Ryan Diaz Beats Ed Newalu to Win the 135 lb. World Title!

Avi Casino, Laughlin, NV - Caged Chaos was a typical King of the Cage show: which meant exciting fights, lot of KO's, a fun venue, hot ring girls, and a soldout crowd! Held at the upscale Avi Casino just outside of Laughlin, Nevada on the banks of the Colorado River, pre-fight activities included a ring girl contest at the casino nightclub, frequent visits to the all-you-can-eat buffet, and lots of lounging by the river on the casino's private beach. But with three world championship fights on the card including an anticipated war between Ed Newalu and Ryan Diaz for the 135 lb. title, and several glitzy matches featuring the likes of PrideFC headliner Charles "Krazy Horse" Bennett, Randy Velarde, Toby Imada, and the electrifying Sean Loffler, the hardcore mixed martial arts crowd who mixed with the curious locals had plenty to be excited about!

Ryan Diaz vs. Ed Newalu
This 135 lb. world championship title fight between two extremely quick and athletic fighters figured to be a stand-up war. Diaz, a dynamo on his feet who barely lost to Nam Pham in a recent KOTC while fighting at a whopping 30-pound disadvantage, figured to come out and punch with banger Newalu. Instead, after a brief exchange, the two went to the ground with Newalu on top and Diaz on bottom. Frustrating Newalu's attempts to ground-and-pound by holding him in tightly, Diaz kept climbing the back and looking to lock in an armbar or triangle choke. Newalu slammed Diaz several times to break the submissions but eventually lost his defensive focus due to his over-eagerness to strike. That proved his undoing as Diaz finally locked in a winning triangle choke at 3:11 of round one to win the KOTC world championship. Diaz is as talented and versatile a fighter as you will find in the world at this weight. It will be very tough for any challenger to take the belt away from him in the foreseeable future.

Championship Matches Highlights
In the other title matches Aaron Wetherspoon retained his KOTC 170-pound belt with a KO win over the normally-tough Bryson Kamaka, who had taken the match on very short notice and without much training. Kamaka needed to bring his A-game to have a chance against the fearsome Wetherspoon and he brought his C-game instead. Manny Rodrigues weathered an early storm by the fast-starting Jerry Davis and then pounded his way to a 3:41 first round TKO to claim the vacant KOTC heavyweight title.

No one is in a hurry to face the Colin Oyama-trained fighting machine that is Aaron Wetherspoon and finding qualified challengers might be difficult. However, pokies games the KOTC heavyweight title seems to be up for grabs and Rodrigues will have to turn it up a notch if he hopes to hold it for long.
Feature Fight Highlights. One of the candidates who might have something to say about Wetherspoon's 170-pound dominance is Toby Imada, who looked mobile and agile in disposing of the lethal Randy Velarde at 2:23 of round two. Continuing a trend that saw grapplers generally submit strikers throughout the night, Imada used a clever ground game to survive Velarde's ferocious striking attacks and get the armbar win. One fighter who looked absolutely devastating was Sean Loffler at 185 pounds, as he put Dan Axe onto the ground almost before the opening bell had stopped ringing and locked in a rear naked choke for the 20 second victory. Another quick win was recorded by Charles “Krazy Horse” Bennett as he landed an explosive knee on Robert Martz, and followed him down to the ground with a machine gun flurry for the 29 second first round KO. Victor Valenzuela, aka Joe Boxer, was anything but a boxer as he used a very quick and impressive ground game to submit punch-out artist Albert Hill, who strangely choose to grapple rather than employ his usually effective sprawl-and-brawl attack. Kyle Kingsbury posted an impressive win over former division I wrestler Angelo McLeroy, taking him to the mat and locking in a quick 1:39 rear naked choke.

Preliminary Highlights
Future stars to look for who shined in the preliminaries included Cody Bollinger and Nick Trejo, who fought perhaps the best match of the night with Trejo punishing Bollinger on the ground for the entire first round, only to have the tables turned on him by Bollinger in the second as he locked in a 3:12 rear naked choke for the comeback win. Both of these young stars looked great, however, and you will undoubtedly hear more from them in the future. Other impressive performances were turned in by Ty Gilstrap, Ernie Calma, Gary Noche, and women's fighter Thricia Poovey, who gave up substantial weight to opponent Tia Castillo and still managed to get a first round triangle choke victory.

Conclusion
KOTC promoter Terry Trebilcock has an absolute gift for finding talented up-and-comers, as evidenced by the fact that so many top pay-per-view fighters on nearly every major show have come through KOTC. When watching any KOTC show you will see the champions of tomorrow in the preliminary fights of today. The sell-out crowd of well over 3,000 was wowed by their introduction to live mixed martial arts. It will be very interesting to see how the talented KOTC fighters develop during the year and to see if anyone will be able to seriously challenge Aaron Wetherspoon, who is quickly becoming the sport's most exciting fighter!

For more information on upcoming KOTCevents visit www.kingofthecage.com.