Mixed martial arts mayhem returned to Bangkok on Saturday, as a packed house at Sukhumvit’s Club Insanity cheered on action at the first DARE fight night in months.
The atmosphere for the “Rebels of MMA” event resembled the background scenes of a Street Fighter video game, as various alcohol-imbibing ne’er-do-wells (and the women who love them) jammed the smoky nightclub to watch seven brawls unfold.
View the Coconuts slideshow of DARE “Rebels of MMA” below. Click the expand button second from left for an optimized fullscreen viewing experience. Photos: Kajonsak Intarapong
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Announcer Jon Nutt commanded the scene and took center stage before the event started, keeping the fans entertained with microphone skills so passionate that he lost his voice for several days after.
Then, as the sound system boomed to life, the first fighter’s entrance video was splashed across the big screens in the club, and the first of the seven fights was about to start. Russian fighter Asker Baragunov aka The Asker took little time in knocking out Filipino Stephen Loman (The Sniper) in the first round. The wait was over. MMA was officially back.
The second fight between the only Thai fighter Rachanon Ngaongam (“Babbie”) and “Big Bad” Brad Terrey was a total mismatch with Big Bad winning with ease.
The 39-year-old Shane “Ronin” Wiggand fought Kristofer Persson (“Kreepy Kris”) in a quarterfinal match. A bloody and battered Ronin eventually lost in the second round to his much younger opponent.
In the featherweight fight, Rasul Mirzaev aka “Nostrovia!” fought Englishman James “Scraps” Saville , who with his long shaggy hair had the appearance of a fighter who looked like he wouldn’t last five seconds. But Scraps fought valiantly and the bout went to a judges’ decision with Nostrovia claiming the win.
Then Murad “The Strangler” Machaev lived up to his name in his match against Gokhan Turkyilmaz (“Turk”), forcing Turk to submit in the first round with a strangle hold.
The heavyweight match between Frenchman Moise Rimbon (“Swamp”) and the man mountain known as “Lokomotiv” (a Ukrainian named Alexander Gladkov) was a bone jarring-fight and the two combatants tested the strength of the ring, which was used for the first time at a DARE event instead of a cage. Swamp sent Lokomotiv to his knees with a body shot which sealed the win in the second round against the previously undefeated Lokomotiv.
The marquee fight pitted American Joe Ray (aka “The Joe Ray”) against Filipino-Danish Ole Laursen (“Iron Fist”). The welterweight match between two of the best fighters in Thailand looked like it would go to a judges decision, until The Joe Ray ended the bruising encounter by forcing Iron Fist to submit towards the end of the third round.
And just like that, the action was was over and drunken fans spilled out into the muggy night air.
DARE hope to hold four events next year in Bangkok and if they are anything like “Rebels of MMA” fans of the sport have much to be excited about.
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