An Epic Night at Ring of Combat 33

Chris Weidman celebrates the successful defense of his title. (photo courtesy of Shawn Baran/thegarv.com)

Atlantic City, NJ – It was an epic night of fighting at Lou Neglia’s Ring of Combat 33, as 15 bouts played out in exciting fashion before a nearly-packed house at the Tropicana Casino & Resort.  At the top of the card were five championship contests, and of those, none ended with such crushing finality as the lightweight pairing of Jungle Gym superstar Joe Aviles and MMA Institute’s George Sheppard.  In his last scrap – a sudden flying-knee knockout over the tough Mike Medrano – Aviles put the world on notice that with just a little space he could destroy you.  Sheppard seemed cognizant of this, and with the Ring of Combat lightweight title up for grabs he took no chances, employing a suffocating wrestling game to keep his foe off-balance.  It didn’t work, and about four and a half minutes in Aviles landed a short right hook that sent Sheppard into dreamland.  It was so fast, it took several views of the instant-replay on the big screen just to figure out what had happened.

In 205-pound championship action, Bellmore kickboxing rep Gian Villante simply steamrolled over an overmatched Joseph Kenneth Reyes, effortlessly getting on top to drop bombs for the TKO win.  Team Serra/Longo ace card Chris Weidman had a rougher route toward glory, though, as he needed all three rounds to battle the very skilled and dangerous Brazilian Valdir Araugo.  When all was said and done, Weidman emerged from the conflagration with the middleweight strap.  Sean Santella and Marcos Pereira went home with the 125-pound and 145-pound belts, respectively, with near-flawless grappling the keys to their victories.

Elsewhere on the card, Costa Phillipou utilized his usual pinpoint striking to dispatch Aung La Nsang in a mere 11 seconds; Tom DeBlass stalked and out-struck the veteran Mitch Whitesel for the unanimous decision; James Jenkins added another win to his collection with a quick-submission handling of Yaser Shaukut; and Justine Kish was simply too much grappling prowess for Munah Holland, deftly tapping her with a triangle midway through Round 2.

Full Results:

ROC Light-Heavyweight Championship

-Gian Villante def. Joseph Kenneth Reyes via TKO (punches) at 1:03, R1

ROC Middleweight Championship

-Chris Weidman def. Valdir Araugo via Unanimous Decision

ROC Lightweight Championship

-Joe Aviles def. George Sheppard via KO (punch) at 4:21, R1

ROC Featherweight Championship

-Marcos Pereira def. Ryan Vaccaro via Unanimous Decision

ROC Flyweight Championship

-Sean Santella def. Mickey Lovato via armbar at 2:56, R2

Main Card

-Costa Phillipou def. Aung La Nsang via TKO (punches) at :11, R1

-George Sullivan def. Erik Oganov via Unanimous Decision

-Justine Kish def. Munah Holland via Triangle Choke at 2:53, R2

-Justin Haskins def. Danilo Cherman via Unanimous Decision

-Giedrius Karavackas def. Josh Key via TKO (punches) at 2:38, R3

-Tom DeBlass def. Mitch Whitesel via Unanimous Decision

-JA Dudley def. Mike Parzych via Unanimous Decision

-Mervin Rodriguez def. Brian Smiley via Armbar at 1:58, R2

-Whitney Jean Francois def. George Glykas via TKO (punches) at 2:54, R1

-James Jenkins def. Yaser Shaukut via Rear Naked Choke at 1:11, R1