Texas Rage In The Cage Presents CAGE RAGE 7

May 8, 2010 @ State Farm Arena in Rio Grande Valley, Hidalgo Tx

Main Event: Former Power Ranger Jason “Fearless” Frank Vs James “Beast” Willis

Title Fight

Co Main Event: Undefeated Mark Garcia (Houston) VS 160lb TRCAA Champion Jordan Morgan (Buna tx)

Also out of the UFC legend Wanderlei Silvas camp Josh Montalvo takes on 2009 San DA world gold medalist Daniel Duran

10 action packed MMA fights

PREPARE TO TAPOUT OR GET KOCKEDOUT!!!!
www.texasrageinthecage.com

The fight was a back and forth affair that saw Tito take Griffin to the mat in the first round and put his ground-and-pound expertise to work on the resilient Griffin. Although some could make an argument that the fight could have been stopped during that flurry of punches, the badly bloody Griffin survived and regrouped in between rounds. The next two rounds saw Forrest stuff take down after take attempt disheartening Tito. Griffin took advantage and landed punch after punch. The fight had the crowd cheering wildly and went to the scorecards. Ortiz cheered emphatically as the verdict was rendered. Many in the crowd booed the decision loudly and after three years, UFC fans will finally get the rematch they’ve longed for.

Both fighters are coming off losses and are in pivotal points in their career. Both fighters are in desperation mode and need wins to once again solidify their status as elite level fighters. Forrest Griffin is coming off an embarrassing knockout loss to the middleweight champion, Anderson Silva and in doing so suffered his first back-to-back loss of his career. Tito has not fought in a year and a half and is coming off back surgery. His last action in the Octagon was against the light heavyweight champ, Lyoto Machida. Lyoto picked Tito apart and dominated the fight until the final minute when Ortiz slapped a triangle-choke on Machida and nearly submitted him. Does the former light heavyweight king, Tito Ortiz have what it takes to once again climb to the top of the division? A win tonight would put him well on his way to a title shot.

The winner of this fight will be the hungrier fighter. Who wants it more? Will the “Huntington Beach Bad Boy” Tito Ortiz’s desire to reign atop the light division carry him to a win or will the bad taste left in the mouth of Forrest Griffin be the force that leads him to a much needed win? We will find out tonight at 9 pm/central on pay-per-view.

WEC 44 promises to be a thriller with another possible fight of the year candidate. WEC fights are among the most exciting with quick action and endless energy and Mike Brown and Jose Aldo promise to keep the WEC’s string of great fights intact. Jose Aldo (15-1, 5 consecutive knockouts) is one of MMA’s most exciting, young prospects that will face his toughest test in his short career. Aldo is coming off an exciting, eight-second KO win of Cub Swanson with a flying double knee that left the Sacramento crowd buzzing and earned him the coveted Knockout of the Night bonus. Mike Brown (22-4, 10 straight wins) conquered the WEC most recognizable face, Urijah Faber, twice. Brown will want use his strong wrestling background to close the gap and neutralize Aldo’s heavy hands. Jose Aldo will surely want to keep the fight standing to add another knockout to his resume but is also a black belt jiu-jitsu artist. However, Brown was not afraid to trade punches with the heavy-handed Leonard Garcia, instead he stunned Garcia with a flurry of punches and earned a win via an arm-triangle choke showing he can also do it all in the cage. This promises to be another WEC instant classic full of fireworks.

In the co-main event, Leonard Garcia will take on Manny Gamuryan. The two former UFC competitors will face off to determine who will earn the next title shot against the Brown-Aldo winner. Garcia is one of my favorite fighters because he seems to enjoy fighting, smiling through most of his fights. His heavy hands will be occupied trying to keep himself upright if the judo expert, Manny Gamburyan. In what should be another exciting fight, I expect Leonard Garcia’s power as the difference in the fight. Gamburyan was the victim of one of the quickest knockouts in UFC history when Rob Emerson knocked him out in 12 seconds. Garcia hits much harder and will certainly test the chin of the Armenian.

In a busy MMA month that features 4 major events, including 3 Zuffa events in two weeks, WEC promises to be the belle of the ball. If have yet to enjoy a WEC event, do yourself a favor and tune into Versus tonight at 8:00 pm/central.

images via sherdog.com

I love watching Dana White get pissed at Nelson or anybody for that matter. On “the Aftermath” show on spike, Dana and Nelson were still bickering and it came out that Nelson is still training at his house and only occasionally sparring at larger fight camps. Dana White was very angry and tried to get one of the other TUF fighters there to agree with how stupid that was.

Really anything can happen in the Ultimate Fighter. I really see a lot of great matchups in these quarter finals and hope that the fights are more exciting then the first half. My only concern is the amount of fighters that were gassing out after the first round or even the first flurry of punches. Even Rashad’s favorite fighter James McSweeney ended up practically collapsing of exhaustion in his first fight. Unlike UFC fights these guys do not have the time to correct large gaps in their skills in between fights and I think a few of the fights that last to the 2nd or 3rd round will end up being two fighters using all of their strength to throw punches that a sloth could dodge. That being said I think there will be some very good fights and still more upsets to come.

photo courtesy of sherdog

Brett Rogers is no joke, he might even be able to beat a lot of the UFC’s Heavyweights, but he has only fought one UFC level fighter and that is Andrei Arlovski. Brett beat him by KO and no one can take that away from him. Andrei is an ex-UFC Champion and Brett knocked him out in 22 seconds. That is where Brett’s record begins and ends though, all of the rest of his competition would be happy to make it on the Ultimate Fighter. What you can take from Brett’s past fights are how quick he is and how devastating his punch combination’s are. One thing that has not been tested in recent fights is Brett’s ground game and his chin, but that is because all but one of his opponents did not get past the first round. Another thing about Rogers is that he did spend some time with Josh Barnett, who was supposed to be Fedor’s last opponent and has a very strong ground game. I do not think Rogers will go at this fight like Barnett would but some pointers from a veteran are always helpful. This was a positive sign from Rogers because he has been with his current fight camp all of his career. It is nice that he is loyal and he might be comfortable with them but he is fighting the best Heavyweight in the world and should be training as such in order to be the best Brett Rogers walking into the cage on Saturday. If Brett was fighting any other fighter besides Fedor then I would give him a chance. Fedor has proved time and time again through technique under pressure and confidence in his own skill that he will not be defeated by another human being. Only an experienced Brock Lesner could have the strength and talent to possibly control Fedor.

Fedor is not like many champions, out to prove that he is the best or that he can exchange blows with anybody. Fedor stills fights in Combat Sambo Tournaments in Russia, for fun I guess. Fedor has fought Worldclass kickboxers with knockout power, strong wrestlers that could takedown anybody and submission artists that seemed unstoppable and even people twice the size of him. Fedor has always found a way to win and in most instances found a way to finish them. Fedor is always calm before, during and after his fights and it makes it possible for him to take hard punches, wrestling slams and submission attempts and remember how to use everything to his advantage and win the fight. Nothing could display this better than when Kevin Randleman picked him up in the air and dropped him on his neck, watch it on YouTube and you will start to understand what Fedor is capable of. This fight is no different and he is facing a less experienced, more one-sided fighter than most of his fights in the past. Fedor will do what he’s done to all the others, he will come in, land a few strikes to daze Brett and then do a backward Russia Bear hug and choke Brett out.
One interesting fact about this fight that makes it especially interesting is that this is Fedor’s first fight in a cage instead of a ring. 31 fights over 9 years and 5 fight organizations and Fedor has never fought in a cage. The only way this will hurt his game is that he has used the ring ropes to his advantage in a few fights. The fight where this made the most difference was when he fought Matt Lindland in Bodog Fight and he slid the rope into his armpit and not only prevented Lindland from taking him down but reversed the situation and ended up taking Lindland down. For the fight with Rogers I do not see it being an issue, I do not think Rogers will try and take Fedor down. If that is true, cages are a decent amount bigger than rings and have no corners like in a boxing ring and Fedor could use it to slip away if Rogers rocks him with big punches or Fedor can use it to feel Rogers out early in order to figure out Rogers’ punching range and quickness.

In this day and age when the hype is built up just to get you to visit the local bar to buy an overpriced drink, Fedor still cannot be hyped enough because he truly is the Undisputed Heavyweight Champion or the World.

In my opinion, neither fighter did anything to warrant a definitive win. The only rounds I wrote down in pen for each fighter was the third round for Machida and the fifth for Rua, all the other rounds are debatable. I kept waiting for one of the fighters to come in with a flurry to steal a round like Machida did in the third but it never happened.

In a match-up that featured conservative striking, how can anyone cry foul? I personally had the fight for Rua, 3-2, giving him the first, fourth and fifth rounds but in no way was I shocked. The only thing that made me say wow was the verdict being unanimous.

I wanted to see how the up-start league compared to the big boys.  I have had co-workers and colleagues rant and rave about the unbelievable access and availability of not only the fighters but of the management as well. WEC gave me a 3 day, all-access, insider view of the organization and I left a believer.

I must admit, I have already been a die-hard fan of MMA for the past 6 years and am hard-pressed to remember more than 3 UFC pay-per-views or Spike TV specials I have missed in that time span. I have also been a loyal WEC follower for at least 3 years. Some have called the organization “the UFC’s little brother” while others have called for Zuffa to be merge WEC with the UFC and make it one product. In some aspects, I agree with the latter only because I want to see these guys get paid UFC money and be rewarded for the effort they put forth every single time in the ring but at the same time, WEC feels like my little secret. I have something a lot of MMA fans still don’t know about. These guys never disappoint. Every event has at least one moment where your jaw-drops below your knees. At least one fight will have you saying, this definitely has fight of the year potential.

Part of this is accomplished with the aide of a 26 ft ring, 4 feet smaller the UFC’s “Octagon”. The ring creates fast-paced action these lighter weight fighters thrive in. The action is non-stop with moves you will never see with the UFC’s larger fighters (i.e. see Miguel Torres’ wheel kick). They are smaller but tougher. They typically train with larger fighters who never take it easy on them. Dana White said, “If you are a fighter in the WEC, you have to be one bad mother blank.” With this in mind, I couldn’t wait to see it first hand.

I got to experience the unparalleled access granted by the WEC when Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone and Leonard Garcia allowed us to film and interview them for TexasFighting.com the Thursday before the fight. They couldn’t be better guys and there was never a staged answer. Everything was raw emotion, available for anyone to see.  It’s refreshing to see professional athletes who are real and not afraid of the consequences of their words, after-all, they must back them up in the cage.

My favorite part of the weigh-ins was the Q&A session with Miguel Torres, Jamie Varner and Frank Mir. Again, no generic answers, just the truth. Miguel Torres continually challenged Floyd “Money” Mayweather to a MMA fight after “Money” said they weren’t real fighters. Miguel argued that MMA fighters must be more well-rounded and questioned Floyd’s ability to survive the ground game. The most surprising moment of the night was Jamie Varner’s ability to show how good of a person he is. I thought Varner was a punk and had been running from a rematch with “Cowboy” but I left the evening pondering to myself whether all fighters should have his heart saying he wouldn’t want his younger brother to fight because Varner does this to provide a better future for him. He also seemed most media savvy, giving the perfect answer for every question. (Visit Texas Fighting on Youtube for the full Q&A with Frank Mir, Jamie Varner and Miguel Torres (WEC® 43)coverage.)

Now lets get to my prediction for Fight of the Year. “Cowboy” Cerrone and Ben Henderson.  I came in just wanting to see a great fight. I got that and more. Ben Henderson survived multiple submission attempts with literal thumbs up. In a moment that made everyone look away fearing his shoulder dislocating, Ben “smoothly” relaxed and got out of the submission not once visibly wincing or seemingly thinking of tapping. “Cowboy” was also unrelenting bringing his Muy Thai and kickboxing skills together with his under-rated ground skills to further show his all-around game. Ben Henderson answered with equally impressive stand-up and ground and pound skills. The action never allowed you to catch your own breath. I was physically exhausted just watching these two warriors battle for 5 rounds. The decision went to Ben “Smooth” Henderson. The fight was close but no one saw it as controversial. Joe Martinez promptly announced the fight as the best in WEC history and I couldn’t disagree nor could I argue that this was one of my favorite events in my professional career.

-Jacob Calbillo

Aaron will be fighting at the TAMMA Texas Fight Fest 15 “Fight Against Hunger” today October 3rd, 2009 at 6:00pm. Enjoy the interview!

~Interview Start~

Texas Fighting: Aaron tell me a little about how you got started in MMA?

Aaron Lanfranco: I heard about it after watching a couple of UFC fights but then I found out that it wasn’t legalized in Texas, this was like 4 or 5 years ago. When I was younger I was a real active kid. My dad put me in baseball and football and my mom wanted me in sports ‘cus I was a hyper a@@ little kid. If you asked her she’d tell you I was like “zipp” “zapp” here and there. So I did sports throughout middle school and high school and in my freshman year I started wrestling, which was in 2001 I believe. That was my first individual sport that I did. Once I was introduced to wrestling I fell in love with it because of the adrenaline pump. I did wrestling throughout high school and continued with football on into junior college. I ended up leaving wrestling but when I finished college I came back and had nothing else to do. I had to do something, I always have to do something to relieve my anger, my stress so I found a jujitsu gym right down the street from here (south Austin) and started attending.

Texas Fighting: What gym?

Aaron Lanfranco: Relson Gracie Academy with Phil Cardella. After that I found out that MMA was legalized in Texas. Phil asked me, “why did you decide to join my gym?” I told him, “I wanna fight.” Phil told me straight up, ” You’re not ready!” (chuckles) I replied, “well ok, what do I have to do to get ready?” He then let me know that I needed a couple of years in training and experience before I stepped into the ring. I let him know that my background is in wrestling and he told me that I was a step above most people that come into a jujitsu gym. After a couple years on and off he started noticing that I was picking up stuff and he invited me to the MMA classes and for the past 2 years I’ve been training MMA pretty consistently. May of this year I had my first fight after 2 years of training.

Texas Fighting: How many fights do you have under your belt?

Aaron Lanfranco: I’m at four amateur fights, this will be my fifth… One every month man.

Texas Fighting: Good, so what’s your record right now?

Aaron Lanfranco: 4-0

Texas Fighting: So this next fight will put you at 5-0?

Aaron Lanfranco: That’s what I’m fighting for!

Texas Fighting: Do you think wrestling has helped you out in MMA?

Aaron Lanfranco: Oh yeah! And my parents say my grandmother helped me out too ‘cus I have her aggression. (chuckles)

Texas Fighting: Where do you train at now?

Aaron Lanfranco: I still train at Relson Gracie Academy and I train out in Lockhart for my boxing.

Texas Fighting: What gym is that?

Aaron Lanfranco: Puros Chingasos, LTX Fight Club. I started training over there about two weeks before my first fight. They offer jujitsu and other groundwork but I mainly work on striking and cardio conditioning there.

Texas Fighting: What weight are you fighting in for your next fight?

Aaron Lanfranco: 175, I believe it’s welterweight.

Texas Fighting: What weight did you fight in on your last fight?

Aaron Lanfranco: 170. The fight before that was 170, the one before that was 175 and my first fight was 155. (Laughter) Big difference.

Texas Fighting: What weight do you like to fight at?

Aaron Lanfranco: It doesn’t really matter to me but I’ll probably drop to 155 when I go pro. Even then it’s still iffy ‘cus I love to eat!

Texas Fighting: Do you work out with weights?

Aaron Lanfranco: No, it’s just all grappling training. I train almost six days a week. If I’m working a lot, I try to workout whenever I can.

Texas Fighting: What are your goals in MMA? You mentioned “when I go pro” so when do you foresee that happening?

Aaron Lanfranco: I’ve been given advice to just wait to go pro and get more fights under my belt. What I’ve also been told is that I may be big stuff right now but it’s only amateur and when I go pro if I go in with a big head I may be in for an upset. With the momentum that I have right now, I’m going to take that advice. I’ll have a couple more fights and then if anyone wants to sign me, I’ll go! WEC is going to be there in San Antonio tomorrow so hopefully I’ll put on a good show, I really want to put on a good show, and the hopefully I can get a couple good words in to them. There are some guys in WEC that I want to fight but I don’t think I’m ready for it but if they asked me to fight I won’t back down. That’s just the way I was raised to not back down from anything. If you have the opportunity in life take it, don’t pass it up. These are pretty much my plans for going pro. I really just want to be #1, be the champ. I want to be the #1 contender.

Texas Fighting: Whe is your next fight?

Aaron Lanfranco: It’s for TAMMA and will be held in San Antonio, Saturday October 3rd. Fight starts at 6:00 doors open at 5:30. General admission is $20. I’m going to the 5th fight on the card.

Texas Fighting: Who are you fighting?

Aaron Lanfranco: Hmmm, Mr. Wilson I believe. Really I don’t know much about my opponent. It’s like I tell everybody. “Don’t know, don’t care. I’m just in the ring to fight!” I’ve heard he’s good on the ground but I’ve been training both ground and stand up and I’m pretty confident either way so whatever he gives me, I gotta do what I gotta do, ya know.

Texas Fighting: Do you have any knockouts under your belt?

Aaron Lanfranco: Yeah, 1 knockout, 2 TKO’s and 1 submission. Fortunately no decisions.

Texas Fighting: Do you have any favorite fighters, anyone that you look up to?

Aaron Lanfranco: Roger Huerta. We went to the same high school. He was a senior when I was a freshman. We wrestled once and I called him out. It was like my first week of wrestling and I heard he was the big stuff. It was the new guy versus the experienced so I was trying to go all hard to prove something. I took him down and he didn’t like that, so he showed me real quick by cross facing me and roughing me up. I think I even saw stars. I felt his wrath, he took it up a couple levels, then after that I was like, “Good job man!” (laughter) I learned my lesson after that.

Texas Fighting: Have you ever been knocked out?

Aaron Lanfranco: Yeah, not like out cold but dazed where I fell it in my knees. It was a little back yard boxing match when I was in college. We were just passing time, it was off season not really much to do. Out of all the big guys I picked the smallest guy, next thing I know, we’re exchanging hands then “clock” I fall to my knees. I was ready to get back in and start again but my friend was like, naw, naw, naw you’re good. That feeling right there is nothing to brag about but it felt kinda weird (chuckles). It felt like waking up from being passed out or drunk. Yeah, but that’s the only time I’ve ever been knocked out other than being knocked out in football where I was knocked out cold.

Texas Fighting: Did you come from a background of fighters?

Aaron Lanfranco: Naw, my dad was what we’d consider a jock of the high school. He was well known down in the Vally because he was a big guy ya know. His brothers too. My uncles were into baseball. Out all his brother he was the only one to do football. He wanted me to play football or baseball and I wanted to try something different, like wrestling or maybe soccer. My family was very into sports, even my mom who was in track. She was a pretty good runner, a good athlete. She did cheer leading but mainly track, mainly running.

Texas Fighting: Have you been doing any special training to prepare for this fight?

Aaron Lanfranco: Naw, just train like always. I train boxing, jujitsu, I do some take downs, some wrestling, I work on some muay thai. I just work the basics, boxing standing, striking. I’ll work off my back, stuff like that. Phil Cardella is my trainer for jujitsu, Roy Garcia for boxing. Good people, (chuckles) good people. My thai training is with Phil and back in the day Randy Vera. Every bit of coaching is good in my opinion. It never hurts to learn a little bit more.

Texas Fighting: Do you get nervous before a fight?

Aaron Lanfranco: Oh yeah. That’s one thing I got to get over. My butterflies. I get butterflies like a mofo. Even in wrestling, before my tournaments. Even if the guy was a freshman and I was a senior and I already knew what I was doing, I’d still get nervous. It’s a mental thing. You just have to think clear and remember that you already know what you gotta do, you’ve trained for this and there’s no reason to get overly excited. In the gym it’s all technique, real crisp but once you get in the ring and the adrenaline takes over it’s a different story. That’s when you see fighters get sloppy and swing wild. You gotta relax and not let the adrenaline take over you. You have to work on controlling your adrenaline to work for you.

Texas Fighting: Do you have any special thanks you’d like to give to anyone?

Aaron LanFranco: Well my coaches, Phil Cardella, he’s been there training me from the beginning at Relson Gracie Academy. Roy Garcia for Puros Chingasos Fight Wear and sponsoring me with his fight wear. My family and friends for there support. They’re all traveling to San Antonio and spending money to go see me. My girlfriend here. Even though we’ve had some rough times, we’ve stuck together. She’s helped me out a lot, she’s really been there for me, I could on on about that – she’s really helped me out a lot. Everybody that’s helped me. My training partners, my neighbors who’ve made attempts and offers with little things even if it’s just offers and I refuse I’m still thankful to them for at least trying to help out. Too many people to name. If I do make it on to UFC, which I hope and I do win a belt on TV, I just want to say to all the people that doubted me – THANK YOU! I see myself thanking them while up in the ring being the champ saying, ” Thank you for doubting me, ‘cus it added fuel to the fire.” They know who they are.

~Interview End~