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Santos steals show in ROP 17
High Blood Pressure’s Ernie Santos uses his arms to lock the neck of Trench Tech’s Mark “The Dark” Nuique during their bout in last Friday’s Rites of Passage: Road to Glory at the Royal Taga Hall of the Saipan World Resort. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)
With blood all over his face and scattered around the octagon cage due to two nasty cuts he sustained in the first two rounds of engaging Nuique in a fist fight, Santos turned to his grappling skills to escape with a submission win via rear-naked choke at the 2:29 mark of the third and last round.
It was a sorry loss for Trench Tech’s Nuique, who was way ahead on points before getting pinned down in the corner, as he peppered Santos with solid punches. Nuique’s strikes opened a cut down the lower eye of Santos around the two- minute mark of the first round and the doctor had to climb the cage to check the High Blood Pressure bet and ask if he still wanted to fight.
Santos soldiered on and was punished more by Nuique’s left and right punches. Santos managed to hit Nuique, too, but his shots did not cause too much damage on the latter, who only sustained a lump to his nose bridge and was blood free. After Santos’ counter punch, Nuique even let his hands down and challenged the Guam fighter to punch him more.
The eventful second round ended with the doctor going up the cage anew to check Santos, who this time got a second and bigger cut on his right eyebrow. The nastier cut came when Nuique pinned Santos down in the closing minute of the second round and threw a flurry on the latter.
Again, the doctor asked Santos if he wanted to wave the white flag, but the fighter would just not quit and his persistence was later rewarded with a stunning win over Nuquie, who only let go of a few punches in the third instead of going for the skill. After Nuique hit Santos with another right and wrapped his arms around his neck, the latter turned the tables on the Trench Tech bet and pinned him down. Nuquie tried to get out of trouble, but Santos held strong and went behind the former’s back to apply the lock. Nuquie submitted and lost what could have been a won fight, as he was ahead on points in all the three judges’ cards.
Meanwhile, Santos’ fellow HBP fighter Toves also prevailed in his fight, beating Marianas Elite’s Vince “Vincesanity” Pua via triangle choke at the 4:42 mark of the opening round.
With the win, Toves avenged his loss to Pua (TKO via slam) during the Trech Warz 15: Supremacy on Dec. 26, 2011. The visiting fighter also took Trech Tech’s lightweight title and got his first win after dropping his first five and having one draw.
The last bout of the night began with both leaner and taller fighters going at it and trying to pin each other down. Toves dropped to the canvas, allowing Pua to score some punches. Toves remained down, but managed to use his long legs to lock Pua’s neck, while the Marianas Elite fighter unleashed some punches to get away from the former’s hold. However, Toves would not let go and instead pressure Pua more to get the win, just 18 seconds left before the first round bell rang.
The Toves-Pua tiff was one of the 14 MMA bout featured in ROP 17 and results of the remaining matches and the three kickboxing duels will be reported later this week.
