First of a two-part series
Jason “Rush” Tarkong made up for his two-year absence, while Russian fighters put on a show in Friday's Trench Wars 11: Redemption held at the Royal Taga Hall of Saipan World Resort.
Tarkong tied the quickest win in the weekend bout, stopping Guam's Gil “The Guamaniac” Meno at the 1:30 mark of the first round of their main event fight via submission choke.
After a few exchanges of punches, Tarkong cornered Meno and forced him to submission, giving the CNMI police officer a victory in his comeback on the octagon cage.
The Tarkong-Meno bout in the 170-lb. weight division was the last of the three main fights featured in Redemption.
The second one had Guam's Alex Castro nailing a win via tap-out over Fasi “Quickdraw” Jesse. Castro took the victory midway in the first of the five-minute round when he held Jesse to the canvas and put a locked on the Saipan' fighters arms.
Earlier in the Castro-Jesse bout, the former connected on a punch, causing a cut below the right eye of the latter. It was Jesse's first loss in seven fights, while Castro improved his record to 6-7.
The first offering in the triple-treat main event featuring Russia's Ilya Zelik and Trench Tech's Tetsuji Kato of Japan was well applauded until a referee stoppage midway in the second round had spectators booing referee Tony D'Angelo.
Angelo stopped the fight at the 2:11 mark of the second round and declared Kato the winner when Zelik failed to get out of his position. Kato was on top of Zelik, who was covering his head from the former's punches. D'Angelo, through ring announcer L.J. Castro, explained he stopped the fight, as he had already counted Kato making more than 30 uncontested punches, while the Russian fighter was doing nothing.
D'Angelo even called the attention of Zelik's cornerman and said he will stop the fight if the Russian fighter will not make a move. However, the cornerman just gave D'Angelo a puzzled look. When D'Angelo stopped the fight, Zelik went up, thinking the bout will still continue. However, to his and the fans surprise, D'Angelo called off the match and awarded the win to Kato.
Earlier in the first round, Kato and Zelik threw punches to each other, making the bout almost even. Kato sustained cuts below and above his left eye with the first cut cause by a foul kick from Zelik and the second off a clear punch from the Russian fighter.
Zelik's loss foiled Russia's 3-0 bid on its Trech Wars debut.
Earlier, Iliev Ismail and Bashir Jamlihanov gave Russia a 2-0 record in Redemption when they bounced back from a lousy first round to win in the second round.
Ismail was pitted against Guam's Hosea “Killa B” Ware in the 185-lbs bout and the former unleashed killer punches early to dominate the fight.
Ware cornered Ismail, had the Russian fighter's back against the wall and released a flurry of strong punches. A bloody Ismail walked back to his corner after impressively surviving Ware's beating in the first round.
Then came payback time in the second round when Ismail did not allow Ware to take him to the canvas and instead exchanged the Guam fighter to a fistfight. It was Ismail's turn to connect on killer punches to the face of Ware, who tried to trick the Russian by frequently laying on the canvas.
Ismail did not bite on Ware's bait and waited for the Guam fighter to stand up. When Ware did, Ismail's fists were ready for more punishment. Finally, D'Angelo had seen enough and stopped the fight, awarding a TKO win to Ismail at the 2:39 mark of the second round.
Another bloody bout followed with Saipan's Charleston “The Predator” Aiken challenging Russia's Jamlihanov.
It was a give-and-take bout in the first round with blood flowing from both fighters' mouth and nose. Jamlihanov was ready to go for a kill in the closing seconds of the first round when he cornered Aiken, but fortunately the bell sounded, giving the latter a break.
However, luck was no longer on Aiken's side in the second round, as Jamlihanov continued to pound him with strong punches to the face and the body. At the 4:35 mark, guest referee Frank “The Crank” Camacho stopped the fight, awarding a TKO win to the Russian fighter.
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