Cage Rage 25: A Sad Day for Ken, Cage Rage 26 Main Event Announced
It was a night of KO’s at Wembley Arena yesterday. The most important of the night was in the main event as Ken Shamrock was KO’d in round 1 by Robert ‘Buzz’ Berry. All but two of the fights ended in the first round in what was a crazy night of MMA. It was particularly sad to see ‘The worlds most dangerous man’ beaten in his first fight for 17 months.
Forgive the pun but Ken seemed very ‘cagey’. It made sense for Ken to fight like that due to the fact that ‘Buzz’ is a KO artist. Ken landed a couple of punches as I waited for him to ’shoot’ on Berry…but it never came. In the 3:26 fight, Ken didn’t attempt to takedown Berry.
I was in attendance last night and seeing Ken get KO’d was a sour note on an otherwise explosive night of MMA action. The televised fights came across pretty well live and it was an awesome atmosphere all night. Apart from the fact that the majority of fans booed as soon as any fight went to the ground. These idiots just want to see blood spilled and don’t appreciate mixed martial arts.
The main event of Cage Rage 26 has been announced as the returning Ian ‘The Machine’ Freeman faces off against Paul Cahoon at the NEC Arena, Birmingham in May. I’m very much looking forward to seeing Freeman fight for the first time since September 2006. Freeman holds a first round TKO victory over Frank Mir back at UFC 38.
Going in to the fight I had a real bad feeling about Ken Shamrock. Even though Robert Berry appeared to be just a fight to get Ken an easy victory and set up a fight with Kimbo Slice, I couldn’t shake the feeling that Shamrock would get beat. Shamrock looks pretty much done. He might be able to get a few more fights with nice paydays, but for the most part he seems to be getting closer and closer to Tank Abbot territory.
The fight of the night for me was Masakazu Imanari defeating Jean Silva to retain his Cage Rage Featherweight title. This turned into a real submission display, with Imanari picking up the win with a sick heel hook that looks to have done some real damage to Silva. I would love to see Imanari take on WEC Featherweight champ, and top ranked featherweight, Urijah Faber somewhere down the line.
Now I hope the Kimbo/Shamrock fight dosn’t happen. Ken Shamrock at this point is not much more than a can with a name. If Kimbo is going to be taken serious he needs a real fight, and not be beating up on washed up 40 year olds.
Shane–
That fight was greatness. I wish it would have lasted longer. I didn’t hear anything on Silva’s health after the match, but it looked like he was probably taken out of the cage before the decision was announced…maybe Ian can speak to that.
Afton–
Yeah, sadly, I don’t think Kimbo/Shamrock would last very long. Nothing against Buzz, but I don’t think he’s exactly top competition.