Battlezone 10: Big wins for Dargan, Price and Maguire

Johnny Dargan was crowned heavyweight champion last night at Battlezone 10, held at the D4 Hotel in Ballsbridge, after the referee stopped his bout against France’s Camille Bonnet due to an eye poke sustained by the Tallaght man in round two.

Despite the action resuming after the infringement, cage side medics stopped the contest at the end of the second prompting officials to go back to their cards and award the win to the most dominant fighter over the contested rounds.

Certainly, it was Dargan’s fight to lose up until the incident. Typically standing with his hands down by his side, Dargan threw his jab out with lightening pace and followed threw with a storm of hooks when the opportunity presented itself.

Despite Bonnet managing to close him down up against the age on a couple of occasions, the Dragon’s explosive technique was too much for him.

The Taekwondo ace summed up his control of the fight in the second when he landed a wheel kick on his French counterpart, with Bonnet completely losing track of Dargan after it, allowing him to land another clean, straight right hand.

With the new champion unhappy with how the fight ended, he called for a rematch with Bonnet in the near future.

Myles Price took a big win over Kieran Davern in the welterweight division via rear naked choke in round three to re-establish himself on the Irish MMA scene. Despite Davern landing a big takedown in round one and his constant threat with leg locks, Price looked comfortable throughout the contest.

Now a member of Team Ryano, Price’s grappling looked much improved as he landed a nice judo throw in the first round and dominated in the second and third. Unlucky not to finish with a rear naked choke and an armbar in the second, once Price got the hooks in he didn’t make any mistakes in finishing Davern in the third.

John Redmond took up a nice vantage point to view his Cage Warriors 63 opponent, Davern, during the contest. Transfixed on his New Year’s Eve adversary, “The Baby Faced Assassin”, will no doubt have made a few mental notes on Price’s successful game plan.

BJJ Cork’s Aaron Maguire became the Battlezone amateur featherweight champion after the contest was stopped due to an illegal upkick from Richie Smullen.

Maguire did well in the first to defend against the constant inverts and attacks Smullen posed from his guard, and at the end of the opening round the man from the Rebel County scored a takedown on Smullen, finishing the round in side control.

Starting the second as he ended the first, Maguire wasted no time in putting Smullen to his back again before taking up his place in side control. As Smullen scrambled for an escape it was deemed he had kicked Maguire, who immediately called for a rematch after he was awarded the belt.

The much anticipated second meeting between Adam Caffrey and Blaine O’Driscoll lived up to its hype with O’Driscoll getting the nod after three razor close rounds. O’Driscoll’s high activity game plan was enhanced by much improved striking skills that allowed him to stand with the talented Rush Fight Academy man.

O’Driscoll seemed to get the better of the exchanges in the first before Caffrey came back and landed some excellent combinations in the second. With the fight meaning so much to the two men, as the winner moved on to the finals of the Irish Team Trials for the UFC Fan Expo in Las Vegas next year, it was an action packed third round that brought the contest to an end.

Now owning a win each after two tests, all signs point straight to another meeting between these two fantastic prospects which should make for a colossal finale to the trilogy.

Llyod Manning did a great job to book his place in the finals of the Team Trials as he saw off the always dangerous Tommy Martin. With Manning obviously doing his homework on the fast hands of Martin, he took the SBG prospect down and displayed some fantastic top control.

From an inverted triangle position in the second round, Manning was able to tee off on Martin who, with his arm trapped, was unable to intelligently defend himself thus causing the referee to stop the fight.

SBGi’s Cian Erraught saw off Cian Burke in an amateur heavy weight Team Trial contest, knocking out the Sharkbait man via mounted strikes in round one earlier in the night. Also on point for the Long Mile road club was jiu jitsu ace Richie Crosdale who defeated the talented Keith McCabe via triangle in round one in a welterweight Team Trial matchup.

Will Fleury saw off Shane Kirkwood in round three of their bout via rear naked choke, while Fermoy’s Wayne Fitzgerald was victorious over Aaron Tucker, who he saw off by TKO in round two.

Sharkbait’s Thomas Moore took a deserved decision win over Joseph Coddington earlier in the night, with Coddington causing trouble with a straight right hand early in the fight. Balance’s Lukasz Makosz took a second round win via kimura in his bout with Gary Coffey.

Hughie O’Rourke turned a lot of heads with a dominant performance over Chris O’Driscoll. Coming out swinging, the young Ryano prospect rocked O’Driscoll with a big right hand, forcing the K2C fighter to take him down. However, acting quickly, O’Rourke latched on to an arm in guillotine to finish off a dominant showing.

Stephanie Quill started the night with a win for Team Ryano, taking a unanimous decision win over Lisa O’Mahony.

By Peter Carroll – @PetesyCarroll