Challengers rule on ‘Night of Champions’

LEMOORE -- It was supposed to be "A Night of Champions," but it turned out to be one for the challengers. Four new Palace Fighting Championship champions were crowned on Thursday night at the Tachi Palace Hotel and Casino on the PFC 8 "A Night of Champions." And just like the former champions, the local mixed martial artist had some trouble as well.

Lemoore lightweight Poppies Marti-nez lost to Huron's Sergio Cortez when Martinez suffered a rib injury and he could not continue. The bout wsa stopped at 2:57 of the first round.

Martinez (15-5) was controlling the action throughout the fight and in a scramble with less than five seconds to go in the first round, Martinez was applying an arm lock and Cortez (4-3) rolled and in a freak accident Martinez' rib popped out of place.

Cortez celebrated the victory while Martinez was in agonizing pain. Martinez was able to walk out of the ring, but later had to be taken to the hospital.

It was also a down night for Lemoore featherweight Sergio Quinones, who fell to 3-2 after a submission loss to Fresno's Casey Olson (7-2).

Quinones came in a heavy underdog against the former Fresno State wrestling star, who is cornered by former Ultimate Fighting Championship light heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell.

Olson pressed the action early, landing some solid knees and then took Quinones down, worked to his back and sunk a rear-naked-choke.

"Sergio went in there as the underdog and got beat by the 'Underdog,' Team Ochoa coach Jacob Jeff said, referring to Olson's nickname. "I think that he will learn from this and come back strong."

In the main event, Bakersfield's Brian Cobb (12-4) defeated Atlanta's Diego Saraiva (11-7-1) by unanimous decision to capture the PFC World Lightweight title.

Cobb, who is also the Gladiator Challenge lightweight champ, controlled the fight throughout.

"I think that this belt kind of validates the other," said Cobb, who dominated the fight with his top game, keeping Saraiva on his back and pounding out a win.

"We don't want mediocrity in this sport. We are always training to fight the best and I think Diego was by far one of my toughest opponents yet.''

Fresno's Jorge Evangelista (7-2-1) knocked off Oakdale's Art Arciniega (6-2) by unanimous decision for the featherweight crown.

It was Arciniega's first title defense.

Santa Rosa's Nate Loughran (8-0) won by submission over Visalia's Kenny Ento (9-4) in 2:30 of the second round to claim the middleweight championship.

Porterville's Shawn Klarcyk (8-2) also scored a submission win, defeating Oregon's Jason Georgianna (7-3) at 57 seconds of the second round to capture the interim bantamweight crown.

In other fights:

Oregon heavyweight Devin Cole (8-6) defeated Arizona's Vince Lucero (18-14) by technical knockout in 1:17 of the first round.

Mexico lightweight Olaf Alfonso (7-8) knocked out Hesperia's Chris Solomon (2-5) in 28 seconds of the first round.

Sacramento lightweight Dustin Akabari (2-0) won by Cody Canterbury (1-3) technical knockout in 1:37 of the first round.

Oxnard light heavyweight Lodune Sincaid (13-6) submitted Tulare's Rafael Del Real (5-9) in 1:03 of the first round.

Sacramento bantamweight Joseph Benavidez (5-0) submitted Los Angeles' Maurice Eazel (3-7) in 1:02 of the first round.

Paradises lightweight Dan Russom (2-2) defeated Sacramento's Thonglor Armatsena (1-1) by majority decision.

(May 9, 2008)