Carvalho destroys Nobrega to retain WFC belt

Carvalho destroys Nobrega to retain WFC belt

 

WFC middleweight champion Bruno Carvalho successfully defended his belt for the first time as he obliterated KSW title-holder in the first round of their inter-promotional clash at WFC 10 “Night of Champions”. Nobrega took his compatriot down early, but could not do anything against judo and Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt Carvalho on the ground. Once stood back up, the training Carvalho received at Golden Glory with Alistair Overeem, Gökhan Saki and Errol Zimmerman came into play.

 

Carvalho stalked his backpedaling foe and punished him with cracking leg kicks. With forty seconds left to go, Nobrega felt the devastating power of Carvalho’s right hand as we was knocked down by a “right low kick, straight right hand”-combination and subsequently put away by a series of machine gun shots and brain-rattling knee strikes on the ground. “This is my house”, the overjoyed 28-year-old said after the fight, borrowing a line from Royce Gracie. “I will take on all comers here!”

 

The win and title defense capped off an intense mini-series between WFC and Polish organization Konfrontacja Sztuk Walki. KSW drew first blood when their 75kg tournament champion Maciej Gorski managed to win a razor-sharp decision against Italy’s Ivan Musardo. The Augusto Frota student nearly finished the fight in the first round with a guillotine choke and controlled the majority of it on the ground. “Il Terribile” was handicapped by a broken nose, but still fought like a lion until the end.

 

Serbia’s Aleksandar Radosavljevic got WFC even with a dominating performance against multi-time KSW tournament champion Antoni Chmielewski. “Rodja” was after “Antek” from the opening bell like the devil after the soul and peppered him on the feet and on the ground. After seemingly breaking his nose and his cheekbone, Radosavljevic ended matters midway through the second round, once again using his heavy hands.

 

Rodja’s teammate Dragan Tesanovic kicked the night off with an inspired showing against Austrian Markus Di Gallo. “Gagi” showed an interesting combination of Muay Thai striking on the feet and good guard game on the floor to cause the MMA Vienna light heavyweight all kinds of problems. The end for the bloodied-up Austrian came near the end of the second round after Tesanovic delivered a knee from the clinch followed by a left hook.

 

Also on the card, Bulgarian wrestler Ivan Ivanov used a heel hook to hand local hero Edvin Ramdedovic his first professional loss. Ramdedovic’s teammate Marko Drmonjic cut a better figure as he stuck to his wrestling and ground-and-pound gameplan to outwork Croatian kickboxer Mario Valentic. MMA Vienna heavyweight Gerald Turek caused the upset of the night as he dispatched Andreas “Big Daddy” Kraniotakes in a mere ten seconds, using heavy hands against an overhasty foe.

 

In the main event of the evening, WFC superstar Miran Fabjan once again showed that he has the magic touch. It took him all but six minutes to stop in-form challenger Ivan Budimir in their inner-Slovenian battle. Fabjan put Budimir down in both rounds before the Taekwondo stylist’s corner threw the towel between the second and third round. With the Balkan’s virtually cleared out, it will be interesting to see whom promoter Zlatko Mahic will bring in to face the “Slovenian Rocky”.

 

by Tim Leidecker (tleidecker@gnp1.de)