COLUMBUS, Ohio — Jorge Gurgel may have been the second to last fight on the undercard but the crowd at Nationwide Arena treated the Ohio native like a feature bout.
Ever since The Ultimate Fighter season two fans have been wanting to see Jorge Gurgel use his Jiu-Jitsu skills and tonight they finally got what they were looking for.
In forty-four seconds Gurgel submitted Billy Vaughn. It should be noted that Vaughn took the fight on short notice but the fight was far from an even affair as the first clinch led to a quick guillotine choke and easy victory for Gurgel.
Gurgel told the jubilant crowd how happy he was to celebrate this victory with his new wife and thanked his students in attendance.
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In the final preliminary bout, Cincinnati native, Roger Bowling, looked like a legitimate prospect against Gracie Fighter’s Josh Thornburg.
Bowling favored a lead left hook that landed flush throughout the fight and rocked the California native early. Credit to Thornburg who was able to survive an early beating but he was unable to mount much of an offense as Roger dominated the remaining two rounds with a mix of strikes a takedowns.
However, disaster almost struck as Dan Miragliotta stood the fighters up with less than a minute to go. All Roger Bowling had to do was ride out the last few seconds to take the decision but he favored aggression leaping in with a two punch combo then clinching and slamming Josh to the mat. But the Gracie Fighter was able to lock in a guillotine choke. As the seconds ticked away the crowd was on the edge of their seats waiting to see if Bowling would succumb to the choke or survive to take the victory.
Bowling persevered and secured his ninth victory winning all three rounds on all the judges score cards.
Jason Riley and Jason Freeman engaged in a back-and-forth heavyweight brawl.
First, Riley got the upper hand dropping Freeman to the canvas. Riley quickly attempted to end the fight with a quick succession of punches but credit to referee Kyle Wheeler for seeing that Freeman was still defending himself and not stopping the fight where less experienced referees would have stopped the bout.
Riley made the critical decision to let his opponent stand back up and Freeman quickly responded with his own thunderous knock down. Freeman didn’t make Riley’s mistake and forced his opponent to submit to punches prior to the two minute mark.
Brian Rogers brought the crowd to life in the third bout of the evening. The Dayton native dropped Rammel early with an overhand right. While Ian attempted to grin the power shot off he was clearly affected and besides a nice spinning back fist on the defensive for the rest of the fight.
With the first round drawing to a close Rogers was able to land a power left and finish off his opponent with hammer-fists to end the fight.
In the middleweight division Mitch Whitesel defeated Marc Cofer in a slow bout.
The first fight of the evening was equally lethargic with John Kuhner submitting J.P. Felty.
Strikeforce continued their strategy of packing undercards with local fighters. Eleven of the twelve fighters hailed from Ohio — the lone exception was Josh Thornburg from California– and the home town crowd filled up the speciality seating stadium early into the evening’s action.
- Roger Bowling def. Josh Thornburg via Unanimous Decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27).
- Jorge Gurgel def. Billy Vaughn via Submission (guillotine choke) – Round 1, 0:44.
- Jason Freeman def. Jason Riley via submission (strikes) – Round 1, 1:52.
- Brian Rogers def. Ian Rammel via TKO (punches) – Round 1, 4:23.
- Mitch Whitesel def. Marc Cofer via Submission (Guillotine Choke) – Round 1, 3:55.
- John Kuhner def. J.P. Felty via Submission (Triangle Choke) – Round 2, 4:31.
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