Returning to the Bellator cage fresh off of an impressive victory over dangerous WEC veteran Deividas Taurosevicius at Bellator 33, the decorated submission specialist says that his time is now.

“I came up short in the first two tournaments and this is my chance to make things right,” said Reis. “I absolutely believe that I can win it, and that’s why I decided to get involved this time around. I’m going to give it all I have, take it one fight at a time, and in every fight, do my best.”

Reis brings an impressive 11-2 record to the Bellator Season 4 Featherweight Tournament that includes a 2008 submission victory over newly crowned Bellator World Bantamweight Champion Zack “Fun Size” Makovsky.

“Wilson’s part of our family. He’s been with us from the very beginning and his overall game improves every time he enters the Bellator cage. I can’t wait to see the next step in his evolution as he enters the deepest Featherweight tournament we’ve ever had,” said Bellator Chairman and CEO Bjorn Rebney.

Born in Sao Paulo, Brazil and currently fighting out of Philadelphia, Reis began training in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu at just 13 years of age, eventually earning his black belt in 2004 – the same year he won the World Jiu-Jitsu Championship. After reaching the pinnacle of Jiu-Jitsu, Reis decided to make a move to mixed martial arts and has been training full time ever since.

With two prior Bellator tournaments and four years of MMA experience under his belt, Reis believes that he’s a smarter fighter today than he’s ever been before.

“I’m wiser in this sport right now than I’ve ever been before,” said Reis. “I’ve been training for four years now so I’m really starting to understand every aspect of the game. The wrestling, the jiu-jitsu and the kickboxing, and blending them all together. I’m better than I’ve ever been right now.”

PHOTO CREDIT – BELLATOR

FiveOuncesOfPain.com learned of the featherweight Grand Prix semifinal matchup on Wednesday morning after speaking with a source close to Reis.

Both fighters are undefeated with Reis having improved to 7-0 and Soto moving to 5-0 during the first round of the tournament. Reis’ opening round win came on April 10 against Henry Martinez following a unanimous decision. Meanwhile, Soto upped his record to 5-0 after recording a first round TKO over Ben Greer at 3:40 of round 1 during Bellator’s inaugural event on April 3.

Reis received his black belt from Roberto Godoi at the age of 18 and has won first place titles while competing in prestigious grappling tournaments such as the Mundials and the Arizona Open. The 24-year old is currently a trainer at Jared Weiner’s Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu United in Jenkintown, PA and holds notable wins in his MMA career over Zach Makovsky, Bryan Caraway, and Abel Cullum.

The 22-year old Soto trains under Cesar Gracie black belt David Terrell at the NorCal Fighting Alliance in Santa Rosa, Calif. All five of Soto’s victories have come via stoppages in the first round with the combined fight time of all five wins totaling just eight minutes and 43 seconds.

During the course of our one-on-one interview, Reis discussed his upcoming debut for the Bellator Fighting Championships on April 10 at the Mogehan Sun in Uncasville, CT. The jiu-jitsu black belt is scheduled to face Henry Martinez during the first round of Bellator’s eight-man featherweight Grand Prix.

Reis was announces as having signed an exclusive contract with Bellator this past January but it was revealed several weeks later that his exclusive contract with EliteXC had been acquired by Strikeforce during the latter company’s acquisition of select assets from ProElite.

During the interview, Reis revealed that his management has worked things out with Strikeforce officials and that he will be able to compete for both promotions during the course of 2009.

Below is the complete video of our exclusive interview with Reis:

Six bouts featuring elimination fights from its eight-man, single elimination featherweight, lightweight, and welterweight tournaments are slated for the event, which will be broadcast live-to-tape on Saturday, April 11 on ESPN Deportes.

Headlining the show will be a first-round featherweight tournament fight between former EliteXC bantamweight champion Wilson Reis, 6-0, taking on Henry Martinez, 5-1.

Also scheduled for action is former UFC middleweight champion Dave Menne, blue chip East Coast MMA prospect Lyman Good, and ShoXC veteran Hector Urbina.

Good, 7-0, and Urbina, 12-4 are set to go head-to-head in a first round welterweight tournament bout.

Menne, 42-15, will be competing in Bellator’s welterweight tournament and is slated for first round action against Norman Paraisy, 5-0.

Two other welterweight tournament bouts featuring Jorge Ortiz (15-4) vs. Aaron Romero (5-2) and Omar De La Cruz (3-1) vs. Victor Meza (9-0) are scheduled as well.

The televised portion of the card will be rounded out by a lightweight tournament bout between Thomas Schulte, 18-6, and Peruvian MMA sensation Ivan Iberico, 7-1.

And after traveling half-way around the world to challenge Aoki, Alvarez (13-2) will be fighting much closer to his native Philadelphia when he squares off against Naoyuki Kotani (17-8-4) at the Tropicana Hotel & Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Joining Alvarez on the card will be two of his teammates from the Philadelphia Fight Factory with both former BodogFIGHT women’s champion Tara LaRosa and former Division I wrestler Zach Makovsky scheduled to compete as well.

LaRosa’s opponent has yet to be determined while Makovsky is set to John Hosman, an 11-4-1 fighter who trains out of Colin Oyama’s Team Oyama.

Makovsky, 4-1, is one of the top fighters competing at 135 pounds not currently in the WEC.  His most recent fight took place on the undercard of EliteXC’s “Primetime” event on May 31 in Newark, N.J. Facing American Top Team’s Andre Soares, Makovsky was declared the victor by unanimous decision.

Also scheduled to compete on the card is current EliteXC bantamweight (140 pound) champion Wilson Reis. Reis, 5-0, is a native of Sao Paulo, Brazil but has called Philadelphia home for the past four years. His homecoming fight is scheduled to take place against Josh Ferguson, 6-1.

Former EliteXC competitor and Pros vs. Joes season one winner Charlie Brenneman is also set for action against Edward O’Daniel.

Already announced as headlining the show against an opponent yet to be determined is top five ranked lightweight Eddie Alvarez, who was raised in the Kensington section of Philadelphia.

Additionally, FiveOuncesOfPain.com can now confirm that both Tara LaRosa and Wilson Reis are scheduled to compete on the show as well. The news was confirmed via text message with Matt Stansell of North County Fight Club Fight Management, which represents both Reis and LaRosa.

Reis, the current EliteXC bantamweight champion, was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil but has adopted Philadelphia as his own town. The 23-year old black belt has developed a strong local following thanks in large part to his nationally televised bouts on SHOWTIME but also because he serves as an instructor at two of the areas largest schools, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu United in Jenkintown, PA and Daddis Fight Camps in South Philadelphia.

LaRosa, the former BodogFIGHT women’s champion, was born in Woodstown, N.J. and currently trains with Alvarez out of the Fight Factory in Philadelphia. She last competed in the Tri-State area on July 14, 2007 while co-headlining a Bodog event in Trenton N.J. Facing EliteXC veteran Kelly Kobold, LaRosa improved to 14-1 following a fourth round armbar submission.

According to Stansell, opponents for Reis and LaRosa have yet to be finalized.

Reis’ agent, Matt Stansell of North County Fight Club Fight Management, told Five Ounces of Pain that the 23-year old jiu-jitsu black belt has not formally signed his deal with Bellator but that it could be finalized within days.

Reis is still technically under contract to ProElite but Stansell indicated that he believes that the promotion is in violation of the terms of the contract and any legal attempt to prevent Reis from working with Bellator would unlawfully hinder his ability to earn a living.

Once signed, Reis is expected to be the centerpiece of Bellator’s featherweight (145 pounds) division and will compete for the promotion’s vacant featherweight title in a eight-man, single elimination tournament that will be televised over the course of several months on Disney-owned ESPN Deportes, a Spanish language version of ESPN.

In addition to featherweight, Bellator is also expected to hold tournaments at lightweight, welterweight, and middleweight. According to a press release issued by the promotion last week, tournaments will commence in April of 2009.

Separate sources have also revealed to Five Ounces of Pain in recent weeks that Reis also received a contract offer from Zuffa-owned World Extreme Cagefighting but that the proposal was not as strong as the one submitted by Bellator.

Wilson Reis vs. Abel Cullum

Jaime Jara vs. Giva Santana

Jaime Jara vs. Giva Santana

David Douglas vs. Malaipet

David Douglas vs. Malaipet

Matt Makowski vs. Erik Apple

Shane Del Rosario vs. Carl Seumanutafa

Photos: Tom Casino/EliteXC

FiveOuncesOfPain.com

MMAjunkie.com was the first to report the news on Wednesday.

Reis improved his record to 5-0 following a unanimous decision victory over Bryan Caraway during the SHOWTIME portion of EliteXC’s “Unfinished Business” on July 26. The 23-year renowned jiu-jitsu black belt is considered one of the top competitive grapplers in the world.

He’ll be facing an opponent in Quach, who improved his winning streak to nine following his unanimous decision victory against Mark Oshiro during ICON Sport’s “Hard Times” event on August 2. Originally known for being primarily a ground fighter, Quach’s standup has become highly respected under the tutelage of Colin Oyama.

The Sept. 26 event is also expected to feature bouts between heavyweights Jon Murphy and Shane Del Rosario as well as welterweights Matt Makowski and Erik Apple.

(Pictured: Bao Quach)

FiveOuncesOfPain.com spoke with EliteXC officials earlier in the week about the possibility of the matchup being finalized by week’s end. EliteXC has yet to officially announce the match but Reis informed his no Gi jiu-jitsu class at Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu United in Jenkintown, PA on Thursday night that the fight had been finalized earlier in the day.

Reis improved his record to 5-0 following a unanimous decision victory over Bryan Caraway during the SHOWTIME portion of EliteXC’s “Unfinished Business” on July 26. The 23-year renowned jiu-jitsu black belt is considered one of the top competitive grapplers in the world.

He’ll be facing an opponent in Quach, who improved his winning streak to nine following his unanimous decision victory against Mark Oshiro during ICON Sport’s “Hard Times” event on August 2. Originally known for being primarily a ground fighter, Quach’s standup has become highly respected under the tutelage of Colin Oyama.

EliteXC’s “Showdown” on Sept. 20 will be broadcast on SHOWTIME and is also expected to feature Joey Villasenor, Dave Herman, and Cristiane Cyborg against opponents yet to be determined. Five Ounces of Pain also broke the news on Tuesday that Paul Daley will be in action on the show in a bout against undefeated Team Tiger Schulmann welterweight prospect Lyman Good.

On Thursday, FiveOuncesOfPain.com spoke with one of Reis’ managers at North County Fight Club, Matt Stansell. Stansell confirmed that a bout with Quach has been offered by EliteXC and that Reis is ready to accept and is already training for the potential fight.

Despite Reis’ desire to move forward with the fight, an agreement from Quach has not yet been secured and there is some concern whether he will accept the proposed fight.

Quach earned a shot to compete for EliteXC’s 140 lbs. title following a unanimous decision victory over Mark Oshiro during ICON Sport’s “Hard Times” event in Honolulu last weekend. However, he may not immediately accept the title shot.

Quach has won nine consecutive fights and has a non-exclusive contract with EliteXC. Sources have indicated to Five Ounces of Pain that he has been approached by Affliction in regards to possibly appearing on its Oct. 11 “Day of Reckoning.” pay-per-view in Las Vegas. According to Stansell, EliteXC is looking to schedule the potential Reis vs. Quach title fight on one of four cards set to take place between Sept. 20 through Oct. 20.

As of Thursday there was no word whether Quach had accepted EliteXC’s or Affliction’s offer. On Friday afternoon, Five Ounces of Pain attempted to contact Quach’s trainer, Colin Oyama, for comment but a voicemail was not immediately returned.

By Matt Peterson

With just a little over a week left until his televised bout with Matt “The Hammer” Hamill (3-1 MMA, 3-1 UFC) on the most stacked SPIKE TV UFC Fight Night card ever, Tim “The Barbarian” Boestch (7-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC) says he’s got the answer for Hamill’s striking and is “looking for the knockout.”

The Maine native and former Lock Haven University wrestler shared his thoughts on Hamill with host Matt Peterson on a recent episode of the New England Fights! podcast.

“If he comes out pushing the pace like I think he’s going to, I could see this fight ending in the first round,” Boetsch said on the show, which can heard free of charge at New EnglandFights.com. “I hit pretty hard so it’s only going to take one shot to really change this fight. I don’t think it’s going to leave the first round.”

Boetsch started wrestling at a young age and attended high school in Camden Hills, Maine where he was a four-time State Champion and earned All-American honors his senior year by placing fourth at Nationals. Boestch went on to attend Lock Haven University, a Division 1 wrestling school, where he competed at heavyweight and sometimes gave up 60+ pounds to opponents. Boetsch states in the interview that he made the choice to go Division 1 because he wanted to test himself against the best.

At Lock Haven Boetsch roomed with current IFL fighter Mike Ciesnolevicz (13-3 MMA, 0-0 UFC) who introduced Tim to the sport of mixed martial arts. Boestch won his first six fights before stepping up on a week’s notice to fight veteran Vladimir “The Janitor” Matyushenko (20-3 MMA, 3-2 UFC) last August in the IFL. After three hard fought rounds Boetsch, who appeared to still be going strong at the end of the fight as “The Janitor” was fading, dropped a disappointing unanimous decision loss and vowed to change his game.

“Looking back on the Vladdy fight, if my striking had been better I would have easily won that fight,” Boetsch said. “It ticked me off that I didn’t bring the skill set to that fight when I could have been dominant, so I made it a point to really work on my striking.”

Boetsch then received the call to once again step in as a last-minute replacement, this time against David Heath (7-3 MMA, 2-3 UFC) in the UFC. Boetsch picked Heath apart with strikes, including some devastating front kicks, before catching Heath in the clinch, delivering several unanswered knees, and violently tossing Heath on his head before the ref stepped in to give Boetsch the TKO victory at 4:52 of Round 1.

When “The Barbarian” meets Hamill on April 2nd he’ll be facing arguably the toughest wrestler of his career. Hamill, a three-time NCAA Wrestling Division III National Champion, is most recently coming off a controversial split decision loss to Michael Bisping (14-1 MMA, 4-1 UFC) at UFC 75. However, Boetsch feels prepared.

“I train every fight to finish the fight and that’s exactly what I think is going to happen. I think my striking is slightly better than his and I know my wrestling is better than his, and I believe my jiu-jitsu is better than his,” Boetsch said. “If it goes the way I want it to we’re going to stand in there, our wrestling is going to cancel each other out, and we’re going to throw down. I just think I have the answer for what he brings to the table striking-wise. I’m looking for the knockout.”

In the interview Boetsch also discusses mental toughness, training in North Central Pennsylvania, and how he feels about a drop to middleweight. Visit NewEnglandFights.com for the complete interview.

Tim Boetsch will again step up for the Ultimate Fighting Championship on short notice, this time taking over for the injured Stephan Bonnar. He will take on Matt Hamill as a part of the April 2 UFC Fight Night in Broomfield, Colo. as confirmed by MMAWeekly.com with sources close to the fight.

Tim Boetsch is loving the UFC right now. In his UFC debut he stepped in and scored a TKO victory over David Heath via ragdolling on two weeks’ notice and had the fight played on a huge pay per view show. Now Stephan Bonnar falls off the card which presents him with a golden opportunity to step in against Matt Hamill, a well known UFC fighter because of his stint on TUF and because of the forever notorious and controversial decision loss against Michael Bisping at UFC 75. Tim Boetsch, a guy that not many of us had heard of until a month or so ago, is set to make some big waves in the UFC with only two fights.

The downside of all this for Boetsch, however, is that he will be facing a hungry Matt Hamill who learned a lot of lessons at UFC 75 and has been waiting for his chance to erase that memory from his mind. It’s also not favorable to Boetsch because Hamill will not be overwhelmed by Boetsch’s strength. Hamill is freakishly strong according to all accounts and he won’t be tossed around like Heath was. Add to that Hamill’s improved striking and natural wrestling ability and all the still unknowns of Tim Boetsch and we’ve got ourselves a pretty damn interesting fight.

Check out more UFC Fight Night 13 content on FiveOuncesofPain.com!

Well, UFC.com is reporting something completely different. Apparently Tim Boetsch, and not Ruiz, will be taking on Heath:

February 2nd’s UFC 81 card in Las Vegas is back up to a full slate of nine fights after Pennsylvania light heavyweight prospect Tim Boetsch agreed to step into the Octagon to face David Heath.  Boetsch (6-1 in pro MMA) replaces Tomasz Drwal, who was forced to withdraw from the Heath bout due to injury.

No disrespect to MMAWeekly.com, but I will take the UFC’s word for this one.

I think Ruiz would have been a good replacement but I like Boetsch just as much in this spot. I saw him fight twice this past summer; first at Extreme Challenge 81 in Orange, NJ on July 28 and less again less than a week later at the IFL semifinals on August 2 in East Rutherford, NJ.

Boetsch submitted Brendan Barrett with a guillotine choke at 3:00 of round 2. He then lost a unanimous decision to Vladimir Matyushenko during the IFL show but hung tough the entire time. He’s a very good wrestler and I think he stands a good chance of pulling off an upset against Heath.

The IFL put on a first class show last night in the swamps of Dirty Jersey. I don’t know how else to describe it other than by saying it had a big event atmosphere similar to what you would feel at an NBA conference championship playoff series.

Count me among the many who scoffed at the IFL’s team concept when it first came about but the new TV format began changing my perspective several weeks back and last night’s show has made me a believer.

Will the IFL overtake the UFC as the number one promotion in the world anytime soon?

No, of course not. Big main events are what rules the PPV world and that’s where the big money is to be made.

But can the team concept allow the IFL to be a viable number two?

No doubt about it.

The crowd was pretty good. The IFL benefited from having Renzo Gracie’s New York Pitbulls fighting in their backyard as there were a ton of red Pitbulls jerseys in the crowd.

They also put a couple of fighters on the undercard from Tiger Schulman’s Karate and the annoying “T-S-K!” chants were in full effect. While I hate the chants and not a big fan of TSK’s involvement in MMA, it was a good marketing strategy for the IFL.

I really liked the celebrations after when a fight would end by TKO or submission. The teams would celebrate after the fights and I felt it added a lot to the importance of the outcomes. Yes, teams celebrating after matches is nothing new in MMA but sometimes it seems gratuitous in non-team formats (Chute Box, anyone?). In a team format, it seems like a natural reaction.

According to the IFL, the overall attendance was 7,077. The official number will come from the New Jersey control board and I have no idea how much, if any, papering was done.

The arena was sectioned off so that there weren’t any major pockets of empty seats. I think I remember Gareb Shamus or Kurt Otto saying in a conference call that the arena would be cordoned off to accommodate between 6,000-8,000 fans. I really didn’t see many empty seats so you’ve got to hand it to them for a solid turnout on a Thursday night.

It was a hot crowd with the fans reacting to all the major spots in the matches. I’m not a TV executive, but my assumption is that the show will come off very well on TV.

There were some boos but they were primarily directed at the referees for when they felt the fight should be stood up. Overall, a very knowledge and well-behaved crowd. The crowd at the Bodog show appears to be an aberration as far as MMA shows in the New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia area.

Another thing I noticed was that the fans recognized a lot of the fighters so it appears the IFL is doing a good job of establishing stars in the NJ/NY market. There were a lot of people asking for pictures and autographs. Ben Rothwell appeared to be a very busy guy and seemed real good with the fans. Also, Chris Horodecki got big reactions whenever he was shown on screen.

Also, there was a TON of media in the building. So much so that my assigned seat at ringside was occupied and I got bumped to the media section that’s used for NHL and NBA games. I’m not complaining because I finally got to meet Pramit Mohapatra from the Baltimore Sun and MMAMadness.com as well as Jeff Hamlin from the Wrestling Observer and MMAMadness.com. They are real good guys and you should all check out the re-design at MMAMadness.com.

Based on pure conjecture, I would have to say last night’s show at the Continental Arena was almost as big of a success as their show in Everett, WA. Now, I have no idea how it did from a dollar and cents standpoint and instead merely commenting from a attendance, crowd interest, organizational, and production standpoint.

After watching how well organized last night’s show was I am convinced that those who are predicting that the IFL won’t make it will be proven wrong. If they stick to the current TV format and keep building up the team concept while also learning from their mistakes when it comes to where they hold their live shows, they are going to eventually turn the corner from a business-perspective.

Speaking of organized, props go out to Jerry Milani, the IFL’s PR guru who had a great handle on the media last night.

With more shows like the last six episodes and more events like last night and the one in Everett, Wash., the IFL is only going to grow. If their business is truly stabilized, they can then start looking at ways to move forward. And with a strong product, even if they run out of cash then you’d have to think they will become an attractive buyout candidate.

Now, I can’t let the IFL go completely unscathed. I had a couple of issues.

One, the event was anti-climatic in a lot of ways.

The Silverbacks won the first three matches and clinched a berth in the finals. At that point I felt all the energy leave the building for the final two matches between the Silverbacks and Anacondas. It kind of felt like a baseball team at home going to at-bat in the bottom of the ninth even though they already have the lead.

The energy came back into the building when the hometown Pitbulls made their way to the ring for their match against the Sabers. But the energy was killed again after the Pitbulls clinched with wins in their first three matches.

There’s no obvious solution to the problem and I guess the IFL is a victim of fate in the same way the NFL, NBA, and MLB are. They can’t control the outcome of the matches just like the NFL is helpless if the Super Bowl is a blowout at half-time. But it’s an area where promotions that don’t use a team format have an advantage over the IFL.

Now, if the matches were tied 2-2 heading into the fifth, I probably wouldn’t even be bringing this up.

One thing they could do is take away the coin flip that allows the coaches to choose match lineups. The promotion could try and project outcomes and schedule the matches in an order that could increase chances of a 2-2 tie heading in the fifth match. Yes, it’s hardly an exact science but you have to think that the coaches are trying to set the fight lineups so that they win 3-0 right out of the gate.

Also, I think having individual champs next year will help alleviate some of these issues. For example, last night’s heavyweight bout between Ben Rothwell and Krysztof Soszynski was fifth in the order and was a meaningless match in regard to the team concept. However, if Rothwell was the heavyweight champ and Soszynski had been approved as a contender, it would have been a championship match, thus significant implications would still be at play.

Also, what the hell is going on with the lightweight Grand Prix!? For the past six weeks I swear I’ve heard Kenny Rice say the top four finishers in each division advance to the GP.

Well, why is it that Bart Palaszewski is in and not Shad Lierley? If you follow the correct order of tiebreakers, Lierley should be in based on the fact that his total match time this year is less than Palaszewski’s.

But the bigger issue is that when the matchups were originally announced last week Palaszewski was supposed to be fighting Chris Horodecki and John Gunderson was supposed to be fighting Wagnney Fabiano.

Then, last night they showed a graphic on the big screen with the matchups for the GP and Horodecki and Palaszewski are no longer scheduled to meet in the first round.

Was it a misprint or is the IFL trying to save a rematch between Horodecki vs. Palaszewski for the finals on 12/29?

I’m not the only one who thinks something is up because I went to the bathroom on my way out I heard fighters that shall remain nameless making a big deal about it with one labeling it “an IFL conspiracy.” He didn’t appear to be in a kidding mood, either.

Look, the IFL is a young league so I can understand that they want to make matchups that draw an optimum amount of interest. That’s cool, just be up front about it. Instead of saying the top four finishers get in, say that the top three qualify and that the fourth spot in each GP will be an at-large bid voted on by an IFL-approved selection committee.

Would at-large bids create a lot of politics? Yes, it would, but the NCAA has built a cottage industry around its selection process for its college basketball tournament.

The at-large process makes perfect sense for ’08 but what about now? Well, level with the fans and explain why the parameters previously given as the criteria for qualifying for the GP have been ignored and why the seeding of the lightweights has been changed. A fan who has invested time into the concept deserves an explanation.

I guess the silver lining is that I’m complaining about the politics in the IFL the same way I would with the NBA, NFL, or MLB. Hey, this team concept seems to be catching on…

Now, onto the matches…

Light Heavyweight – Mike Ciesnolevic (Silverbacks) defeated Alex Schoenauer (Anacondas) via split decision in a match that was very slow paced. I expected a lot more out of these two.

Welterweight - Rory Markham (Silverbacks) recorded a TKO over Chris Clements (Anacondas) at 1:17 of round one. Clements threw some decent kicks but Markham’s hands were too heavy. I was really surprised with Markham’s accuracy. You could hear a few thuds with his punches. Impressive showing.

Lightweight - Bart Palaszewski (Silverbacks) submitted Harris Sarmiento (Anacondas) with a guillotine at 1:06 of round three. Palaszewski hit takedowns in rounds one and three and showed decent standup skills, as usual.

Middleweight – Benji Radach (Anacondas) defeated Gerald Harris (Silverbacks) via TKO at 3:03 of round one. The fight was stopped after Harris couldn’t continue after getting hit with a legal, but inadvertent knee from Radach. Harris went in for the takedown and when Radach’s legs went up in the air, Harris got hit.

Heavyweight - Ben Rothwell (Silverbacks) TKO’d Krzysztof Soszynski (Anacondas) at 0:13 of round one. Rothwell looked to be in the best shape I’ve ever seen him in. Both fighters came out swinging but Soszynski couldn’t eat Rothwell’s shots. If you don’t believe that Rothwell is a top 10 heavyweight in the world right now, you need to wake up.

Silverbacks win 4-1.

Middleweight – Dan Miller (Pitbulls) caught Dave Phillips (Sabers) in a standing guillotine and submitted Phillips at 1:30 of round one. I don’t believe Phillips tapped. I think he passed out and the ref stopped it.

Heavyweight – Bryan Vetell (Pitbulls) hit a ton of knees and just wrecked Wayne Cole’s (Anacondas) lower body and earned a unanimous decision. Cole showed poor technique in that when Vetell would clinch him up, he really didn’t do anything to break the clinch and he didn’t try to bring Vetell closer in order to limit the extension for the knee strikes. He kept Vetell and at an optimum distance and Vetell tore him up. Cole had a lot of trouble moving in the third. The match got interesting at the end when Cole achieved top position following a sloppy takedown attempt by Vetell. Cole was throwing some strikes from the ground as the final bell sounded.

Lightweight – Devidias Taurosevicius (Pitbulls) upset Savant Young (Sabers) by earning a unanimous decision victory. This match earned FiveOuncesOfPain.com’s “Match of the Night” honors. I didn’t have any cash on me but I went backstage in an attempt to award them an entire case of nothing but I couldn’t find either fighter. Taurosevicius’ win sent the Pitbulls to the finals and they celebrated as if Devidias had just scored a game winning touchdown in the NFC Conference Championship game and earned the team a trip to the Super Bowl. It was pretty cool. Taurosevicius looked real impressive. So impressive that if I was Renzo Gracie, I would think about benching Erik Owings for the finals.

Welterweight - Antonio McKee (Sabers) defeated Delson Heleno (Pitbulls) via split decision. This was a huge disappointment. Both guys spent a lot of time trying to feel one another out. A slow match came to a screeching halt when McKee took a nasty crotch shot from Heleno. There was a long pause in the match while McKee tried to compose himself. Heleno then hit another low knee that took McKee’s breath away but it appeared to be on the inner thigh and not the crotch. McKee hit a big slam at one point but Heleno made a nice transition and got top position.

Light Heavyweight – Vladimir Matyushenko (Sabers) defeated Tim Boetsch (Pitbulls) via unanimous decision. I thought Boetsch would be overmatched but I was completely wrong. The kid was not intimidated in the slightest and more than held his own. He got in some decent offense and fought like he had been fighting in the IFL for the past two seasons. The guy earns extra points for fighting on short notice after having just fought this past Saturday in West Orange, NJ for Combat in the Cage. Tim Boetsch is the man. The WEC should fly him out to Vegas for Sunday’s card so that he can have three pro fights in eight days.

Pitbulls wins 3-2.