Alaska is best known for snow, cold weather and salmon, and maybe one day its mixed martial arts fighters will put the U.S. state on the map.
Team Alaska club members Collin Reuter, Bill Zimmerman and Josey Wells came down from the Arctic, and introduced themselves with much resolve to the fine folks at Just Scrap on Friday.
A sizable crowd at the Edith Kanaka’ole Multipurpose Stadium saw Reuter hammer Ross “Da Boss” Ebanez for a technical knockout in the main event, and “Iron” Mike Aina and Toby “2 Quick” Misech produce decisions over Zimmerman and Wells, respectively.
Compared to the three Boss MMA club locals, the Team Alaska gents were raw with their jiu-jitsu skills, but they compensated with great strength and that snow-cold resolve.
Reuter (17-3-1) is several inches taller than the 5-9 Ebanez (20-10-1) and appeared to distribute his muscle much better in the 170-pound welterweight bout.
The Alaskan’s punching power was apparent from the start, and he relied on his strength to stuff Da Boss’ takedown attempts.
In the first round, they tapped gloves to find their range and then started cracking each other. The local boy took some shots, but he gave some back, too, in a five minutes that was all stand-up action.
Ebanez changed strategy in the second round and got a takedown 30 seconds in, but couldn’t put his jiu-jitsu pretzel-bending skills to use because Reuter’s strong legs hoisted him back up.
From there, Reuter attacked and connected with a short left hook. Ebanez hit the floor just 52 seconds into the second round for the TKO loss.
Da Boss was gracious in defeat. He’s 39 years old and sat on the fence about his future. Still, his competitive fire burns bright.
“He’s a tough guy, and caught me with some good ones,” Ebanez said. “I’ll probably retire. I’ll continue to train with the boys. I’ll probably retire. We’ll see what happens.
“It was a hard-luck loss. That’s how fighting goes.”
Zimmerman was making his debut. He’s a young guy with loads of confidence and gave “Iron” Mike hard rubs in all three five-minute rounds. After each round, Zimmerman walked back to his stool with his arms raised in triumph.
Aina (16-6-1) didn’t employ his striking game. Instead, he relied on his old Waiakea High football skills to charge into Zimmerman, get under-hooks and slam him to the mat.
From there, Aina tried to rearrange Zimmerman’s face with sharp elbows for most of the first round, but Zimmerman survived and was ready for Round 2.
One minute in, Aina got another takedown, but Zimmerman reversed him and had “Iron” Mike in half-guard, where he protected his face for three minutes from similar sharp elbows he was delivering earlier.
In the third round, Aina got another takedown, and showed no aloha with a barrage of shots to his cold-weather visitor, and had a vain attempt at a rear-naked choke.
But somehow, Zimmerman leveraged Aina into half-guard again and for the last 30 seconds poked him with concrete snowballs disguised as left-right combinations.
Wells also made his debut against Misech (7-4), who was faster and far superior with his takedown ability and jiu-jitsu skills. The former Hilo High basketball standout absolutely dominated and turned his foe’s face purple with big welts.
In the first round, Wells tried to play hit-and-run, kicking and punching from the perimeter. “2 Quick” wanted none of that, and rammed him to the floor for a Hawaiian full course meal of ground-and-pound.
For 15 minutes, at various points in each round, Misech was either so close to a rear-naked choke, punching Wells’ lights out, or pulling off some type of submission. Wells politely declined to go quietly into the night.
At one point, Misech sat on Wells’ back and was clobbering him with bazooka shots to the head. Wells was, basically, turned into a punching bag. “2 Quick” couldn’t decide whether to attempt a rear-naked choke or continue his batting practice.
Somehow, Wells, who took a complete beating, escaped Misech’s torture chamber. After the decision, Misech showed his friendly opponent some aloha with a hug. Wells probably couldn’t wait to fly home, and stick his busted-up face in some cold snow.
