THE TWO SHEDS REVIEW by Julian Radbourne – now in it’s 10th year!
E-mail: juli316uk@yahoo.co.uk
Website: www.twoshedsreview.com
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So what do you get when you put a two-time former UFC Heavyweight Champion against a five-time World’s Strongest Man? You get the main event of Moosin: Sylvia v Pudzianowski, shown live on Primetime in the early hours of this past Friday morning here in Britain, with Bas Rutten, Tom Megalis and Jeff Gorman handling commentary duties.
The show began with welterweight action as Ralph Johnson went up against Forrest Petz. This proved to be a very interesting if not overly spectacular encounter. Johnson used his height and reach advantage to very good effect, his jab opening up a cut on Petz’s nose. It also served him well whenever Petz went for a take down. Apart from that it was mainly a striking battle which went the distance, with Petz getting the unanimous decision, which didn’t sit too well with Johnson’s hometown fans.
It was up to the light heavyweight division for the next fight as Lukasz Jurkowski went up against Ho Jin Kim. A very good fight saw some good take downs and reversals from both men. But when everyone thought that this was going to be a take down war, Jurkowski connected with a knee in the clinch that shook Kim, with the Pole following up with two big rights which sent Kim slumping to the ground, with the referee stepping in when Jurkowski went for the kill, earning the impressive knockout win.
The women were up next, as Roxie Modafferri took on Tara LaRosa in a catchweight bout made at 130 pounds. Once again two female fighters impressed the hell out of me. Modafferri and LaRosa put on a hell of a fight here, excelling in all aspects of the game. It was a more than entertaining affair with plenty of back and forth action, especially in the third round. LaRosa caught Modafferri with a big right that sent her crashing down, but when LaRosa went in for the kill Modafferri countered with a triangle attempt. It was hard to tell just who was going to get the decision, with Modafferri getting the split decision.
Action from the lightweight division followed as Mike Campbell took on Yves Edwards. The best fight of the night so far. Both Campbell and Edwards put on a tremendous performance, and that’s what made this fight so enthralling. Campbell’s striking was great, while Edwards’ ground work was just as good, and his slams would have made a professional wrestler jealous. Once again we had a fight that went the distance, with all three judges scoring in favour of Campbell.
Then it was up to the middleweight division as Rafael Natal faced Travis Lutter. A bit of feeling out at the beginning of this one, with Natal testing the waters with a couple of well placed kicks. Lutter then went for a couple of take downs, and Natal showed some good defensive work as he resisted these attempts. Then, as the fighters separated Natal scored with some more kicks, before a right/left combination sent the exhausted looking Lutter down. The Brazilian followed him down for some good ground and pound, but Lutter was out by then, with the referee quickly stopping the fight as Natal earned the knockout win with a very good performance.
Next up we saw Travis Wiuff against Josh Barnes in a heavyweight clash. Barnes took this fight at two days notice, and his lack of preparation time showed. After a quick exchange Wiuff rocked Barnes, and followed up with some quick combinations that sent Barnes crashing down, with the referee quickly stepping in and giving Wiuff the knockout win. The time – just thirty-four seconds.
The heavyweight action continued in the main event as five-time World’s Strongest Man Maruisz Pudzianowski faced up to former UFC Heavyweight king Tim Sylvia. If you ever wanted to see a good example of a fish out of water then take a look at this fight. Apart from a single take down and a sloppy looking arm bar attempt. Sylvia dominated/ Pudzianowski went for a second take down, but as Sylvia defended Pudzianowski used so much energy that he looked absolutely exhausted as Sylvia picked him off, and it was a surprise that he made it into the second round. Pudzianowski didn’t last much longer though, and as Sylvia continued his striking attacking, Pudzianowski just flopped down to the mat. Sylvia followed him down after a couple of kicks, delivering some more ground and pound before Pudzianowski tapped out. I have to say that as good as Sylvia was, Pudzianowski was extremely disappointing, and he clearly needs to work on every single aspect of his game.
In conclusion – Primetime’s first foray into the world of mixed martial arts was an extremely entertaining affair filled with some very good fights.
Although there was one thing that annoyed me – several times throughout the show there were errors with the on-screen graphics. For instance, the commentators made a big point about Josh Barnes’ apparent forty pound weight advantage when looking at the graphic, even though, in truth, his opponent Travis Wiuff was only seven pounds lighter than him, a fact which our cage announcer made public moments later. It was as if the announcers hadn’t actually done any research on some of the fighters, which did seem a little unprofessional.
But apart from that, Moosin and Primetime did very well with their coverage, and hopefully Primetime will have secured enough buys to make them dip into the MMA market once again.
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