It was an awesome night of fights in Hollywood, Florida as we had an incredible 8 fighters competing on the card. What originally started off as 4 members of the team competing quickly doubled as Visa issues opened the doors for our guys to step up and compete on short notice.

On to the fights….Sirwan “Zohan” Kakai was one of our fighters who jumped at the chance to fight in the UFC, as it’s been his dream since entering the sport back in ‘08. In his UFC debut, Zohan showed no signs “octagon jitters,” as he landed solid knees from the clinch and well timed takedowns on his way to his first win inside the cage. Keep your eyes on this talented bantamweight!

“Creepy” Steve Montgomery has been on a wild ride on his way to his firs UFC fight. Steve started out on the TUF 21 but had to leave before his first fight due to a medical problem. Steve was about to fight the weekend prior on a small show when he got the call to fight in the UFC. He jumped at the opportunity but unfortunately Steve ate a left hook mid-way through the first round. We are all super disappointed for Steve but he’s faced adversity before and bounced back just fine. His positive vibes will get him over this minor setback as well. Keep our head up Creepy!

With no fight scheduled, Leandro Silva just wanted to come over from Brazil and train with the team for when the call came. To his surprise, it came much quicker than anticipated. Leandro actually went up to welterweight from his natural lightweight division as he won a unanimous decision win over Lewis Gonzalez.

Alex “Cowboy” Oliveira found himself in a similar situation to Leandro (short notice and bumped up in weight class) as he took home the unanimous decision win over Joe Merritt.

Thiago “Marreta” Santos brought the thunder, as he landed a crushing head kick to former hockey enforcer Steve Bosse at just 29 seconds into the first round. This was Marreta’s third first round KO in the UFC and also the third fastest recorded KO inside the octagon. Very impressive showing by Marreta.

Also, good to see Steve Bosse walk out in his own after that KO. Glad to hear he’s doing fine.

BJJ ace Antonio Carlos Jr., was able to finish Eddie Gordan with a rear naked choke at 4:37 of the third round. “Cara de Sapato” is a newcomer to the team and really fits in well with the rest of the guys. It’s a pleasure to have him here and we look forward to working with him on his next bout.

In the Fight of the Night, Santiago Ponzinibbio went to war with Lorenz Larkin but Larkin proved to have a little more firepower, as he scored the TKO win over Santiago at 3:07 of the 2nd round. Santiago proved he has a warrior’s heart and will be back.

In the main event of the night, Yoel “Soldier of God” Romero took Lyoto Machida. In the third round, Yoel put his freakish talents on display, as he landed a beautiful knee pick to get the former champ to the ground. From there, Yoel landed in half guard and dropped crushing elbows to Machida’s head as the fight was halted at 1:38 of the third round. Impressive performance by Soldier of God!

 

Hopefully, Yoel will be next in line to compete for the UFC Middleweight title. Undefeated in the UFC at 6-0, we certainly think he deserves it.

Overall the team did a tremendous job. Placing 8 fighters on the card, coming away with 6 wins, as well as Fight of the Night, and two Performance of the Night bonuses is pretty amazing. Great team effort by the coaches, all the training partners that helped out and the fighters who made it happen. Congrats!!!

American Top Team – Coconut Creek, Florida

American Top Team