After a quick pit stop last month at the Lake Elsinore Storm stadium in Lake Elsinore, the King of the Cage promotion returned to their Southern California home at the San Manuel Indian Bingo and Casino in Highlands California. It marked the long awaited return of former UFC and Pride FC veteran and three-time KOTC Champion Chris Brennan. His opponent, Quin Mulhern, had different ideas for Brennans return and played the role of spoiler in front of a jam-packed crowd that saw a large part of Team Quest, including Pride FC and UFC superstar Dan Henderson, in attendance.
Brennan shot in right off the bat, but instead of the ground-fighting wizard getting his takedown, he walked into a boatload of jiu jitsu trouble. As Brennan shot in, Mulhern almost immediately locked in an Olma Plata. After several escapes and transitions, Brennan almost got away, but ultimately transitioned right back into Mulhern's Olma Plata and finally tapped at 2:01 of the first round, bringing a bad ending to Brennan's highly anticipated return to KOTC.
In the co-main event, Detroit's Tony Hervey made short work of UFC veteran and Jiu Jitsu world champion Alberto Crane. It only took Hervey 12 seconds to land a barrage of power punches that knocked the UFC veteran down and out into unconsciousness. Crane laid on the canvas for several minutes after the end of the fight, but was finally allowed to stand up and walk out of the cage on his own. Hervey put out a challenge to KOTC Jr. Welterweight Champ Vic "Joe Boxer" Valenzuela. After both fighters verbally assaulted each other in the middle of the cage, the announcement was made that Hervey and Valenzuela will face off in August for the title.
In what easily could be tabbed as the most impressive performance of the night, KOTC Welterweight Champion Mike "The Joker" Guymon fought the physically larger Light Heavyweight and Middleweight fighter Kyacey Uscola. Uscola immediately made his presence felt in the first round, using his obvious size and strength advantage to outwrestle and pound the champ. After causing a huge knot and cut on the champions head, it was clear that Uscola dominated the first round, but the second round was a much different story. Both men squared off in the middle of the cage. The champion Guymon landed a HUGE kick to the left side of Uscola's rib cage that clearly hurt the bigger fighter. As Guymon smelled blood, he continued the vicious body attack with a series of kicks to both sides of Uscola's rib cage, eventually getting him to crumble and allowing Guymon to launch his trademark vicious ground and pound until the ref had seen enough at 1:12 of the second round. Due to the numerous change in challengers for Guymons title, this was a non-title match that Uscola and Guymon agreed to fight at a catchweight of 175 lbs. Both fighters left it all in the cage much to the delight of the capacity crowd.
To start the main card of the evening, local favorite Rick "The I.E Bad boy" Legere reeled off his second win in a row after losing two straight fights. Legere was the aggressor from the get go and used his improving standup and his almost always dominant wrestling against his game, but outmatched opponent, Mike Robles, en route to a TKO victory at 2:12 of the third round.
OTHER RESULTS:
- David Vessup def. Uber Gallego via Split Decision
- Corey Grant def. Evan Thompson via Unanimous Decision
- Jose Morales def. John Sassone via Unanimous Decision
- Joe Lewis def. George Sanchez via Split Decision
- Armando Montoys def. Estaban Jimenez via Submissio (guillotine) at 1:23 of round 2