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The Crown Plaza Event Center once again played host to the King of Champions latest promotion entitled “Night of Champions” in which the 135lb pro title was on the line in the Main Event and two amateur straps were up for grabs to round out a great night of championship action.

KOC is continuing to excel to the top of the Colorado fight organizations with exceptional fight cards, equipment and lighting leaving fans felling they have received  a great night of MMA in exchange for their hard earned dollars. In the main event, Nick Honstein and Danny Martinez faced up for the KOC bantam weight title.

This fight was nonstop action with many submission attempts and brutal strikes being landed by both warriors inside the cage.   We began the first with Honstein letting his legs fly proceeded by a takedown and a little GNP that was quickly interrupted by Martinez rising to his feet.

Honstein responded with another takedown to full mount transition and once again his opponent regained his footing.

Martinez moved on to show his stand up skills landing a beautiful straight left allowing him the opportunity to take the fight to the ground on his terms, and end up in side control.

Martinez defiantly made best of the situation landing atrocious GNP before moving to the mount and continuing the punishment.   As we approached the end of the first stanza, Honstein rolled over giving up his back and Martinez locked in a triangle and once again continued with the hostility.

Honstein maintained a great defense against the choke but had no answer to the striking from the back position.

Round two began with Honstein hitting the canvas from another right hand that was straight down the pipe.  Martinez allowed no time for recovery and moved back to his dominating GNP and vicious elbows.   Martinez kept with his relentless game plan, improve his position and delivering a variety of strikes.

Once again Martinez moved to the full mount and delivered dominating elbows leaving little room for Honstein to position himself to lock in one of his bread and butter submissions.   Martinez maintained his punishing ground and pound game which ultimately proved too much for Honstein.

With the heart of a lion, Honstein continued with submissions giving every attempt to finish the fight while receiving a savage pounding.  The referee had enough of the action at 2:06 of the second round and Martinez became the new KOC bantamweight champion with a very impressive victory over an extremely tough and well rounded Honstein.

Eric Smith and Spencer Hooker stepped in the cage for the co-main event of the evening.

Both fighters began with a great stand up exchange in the center of the canvas.  Smith landed a clean right dropping Hooker next to the cage then Smith began his attack.

He seemed to have found a hole in the game of Hooker as he remained on his feet for the majority of the round controlling the legs of his downed opponent and landing some strong strikes to the head of Hooker.

Hooker was never counted out by no means, as he would periodically work to his feet and swing for the fences with exceptional power.

Round two came with a brief moment of stand up and Smith flopping to his back in hopes of gaining a little control over the situation.   The ground control was stopped abruptly by the ref as he felt the action was inefficient and brought the fighters back to their feet.

Smith quickly clinched up and began driving knees and strikes to the body and head. After the non-stop two round battle Smith walked away with the 20-18 unanimous decision.

Corey Grant and Joe Kelso matched up for the first pro fight of the evening. This was an exciting fight for fans with many back and forth moments leaving the crowd waiting for the early win.  When all was said and done Grant pocketed a unanimous decision. Grants’ continuous pace and persistence won over the judges as he prevailed by scores of 20 -18on all three cards.

Chris Holland took home the KOC welterweight title as he defeated Chris Saucedo by TKO in 42 seconds of the second round in yet another very entertaining bout which saw both combatants having there moments in the fight.

Jimmy Soiland defeated Gabe Contreras after a 3 round see-saw battle .  Soiland proved to be too much in the end as he picked up the win via unanimous decision.  Soiland is another great up and coming amatuer from the well known Gumm Mixed Martial Arts in south Denver.

Jay Jackson and Nick Andrews stepped in the cage for another entertaining KOC match up. This was an evenly skilled match up with both fighters having what it takes to stay in the fenced battle ground.  It was the cornering that was the deciding factor as Jackson listened his way to a TKO victory. He maintained a full mount and handed out some mean GNP. The ref stopped the action at 1:26 of round 2.

Ian Chavez and Nick Albert faced off in the 5th preliminary bout of the night. It was Chavez that pulled out the victory by TKO at 1:48 of round one after he took back control and started raining down strong blows to Albert’s head.

Chavez took home his first victory and had his family and training coaches to thank for the preparation of the fight.

Mike Ruthford found his mark quickly on a more than game opponent in Joe Sally.  Ruthford showed some great ground versatility before locking in a very tight guillotine at 1:13 picking up the KOC amateur bantamweight title along the way.

Tamobora Gerl showed he has a great ground game to go with his excellent stand up as he defeated James Valimont by triangle choke in 1:17 of the first round.

Gerl instantly landed a beautiful strike on the button sending Vailmont to the cage floor in a daze.   Gerl left no time for Vailmont to recover as he quickly jumped on and continued chastisement. Gerl continues to improve his game every appearance in the cage.

Training at the Spartan House is paying off dividends as many well known fighters from northern Colorado train there and appear to be giving Gerl an arsenal of great training partners to work with on a daily basis.

Mike Palo defeated Bobby Cassada with a great ground performance to open up the RNC submission at 1:35 of round 1. Palo showed great ground movement as well as high paced pressure to overwhelm Cassada and claimed the victory.

Julian Gonzales improved his record to 2-0 after his third round TKO over Eric Fuller.  Both fighters came prepared for the fight as they were showcasing great all around MMA skills.

The ref stepped in for Fullers defense at the 23 second mark of the round.

Ring Card Girls…

Written by Rick Teran/Brawlin.net

Fotos by Joe Cordova/Brawlin.net

2 Responses to “Martinez Hands Honstein First Loss In Dramatic Fashion!”

1. Mike Says:
   July 1st, 2009 at 4:09 am

   Man I am a huge Honstein fan and never seen someone bring it to him like Martinez did I even started feeling bad for guy. But he’ll come back and whop someones ass soon with some type of crazy submission.The KOC ROCKS there cards are always fun to watch and it just gets better every show.

2. admin Says:
   July 1st, 2009 at 6:10 pm

   I’d have to agree Mike. Honstein has looked very good every time out but Martinez just looked too strong for him. Someone said Honstein went up 10 pounds for this fight? That may have been the difference?
   I was very impressed with Tambora defeating Valimont the way he did because James has been in some tough fights and the guy never quits coming.
   Thanks again Jamie for having us out, the lighting had me lickin’ my chops and hell I’m still rounding up all the fotos from this night to put in the gallery!

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