In this edition of Back in the day in Valley MMA we go back to 2003. World Extreme Cagefighting kept up with their themed events following the success of the first "Halloween Fury" themed WEC show. The promotion invited MMA fans to show up in costume for a night full of tricks and treats at the Tachi Palace Casino & Resort.
Fall season had begun in the Central Valley after another heat wave filled summer. 50 Cent sat at the top of the billboard charts with everyone singing along, "Go shorty! it's your Birthday!" to his hit In the club. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and Disney's Finding Nemo ruled the movie theaters. Still haven't seen the first Lord of the Rings, Finding Nemo is great! The Oakland Raiders lost in the Super Bowl to the Buccaneers. The Florida Marlins beat the New York Yankees in the World Series.
Shane Mosley won the WBA and WBC world Jr. Middleweight titles with a unanimous decision over Oscar De La Hoya. The UFC held only 5 events in 2003, with Team Miletich's Matt Hughes and Tim Sylvia holding titles in their weight classes. BJ Penn was the king in the lightweight division, while a 40 year old Randy Couture beat Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz to become the undisputed UFC light heavyweight champion. Pride FC was at its peak in 2003 some would say. They held six events. Including the middleweight grand prix where Chuck Liddell would meet Quinton Jackson for the first time in the Pride ring. Fedor Emelianenko captured the Pride FC heavyweight championship with a win over Legend Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira.
World Extreme Cagefighting 8 Halloween Fury 2 took place Friday October 17th, 2003 from the Palace Indian Gaming Center, now known as the Tachi Palace Casino & Resort in Lemoore, Ca. This was the second Halloween themed WEC event with the ring announcer fully decked out introducing fighters from the depths of his soul.
In the co main event of the night "Mr. International" Shonie Carter was back in the WEC for the third time looking to take home the vacant WEC welterweight title versus JT Taylor. Carter's record was 29–8–7 already at this point. He had already dropped Matt Serra with the spinning back fist, and took on Legend Pat Miletich in the UFC. "Mr. International'' continued to earn his nickname traveling the world to compete. He returned to the WEC following a draw in Japan, where he picked up a quick win in the first round at WEC 7. Carter would also pick up the win at WEC 8 Halloween Fury 2 versus Taylor by unanimous decision, making him the new WEC Welterweight Champion.
Fresno's "Apache Kid" Cole Escovedo, who is the first WEC Featherweight Champion, returned to the WEC exactly a year after his title win at WEC 5 versus Philip Perez. Escovedo had taken a couple of fights with Gladiator Challenge where he would go 1-1 in those two fights. Escovedo entered his first title defense, following the first loss in his MMA career. The "Apache Kid" returned to defend his title versus Anthony Hamlett. Hamlett was in top position for most of round one, after getting the fight to the ground twice. Hamlett looked to continue with that game plan in round two, but Escovedo worked the knees in the clinch when Hamlet got too close.
Hamlett took a break after a knee to the body, which he argued to the ref was a low blow. The fight continued and Escovedo connected with a right kick to the head, barely missing with the left kick up high that followed. Then found a spot for the straight right hand that dropped Hamlett. Hamlett turtled down and was tapping at 1:30 into round two, before Escovedo could put the finishing touches on his work. Escovedo would win a few more fights before his huge showdown with the "California Kid" , and much more which I'm sure I will get into in future pieces.
Visalia's Doug "Rhino" Marshall would make his MMA debut at WEC 8 Halloween Fury 2, taking on Anthony Fuller. The "Rhino" only needed 32 seconds to put Fuller down in round 1 and introduce himself to the MMA world.
Lemoore's "The Tachi Kid" Poppies Martinez moved to 3-0 defeating AJ Wieman by submission. Martinez was able to stop Weiman with a sub, but not before Wieman nearly ended the fight with a wild right hand that hurt Martinez. Poppies would fall but immediately get back up leaving the ref who was just stepping in to stop the fight confused. The fight was re-started and Martinez would find a rear naked choke that forced the tap at 2:01 in round 1. This would be the "Tachi Kid's" third first round finish in a row to start his young MMA career.
Long before he was on the UFC's The Ultimate Fighter. "The Crippler" Chris Leben made his WEC debut at WEC 8. Leben took on Brian Sleeman in what was only his 5th pro fight at the time. "The Crippler" stopped Sleeman with a sub that ended the fight at 3:15 in round 1. Leban would fight one more time for the WEC in 2004, where he knocked out Mike "Quick" Swick in the second round to win the inaugural WEC Middleweight Championship. That fight would later get brought up, getting tempers heated with both fighters in the house for the first season of the UFC's The Ultimate Fighter.
Olaf Alfonso returned to the WEC cage for the second fight of his pro career. Alfonso would quickly become a fan favorite at the Tachi Palace. Olaf took on Randy Bowers who held his own in the beginning of the fight. Bowers controlled Olaf with his wrestling moving from side to full mount, but wasn't doing much damage. Olaf remained calm and found an arm bar from his back that would force the tap at 3:05 in round 1. Olaf would move on to his first of three wars against John Polakowski following the win. He also took on some tough names later on in his career, that we will revisit in the future.
Visalia's Tom Owens made his WEC debut after a successful pro debut at Gladiator Challenge a month prior. Owens took on Lemoore's own Tony Alanis who had a 3-1 record coming into the fight. Alanis is also one of Sam Ochoa's original members of Team Ochoa and competed for the WEC since day 1. Owen's caught Alanis in a Sub that forced the tap at 1:49 in round 1 moving Owens to 2-0. The two would meet again in 2008 under the PFC banner, where Alanis would even the score in what would end up being both fighters, last fight.
The Pit's Jason Von Flue took on Chris Irvine in what would be his second and last appearance for the WEC. The "Livewire" returned to MMA competition following a few years off to pick up back to back wins in the WEC using the same submission that he originated in both fights. The hold was then named after him, and you can still catch fighters picking up W's to this day with the Von Flue choke.
On this night Von Flue wasted no time getting the fight to the ground where he choked Irvine unconscious with the Von Flue choke at 2:04 in round 2. He would move onto the UFC following a few more regional fights, and finish his career in 2009. Von Flue last competed at another popular casino in the Central Valley, The Eagle Mountain Casino in Porterville under The Warriors Cage banner.
Also on this card:
Heavyweight Mike Kyle made his WEC debut following a loss to Paul Buentello at King of the Cage. Kyle returned to the win column in quick fashion knocking out Jerry Vrbanovic in :12 of round 1 to move his record to 4-2 at the time.
Ryan Schultz also made quick work of Hannibal Adofo landing an overhand right that dropped Adofo. Schultz would land one more shot before the ref stepped in to stop the fight at just :25 seconds of round 1.
Sean Liddell defeated Chris Saunders by tko after Saunders was too exhausted to continue after the first round.
Fernando Gonzalez stopped Mike Castillo by tko after a left hand sent Castillo stumbling. Gonzales would land a few more shots on a downed Castillo who tapped due to strikes at 1:27 in round 1.
Opening up the night were the middleweights, as Hanford's Travis Stuart took on Fresno's Richard Montoya. Montoya was able to get the fight to the ground where he locked in a rear naked choke at just :38 seconds into round 1.
I hope you enjoyed this edition of Back in the day, in Valley MMA. I look forward to doing more of these. I also plan on revisiting some of the Gladiator Challenge, The Warriors Cage, Pure Combat, Up and Comers, PFC and TPF events that took place here in our backyard. Thank you for reading!
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By: Daniel "Trip" Quintana www.noweakshitever.com
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