The Hawaiian-based 'Kingdom MMA,' the creation of former SuperBrawl and Icon Sport president T. Jay Thompson, began its venture into the world of mixed martial arts last night with its inaugural show at the Blaisdell Center Arena in Honolulu, Hawaii.
In the main event of the evening, former ICON Sport middleweight title holders Jason "Mayhem" Miller and hometown favorite Kala "Kolohe" Hose squared off for the right to become the first man to ever hold the Kingdom MMA belt.
A stubborn Mayhem decided to test his powerful opponent's stand up game early by trading strikes with the dangerous Hawaiian. He didn't do too bad in that department, maintaining his distance from Hose by scoring with a number of leg kicks.
It wasn't long into the fight, however, before Hose gave the more well rounded Miller an opportunity to take the fight to the mat. And once he got it there it was only a matter of time before Kala's major weakness as a pro fighter was exposed once again. This was the second time in his last three fights that the power puncher was forced to tap out in the first round.
Here's Mayhem's thoughts on the finish courtesy of the Honolulu Advertiser :
"I thought I was gonna finish him with the strikes. I hit him with a few good shots that hurt my damn hand, so I was, like, ‘Oh, I’m gonna knock him out,’ but he had a hard head. He was a tough dude. He gave his back to me, and you don’t give your back to me. That’s what I’m the best at."
There's no question Hose has some potential in this sport based on his striking ability alone, but one dimensional fighters like him are a dime a dozen. This sport is much more than just striking or grappling or wrestling or whatever. You can't be a "one trick pony" in today's MMA and expect to be successful.
For Mayhem, he announced after the event that he would indeed be getting the long rumored rematch with Brazilian jiu-jitsu sensation Ronaldo "Jacare" de Souza on the DREAM 9 card at the Yokohama Arena in Kanagawa, Japan on May 26 for the DREAM middleweight title.
This puts him right on track to fulfilling his goals for 2009, which he revealed right here on MMAmania.com just last month. Here's a snip:
"I’m gonna win three titles this year, watch. You’ll see, watch. By the end of this year I’ll have three belts and an MTV show."
One down ... two to go.
Check out the full results for Kingdom MMA's inaugural event below:
185 lbs.: Jason "Mayhem" Miller defeated Kala "Kolohe" Hose via submission (rear naked choke) in round one
155 lbs.: Ricky "Hoku" Wallace defeated Brandon Pieper via submission (rear naked choke) in round one
265 lbs.: Tasi Edwards defeated Pisa "Ata" Tivao via unanimous decision
185 lbs.: Sale Sproat defeated Geno Venti via submission (rear naked choke) in round one
170 lbs.: Andres Cohea defeated L. John Borges via unanimous decision
155 lbs.: Dejuan Hathaway defeated Tommy Tuiloma via unanimous decision
155 lbs.: Angel Garza defeated Elijah Manners by split decision
135 lbs.: Paul Lopez defeated Rob Anduha by submission (rear naked choke) in round one
170 lbs.: Nate Haring defeated Bernard Baradi by TKO (strikes) in round three
For more on Kingdom MMA click here .
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