Fightcard Entertainment put on their 44th show, Cross the Line 2012 on Thursday February 16. The night of action took place at Joe’s Bar on Weed Street in downtown Chicago. A total of eight amateur mixed martial arts fights and one women’s Muay Thai fight went down inside the steel cage.
All proceeds from the event will go to the Jeff Dunbar fund. MMA Consultants (the sanctioning body) donated all of their time, Kage Concepts donated all of their proceeds, the doctor on staff donated his time as well as several others. In addition to all the staff that volunteered their time, several items were up for raffle raising even more money for the trust fund.
If you blinked you probably missed the first fight between Gerard Mills and Jeremy Rennels. Both fighters came to the center of the cage and threw punches. Rennels then went for a takedown and got the back of Mills. Rennels snuck his arm under the chin of Mills. He adjusted his choke and Mills tapped as he knew it was just a matter of seconds before he would go unconscious.
Middleweights were up next as Ezekeio Sidney took on Hassan Umer. Sidney taunted Umer with his hands down and looked to strike. Umer quickly shot for a takedown and Sidney tried to counter with a guillotine choke. Umer however went to side control to escape the choke and did. From there he worked small punches and then switched to north-south and locked in a choke. He shifted his shoulder deeper into the throat of Sidney and forced a tap out.
Team Top Notch’s Rueben Marquez took on Team 110’s Eric Jachimiec in an exciting bout. Marquez worked leg kicks early, but Jachimiec looked to counter with left hooks. Marquez attempted a flying knee but couldn’t connect. He then opted for a different tactic as he took Jachimiec down and quickly passed to mount. Jachimiec tried to turn and shrimp out of the bad position, but Marquez held his base. He nearly finished the fight with a keylock and when that wasn’t working he transitioned to an armbar. With Jachimiec belly down, the submission was in deep quick and Jachimiec tapped before the snap.
One of the most exciting fights to ever happen inside the FCE cage featured bantamweights Danny Flores and Ceaser Ordorica. Both fighters came out swinging with Ordorica landing the better strikes. He caught a kick by Flores and took him down and rained down punches from within Flores’s guard. Flores escaped and stood up but Ordorica continued his assault. Flores started to find his range and the crowd was extremely excited by the damage that started to appear on Ordorica’s face. With five seconds left Flores landed a flying knee that sent Ordorica down to the canvas. He pounced and landed several punches. The ref halted the fight just before the round ending bell sounded prompting a minor confusion at first.
The first fight to go past the first round featured lightweights Trevor Adeszko and Rafeal Reyes. THe first round Reyes landed the better punches and caught kicks from Adeszko to take him down. Reyes worked punches while on top of Adeszko, but Adeszko was able to stand up each time. In the second round Adeszko wanted to counter the strikes of Reyes and then scored a big takedown. Reyes was able to stand up but ate a big knee. Reyes wanted a takedown of his own and ate a lot of punches from Adeszko without a successful takedown. The third round Reyes took the fight to the ground right away, but Adeszko escaped and took the back. He nearly finished with a rear naked choke, but when he couldn’t he opted to punch Reyes in the head multiple times. Reyes was able to stand, but Adeszko still had his back as they were standing. Adeszko landed two big knees that collapsed Reyes. Two punches later and the ref was forced to stop the action.
Lightweights were definitely putting on great fights as Otis Brumfield and Darrel Edmonson was a back and forth battle. The first round Edmonson controlled the action with his punches and his ability to catch kicks by Brumfield and throw him to the ground. Edmonson had his back and was throwing big bombs to the body and head of Brumfield but couldn’t finish as Brumfield was able to escape. The second round Brumfield ate a big right hand that sent him stumbling. Edmonson tried to capitalize on the damage but Brumfield escaped and landed a big knee. Brumfield then took the fight to the ground and quickly got the mount. He was working an arm triangle choke from the mount as time expired in the round. With the fight appearing to be tied up, both fighters came out swinging. Edmonson was the fresher fighter and it showed as he was able to get the takedown again. Brumfield escaped and was quickly dumped on his butt after another caught kick. Edmonson got the back again and tried to slide his arm under the chin of Brumfield. When the choke was finally in deep enough, the sound of the bell rang and the fight was over leaving the fight up to the judges. MMA Recap scored it 29-28 for Edmonson and so did all three judges.
Team Top Notch’s Nick Nagle came out strong against Trevor Rose. The two quickly exchange punches, before Nagle went for a takedown. Rose grabbed a guillotine and Nagle looked to be in trouble. Nagle tried to escape, but Rose held onto the choke through a stand up and a massive hip toss takedown. The two stood up and Rose tried to adjust his guillotine for a standing guillotine when Nagle landed an accidental low knee. After the restart Nagle landed a side kick and the two clinched. Nagle with another takedown and worked to get Rose’s back. Once he had the back it took just a matter of time before the rear naked choke was applied and Rose had to tap.
The co-main event featured a women’s Muay Thai bout between Jessica Heuer and Vanessa DeLa Garza. The fight was extremely close through out all three rounds. Both DeLa Garza and Heuer were able to land big punches and kicks through out. In the first round DeLa Garza sent Heuer stumbling with a counter right hand to Heuer’s leg kick. Heuer was able to get up right away, but she had no answer for the counter right through the entire fight. Heuer was the aggressor through out the fight always pressing forward, but DeLa Garza was able to land more strikes. The fight was extremely close with DeLa Garza winning the first round and Heuer likely winning round two. The third round was again close, and the judges were split in their decision awarding the fight to DeLa Garza.
Bryan Ortiz and Azamat Shogenov headlined the night of action in a bantamweight fight. Both fighters entered the cage undefeated and both left the same as the fight was ruled a no contest. Shogenov swarmed Ortiz from the start landing punch after punch followed by kicks. Ortiz stumbled and while he was a downed opponent he ate a kick to the head. Referee Rob Madigral called a timeout for the illegal strike, but the fight was waved off and ruled a no contest as Ortiz was ruled to not be able to continue.
Quick Results
Jeremy Rennels defeated Gerard Mills by rear naked choke at 0:13 of round 1
Hassan Umer defeated Ezekeio Sidney by north south choke at 0:52 of round 1
Rueben Marquez defeated Eric Jachimiec by armbar at 2:33 of round 1
Danny Flores defeated Ceaser Ordorica by TKO at 2:59 of round 1
Trevor Adeszko defeated Rafeal Reyes by TKO at 2:09 of round 3
Darrel Edmonson defeated Otis Brumfield by unanimous decision 29-28, 29-28, 29-28
Nick Nagle defeated Trevor Rose by rear naked choke at 1:45 of round 1
Vanessa DeLa Garza defeated Jessica Heuer by split decision 29-28, 28-29, 30-27
Bryan Ortiz and Azamat Shogenov ruled a no contest at 0:20 of round 1
