Last Sunday (April 13th) Rob Freeman and Stef Cinelli stepped into the cage for the first time, and didn’t disappoint.
Rob, who took his fight at little under 3 weeks notice, was going against Dave McNamara of Limerick Pankration. Rob weighed in at 70Kg after some last minute cutting but bulked back up to nearly 80Kg for his match up!
Rob got the early crowd pleasing slam on his opponent and tried for submission after submission on his opponent, who doggedly fought against his attempts. Late in Round One, after a stand up, Dave managed to hit home some nice knees to wind Rob, which nearly upset our gameplan (win).
For Round Two, Rob handed out another tasty slam on Dave – no more kittensoft landings for Rob’s opponents! – right in our corner, so Dave had to deal with both Rob’s submission attempts and Spartan anti-cornering. Dave once against kept his defences sharp enough and forced the stand up by Referee Dave Jones of Next Generation.
Dave hit a few knees but Rob’s determination forced another takedown and armbar attempt to rake up points in the judges eyes. They finished their match in very Rocky Balboa style, which both fighters throwing shots in the centre of the ring.
Rob – by decision! Congratulations dude. Galway were so impressed with Rob that they’ve already asked him back for their November show.
Stef ‘The Italian Wrecking Machine!” Cinelli made life somewhat difficult for himself in his match up. After very nearly catching his opponent, Ray Dowd, in a standing guillotine, he punched his way Dan Henderson style into a dominant clinch.
At this point, Stef thought it would be crowd pleasing to pull mount! Quickly realising this, Stef turned his back while Ray tried to secure hooks and a choke. Once Stef cleared Ray’s hooks he was able to take the back midway into the first round. Ray fought hard to defend the choke but one tasty head shot loosened him up enough for Stef to work through the choke and get the tapout three minutes into the match!
On a coach’s note – both these fighters made my job very easy. They stayed calm during the whole trip down, relaxed but focused, which is very important for a fighter to be. If you looked at Mick “Sissy Boy” Leonard or Tim “Mad Dog” Murphy they were affable right up until their warm up. This makes it so much easier to perform in the arena.
The lads warmed up thoroughly before their fight, shadow boxing, clinching, and light sparring. Upon entering the ring, they listened to their corner, dug deep, and pulled out the performance and the result.
Congratulations from all at Sparta!