BJJ saves ‘Crank’ vs Brown

JON PEREZ
Frank “The Crank” Camacho, center, enjoys his moment with his wife Sarah and their son after returning to Saipan and coming of a win in last Sunday’s Ultimate Fighting Championship 121 held at the Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, Australia. (Jon Perez)

Frank “The Crank” Camacho is thankful for learning Brazilian jiu-jitsu during his mixed martial arts training as he credited the combat sport style that focuses on grappling for saving him from a second loss in the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

Camacho provided insights on his split decision victory over Australian Damien “Beatdown” Brown in UFC 121 Werdum vs Tybura last Sunday at the Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, Australia during his winning return on Saipan late Tuesday night.

“I’m so thankful that I have years of experience in [BJJ] that I was able to fight that choke. [Brown] got that [rear-naked-choke] really deep. Luckily, I know how to get out of it,” Camacho, who owns a BJJ brown belt, told Saipan Tribune in an interview.

“I was taken down and toward the end of the first round he managed to sneak in that choke. The first one was not that tight so I easily got out. But the second one, he got that rear-naked-choke in really tight that I thought it was over.”

The 28-year-old Camacho trained for a few years in Camp Springs in Maryland under legendary BJJ 4th degree instructor Lloyd Irvin.

Camacho said he was already having trouble breathing and his eyes were closing because due to Brown’s RNC.

“I almost got choked out but I just heard Cuki [Alvarez] at the corner shouting, ‘15 seconds Frank, 15 seconds.’ I remember thinking to myself, ‘man, this is not the way it was supposed to end. It will not going to end this way. I don’t want it to end this way. It is not ending here.’ I couldn’t breathe but I just dug down deep and grabbed his hand,” he said.

“I was able to get his hand back to release some pressure and I was able to breathe again and I just got a sudden jolt of energy back, turned him around, and got on top of him,” Camacho added.

The Marianas fighter said BJJ also helped him in his fight on Saipan against South Korean Gun Hwan Park in Rites of Passage 21: Throwdown. Camacho got out of a similar choke hold before winning by arm-triangle choke.

“Jiu-jitsu also saved me from getting finished in that fight. I love training and learning new things. I want to always get better from what I do. I’ll train harder even in jiu-jitsu because you don’t know when and where you will get in that situation again,” added Camacho.

Before getting in trouble with Brown, Team Crank’s game plan was to keep the fight standing up since the Aussie is a known submission fighter. Brown dropped to 17-11, but eight of his wins were by submission, while Camacho improved to 21-5, with 15 of his victories coming from knockout.

“Stand up fighting that’s our plan and if I take him down, I must make sure that I need to be the one on top. I don’t want him on top of me since he could get his game going and end it by submission,” said Camacho. “So, I just stayed up on my feet and defended his moves to take me down. I moved my head and beat him up. I just let my fists fly, since I knew I have better striking, and surprisingly I have better gas in this fight.”

Brown, however, was a tough nut to crack as he managed to take Camacho’s strong jabs and combinations, leaving the latter bloodied especially in the third round. Camacho was not surprised at all with his opponent’s durability.

“He’s tough as they come. He comes with a big gas tank and very durable. It is hard to put him away. I had to make sure that I don’t blow my opportunities and do not gas out in the first round while trying to put him away,” said Camacho.

“I just tried to keep a long sustained pace all throughout the fight. He was taking shots and I was hitting him with punches that usually put welterweights down. He’s durable and he stayed within my face. He was a bloody mess but nothing surprised me,” he said.

Camacho thanked his opponent for giving the fans a fight that’s worth what they paid for. “I couldn’t have expected any less. He represents Australia so there’s a lot of pressure on him. I can’t take that away from him.”

The Camacho-Brown duel was selected as Fight of the Night. However, Camacho, who got four stitches above his right eyebrow from Brown’s kick, is ineligible to receive the $50,000 Fight of the Night bonus as he was 4 lbs over the 156-lb weight limit during the weigh-in last Friday. On fight night, both Brown and Camacho weighed 175 lbs.