Cage Rage 11: Silva Stops Rivera; Cyborg, Rea Win
Cage Rage 11
Pedro Wrobel Apr 30, 2005
LONDON, April 30 — Despite last-minute cancellations, injuries and
unforeseen calamities, despite public transport trouble and
continuing problems with the venue and especially venue security,
Cage Rage 11 was an immensely enjoyable experience.
For whatever reason the mood was lighter, and there was a good atmosphere inside the venue for the majority of the event. A couple of morons surfaced during two of the bouts, but more on this later.
I wanted to start by noting that despite all the improvements that
Cage Rage has made, I feel that the young promotion suffers from
its venue. By way of illustration, let me offer the following
anecdote. During a break in the show I, being the well-prepared
chap that I am, decided to eat some food that I had brought with
me. Having eaten my fill I thought it might be polite to offer my
friend, who was taking extra notes for me at ringside, a banana.
But no sooner had I hopped off the stage then three burly security
guards converged upon my person, telling me in no uncertain terms
that bananas were not allowed in the main seating area.
"Can I at least give it to my friend so that he can eat it outside the arena?" I asked desperately. The security guards, confused, looked at each other and then returned to autopilot, shaking their heads and reiterating their mantras of banana prohibition. Not only this, but one of them was actually speaking into his radio, telling whoever was at the other end that they had a "suspect with a banana" with them. Shocked and not a little weirded out, I asked if I could return to the stage with my banana. The question was repeated into the security guards' walkie-talkie and eventually I was granted grudging permission to return the offending fruit to my bag.
In terms of headline news going forward, Jorge "Macaco" Patino is the latest Chute Boxe star to promise an appearance in Cage Rage. He is set to fight against Ross "The Boss" Mason at a future unspecified event.
Even more high profile is the promise of a fighting appearance by Lee Murray at the next Cage Rage show on July 2. Murray requested a match-up against "that ugly bald monkey" Matt Lindland, but with the latter's commitments to the UFC this may not be realistic. Murray's opponent therefore remains unconfirmed.
Finally, Jean Silva's fight against Tom Niinimaki was cancelled on the night, as the latter complained of illness. The Brazilian was incensed by this, stalking around the backstage area with a face like thunder.
"I need to hit someone!" he told me, having cornered me against a wall. I mildly suggested that he speak to that other guy over there, the one who isn't me. To this he replied that his frustration stemmed from the fact that Wanderlei had forced him to train harder than he'd ever trained before, and that he just wanted a chance to show this.
And since this would have been his third title defense, a win here would have allowed Jean to keep the title belt and take it home to Brazil. A sad fact, but at least he was able to confirm that although he will not be fighting at this coming Pride Bushido show (Nino Schembri is the Chute Boxe representative), Jean will probably be fighting on the next one. The main message to take away is that negotiations between himself and Pride are still very much alive.
In the main event of the evening, Anderson Silva completely dominated Jorge Rivera en route to a second round stoppage from strikes.
Silva completely bossed the first round by dominating the striking game and clearly negating Rivera's wrestling advantage through his mobility and sheer aggression. Silva showed his intentions by tagging Rivera in the opening exchange, forcing the American to close the distance and press the Brazilian up against the fence.
Silva was quick to dominate in this position too, showing his versatility by harrying Rivera with knees, elbows and short body-punches. The proof is in the pudding, we say, and in this case the proof was the fact that only one takedown was successful in this round and it was Silva who took Rivera down.
If the first round was a dominant one for Silva then the second was just cruel. The moment when I and everyone else knew that Silva had won it was when the Brazilian put his hands behind Rivera's head to pull the American into the Thai clinch to taste some knees. Silva seemed to be taking his time, so Rivera took the opportunity to hit him in the unprotected face with a hard right hand.
Instead of looking hurt, Silva started openly laughing at his opponent, continuing to do so even as Rivera landed three or four more good shots cleanly to the Brazilian's face. It was then and there that I became convinced of Silva's insanity, and also of his certain victory as the Brazilian bullied Rivera's head down for some knees.
A high kick and another flurry of assorted strikes would follow, and then six huge knees to the face of Rivera which finally put the tough American down onto the canvas. Three more punches to the face would follow before the referee, Grant Waterman, made the interception. Silva wins by referee stoppage 3:53 of the second round.
For whatever reason the mood was lighter, and there was a good atmosphere inside the venue for the majority of the event. A couple of morons surfaced during two of the bouts, but more on this later.
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"Can I at least give it to my friend so that he can eat it outside the arena?" I asked desperately. The security guards, confused, looked at each other and then returned to autopilot, shaking their heads and reiterating their mantras of banana prohibition. Not only this, but one of them was actually speaking into his radio, telling whoever was at the other end that they had a "suspect with a banana" with them. Shocked and not a little weirded out, I asked if I could return to the stage with my banana. The question was repeated into the security guards' walkie-talkie and eventually I was granted grudging permission to return the offending fruit to my bag.
Sorry guys and gals, but sometimes a man needs to come clean about
his banana before he can talk about fighting. Which is what I now
propose to turn back to. But you see what I mean, right? The
saddest thing is that all of the above is true.
In terms of headline news going forward, Jorge "Macaco" Patino is the latest Chute Boxe star to promise an appearance in Cage Rage. He is set to fight against Ross "The Boss" Mason at a future unspecified event.
Even more high profile is the promise of a fighting appearance by Lee Murray at the next Cage Rage show on July 2. Murray requested a match-up against "that ugly bald monkey" Matt Lindland, but with the latter's commitments to the UFC this may not be realistic. Murray's opponent therefore remains unconfirmed.
Finally, Jean Silva's fight against Tom Niinimaki was cancelled on the night, as the latter complained of illness. The Brazilian was incensed by this, stalking around the backstage area with a face like thunder.
"I need to hit someone!" he told me, having cornered me against a wall. I mildly suggested that he speak to that other guy over there, the one who isn't me. To this he replied that his frustration stemmed from the fact that Wanderlei had forced him to train harder than he'd ever trained before, and that he just wanted a chance to show this.
And since this would have been his third title defense, a win here would have allowed Jean to keep the title belt and take it home to Brazil. A sad fact, but at least he was able to confirm that although he will not be fighting at this coming Pride Bushido show (Nino Schembri is the Chute Boxe representative), Jean will probably be fighting on the next one. The main message to take away is that negotiations between himself and Pride are still very much alive.
In the main event of the evening, Anderson Silva completely dominated Jorge Rivera en route to a second round stoppage from strikes.
Silva completely bossed the first round by dominating the striking game and clearly negating Rivera's wrestling advantage through his mobility and sheer aggression. Silva showed his intentions by tagging Rivera in the opening exchange, forcing the American to close the distance and press the Brazilian up against the fence.
Silva was quick to dominate in this position too, showing his versatility by harrying Rivera with knees, elbows and short body-punches. The proof is in the pudding, we say, and in this case the proof was the fact that only one takedown was successful in this round and it was Silva who took Rivera down.
If the first round was a dominant one for Silva then the second was just cruel. The moment when I and everyone else knew that Silva had won it was when the Brazilian put his hands behind Rivera's head to pull the American into the Thai clinch to taste some knees. Silva seemed to be taking his time, so Rivera took the opportunity to hit him in the unprotected face with a hard right hand.
Instead of looking hurt, Silva started openly laughing at his opponent, continuing to do so even as Rivera landed three or four more good shots cleanly to the Brazilian's face. It was then and there that I became convinced of Silva's insanity, and also of his certain victory as the Brazilian bullied Rivera's head down for some knees.
A high kick and another flurry of assorted strikes would follow, and then six huge knees to the face of Rivera which finally put the tough American down onto the canvas. Three more punches to the face would follow before the referee, Grant Waterman, made the interception. Silva wins by referee stoppage 3:53 of the second round.
