- BARONI OUTLASTS OLAF AT PFC 10
by Ricardo Mendoza - MMAWeekly.com
LEMOORE, Calif. – Eccentric striker Phil Baroni outlasted crowd favorite Olaf Alonso en route to a decision victory in the main event at the Palace Fighting Championships 10 on Friday night.
From the get go it was Baroni who controlled the pace of the fight with low kicks and combinations as the smaller Olaf looked to find an advantage. Olaf would finally get through, landing a stinging one-two combination that forced Baroni to take the fight to the ground. From there on out, Baroni controlled the fight with solid combinations on the feet and several takedowns, which sealed the decision in his favor with scores of 29-28, 30-27 and 30-27.
PFC lightweight champion Brian Cobb made his first title defense as he took on Team Quest lightweight David Gardner. The same scenario played out through the fight as Cobb was able to control every aspect of the fight both on the ground and on the feet. Cobb was able to take Gardner down at will, peppering him with strikes and going for submissions, as Gardner gave up his back quite frequently throughout the entire fight. After five rounds of action, Brian Cobb had made his first successful defense, winning a fairly easy unanimous decision.
In what ended up being the fight of the night, Bryan Travers squared off with Jeremiah Metcalf for the vacant PFC welterweight championship. They went at it hard trading blow for blow on the feet, as the fight never saw much action on the ground, thanks to Metcalf's takedown defense. It was clear as the fight wore on that Metcalf was getting the better of the exchanges, landing the cleaner and harder shots of the two fighters. Seemingly up on the scorecards, Metcalf began to tire in the final round, as Travers started to out hustle him, landing the better shots as the fight came to close. To everyone's surprise it would be Travers who walked away with the belt, winning a controversial unanimous decision with scores of 48-47 on all three judges cards, much to the dismay of the crowd.
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PFC bantamweight champion Shawn Klarcyk survived some early trouble to successfully defend his title against hard-nosed challenger Brandon Miller. Klarcyk wanted the fight on the ground as he went for submissions all throughout the first round, unfortunately fro him Miller escaped all attempts and dished some serious punishment in return. The same story played out in the second round, but Klarcyk was finally able to lock on an armbar that broke Miller's arm, ending the fight at 2:19 of the second round.
Palace Fighting Championships 10
Lemoore, Calif.
September 26, 2008
-Phil Baroni def. Olaf Alonso by unanimous decision, R3
-Shawn Klarcyk def. Brandon Miller by Submission (Armbar) at 2:19, R2
-Brian Cobb def. David Gardner by unanimous decision, R5
-Joe Soto def. Brandon Jinnies by TKO at 0:59, R1
-Bryan Travers def. Jeremiah Metcalf by unanimous decision, R5
-Antonio Banuelos def. Bryan Goldsby by TKO at 0:59, R2
-Dustin Akbari def. Bill Theofanopoulos by TKO at 1:35, R1
-Chad Mendes def. Geovanni Encarnacion by Submission (Rear Naked Choke) at 2:06, R1
-Luis Gonzales def. Elbert Randle by TKO at 2:24, R1
-Poppies Martinez def. Sergio Cortez by unanimous decision, R3
-Lavar Johnson def. Vince Lucero by TKO at 1:16, R1
-David Suarez def. David Mitchell by TKO at 1:15, R1
-Xavier Foupa-Pokam def. Richard Montoya by Submission (Armbar) at1:13, R1
-Chris Botelho def. Anthony Bivins by Majority Decision, R3
-Joey Cabezas def. Billy Terry by TKO at 0:54, R1
-Omar Sandoval def. Mike Craddock by unanimous decision, R3
