British MMA is on the agenda once again as we take a look back at the tenth show from the British Association of Mixed Martial Arts (BAMMA), held at the world famous Wembley Arena and shown live on Channel 5’s sister station 5* (5-Star) this past Saturday night here in Britain.
The broadcast began with middleweight action as Denniston Sutherland went up against Leeroy Barnes.
This was a pretty enjoyable three rounder. Sutherland made a complete mockery of the 11 year age difference by putting in a dominating performance.
It began with the obligatory feeling out period, but it wasn’t long before Sutherland began to take control, going for the win with a kimura attempt.
Barnes had his moments, but there weren’t very many of them, and more often than not he was on the receiving end of Sutherland’s hard blows, whether it be on the ground or suffering a series of knees to the rib cage in a clinch against the fence.
The only thing missing from Sutherland’s performance was a finish, which meant that the judges were called into action as Sutherland took the unanimous decision.
The next fight saw Andrew Punshon challenging Jack Marshman for the British Middleweight title.
No feeling out period in this one, these two went to work straight away.
Punshon began his shift with a flying knee attempt, and it wasn’t long before he took the fight to the ground, getting off some good punches and opening up a cut near Marshman’s eye.
Marshman quickly retaliated with a triangle attempt, Punshon countering with an attempted toe hold submission. Nothing came of that though, and he was soon back in top position.
Seconds later Marshman went for the triangle again, locking it in tight while raining down a barrage of blows. Punshon was tapping within seconds, although to the referee it looked like he landing a few blows of his own.
The main event saw former Ultimate Fighter finalist Andre Winner challenging BAMMA’s resident gas fitter Rob Sinclair for the World Lightweight title.
This proved to be an intriguing five round striking affair.
The first two rounds clearly belonged to Sinclair. While Winner looked like he was going around the cage with a ball and chain around his ankle Sinclair took control with some nice striking, and although he never managed to score with a takedown he clearly controlled the action in the clinches.
The shackles seemed to come off Winner in the third round when he upped his game a great deal. He striking was a hell of a lot better as he put the champion on the back foot, although Sinclair came back strongly towards the end of the round.
This was the perfect set-up for the final two rounds. Winner’s increased work rate made things a little more difficult for Sinclair, although he was still able to give his challenger some great combinations, with Winner shrugging his shoulders at times as if he was saying “is that it?”
With neither man able to get the finish the decision was placed in the hands of the judges as Sinclair took the close split decision to retain the title.
In conclusion – show how did BAMMA’s debut on another new channel go?
It went pretty well. The fights shown certainly delivered, although it was a little disappointing that we only got to see three of them. But then again maybe that’s because the show was broadcast live instead of on tape delay.
The performances themselves were certainly worth watching, and while the Winner/Sinclair fight was great from an entertainment point of view it’s the Marshman/Punshon battle that gets the no-prize for my fight of the night.
So with that being said let’s wrap this thing up by giving BAMMA 10 the thumbs up.
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