Thursday night’s Steele Cage event “Battle of the Texas Titans” at the Dr Pepper Arena was a great success by all indications. The newly renovated arena was extremely nice with extra seating, new giant screens, sound system, suites and a new club. The large and vocal crowd in attendance seemed to enjoy not only the fights but also the parade of celebrities ushered into the octagon. “Sugar” Ray Philips, Guy Mezger, Luis Yanez and crowd favorite Randy White to name a few.

Filikitonga vs. Kelly
The main event pitted heavyweights Sunia Filikitonga (296lbs) 2-1, a Brazilian jujitsu artist from Euless against Plano’s Ralph Kelly (246lbs) 12-6. The action was fast and furious as both men fought from a standup position until Kelly rushed Filikitonga hoping to take the fight to the ground. Filikitonga then landed a great knee to Kelly’s midsection that dropped the Plano fighter who was in obvious pain and now covered up. Filikitonga jumped on Kelly and landed several vicious head shots that forced the referee to stop the action at 57 seconds of the first round. Kelly remained down for a while as “North Texas Boxing’s Fight Doctor,” Dr. Bradford Romans attended the fallen fighter.

Hantz vs. Christopher
The co-main event saw a great match up of 170-pound guys, both with great talent; Lewisville’s Joe Christopher 9-2, a Brazilian Jujitsu fighter and Clay Hantz 2-0, who lives in Odessa but trains in Midland. After a few strikes by both men Christopher went for a take down and almost got caught in a triangle that Hantz was not able to completely accomplish. Hantz handed some heavy punches and elbows to the head of Christopher that seemed to be stuck in this almost triangle state. Once up the fights went to the ground again and Christopher went for an arm bar as Hantz tried his own. Hantz had to tap out at 2:15 of round one for his first loss of his career. Should Justin Miller win on June 20th at SWC7 a show down with Joe Christopher is very likely and much anticipated.

Spratt vs. Woods
Peter Spratt 20-15, a Brazilian Jujitsu & Muay Thai artist from San Antonio took on a very tough Alan Woods 3-1, a boxing & free style fighter from Wichita Falls. Pete Spratt has fought 7 times in the UFC, one of those times losing to Gorges St-Pierre by submission.  At the very start Spratt landed a beautiful right leg kick that knocked Woods to the canvas and what seemed out. Spratt thinking the ref would stop the contest waiting, once he realized the fight was not going to be stopped he charged towards his hurt opponent. Woods lunged and took Spratt down and moved into back control, almost getting a rear naked choke in place. Spratt did a great job of getting out and began landing right leg kicks again and eventually got top control. That led to a camorra at 3:56 of the first round and a tap out by Alan.

Christison vs. Traves
Big Dan “The Sand Man” Christison (6’8”, 264lbs) 17-8, took on Joel Traves 6-7, from Amarillo in this heavy weight match up. Dan Christison has fought two times in the UFC and lost a decision to Frank Mir. After both men threw a few punches, Christison took Traves to the canvas and proceeded to pound him with straight rights and lefts right down the middle. He almost had a camora at one point until he continued with more down the middle punches. The referee stopped the fight at 2:16 of the first round.

The rest of the card:

Garcia vs. Trujillo
Reynaldo Trujillo from Houston came out like gangbusters, throwing punches with bad intentions and finally landing a hard straight left hand that sent Larry “The Pit-bull” Garcia from Plainview down and out. Two more punches for good measure and the fight was stopped at 26 seconds of the first round.

Larson vs. Preece
Ryan Larson from San Antonio got a rear naked choke at 2:52 second of the first round over Phillip Preece of Amarillo.

Sincade vs. Hopkins
Once Lodune “The Gorilla” Sincade 22-6, from Midland got side control on over Larry Hopkins 2-2, he began to pound him pretty bad. Ref stopped the fight at 1:48 seconds of the round one.

Wenokur vs. Brooks
The longest fight of the night was between Chris Brooks 1-0, 156lbs, from Allen and Justin Wenokur 0-1, of Dallas. Mid way through the first after a back and forth fight it became apparent Wenokur had something wrong. I was later told he had the wind knocked out of him but that’s unofficial, he did however verbally tap out just before the bell, that part is official. Good fight while it lasted, would have liked to see this one go on.

Maloncon vs. Jones
The first fight of the night saw Brain Maloncon 2-0, of Houston swing for the fences against Jarret Jones 1-2, of Odessa. After taking a left-right combination, Jones slumped against the cage 15 seconds into the fight.

Ring announce Sonny Franco told the crowd that Larry Steele and Jeff Zimmerman and their Steele Cage show will be back in a August for another card. Let’s hope so, I for one look forward to it.