The Sprawl and Brawl Video Review: King of the Cage - Reality Champions Disc Two
Posted by Randy Harrison on 10.02.2007
Rich Franklin and Matt Hughes before they were UFC Champions and the man who made Iowa an MMA hotbed Pat Miletich star in this second disc of King of the Cage's Reality Champions release. Will the second disc be enough to save the set after a lackluster first disc, and is Mr. International really a gay beauty pageant? It's all in this week's Sprawl and Brawl, baby!!
Hello again everyone and welcome back to my little piece of the 411 universe, The Sprawl and Brawl. We're back this week to finish the Reality Champions two disc set released by King of the Cage by looking at Disc Two, Extreme Champions. This one mainly features fighters who were coaches on the The Ultimate Fighter show or fighters who have trained coaches, not to mention an appearance from one of the Season Four cast members in Shonie Carter. All of these fights are from a smaller promotion in the Midwest called Extreme Challenge and my guess would be that King of the Cage bought out the rights to the footage from the EC people and have the use of the library to be able to put this second disc together. To my knowledge none of the fighters featured on this particular disc have ever fought in King of the Cage so I guess this would pretty much be the only way that they would be able to put a set like this together in terms of acquiring other footage. Anyhow enough with the chit-chat, let's lock the cage door and GET IT ON!!
This two disc set from King of the Cage can be purchased here.
Disc Two - Extreme Champions
Match One
Mike McClure (2-0) vs. Dave Menne (11-4-1)
No weight announced for this one so it's completely up in the air but if I had to guess I'd probably say it's probably being fought at Middleweight (185 pounds). This fight comes from Extreme Challenge 23 which was held in Indianapolis, Indiana on April 2 1999, and was an event that had a stacked card if not in quality, definitely in quantity as there were 19 fights on the card. McClure at this point is a young up-and-comer who has two fights and two wins under his belt, including one earlier in this event against Dennis Hallman. Menne is a much more experienced fighter here and is about a year away from making his debut in the UFC. It's also worth noting that with both men having already fought earlier on this night, McClure definitely looks the worse for wear as he is sporting some serious evidence of a beating, while Menne comes out with barely a scratch.
Round One
Menne throws a leg kick and a high kick to start and McClure shoots in trying for a takedown but Menne is having none of it. A good bit of takedown defense by Menne into a clinch and he shifts his weight and takes McClure down to the mat with a beautiful throw. Menne doing some work from inside the guard here, landing some shots to the body and pressing McClure hard against the fence. Menne moves from the body to the head with the same success landing to McClure's head a few times before the inactivity bug bites him and forces the referee to stand them up. McClure takes the time to pick his wedgie before the restart which is awful sporting of him and Menne starts working the jab and lands an overhand right before defending another takedown attempt by McClure. Menne lands a good knee to the body and they're back to the mat again with Menne in McClure's closed guard. A couple of jackasses in the crowd try to get a boring chant started but they must have been distracted by something shiny or someone jingling keys because it dies as quickly as it starts. Menne works the body again from inside the guard and the ref has seen enough inaction again and stands them back up. A good spurt of action as Menne lands a body kick that McClure catches and tries to use for a takedown, but Menne manages to sprawl and lock on a tight guillotine choke, from the top no less. McClure bucks out from under Menne and pops his head out. Menne working to the head and body again from the top position on the mat but he makes no attempts to pass guard and the ref stands them up one more time. A leg kick lands by Menne but he misses the next, spinning through and throwing a spinning back kick as an impressive end to the combination. It would have been more impressive if it landed but as it stands it was still a nice move. Menne with a hard knee followed with a solid punch and McClure has had enough and tries to take things back to the ground to see if he can steal back some momentum. Menne, with a fence grab that would make Gabe Gonzaga jealous, avoids the takedown for a little bit until McClure finally muscles him over onto his back. Unfortunately for McClure, he scores the takedown but falls right into a triangle choke which Menne sinks in pretty tightly, using it to reverse positions and land strikes from the top while still holding the choke. McClure's head is turning beet red and he's finally forced to tap out from the combination of the choke and the punches, though he ends up eating another few seconds of punishment when the ref misses the tap the first time.
They strap a belt on Menne that looks like it's straight from Rocky II and we get a replay of the end of the fight before seeing Menne celebrating in the cage again. You could see that Menne was ready for the big time with this fight since he pretty easily outclassed McClure at every turn. His skills had evolved past the smaller level shows and he was ready to move up in competition.
Winner: Dave Menne, Submission (triangle choke) at 4:47 of Round One
Match Two
Joe Stern (0-0) vs. Matt Hughes (4-1)
This fight comes from the same Extreme Challenge card in April of '99 and again like the fight before it, there's no weight class announced. Way to fuck up my column format guys...I'll remember that. Stern is in his first professional MMA fight and what an opponent to end up with huh? It's still early in Hughes' career at this point as he's only a year and five fights into what's proven to be a very VERY successful path for him.
Round One
Hughes throwing a jab and shooting for the takedown practically before the bell has finished ringing to start the fight. Stern grabs a guillotine with an arm in and Hughes uses it to pick Stern up and slam him HARD before popping his head out of trouble. On the mat with Hughes in Stern's closed guard and you can hear Pat Miletich coaching Hughes and getting him to move Stern over to their corner so he can hear the instructions better, a tactic that Hughes still uses to this day very effectively in his fights. Stern with some shots from the bottom and he raises his guard up before Hughes slams him down again and hits him with a couple of hard right hands. Hughes passes into half guard and Miletich is asking Hughes to get Stern pressed against the cage so he has nowhere to go. Hughes is grinding the forearm crossface into Stern's cheekbone and uses that as a distraction to pass into side control. Hughes digs his elbow into Stern's face and works some serious ground and pound in the corner of the cage and Stern has no defense for it and no choice but to tap out.
We get replays of the two big slams and the ground and pound that ended the fight as they announce Hughes as the winner. Wrestling was the name of the game for Hughes early in his career and even now as he enters the twilight of it. He used his far superior wrestling and ground game to overwhelm Stern who was barely able to mount any type of offense for the entire fight. A big takedown, some slams, some ground and pound and a victory. Sounds like a pretty typical Matt Hughes fight to me.
Winner: Matt Hughes, TKO at 2:30 of Round One
Match Three
Adam Harris (0-0) vs. Jeremy Horn (32-4-4)
No announced weight again for this one as it seems to be a pattern running on these smaller shows. This one is Extreme Challenge 27 from Davenport, Iowa on August 21, 1999 and it looks to be outdoors in a baseball stadium. It's also worth noting that the ring looks like a regular three rope wrestling ring that has been adapted for MMA by having twine holding the ropes together which makes for quite the interesting visual.
Harris is an MMA rookie here entering into his first professional contest with the VASTLY more experienced Horn fighting in his 30th fight. Horn has already fought in the UFC including his much heralded win over Chuck Liddell and he's definitely the favorite heading into this one. He's also bringing an unprecedented 16 fight win streak and 20 fight unbeaten streak into the ring with him this evening.
Round One
Harris starts out with a good one two combination and Horn shoots for the takedown and gets it and is immediately past guard and into side control with Harris holding onto his head, seemingly for a choke, but it's nowhere near locked in. Horn lands a couple of elbows to the head of Harris while trying to pop his own head out of the lock it's in at the moment. Horn working some HARD shots to the body in succession and also throws a couple of knees to the head. Horn at this point in a full conversation with his corner, not just listening to instructions as his corner tells him that Harris is bleeding and Horn can clearly be heard asking "Where?" before they tell him it's coming from Harris' nose. Great ring generalship and the move of a true veteran from Horn there. More elbows landed to the side of Harris' head and the referee steps in for a moment to stop the fight to let the doctor check Harris out. Harris is POURING blood from his face but there hadn't been a good camera angle yet to see if it's coming from a cut or from a nose break. On closer inspection, with blood coming from inside the nose and a good sized gash across the bridge that looks to be a break, but Harris guts it out and insists that he's alright and the doctor relents and lets him continue. Harris is looking like he knows he needs to end things quickly and throws some wild haymakers, connecting on a couple of them to Horn's face before Horn ducks under a right hook and throws a high kick in return. A straight right and some knees inside as Horn is landing well from the clinch and damaging Harris pretty well, with more knees and another hard elbow to the face as well. Horn changes levels out of a combination and shoots in for a bodylock takedown, getting full mount on Harris from it. Harris looks a little lost on the ground pretty much instantly and Horn smirks into his corner as he lands some vicious elbows from the mount. Horn moves into side control with his knee across Harris' stomach and starts peppering him with punches until the referee steps in to save Harris and call a stop to the bout.
Post-match Horn jokes with his corner about not being able to score the KO and has to settle for the TKO. Either way it was a pretty dominant performance by Horn who dictated the pace like the veteran he is and overwhelmed Harris in the stand-up and on the mat. Another impressive win for Mr. Horn in this one.
Winner: Jeremy Horn, TKO at 2:31 of Round One
Match Four
Shonie Carter (25-1) vs. Pat Miletich (29-2-2)
This fight comes from the same card as the previous fight which makes sense since Miletich's home base has been Davenport, Iowa for years now. We get a little interview piece with Shonie before the fight..this should be MORE than interesting. He calls himself "Hollywood" which is a WAY better nickname than "Mr. International" and I'm not sure why he switched from something cool to something that makes him sound like the winner of some gay male beauty pageant but I digress. Shonie is actually pretty laid-back in this one, saying that he took the fight as a challenge to himself and that if he can beat Pat who is currently the UFC champion, that maybe the UFC will take a look at him and give him a chance. He knows people are looking at him as the underdog but he feels that's when he performs his best.
We cut to the crowd and they are going absolutely crazy for Miletich, the hometown boy, giving him a standing ovation as we see his pre-fight interview. He speaks of Carter's well-rounded skills and that he's going to have to wear Carter out and it'll be a tough fight. He feels like Carter has a suspect jaw since it was one of Miletich's training partners who gave Carter the one loss on his record at this point, with an uppercut knockout. We hear the ring announcer introduce both fighters and tell us that this fight is four rounds which seems like an odd length but this is before the Unified Rules took their full effect so it pretty much changed from event to event.
Round One
The crowd applauding as the fight gets underway and even the referee is clapping for both men which is kind of a cool moment showing how happy the fans are to see a fight of this caliber. Miletich with a bodylock right out of the gate but Carter shifts his hips and manages to throw Miletich over with a great takedown off of a very nice reversal. Well done Shonie, well done. Carter is in side control here and holding a headlock on Miletich, trying to drag him away from the ropes and back into the center of the ring to avoid a stand-up. The crowd starts a HUGE chant for Miletich as Carter works short right hands and hammerfists, trying to trap Miletich's arm to land some heavier shots, while Miletich stays calm on the bottom avoiding some serious damage despite having a small cut opened over his left eye from Carter's hammerfists. Miletich scrambles out from under Carter and they're back to their feet to the delight of the crowd, trading punches and knees to the body from inside the clinch in the center of the ring. Carter goes for a leg trip takedown but Miletich is able to sprawl out of it before Carter lands a couple of leg kicks, bullying Miletich to the corner and into the clinch. Carter throws a side kick to the body that misses and a couple of leg kicks that don't and Miletich gets things back into the clinch, landing good knees and punches to the body of Carter. Carter seems to be landing jabs and leg kicks at will so far and he's frustrating Miletich, who can't seem to get any clean shots off and just as I type that Carter leaves his hands down for a second too long inside the pocket and Miletich makes him pay with a wicked right hand and another following it up. We're back into the clinch and Miletich is still landing quality shots to the body and then it happens. One of the creepiest things I have ever seen in all my years of Mixed Martial Arts viewing. The referee wipes something from Carter's shoulder while they're clinched and then while seemingly channeling the spirit of Mary Katherine Gallagher he sniffs whatever it was off of his hand. Just weird and creepy and I don't even rightly have an explanation for it really....SUPERSTAR!!! Anyhow, back to the fight and Carter lands a good knee up the middle with Miletich still trying to work that bodylock to score a takedown, and the referee does it AGAIN! What is with this guy? I guess he has a thing for Carter's milkshake, which leads me to believe there might be something to the gay beauty pageant thing I touched on earlier. Some body punches by Miletich and knees traded inside by both fighters brings the first round to a close and hopefully someone has a bucket of water to throw onto that referee to cool his jets and get his head back into the fight between rounds.
Round Two
The second round starts with Carter taking the center of the ring and throwing a leg kick/high kick combination that misses. Miletich responds with a MASSIVE right head kick, driving his shin into Carter's face, sending sweat spraying everywhere and getting the crowd onto its feet. Carter left his hands low and paid for it dearly in that instance and is lucky he didn't get put to sleep. Miletich works the clinch off of that huge kick and starts throwing knees to the body, landing a few good ones before Carter tries to respond with some knees of his own. Unfortunately for Miletich one of Carter's knees lands squarely on the balls, buckling him for a moment and forcing him to take a few seconds to recover before getting back to the action. Carter throwing lots of kicks in this one as he lands another side kick to the body and another good snapping leg kick. Carter is still aggressively taking the center of the ring and pushing the pace so far, throwing a hook kick to the head that just misses and a body kick that lands again in the same spot on Miletich's midsection. Miletich grabs the clinch again and tries for some left and right hooks to the body but Carter shrugs him off and they're back to trading with Carter throwing an absolutely wild left hand that throws him off balance but Miletich doesn't do anything with it. They're back into the clinch in the center of the ring, and I notice with this particular ring the clinch game takes on a whole new dimension as opposed to just someone pressing another guy up against the fence and trying to wear him out. Miletich with good shots to the body out of said clinch, landing to the ribs and kidneys. Carter pushes off and lands another side kick to the body while Miletich's corner starts talking shit claiming that after the huge head kick earlier Carter is scared of Miletich's striking, though I honestly haven't seen anything of the sort up to this point. Miletich lands a body kick that Carter catches and in a deja vu moment, Miletich catches the body kick that Carter throws right after, though Carter pulls away from it and throws a crazy spinning back kick that just misses. He lands some knees to the stomach of Miletich from the clinch and that's it for round two.
Round Three
Another leg kick from Carter lands to begin the third and he throws a couple of high kicks that Miletich is able to block before they're back into the clinch. Yet another side kick lands to the body of Miletich and he responds with a straight right hand up the middle that catches Carter clean in the face before they clinch. Miletich working good knees and punches to the body that Carter tries to respond to, pushing Miletich away and just missing the timing on a big right hand. They trade low and high kicks in the middle of the ring before an exchange of punches sees both men land some good shots. Good combinations from both fighters continue to land and Carter slips after throwing his combo. Miletich almost lands the same head kick that scored for him at the beginning of the second round as Carter tries to work his jab to keep Miletich at a distance. Miletich rushes Carter and pushes him up against the ropes, forcing him into a corner and scoring with some good punches and a knee to the body on the inside. Both guys working the dirty boxing as Randy Couture would call it, with shots to the body landing from both fighters before Carter tries to reverse position and push Miletich into the corner but Miletich is too strong for it and fights it off. Miletich loads up on a huge right elbow out of the clinch that BARELY misses dimming Carter's running lights. Carter throws and lands a leg kick but ends up eating another big head kick and Miletich pulls him into a Thai clinch missing a big right hand before switching to the traditional clinch and landing another knee up the middle to Carter's stomach. A good combination is thrown by Miletich as he catches Carter with an uppercut followed by a nice left hook and Carter responds with a missed high kick and a leg kick to end the third.
Round Four
Glove touch to start this final round and the ref wants the crowd to pump up the noise, raising his arms and imploring them to get louder. Carter lands a nice short right hook and another leg kick before throwing a nice combination of punches and kicks that Miletich is actually able to block mostly. Carter tries the spinning back fist again and misses with it again and almost falls over but is able to regain his balance. Into the clinch again and a good knee to the body lands for Carter before Miletich just shrugs him off and pushes him out of the clinch. The side kick that Carter has been scoring with all night lands again to the body of Miletich and Miletich grabs him in the clinch working hard shots to the body and pushing Carter against the ropes again. Carter misses with a right hook over the top and hits another leg kick and they're exchanging punches in the corner bringing the crowd to its feet again but neither lands anything to do any serious damage. Miletich takes a page from Carter's book and catches him with a leg kick and Carter lands a good straight left hand over top of the kick. Another side kick/leg kick combination for Carter and although they might not be doing a ton of damage to Miletich on their own, over the course of the fight they will start to add up. Just look at Jardine/Liddell from UFC 76 to see how leg kicks can change the course of a fight if they go unchecked too many times. Miletich mauls Carter again and forces him into a corner using his strength to dictate where this fight is going to take place. Carter tries for a leg trip but ends up on the bottom against the ropes with Miletich on top of him but Carter is able to just stand back up and avoid taking any damage on the mat. They split up into the center of the ring and Carter lands a leg kick/punch/body kick combination that Miletich answers with a big right hook that catches Carter behind the ear on the side of his head. We're back to a clinch in the corner and Carter again tries the leg trip but Miletich's balance is just too good and he avoids the takedown. A knee to the body and some good hard body punches from Miletich followed by a short right hand on the inside and another right high kick that lands to the head of Carter as the fight comes to a close.
They embrace in the center of the ring and Carter jaws a little and talks to the crowd while we await the decision. Both guys go into their opponent's corners for handshakes and salutations on a great back and forth fight between two evenly matched competitors. Carter does a one-handed handspring and mugs for the camera a little before the scores are tallied and the decision is announced. All the judges have it for Pat Miletich with scores of 38-36, 40-38 and 40-36, and I have NO idea what those mean because I tried to figure out how they could have came to those scores and quite frankly it made my head hurt and a little blood come out of my ears.
Winner: Pat Miletich, Unanimous Decision
Match Five
Rich Franklin (2-0) vs. Dennis Reed (25-20-1)
This one is coming to us from Davenport, Iowa and it's Extreme Challenge 35 which took place on June 29, 2000. Franklin is a relative newcomer at this point with this being only his third professional fight, while the opposite is true for Reed as he is a true veteran who has been fighting since 1996 and has fought all over the world against opponents like Dan Severn and Gilbert Yvel. Franklin looks ready to do some damage as he's younger and completely ripped and in shape while Reed looks a lot like you'd expect someone to look with 46 professional fights under his belt.
Round One
Reed shoots in for a double leg and takes Franklin down ten seconds into the round, trying to land some punches from Franklin's guard, but Franklin is doing a good job of staying active from the bottom with good hip movement and defense. Franklin throws his legs up high for a possible submission attempt and Reed stands up out of it before trying a double stomp that gets blocked and we're back into Franklin's guard. A very good butterfly guard for Franklin here as he's landing some quality strikes from his back, holding onto Reed's head and throwing some hard right hands. Franklin hits a short up kick and Reed is throwing some wild shots from inside the guard that are all missing while Franklin manages to land another good combination from the bottom. Reed finally lands a good strike from the guard, hitting Franklin with a hammer fist before Franklin tries for an armbar but misses. Franklin throws a huge roundhouse kick from his back that misses but DEFINITELY had some bad intentions on it as it is probably the hardest kick I've ever seen someone throw from their back before. Reed tries to stack Franklin up to throw some shots but Franklin uses that to snag an arm and lock in a textbook armbar, rolling over with it and popping his hips up forcing Reed to tap out or have his elbow snapped.
Winner: Rich Franklin, Submission (armbar) at 1:56 of Round One
Match Six
Jeremy Horn (40-7-4) vs. Jason Allar (1-1)
From the same show as the previous fight with Rich Franklin, we see more of Jeremy Horn as he steps into the cage against Jason Allar in this contest. Again a huge experience mismatch here as Allar is fighting for the third time in his career and Horn, well I'm sure he's probably up to the hundreds by now in terms of professional and amateur fights including five fights in the UFC, numerous fights in Extreme Challenge and even some Rings and Pancrase bouts thrown into the mix as well. Look for Horn to use his experience to his advantage in this one.
Round One
Horn throws and lands a good high kick to start the round which Allar shrugs off and shakes his head at which in the lexicon of MMA usually means that it hurt him pretty good and he's just trying not to show it, though by now everyone knows that when someone gets hurt in a fight they try to make it look like they haven't so would it make sense to pretend your hurt and then try to pounce (reverse, reverse psychology). It worked for Scott Smith against Pete Sell, but I think he might have been legitimately hurt in that instance and not pretending to be hurt to show how not hurt he actually was. What? Oh right, the fight I'm supposed to be reviewing. Allar throws a sloppy combination that sort of lands but is mostly blocked and Horn smiles at him. Horn's smiling in this instance makes him look like a serial killer and would probably be enough to draw a tap from me right then and there. They clinch and Horn lands a hard knee up the middle to the body and follows it with another knee to the head as Allar starts landing some HARD body punches, putting his entire weight and effort behind them. This is good and bad in that the punches might end up hurting Horn severely but at the same time with all the effort he's expending he could end up gassing himself out. Horn lands more knees to the body and Allar keeps working his heavy body punches, grunting from the force he's putting into every blow. Both fighters trade knees and body punches and Horn switches to a Thai clinch but before he can do any damage Allar picks the leg of Horn and takes him down. Allar is on top of Horn in his full guard and actively trying to press him against the cage and land some strikes but Horn is working a perfect butterfly guard, defending against strikes and also not letting Allar pass into side control or mount. Horn lands four or five good hard shots to the body of Allar while on the bottom, and actually casually notices a scrap of paper on the mat in the midst of the action, so he just calmly picks it up and inspects it for a second before throwing it to the referee. He does this WHILE he's in the middle of a fight with another man ON TOP OF HIM wanting to inflict grievous bodily harm on him. Jeremy Horn is awesome, there I said it. Horn with more strikes from the bottom and he's lifting Allar off of the mat with his butterfly guard, leaving Allar pretty much helpless and unable to mount any offense at all. Horn tries a sweep which doesn't work before lifting Allar into the air again with his guard, actually looking under Allar who is in mid-air, to talk to his corner about instructions, while Allar's little feetsies are just kicking away while he's up there. Horn finally gets the sweep and reverses into side control and immediately shifts into full mount. He lands some strikes and does more with top position in ten seconds than Allar was able to do in almost three minutes. Allar lands a punch from the bottom and Horn just smiles sadistically at him again as if to say "I don't think so motherfucker" and lands three hard right hands to Allar's face, forcing him to roll to his stomach and give Horn his back. Horn sinks the hooks in and lands some punches around to the face of Allar while motioning to his corner and just kind of chilling out and enjoying the fight while it's happening. The round ends and Horn definitely looks like the stronger fighter at this point.
Round Two
Horn starts out with the high kick again, landing this one flush to the face of Allar and Allar is waving it off saying he's had enough. Huh. That's an interesting finish.
The announcer speculates that maybe he got a toe in the eye from the kick but seeing it again I would guess that maybe that kick landed and either knocked some sense into Allar and made him rethink the fight or perhaps it may have broken an orbital bone or cheekbone and forced Allar to give it up. Either way it's a rather convincing win for Jeremy Horn.
Winner: Jeremy Horn, TKO at :08 of Round Two
The 411: This second disc was definitely the better of the two in the set. There were still what effectively amounted to squash matches, but a very entertaining contest between Carter and Miletich and the greatness that is late 90's Jeremy Horn more than made up for it in my opinion. The second disc pulls the set up past the halfway point on the scale and pulls the total rating for the set up to a 5.5 out of 10 for me.
