Ring of Combat 26-Philipou wins the ROC Middle Wt. Title

Friday September 11th, 2009 – Atlantic City, New Jersey – Promoter

Louis Neglia is at it again with the 26th installment of East Coast’s longest running Professional MMA Promotion –The Ring of Combat.

Mr. Neglia put together another loaded card with 14 matches featuring some of the best fighters on the east coast. Matchmaking is the key to exciting and entertaining fights and we had some potentially explosive bouts on this evenings card.

Victor O’Donnell defended his ROC Middleweight Title against feared Serra Longo striker and top contender Constantino Phillipou – It was a sea saw battle in which Philipou edged out the victory and the ROC Middleweight title – O’Donnell received an inadvertent poke to the eye which he was pretty upset about. We may see a rematch in the near future.

East Coast gatekeeper Chris Ligouri also defend his ROC Lightweight title against the ever dangerous Dwayne Shelton – another barnburner in the making. This one did not disappoint as the fight was very technical with Ligouri showing tons of poise in the defense of his title against the game Shelton but Ligouri was too much to handle as he kept his belt and the top spot at 155lb.

Lightweight stud on a four fight win streak John Salgado faced his toughest test to date in the Armory’s Ed Guedes for number one contender status. Guedes’ ground game was too much for Salgado as he controlled every round with his takedowns and ground and pound. How about Guedes V. Lenz for the next shot at Ligouri??

Gian Villante provided the knockout of the night in a countrified match with a highlight reel worthy round house kick to the head of Rob Wince. It was two hits, Gian hitting Wince and Wince hitting the mat with his face.

Top Light Heavyweight/Heavyweight Ricardo Romero took on new comer Rich Lictawa. Not sure why Lictawa deserves a title shot with a 2-0 pro record but Romero is not someone to take lightly. He once again proved why he is the top dog at 205 on the east coast with his quick submission win over the ROC newbie.

RESULTS

146.2 Jackson Galka vs. 145.8 Andy Main
Ref Mulhall
Main via split decision two rounds, 20-18, 20-18 and 18-20 Judge Martin

155.6 Liam Kerrigan vs. 154.4 Roger Mamedov
Ref Mulhall
Judge Crosby 20-18 Kerrigan, 19-19, 19-19
Bout is a majority
Draw after 2 rounds

125.8 Louis Gaudinot vs. 126.2 Jeff Cressman
Ref Mulhall
Gaudinot via TKO referee stoppage due to strikes at 0:24 of round two

145.6 Matt McManmon vs. 145.4 Lester Caslow
Ref Miragliotta
Caslow wins via verbal submission due to armbar at 3:20 of round one
McManmon suspended pending xray of right elbow and forearm and orthopaedic evaluation of same

171.3 Jose Sulsona vs. 169.4 Ryan LaFlare
Ref Miragliotta
LaFlare wins via armbar at 2:18 of round two

134.4 Sean Santella vs. 135.6 Jose Villanueva
Ref Mulhall
Santella wins via verbal submission due to armbar at 2:00 of round two

155.4 Ed Guedes vs. 156.2 John Salgado
Ref Miragliotta
Guedes win unanimous decision 30-27, 30-27 and 30-25 Judge Crosby in three rounds

155.8 Nabih Barakat vs. 156.4 Chris Schlesinger
Ref Mulhall
Schlesinger via unanimous decision three rounds, all three judges 30-27

185.4 Allan Weickert vs. 186.2 Rafael Sapo
Ref Miragliotta
Sapo win via rear naked choke at 2:53 of round one

215 Rob Wince vs. 226.6 Gian Villante
Ref Miragliotta
Villante wins via KO kick to head at 1:25 of round two

186.4 Costa Phillipou vs. 185 Victor O'Donnell
Ref Miragliotta
Phillipou wins unanimous decision three rounds, all three judges 29-28

155.6 Dwayne Shelton vs. 155.8 Chris Liguori
Ref Mulhall
Liguori wins unanimous decision three rounds 29-28, 29-28 and 30-27 Judge Crosby

204.2 Rich Lictawa vs. 209.6 Ricardo Romero
Ref Miragliotta
Romero win via kimura 2:14 of round two

Officials—-
Ringside Physicians Dr. Sherry Wulkan, Dr. Vincent Guida and Dr. Steven Oxler

Referees Dan Miragliotta and Kevin Mulhall

Judges Doug Crosby, Ray Martin and Carlos Rodriguez

Timekeeper Fred Blumstein

Inspectors Ellen Rubin,Gary Gudzak, Kerri Kaminski, Todd Manfredi, Tony Tamburrino, Cardo Urso, Jon Bilyk, Steve Errickson, Jim O'Connor, Paul Hafner, Mike Di Bella and Ben Valentino

Announcer Peter Neglia