Photo credit: MMA Weekly

The ever-controversial Phil Baroni secured both his first win fighting in a new country and a new weight class in the main event of Cage Rage 27 with his first round stoppage of Londoner Scott Jansen.

However there was as much drama after the devastating knockout as before it when a corner-man, believed to be the brother of the fallen opponent, delivered a headbutt to the former UFC star which resulted in an unsavoury scene that will do nothing to improve the British image of mixed martial arts.

Competing in the 170 lbs division having previously spent his entire career in the middleweight class, the New York Bad Ass travelled to England looking for the decisive win necessary to get his career back on track after high-profile losses to Frank Shamrock, Kala Hose and Joey Villasenor.

His opponent always looked over-matched on paper and had never previously competed on a main Cage Rage card before this evening, let alone a main event going live on free view television.

Baroni seemed to adopt a similar tactic to that used when having previously fought Yosuke Nishijima after coming off a loss to Kazuo Misaki.  The determination on his face was evident and the mentality seemed to be “win at all costs” and recreating his usual crowd-pleasing style not on his immediate list of priorities.

His first offensive move in the fight was to take Jansen to the floor, like Nishijima, and attempt to use his superior grappling to comfortably control an inexperienced opponent and avoid a risk of being caught with a fluke shot.  The Brit does not have the punching finesse of the former Japanese cruiserweight boxing champion and It ultimately proved that the American also had superior stand-up skills as well.

An Americana attempt appeared to cause Jansen pain but the fight was soon stood up by referee Grant Waterman for inactivity, a decision that seemed generous towards the struggling Londoner.  It was at that point the charismatic former Pride competitor smelt blood and went in for the kill.

Noting the post-match interview that he had spotted Jansen’s habit of keeping his chin in the air after throwing a hook, Baroni unleashed a powerful right hand which almost lifted the Brit off the floor before sending him crashing to the canvas.  Waterman stepped in immediately before any further damage could be done with the downed opponent appearing to be momentarily unconscious.

After the fight, the disgruntled cornerman bizarrely appeared to take offence at the victor’s concern for his opponent as he checked on his condition.  The yellow-jumpered man throw his head towards Baroni although thankfully appeared to do little damage.  This in turn angered the American corner with Josh Thomson and Mark Coleman leading the chase for the cowardly head-butter who disappeared into the obscurity of the crowd immediately.

Heavyweight Neil Grove delivered on the promise made in his recent interview with Total-MMA.com by calling out both Kimbo Slice and newly-crowned British champion Mustapha Al-Turk after stopping Robert ‘Buzz’ Berry in the second round of their fight.

The newly-slimmer South African looked dominant from the outset, connecting with powerful-sounding leg kicks and managing to reverse the Sunderland native’s takedown attempts with ease.  Berry appeared to tire in the second stage of the fight and Grove capitalised by knocking him to the floor and following up ruthlessly with ground and pound to force the referee to intervene.

It was an efficient performance against an opponent high on confidence after his win over Ken Shamrock in March.  Promoter Dave O’Donnell hinted afterwards that a Grove vs. Al-Turk title fight could be in the works for September.

In a curious piece of scheduling, the British heavyweight title fight took place before the number one contenders bout and proved to be as lacking in competitiveness as stature.

Mustapha Al-Turk from the London Shootfighters camp made short work of K-1 star James McSweeney and secured the win via first round TKO stoppage.  The fight went as expected with the ADCC competitor immediately looking to close the distance and achieve a takedown.  From then on the fight was as good as over with Al-Turk preferring to inflict damage from half-guard despite the opportunity to pass to mount being available.

The sustained beating was soon halted by referee Leon Roberts, much to the chagrin of McSweeney who felt he could have continued, but the official’s call was the correct one made at the right time.

Tom Watson moved closer to a British middleweight title shot with an efficient decision win over John Phillips.  Like Baroni in the main event, ‘Kong’ seemed to abandon his usual flamboyant style (in the cage at least) in favour of securing a much-needed victory.

The clearly stronger Watson bullied his Welsh opponent and looked to clinch and work for takedowns as often as possible.  On the floor he showed no mercy by throwing punishing knees to the body of his opponent which helped make the eventual verdict an easy one to deliver.

Stav Economou defeated Piotr Kusmierz via unanimous decision in the first live bout of the evening in a sloppy encounter where both men tired early but could not finish the other.  The highlight of this fight was the football-like chanting between the Polish and Greek fans in attendance which helped lift an otherwise poor display of skill and conditioning.  Economou was the deserving winner with takedowns and his granite-like chin proving the difference.

In undercard action, Jason Young defeated Francis Heagney in what was by far the best fight of the evening to capture the British lightweight title.

Heagney controlled the first round but appeared to tire after expending a lot of energy going for submissions that never appeared likely to finish his opponent.  This allowed Young to take over and dominate the second round and cause so muchdamage that many referees would surely have stopped it progressing to round three.  Although tired himself, the Team Titan fighter showed endurance and courage to keep going for five more minutes before being rewarded with a new belt for his efforts.

Heagney also deserves much credit for his guts and determination and for playing his part in such an enjoyable contest.

Robbie Olivier retained his British featherweight title with a second round submission over Ashleigh Grimshaw, whose training partner Brad Pickett also forced his opponent Christian Binda to tap out after around seven minutes of fighting.

Aisling Daly scored a quick submission victory with Jody Cottham and Dave van Gasse also picked up stoppage wins at the start of the evening.