Arise Fighting Championships made its debut at the Santa Clara Convention Center with its first Muay Thai and Professional MMA event.

The South Bay of California is no stranger to combat sports.  San Jose, California serves as home base to the renowned American Kickboxing Academy, which has trained and produced some of the true greats in MMA.  Once upon a time, Strikeforce Mixed Martial Arts was headquartered in San Jose from its inception all the way through its Zuffa purchase.   And, of course, the HP Pavilion has hosted some truly historic moments in the sport of MMA, including UFC 139 and UFC on Fox 7.

To no one’s surprise, the Santa Clara Convention Center housed a lively and appreciative audience to support the up-and-coming fighters who appeared on Arise FC’s inaugural card.

The bout of the evening that initially energized the crowd was a Muay Thai match between amateur fighters Lamont Green and Sekona Taai.  With a noticeable height and reach advantage coupled with sheer athleticism, Lamont Green dictated the pace of the first round and likely won it on all three judges’ scorecards.  However, Taai’s perseverance and toughness could not be denied as he progressively gained an offensive advantage through Rounds 2 and 3 as Green began to tire.  With haymakers from Taai closing out the third and final round, the bout went to the judges’ scorecards.

In the end, after 3 hard fought rounds, the gutsy Sekona Taai walked away with a split decision victory (29-28, 28-29, 29-28).

The first professional MMA bout of the evening was between featherweights Josh Berkovic of El Nino Training Center in San Francisco, California and Sam Garrett, fighting out of Sacramento, California.  While attempting a headkick, Garrett slipped in the ring, allowing Berkovic to establish top position.  This mistake spelled the beginning of the end for the Sacramento-based fighter, since a quick scramble resulted in Berkovic taking his back and sinking in a rear naked choke for the finish.

The official result was a win for Josh Berkovic via submission (rear naked choke) at 1:25 of Round 1.  With this win, Berkovic improved his professional MMA record to 4-0 while Garrett fell to 0-2.

Up next was a bantamweight MMA bout between Keith Carson of True Warrior Fitness and Jeremiah “the Kid” Labiano fighting out of Crispim BJJ.

In his usual style, Labiano, who has fought professionally in Northern California since late 2011, showed off his flair and Sanshou style of striking.  Through the course of the first round, Labiano threw and landed left body kicks, spinning back fists, and spinning back kicks.  Carson, however, retaliated with more standard, but equally effective body punches and low kicks.

The end came quickly, however, when Labiano, a BJJ brown belt, cinched in a guillotine choke causing Carson to tap out at just 0:19 of Round 2.  With the win, Labiano improved his professional MMA record to 5-1.

A professional Muay Thai bout between Travis Clay of Sitan Gym and Eric Luna from San Jose’s AKA was featured as the co-main event of the evening.  Eric Luna, who came into the bout with an impressive 19-4 record, controlled all four rounds by pressing the action and acting as the aggressor.  By repeatedly landing hard kicks to the body, Luna forced his opponent to retreat.

At the end of four rounds, the judges awarded a unanimous decision to AKA’s Eric Luna, who improved his professional Muay Thai record to 20-4.

And finally, the main event of the evening featured a lightweight bout between two hungry local fighters James Terry of Cung Le’s USH team and Mike De La Torre of SD Combat Academy.  Although the bout was over and done with in only 57 seconds, it did not disappoint the fans in attendance and lived up to its main event billing.

In the opening seconds of Round 1, Terry landed a big overhand right that dropped De La Torre as the fight went to the ground.  Following a quick recovery, De La Torre returned the favor by landing a left hook, which dropped Terry in the process.  Unlike his opponent, however, De La Torre took full advantage of the situation by finding his way to Terry’s back and finishing the fight by rear naked choke at just 0:57 of Round 1.

With a submission win over James Terry at 0:57 of Round 1, Mike De La Torre improved his professional MMA record to 11-3.

With a solid crowd in attendance who liked what they saw, fight fans in Northern California can be sure to expect more action from Arise Fighting Championships in the near future.

Arise Fighting Championships 1 Quick Results:

Muay Thai Bouts:

Mohammed Khan def. Billy Xayaranh via unanimous decision

Sekona Taai def. Lamont Green via split decision

Rafael Mongfort def. Alex Quenneville via unanimous decision

Lawrence Ward def. Sonny Singh via split decision

Eric Luna def. Travis Clay via unanimous decision

Ethan Conte def. Simon Hi via unanimous decision

Jonathan Tan def. Igor Golovin via unanimous decision

Thai Ngam Le def. Theora Cinnino via unanimous decision

Jarrade Pierce def. James Applebury via TKO (head kick) at 1:22 of Round 2

Brian Bernardino def. Mike Sanchez via split decision

MMA Bouts:

Josh Berkovic def. Sam Garrett via submission (rear naked choke) at 1:25 of Round 1

Jeremiah Labiano def. Keith Carson via submission (guillotine choke) at 0:19 of Round 2

Mike De La Torre def. James Terry via submission (rear naked choke) at 0:57 of Round 1

Photos by Dave Fong