between Pedro Silveira and Sandro China. The judges had their work cut out for them in designating a winner, but ultimately Pedro was deemed champion of the bantamweight division by unanimous decision.

Following the event, Amaury Bitetti spoke about his plans for Bitetti Combat in 2013.

“We’ll see about doing an event in Recife, start going to new places, but Rio de Janeiro is our focus,” said the promoter.

Check out the complete results from Bitetti Combat 13

Bitetti Combat 13
Clube do Flamengo, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
December 9, 2012

• Toninho Fúria defeated Andre Nogueira via unanimous judges’ decision
• Pedro Silveira defeated Sandro China via unanimous judges’ decision
• Cristiano Ferrugem defeated Tiago Ximarú via technical knockout in R3
• Diego Davella subbed Marcio Cocada via arm-and-neck choke in R1

Flyweight GP

• Pedro Nobre defeated Mateus Nicolau via TKO in R1
• Mateus Nicolau defeated Denison Silva via unanimous judges’ decision
• Pedro Nobre defeated Eduardo Kiko via unanimous judges’ decision

Undercard

• André Minhoca subbed Eliel “Topete Dourado” via triangle in R1
• Isak Pimentel defeated Pablo dos Santos via knockout in R1
• Daniel Araújo defeated Jamilson Dadozinho via unanimous decision

Written by Carlos Arthur Jr.