Report/gallery: ‘Clash in the Cage’ sees 2nd MMA win for Holm
Cageside by Gerardo Martinez
Photos by Jose Leon Castillo
It’s always sweeter the second time around.
Scoring her second MMA win, Holly “The Preacher’s Daughter” Holm (2-0) chopped down Jan “Cuddles” Finney (8-10) Friday night at Route 66 Casino in Fresquez Productions “Clash in the Cage” event.
“I definitely didn’t want that to happen again,” laughed Holm after she was reminded about her first MMA outing in which she backed off her fallen opponent after knocking her down, forgetting that she was not in a boxing match.
This time around, Holm might have hesitated for a millisecond before pouncing on her opponent after she knocked Finney to the mat with a devastating left kick to the body that landed just right above the ribs. Holm went on to land a couple shots on the ground with the helpless Finney in fetal position before referree Richard Espinosa stopped the contest at 2:49 of the third round to give Holm the TKO victory.
“We wanted to keep her guessing, we wanted to have her not know what was coming” said Holm who did exactly that from the first bell, keeping her opponent at a distance with left and right punch combinations and kicks upstairs. Finney never really got into the fight, which was fought entirely in stand up until the last few seconds of the third round. Only able to land a kick in third and a couple of strikes from the first to the second round, the closest Finney got to Holm was the two times they clinched in the middle of the ring trying to exchange knee strikes.
‘T-Train’ derails ‘Burque Bulldog’
Utah bantamweight Travis “T-Train” Marx (18-3) derailed the much smaller Mikey “The Burque Bulldog” Lovato (10-3) in the co-main event.
Marx almost immediately made him pay for a step-up in weight by clobbering Lovato with strikes against the cage before the ‘Bulldog’ tapped out at 1:38 of the first round. Lovato got himself into trouble when he shot at Marx’ legs and caught one of them, but ended up face down against the mat with Marx on top of him.
“I didnt want it to go to the ground,” said Marx after the bout, since he knew of Lovato’s wrestling forte. Unfortunately for Lovato, Marx was skilled in both, stand up and on the ground.
Undercard
In a welterweight contest, Roswell’s Candido Andaloz (2-0) won by tap out at 2:43 of the second round against Albuquerque’s Lalo Chavez (0-1), who was making his pro debut. In the first, after landing some strikes and kicks in stand up, Chavez was unable to handle Andaloz on the ground. In the second round Andaloz reversed his opponent on the ground and proceeded to lock in a leg triangle as Chavez tapped out.
Making his professional MMA debut in the first pro bout of the evening was Albuquerque’s Shaun “The Warrior” Henson (0-1), who lost against Andres “The Bullet” Quintana (1-1). It seemed as though Quintana knew he had to take it to the ground against Henson, who is well schooled in kickboxing, and he wasted no time in shooting in and taking Henson to the matt. After that “The Bullet” took over, striking from full mount until the referee waved it off due to strikes at 1:12 of the first round.
Amateur results
At 135 lbs Nick Gonzalez (5-2) won by tap out against Michael Diaz (4-2) at 2:52 of round two. At 155 lbs Kevin Smith (2-0) won by tap out against Raymundo Leon (2-1) at 1:53 of the second round.
At 185 lbs Juan Torres (2-0) won by submission at 2:53 of round one against Anthony Debelak (0-1).
At 145 lbs Steve Garcia (4-0) won by referee stoppage due to strikes at 2:52 of the first round against Brandon Trujillo (0-1).
In the curtain raiser at 135 lbs Ray Martinez (1-1) won by tap out against Wesley Bartlett (0-1) at 1:07 of the first round.
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