‘Crank,’ Camp top Korean foes

Frank “The Crank” Camacho, right, holds down Korea’s Hyun Joo Kim during their bout in the Rites of Passage 20: Conquer last Friday at The Warehouse. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)

Trench Tech’s Frank “The Crank” Camacho and Spike 22 Guam’s Ricky Camp lived up to their lofty billing in the Rites of Passage 20: Conquer after making short work of their respective opponents last Friday at The Warehouse.

Camacho, who dueled Team Korea’s Hyun Joo Kim in one of the two featured main events in the weekend competition, scored a TKO win (punches) at the 3:17 mark of the first round of their lightweight bout. Camp, on the other hand, stopped Korean Top Team’s Won Jun Jang just 43 seconds into the second round of the other main event fight to defend his bantamweight belt.

With the victory, Camacho improved his record to 19-4, increasing his number of wins via TKO to 15. The triumph also allowed the Trench Tech bet to bounce back from a loss (to Korean foe in Han Seul Kim) in PXC 54 last month.

Up again against a much taller opponent that is known for his kickboxing skills, Camacho opted out of a stand-up fight and wasted no time in attacking Hyun Joo and bringing him down to the canvas. Once he had the upper hand in position (behind Hyun Joo) Camacho unleashed a series of punches. The Korean managed to get out of trouble and stand up, however, not for long, as Camacho caught him again and threw more powerful strikes. This time, Hyun Joo was just trying to survive, using his hands for cover to avoid Camacho’s punches instead of fighting back, leaving referee Alverick Alvarez without a choice, but to stop the match.

A visibly disappointed Hyun Joo looked at Alvarez, trying to plead his case, but the former later accepted the decision, shaking hands with Camacho. With the loss, the Korean dropped to a 1-3 mark (based on sherdog.com record).

Meanwhile, in the title bout and last fight of the night, Camp used his quickness and superior grappling skills to beat Jang.

Before bowing to Camp, Jang appeared to have the upper hand in the early goings of the first round, connecting a couple of kicks and body punches on the former. However, Camp retaliated in the final two minutes of the five-minute opening round when he pinned Jang down and threw punches and knees to the Korean’s body.

Jang made it through the first round, but looked gassed out, so Camp attacked him early and when both fighters were again down the floor, the Spike 22 bet went behind the Korean and used his arms to lock the latter’s neck. Jang tapped out, giving Camp the win via rear-naked choke just less than one minute gone by in Round 2.

With the victory, Camp now has a 7-4 record, four via submission. He kept the bantamweight title he stole from Trench Tech’s Vince “The Clinch” Masga in April 2014 during the Rites of Passage 16: Unleashed. Jang, on the other hand, absorbed his first loss in five fights.

Beside Camp and Camacho’s fights, three K-1 matches and nine MMA bouts took place in last weekend’s competition and results will be reported in Saipan Tribune later this week.