ACB 87 Re-Cap:

ACB 87 Re-Cap

Last night in Nottingham was my first taste of the ACB promotion, and I have to say their production values are high and with the fighters they have on the roster and the fights they put on, I would strongly advise anyone to attend one of their shows if you get the opportunity.

A far from full Nottingham Arena, which sadly is indicative of the sport’s problems in losing its niche tag and appealing more to the mainstream, but nonetheless there was still a reasonable atmosphere in the Arena.

A 15 fight card and with all but 4 of the fights going the distance it made for a long night. Starting at just after 6pm UK time and finishing around midnight gave us 6 hours of non stop MMA action. That 6 hours was either tremendous value for money or a case of severe fatigue setting in which marred the overall experience, depending on your view-point of course.

The turnaround of the fights was slick with no delay in between the bouts, once one finished the next was only minutes away.

In the main event Kane Mousah lost a split decision to Robert Whiteford, I went for Mousah, which was one of a couple of judges decisions I disagreed with.

Rob Emerson won his fight against Shamil Shakhbulatov, but personally I thought he lost all 3 rounds.

UFC vets Andre Winner and Takeya Mizugaki both got much-needed wins, and both over came adversity in the opening round of their fights to eventually emerge with their hand raised.

Ashley Reece and Dominque Wooding made decisions in the fights they will be regretting today, both entered the 3rd and final round 2 rounds down and needing a finish to win. Both had their opponents hurt, but either by design or otherwise, the fights ended up on the ground, and their chance to pull off come from behind victories were gone.

My personal Fight of the Night was the 2nd bout of the evening, a little mini war between George McManus, who was making his pro debut and Kevin Mullen, which the debutant lost in the 2nd, but only after putting in a really brave effort and looking more than capable of pulling off the win himself at times during the fight.

As I said overall the ACB experience was positive with some really good evenly matched fights. I have said the same thing about the UFC, about how many fights are on the card, but personally I prefer less, 10-12 rather than 15. Aside from that, the ACB shows are more than worth checking out.

Some big names from the world of MMA were in attendance, the likes of Frank Mir, Paul Daley, Leon and Fabian Edwards were there to enjoy the evenings action.

Full Results:

Robert Whiteford def. Kane Mousah via split decision
Piotr Strus def. Fernando Gonzalez via split decision
Takeya Mizugaki def. Pietro Menga via unanimous decision
Ibragim Chuzhigaev def. Mike Rhodes via unanimous decision
Rob Emerson def. Shamil Shakhbulatov via unanimous decision
Andre Winner def. Adam Aliev via submission at 1:50 of R2
Alex Gilpin def. Adlan Mamaev via submission at 0:54 of R3
Stanislav Vlasenko def. Sam Boult via split decision
Stephen Martin def. Regis Sudgen via submission at 2:15 of R3
Dean Garnett def. Dominque Wooding via split decision
Adam Proctor def. Ashley Reece via unanimous decision
Carlos Abreu def. Chris Miah via split decision
Kevin Mullen def. George McManus via TKO at 1:44 of R2
Murad Magomedov def. Paulinho Capoeira via unanimous decision