BodogFIGHT: Eddie Alvarez vs. Matt Lee

It's official: BodogFIGHT has landed in America. No longer relegated to far-off lands like cold Mother Russia or Canada for that matter, BodogFIGHT sets up shop in Trenton, New Jersey for its US debut. I have to wonder why a fight organization with a seemingly bottomless reservoir of funds would choose the modestly-sized Sovereign Bank Arena in Trenton, a city described by urbandictionary.com as being “Not as hard as Camden, but tuffer than Newark,” to make its first splash in the US. Perhaps Bodog was just testing the waters. I would imagine getting 10,500 people to shell out bucks to come out to Trenton would be a challenge for any organization, and indeed the arena was half full at best. But despite a questionable venue and low attendance Bodog played to their strengths by stringing together solid fights under their signature glossy production values.

With names like Roman Zentzov, Amar Suloev, and Yuki Kondo gracing the fight card, it may be hard for veteran MMA fans to understand how Eddie Alvarez VS. Matt Lee came to be offered as the main event. Maybe the folks at BodogFIGHT believe that have a highly marketable champ in Eddie Alvarez. Maybe they do.

Eddie Alvarez (10-1-0) vs. Matt Lee (9-5-1 )

From the moment the doors opened to the Arena, Eddie Alvarez's presence could be felt in the busloads of green t-shirt wearing fans that poured in to chant his name. His fan section, which made up a large portion of the crowd, became a theme throughout the night as they heckled other fighters, chanted for Alvarez no matter who was in the ring, and generally showed no respect for anything that wasn't Eddie Alvarez. To their credit, when Alvarez finally did enter the ring, the arena was thunderous with chants and stomping – the energy level was through the roof.

When the fighters touched gloves and got down to business, Alvarez wasted no time letting Lee know what kind of fight it was going to be and began launching whip-fast punching combinations. Matt Lee seemed out-gunned from the first few seconds of the fight. But Lee is very tough and showed both heart and chin in equal abundance. Early in round one, Alvarez shot in with a powerful double-leg which scrunched Lee into a corner where he ate several Hammer fists before temporarily giving up his back to Alvarez. But before long, the 170 pounders were back on their feet where Eddie continued to dominate the ring with hard flurries to Lee's body and face, while Lee mostly looked to land his Jab.

In round 2, Alvarez continued to strike Lee, who could never suppress Alvarez's speed and power long enough to mount an offense of his own. Lee can take one hell of a shot, and perhaps that is why he left his hands so low throughout the fight (between rounds his boxing coach was going nuts). Since direct offense was out of reach, Lee relied on counter punching, which he did with some success in the middle of round two when he connected flush with Alvarez's nose which instantly began to bleed down his face. It was a good punch from Lee, but nowhere near enough to win him the round.

Round 3 continued what had become a one-sided kickboxing match. At one point Lee looked like he lost his temper and began taunting Alvarez. Alvarez responded with a violent flurry and some taunts of his own. With the stand up not working in his favor, Lee decided to take the fight to the ground which he did with a slick leg trip, but there was no time for a ground fight and Alvarez walked away with a dominant performance and a unanimous decision.

Tara Larosa (14 -1) vs. Kelly Kobald (15-1-1) for the vacant Bodog Fight Women's 135-pound Championship.

Right off the bat, I have to call this the fight of the night. I actually had a chance to catch Tara Larosa and Kelly Kobald early in the night as they chatted away and joked modestly about what each thought the other was going to do to them. They were professionals cordially talking shop and enjoying each other. But come fight time the two powerful and skilled athletes went to war.

At the start of round one my first thought was WOW, Kelly Kobald hits hard. Kobald narrowly missed Larosa's chin with a right hook that must have sent quite a breeze Larosa's way – Kobald was game. For the first three rounds Kobald showed elements of training partner, Sean Sherk, as she pressed the action with a furious pace. It was Larosa's calm and experience that would allow her to survive an illegal 4-point knee strike that left her visibly dazed for a minute or two mid-way through round 3. Larosa soon found she would be more comfortable fighting Kobald on the ground and began to attack from her back with a series of very technical armbar attempts. In the fourth round Larosa's tenacious attacks finally paid off as she managed to trap Kobald's arm from the guard and sweep her to her back for a very slick finish. Larosa was emotional as she was handed the 135 pound belt. Kobald and Larosa fought a war that stole the show and convinced me that Women will one day soon headline a major MMA show. With Bodog's deepening female talent pool, they may just be the organization to pull it off.

Yuki kondo (46-20-6) vs Trevor Prangley (16-4) for the Middle weight title

When Yuki Kondo and Trevor Prangley stood across the ring from each other, one thing was obvious: Kondo was the smaller man. To be sure, not many of the fans in the crowd who welcomed Kondo with chants of 'USA" knew much about his storied career. In his 72 fights, Kondo had been in more than enough wars to earn legend-status. The real question was how much had his career taken out of him?

At the start, Prangley landed first and the USA chants fired up again. Prangley quickly got to Kondo's back in the clinch and then slammed him down where he stayed on his back hunting for the rear naked choke. Yuki miraculously escaped and the fighters got back to their feet. Most of the rest of round 1 saw Prangley out-work Kondo in the clinch – Kondo was unable to score with anything significant. In round two, Prangley continued to press on with his pace relentlessly. The clinch fighting continued until Kondo attempted to take Prangley down but was out-wresteled and reversed and ended up with Prangley in the cross side top position. Kondo was finally able to recover guard but was unable to mount any offense and was bloodied by Prangley's ground and pound instead. In the final moments of round 2 Kondo was dropped by a hard right hand and the doctors would not allow Kondo to continue in round 3. Anyone looking to take Prangley's belt has to be able to deal with his strong wrestling abilities. Prangley -- Sonnen 2 would fit that bill.

Amar Suloev (23-7) vs. Chael Sonnen (17-8-1)

No one's going to say Amar Suloev isn't a force at 185. His precision striking and smart ring-sense have led him to wins over some of the best at 185; Yushin Okami, Murillo Bustamante, and Dean Lister to name a few. But Chael Sonnen doesn't place much faith is ring-smarts or game plans – his plan is simple; to put you down and smash you to a pulp. And that's exactly what he did against Suloev when he dominated his way to a TKO victory in the second round. Sonnen showed that he is a force in anyone's 185 pound division and proved once again why many think he's one of the best wrestlers fighting in mixed martial arts. It was an impressive performance.

Roman Zentzov (16-11) vs. Branden Lee Hinkle (13 – 9)

If you have been keeping an eye on Roman Zentzov lately, you might think that there are few in the world of mixed martial arts that have the tools to beat him. Training out of Red Devil Sport Club with the likes of the Emelianenko brothers, and plastering his last seven opponents with his nightmare of a left hand, you would be forgiven for thinking that his loosing days were behind him.

Brandon Lee Hinkle, on the other hand, hadn't done much to raise eyebrows in MMA since dispatching Sean Gagnon back in 2005. Since then he's had three fights in which he failed to make it out of the first round and things did not look so good for Hinkle. Hinkle is an experienced fighter with almost a decade of MMA behind Him. In the past 9 years he has fought some respectable opponents; however, he has also lost the majority of his toughest tests. There was no reason to think that he would be the one to end Zentzov's 7-fight reign of knockout supremacy.

So what would your plan be if you found yourself starring across the ring from a Russian Tank who had a wrecking ball for a left hand? You might run or soil yourself (I would), but if you were Brandon Lee Hinkle, you'd rely on your strong wrestling to move the fight to the ground as quickly as possible. With Mark Coleman in his corner, it was clear that this was exactly the kind of fight that a very fit Hinkle had been training for.

From the first instant of round 1 Hinkle exploded with a double leg shot that had some serious horse-power behind it. After the first shoot it became clear that Zentzov was most likely not going to be spending a lot of time working his signature hook. So it was to be a ground fight. At first I was very interested to see how this would play out. We all know how good Zentzov's training partner, Fedor Emelianenko, is on the ground, so I was curious how much had rubbed off on Zentzov. Midway through round 1 the answer was clear: not much. What emerged was a repetitive pattern were Hinkle man-handled Zentzov in a string of dominant positions on the ground while half-heartedly looking for the occasional submission, and delivering very little punishment with his ground and pound. Zentzov continually gave Hinkle mount, his back, his side, and could never seem to recover guard against Hinkle. At the end of three rounds Zentzov didn't look like he had taken much of a beating, but Hinkle's plan had been a success and he earned a much needed and significant unanimous decision victory.

Yves Edwards (29-13-1) vs. Jorge Masvidal (11-2)

Two years ago you would have had to mention Yves Edwards on any list top light weights. Even in defeat he looked like a terror in the ring with dynamic striking and formidable ground game to boot. Edwards and his "thug-jitsu" toppled such great foes as Dokonjonosuke Mishima, Hermes Franca (x2), and Josh Thompson. …And then he was triangle choked by Mark Hominick, a champion Muay Thai fighter not known for his ground skills. Since then, Edwards has slid down the 155lb ladder going losing 4 out of his last 5 fights. His latest defeat came at the hands of talented American Top Team fighter Jorge Masvidal. The first round was hard to score as with both fighters circling each other and darting in for quick exchanges. If pressed, I would have given a slight lead to Edwards, but Masvidal had definitely demonstrated his worthiness. The second round started with a brawl, again apparently even, until Masvidal connected with a devastating right roundhouse kick to Edwards head which ended the fight with a stunning knockout 3 minutes into the 2nd round. The kick connected with so much force that it Masvidal broke his foot and had to limp out of the ring. As much as I would have liked to see Edwards climb out of his rut, Masvidal is a quality fighter who deserves attention.

145 pounders David Love (6-6-1) and Eben Oroz (3-1) opened the night with an exciting fight which was punctuated by Oroz's beautiful fanning jeet-kun-do kicks which were reminiscent of Bruce Lee himself, and marred by nonsensical referee stand-ups. Despite Oroz's kicking performance, it would be David Love who would walk away with the split decision victory due mostly to his aggression and wrestling abilities. Welterweights Dan Hawley (4-1) and local fan favorite Blair Tugman (2-0) gave fans an exciting ground war. Though Tugman would be awarded the unanimous decision for his take downs and activity in Hawley's guard, this fight should have went Hawley's way. Hawley nearly had Tugman submitted on numerous occasions, and Tugman seemed to be in constant danger in Hawley's octopus-like guard which is where he spent most of the fight. Hawley made Tugman play his game, but since he did so from his back, the judges saw it as Tugman's fight. Mark Burch (7 – 2) used his 50 pound weight advantage to grind down Yoshiki Takahashi (28-22-3) in the clinch wear he would drop him with an unforgiving knee late in the first. Nick Agallar (18-5) took a split decision over his opponent, submission fighter, James 'Binky' Jones (3-2) in what was mainly a ground fight. Several times the crowd shouted "stand'em up!" and every time the referee obliged. Despite the rude interruptions, both fighters gave solid performances and, in the end, Agallar's ground and pound out pointed Jones' submission game.