Hero’s welcome for ‘The Crank’

It’s official. Saipan’s Frank “The Crank” Camacho is now the undisputed light-heavyweight champion of the Universal Reality Combat Championships.

Camacho, along with trainer Cuki Alvarez, Frank Camacho Sr., and Jason Tarkong, arrived Monday morning from the Philippines to a crowd of supporters that welcomed them with open arms.

As reported earlier, Camacho was able to beat Fritz Rodriguez of Gracie Barra Philippines in “URCC IX: Unstoppable” Saturday night at The Arena in San Juan, Manila. What made the victory even sweeter was that it came via technical knockout.

Camacho was the first to enter the ring, and he explained, that while he had his several supporters cheering him on, Rodriguez was on home turf and thus had the majority of the fans behind him.

The crowd was going nuts when Rodriguez was making his way toward the ring, but instead of getting rattled, Camacho kept his focus.

“The pressure was on Fritz because he’s the champ. All I was thinking out there was, ‘This guy better be ready for me because I’ve been training hard, sweating, and bleeding on the mat…I’ve been sacrificing. When I was heading down, the crowd wasn’t really cheering, but I just kept my composure, stayed focus, and I was there to have fun so I was smiling in the ring getting ready. When he came down, everyone went wild. It was loud, but I blocked it off and just thought he better be ready for me,” Camacho said.

Camacho was ready to take care of business and was the aggressor from the start. He got the fight going by throwing a roundhouse kick that connected with Rodriguez’s face, stunning his opponent a bit.

Rodriguez then tried to throw a one-two combination, but Camacho landed a strong superman punch before the two clinched. Rodriguez, who holds a brown belt in jiu jitsu, was looking to take Camacho down but the 17-year-old CNMI fighter was able to hold his ground, throw his opponent to the mat, and gain side control with a sharp knee to Rodriguez’s belly.

Camacho then unleashed a flurry of punches and Rodriguez was not able to break loose, resulting in the referee stopping the fight just 42 seconds into the first round.

“Hard training does pay off,” Camacho said. “I train with the best here, and I fought the best in the [Philippines], and it came to my favor because of training and hard work, dedication, sacrifice…everything that these guys teach me. Cuki Alvarez, Tetsuji Kato, Joe Ocampo, all my teammates and all the guys from Guam that helped me out made a difference.”

Both Alvarez and Camacho were not surprised the fight was over in the first round.

“I wasn’t really surprised because in mix martial, any little mistake can cost you the fight, and maybe he came out a little too cocky, a little too confident…him being a brown belt and champion of the [Philippines]. I really give it to him, though. It could’ve gone 20 minutes, it could’ve gone in his favor, but I finished it in 42 seconds,” Camacho said.

Camacho said because of Rodriguez’s background in jiu jitsu, his game plan was to make it a stand up fight, while using his wrestling skills also.

“I knew Fritz was coming in with a brown belt in jiu jitsu and I don’t even have a belt in jiu jitsu. However, I train with the best, so my game plan was to keep it up standing. I didn’t get to see any footage of him fight, so I was just going to try to keep it standing and also work my wrestling skills. In MMA, the way I see it, the winner always comes out to be the well-rounded fighter,” he said. “I think I was the more well-rounded fighter and I got the quality training and I think I put in the time for it.”

For his part, Alvarez was really pleased with the experience for his fighter.

“It was a great trip,” he said. “All the hard training paid off. We went there with a positive and open mind knowing that we’re going up against a tough opponent, and it was pretty suspenseful because we didn’t know what to expect. All we knew was that he was the champion, and so it was great that Frank went in there and showed a lot of poise, a lot of confidence, and just took over.”

Alvarez said while Camacho was the one stepping into the ring, it was important that Alvarez, Frank Sr., and Tarkong accompanied him.

“It was good that we accompanied Frank down there because he needed the morale support. We always go as a team and Frank was very confident, but at the same time, we kept him on grounded and level headed and just told him to focus and concentrate on his fight and do what he needs to do. The game plan was just to go and have fun. I told him, ‘The pressure is on your opponent. You just go in there and have a good time and think of it as another day of training and just go in there and do you thing,’” he said.

Alvarez said Camacho’s performance really promotes Saipan MMA.

“This is an international competition which really puts Saipan on the map. It goes to show that we are at a high stratosphere of competition level now. Frank has gone with the local and Guam events, and now he went to a much bigger event, and it goes to show that our level is at the same if not better. It goes to show that the local boys from Saipan have a lot of heart, and with a lot of hard training with the right people…we have Tetsuji Kato and Joe Ocampo…and with the right determination and discipline, you could accomplish leaps and bounds,” he said.

Camacho will have to defend his title at least once within a year, and Alvarez said that while a rematch may be in the making, Camacho may also end up fighting a fighter out of Thailand or China on February or April.

“The contract states he has to defend his title at least once so we’ll be going back to the Philippines in probably February or April. We’re still getting confirmation from URCC,” he said.