ShoXC: Suganuma vs. Hamman II — Tonight!
Posted by Dave Walsh on August 15th, 2008
Tonight, Showtime and EliteXC present another of their ShoXC events, this time following up on a previous main event of Po’ai Suganuma vs. Jared Hamman, two up and coming lightheavyweights. When they met on April 5th of this year on another ShoXC card, all it took was a right hand from Suganuma, followed by a picture perfect flying knee to put down Hamman.
Suganuma quickly pounced, and it looked like the ref simply pulled Suganuma off of him and called for the bell. Hamman gave the typical, “what happened? Why is the fight over? I’m still in it!” argument that every knocked out fighter gives. I’ve watched the fight a few times now, and honestly, it would have just been a few rights by Suganuma on Hamman on the ground before the ref could have called for the bell with no argument anyway. I think it is safe to say that Hamman was out.
Suganuma was the former Pancrase fighter, who has beaten a list of names your average fan wouldn’t know, while Hamman now walks into this fight with the same record as Suganuma, coming up through California before ProElite picked him up. Hamman’s biggest win of his career by far would be over Travis Wiuff, and might have even gone into the first fight as the favorite.
To Hamman, MMA was simply a side venture for a long time, until ProElite offered him a contract. Even by the time of the first Suganuma fight, this was a hobby for him that netted some extra pay; “I always took my training and fighting seriously, but I never looked at this as a career. But that has all changed. This is now my No. 1 priority.’’ Hamman has since amped up his training and dedicated himself to MMA. In this fight, he won’t be steamrolled again; “I couldn’t have trained harder for that fight, but I learned a lesson. I learned that no matter how hard I worked at it, it was time to take this sport even more seriously.”
Hamman has accepted defeat, and wants to come back with a vengeance against Suganuma. Suganuma reflected upon the last fight, and was bothered by critics saying it was lucky or a bad stoppage; “I just want to fight so I can put all doubts to rest about what happened last time. It bothered me a little, for a little while, that people thought our last fight was a fluke and I was lucky to win.” If Suganuma walks into this fight with a good attitude and with the same heavy hands and skill as he did the last fight, he believes the outcome will be the same; “It may take longer, but I am confident the result will be the same and that I will win again.’
“This is going to be a great, hard, exciting fight. I know Hamman will come out determined to win and give everything he’s got. But so will I,” Suganuma sums up tonight. Tune in to ShoXC tonight on Showtime to see how Suganuma vs. Hamman II turns out.