Nuique claims bantamweight crown

Trench Tech Purebred’s Mark “The Dark” Nuique won Trech Tech’s bantamweight title after soundly defeating Zalaka’s Joe Duenas in last Friday’s Rites of Passage 12: Unstoppable held at the Royal Taga Ballroom of the Saipan World Resort.

Nuique stopped Duenas (4-1) at 1:40 into the first round with a rear naked choke submission, stretching the former’s streak to eight.

In the title fight, Nuique shot for an early takedown and had no trouble wrangling up his opponent. The champion then delivered some big punches from the mount, which caused Duenas to turn over on his back. Nuique was happy to oblige and wasted no time finishing him off.

Meanwhile, Nuique’s Trench Tech teammates Fasi “Quick Draw” Jesse (9-4) and Mylo “Bam Bam” Lassiter (5-1) rebounded from a pair of previous losses after posting separate wins last weekend.

Jesse looked in true form and finished off Lights Out Gym’s Ryan “The Predator” Toves (4-4) with an arm-bar submission at 2:19 into the first round.

Toves wrapped his legs around Jesse’s waist and hemmed him up in a head lock after the first exchange, but Jesse remained on his feet and used some body punches to eventually get his head free. Jesse then took it to the ground and gambled for the mount as soon as they hit the mat. The effort paid off and he quickly locked up the arm-bar from the dominant position. Toves showed some good skills in the skirmish, but Jesse remained cool.

Lassiter tabulated a nice TKO victory over Guam’s Pete “Big Mac” Miyasaki (1-1) at 2:04 into the first round of their heavyweight main event bout.

Lassiter led out with a takedown, but ended up on the bottom. He remained calm, however, and managed to muscle Miyasaki off him in a bench press-type motion and popped into a mount position. Lassiter thought about going for a Kimura from the top, but ended finishing him off with some powerful ground and pound blows.

In other results, a number of visiting Guam competitors produced a good showing in ROP 12.

Spike 22’s Ricky Camp (4-0) earned a swift victory over Marianas Elite’s Vince Pua (4-1) at just 1:32 into the first round of their 150-lb appointment. Pua came out with a chip on his shoulder, but it was to no avail as Camp had his way with him from the start. Camp took him to the ground right away and worked into a full mount position. He dealt some heavy strikes before taking his back and locking in a rear-naked choke.

Countershot’s Jon “The Heat” Delos Reyes was triumphant in his MMA debut with a victory over Trench Tech’s Josh “Chaos” Duenas via doctor’s stoppage after two rounds of their 135-lb duel.

They wailed away at each other from the start for what was an exciting opening round. Then Delos Reyes rung Duenas’ bell right out of the gate in the second canto and followed it up in spurts, which bloodied Duenas up pretty good during the round. Duenas hung tough and made it to the bell, but the contest was declared over after doctors checked him during the break.

Countershot’s Aaron Magbuhat (2-0-1) notched a swift win over Tinian’s Pete Cepeda with a nasty arm-bar submission at just 1:14 seconds into the first round of their 150-lb bout.

Cepeda landed an early takedown, but Magbuhat had no trouble reversing it into an arm-bar from the bottom position. The match ended with a scary moment as Magbuhat had to roll out of the bottom position to lock in his submission hold, which ended up bending Cepeda’s arm the wrong way. Magbuhat was able to leave the cage under his own power.

Renowned K-1 kickboxer Sonny Chargulaf of Countershot/K-1 Guahan, turned in another impressive showing when he handed Regino Mundo’s (Tinian-Zeng Zung) his first defeat in five fights.

Chargualaf utilized the clinch very effectively and mixed in some heavy kicks in between breaks. The 145-lb bout went the distance, however Chargualaf clearly proved to be the more refined fighter and earned the unanimous decision. He was a humble winner and was well received by the crowd. After the fight, he shared his plans of continuing to mentor and coach his students in Guam.

At the conclusion of ROP 12, Trench Tech’s man Cuki Alvarez thanked everyone who helped support the organization after it gym was tragically burned down in early February.

Alvarez, on behalf of the TT Family, expressed a sincere gratitude to Erick Van Der Maas and Marianas Business Plaza, Financial & Insurance Services Group, Judo Coach Casey Conner, VJ Radovich and the USNS Lumus, Roman Dela Cruz and Fokai International, Betty Miller and San Vicente Elementary School, John Aguon and Immigration Customs Enforcment, Kwek and Becky Lizama, Vyleene Palacios Norita, Jaime Martinez, Victor Sahangon, Ed Chargualaf, boxing coach Don Rawson, wrestling coach Joe Ocampo, Randy Taylor, Iron Horse Machine Shop, Marvin Eselita, Christopher Matias, Josh Castro, JR Cadua, LJ Castrfo, Shane Alvarez, JRMC Studios and the rest of the video production crew that made their TT Fire Rebuild music video, as well as everyone who bought their TT Rebuild & Resurrection fundraiser t-shirts.