Last Updated on June 16, 2012.
Ring of Combat 41 Results – Hall and Rivera Take Home Titles
Excerpt from Lutfi Sariahmed – sherdog.com
6/15/12
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — Team Tiger Schulmann stalwart Uriah Hall captured the middleweight championship with a unanimous decision over Nodar Kuduxashvili in the Ring of Combat 41 main event on Friday at the Tropicana Resort and Casino.
After splitting the first two rounds, Hall spent the third countering the Georgian and using his superior technique to his advantage. It was enough to earn the 27-year-old a unanimous decision: 29-28 from all three judges.
“I feel like I’m more crisp down the middle throwing strikes,” Hall told Sherdog.com. “He wasn’t used to that. I noticed he was just a sambo guy: grab you, take you down and choke the s— out of you. So I was just more, like, ‘Alright, let me play. Let me move and get some swagga in and beat him with that.’”
Hall’s teammate, Jimmie Rivera, overwhelmed Justin Hickey en route to a unanimous decision and the Ring of Combat bantamweight title. Rivera swept the scorecards by matching 30-27 counts. It was his first outing since appearing on Season 14 of “The Ultimate Fighter.”
“My whole goal was to perfect my game,” Rivera said. “I have some holes in my game that I wanted to fix — grappling, jiu-jitsu and all that. I feel like I’ve done that.”
Meanwhile, Serra-Longo Fight Team member Ed Gordon defeated Carlos Brooks by unanimous decision — 30-27, 30-27 and 29-28 — for the Ring of Combat light heavyweight strap. Gordon had one goal in mind throughout the fight, as he took down Brooks in all three rounds and kept him grounded for the majority of their 15-minute battle.
“We came in knowing he had a lot of standup background,” Gordon said. “He’s a 9-0 kickboxer. We figured that [we should] go to his weakness — his ground game. You have to give him credit because he had some good stops for the takedown. We tried to mix it up and throw him off a little bit.”
Quick Results
Middleweight title fight
Uriah Hall def. Nodar Kudukhashvili via unanimous decision (29-28 x 3)
Bantamweight title fight
Jimmie Rivera def. Justin Hickey via unanimous decision (30-27 x 3)
Light-heavyweight title fight
Ed Gordon def. Carlos Brooks via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 30-27)
