Beauty, action and technique sum up what was on offer at the WOCS promotion’s 14th show, this Saturday at Rio de Janeiro’s Flamengo club. With internationally-experienced athletes and a title bout, there was no lack of excitement.
In one of the most heavily anticipated fights of the night, Alexandre Baixinho had his work cut out for him against Paulo Rambinho. Rambinho relied on takedowns, while Baixinho went to his striking. After three rounds, Alexandre took the win by split decision.
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Another much anticipated attraction had Luis Beição taking on Dimitri Burgo. Beição went for the takedown right off the bat and swiftly sunk a fight-ending arm-and-neck choke in the first round. In the evening’s title fight, Mauricio Facção was persistent in his strategy of taking the fight to the ground, while Lucas “Bob Esponja” lost a point due to an illegal kick. It was an evenly matched affair but the scorecards came back with a split decision win for Facção, who held on to his belt.
Arthur Gogó used his Jiu-Jitsu to quickly dispatch Francisco Neves. The black belt got the takedown and sunk a kimura hold for the win while still in the first round. Meanwhile, Giovanni Diniz used his boxing to good effect against Ismael Bueno, but also did well with his takedowns and Jiu-Jitsu, making it to side-control and back mount on a number of occasions. At the end of three rounds Diniz took the unanimous decision.
Eduardo Simões also showed his skills were well honed against José Sandro. After a well performed takedown, he ended the action with a heel hook, all in the first round. Thiago Marreta used his reach advantage to good effect against Maurício Deltinha, taking the unanimous decision based on his muay Thai superiority. Now Bruno Robusto and Gilvan Alves had the fight of the night, in a lively affair. Robusto connected more in the standup action and took the unanimous decision.
The crowd was driven into a frenzy by the sightly ring girls from clothing brand Rip Dorey and the girl from the Cintra beer contest. There was also plenty applause for former boxing world champion Acelino Popó and Carlson Gracie Jr.