An untimely death, an infected nose, and an incident at the border made for a highly interesting – but still highly successful – King of the Rock 2 -Return of the King.
"It was better than I dreamed," said promoter Lisa Petterson of the Sept. 24 amateur MMA fundraiser in Campbell River. Petterson was not referring to the death of a fighter's father as he was heading to the ferry to attend the event...nor the broken nose of scheduled main eventer Kyle Warman that became infected and sidelined him...nor the fact Warman's would-be replacement from Oregon was denied access to Canada, forcing her to cancel the headline bout with defending King of the Ring Derek Mrac.
She was referring to the electric atmosphere in the packed Paramount Music Hall that had spectators on their feet and cheering wildly for a great show put on by some of the top amateur fighters on Vancouver Island.
While there were many winners inside the ring, the big winner was once again B.C. Children's Hospital. The fight night, along with a ring girl competition and bikini car wash, raised $7,000 for the hospital. The first King of the Rock event (February 2011) raised $4,700, and Petterson said plans are already in motion for the third instalment of the series in February 2012.
When her main event fell through, Petterson moved the co-main of Campbell River's Herbert Moon (independent) and Johnathan Dubois (Bad Boy Outreach) up to the top spot, and their 185-pound MMA bout did not disappoint.
Both fighers showed hard and aggressive, with Moon making Jiu-jitsu finishing attempts, notably a kimura that Dubois worked hard to escape. Both fighters managed to get out of the bottom positions in turn and fight back to their feet through the second and third rounds, but Moon was getting the better of Dubois, almost finishing him at the end of round two. Instead, he finished Dubois by ground and pound at 2:50 in round three.
The grudge match between Courtenay's Chris Anderson 2.0 (CVMMA) and Surrey's Cass Young (Team Bad Boy Outreach) featured explosive rounds and mutual respect, as was seen when they touched gloves after Anderson laid the same kick on Young that got him disqualified last time, doing it right and not getting into trouble with it. Anderson won the high-energy 170-pound MMA tilt by judges' decision by one point.
Guy Gauthier (CVMMA) of Courtenay defeated Langley's Brad Webb (Revolution) in a 155-pound MMA match. Gauthier took Webb down in a sweeping body slam. Webb managed to take the fight back to standing, but ultimately tapped out on a standing guillotine.
Complete results, photos and more details are at www.kingofthering.com or check out Lisa Petterson on Facebook.
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