Adrenaline III: "Bragging Rights" finally took place tonight (June 13) at the BJCC Arena in Birmingham, Ala., featuring a main event between former UFC champion Tim Sylvia and former WBO World heavyweight professional boxing champion and Olympic gold medalist, Ray Mercer.
The event was supposed to take place in New Jersey back on May 30; however, the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board refused to sanction the bout between Sylvia and Mercer. So Adrenaline put the show on hold and moved it to the "Yellowhammer State," which was supposed to have more lenient laws.
But in the eleventh hour, the fight was scrapped by state officials and then on again after some last minute negotiating that actually appeared to increase Sylvia's chances of winning exponentially -- the fight was changed from a boxing match to a mixed martial arts bout.
Not the case.
Mercer walked out to the center of cage and dropped the "Maine-iac" with a thundering right hand that sent the 310-pound Sylvia crashing to the canvas. It took just 10 seconds. That's right, all that planning, relocating and negotiating for 10 seconds of action.
Unbelievable.
Talk about a huge setback for Sylvia. He was expected to crush the 48-year-old Mercer, who had just one MMA bout to his credit -- a submission loss to Kimbo Slice of all people. But he didn't.
And perhaps it's because, as Jens Pulver suggested several days before the fight, Sylvia wasn't taking Mercer seriously. If his weight is any indication, then perhaps he, too, thought it was a joke like all the rest of the fans.
Look who's laughing now.
Here are the complete main card results for Adrenaline III: "Bragging Rights" and video of Sylvia going TIMBER:
Ray Mercer defeats Tim Sylvia via knockout in round one
Jeremy Horn defeats Chris Davis via submission (rear naked choke) in round one
Rich Clementi defeats Sasuke Zapata via submission (side choke) in round one
John Salter defeats Roberto Traven via knockout in round one
Bryan Goldsby defeats Joey Marimberga via knockout in round one
Joe Jordan defeats Juan Zapata via technical knockout (strikes) in round one
Stay tuned to MMAmania.com for more on "Bragging Rights" as new information becomes available.
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