Yatsui, Ramirez pound foes

Guam’s Jose “Young Blood” Ramirez and Japan’s Tiger Yatsui won the fist fight in Trench Warz 17: Night of the Champions held last Friday night at the Royal Taga Hall of the Saipan World Resort.

Ramirez of Gracie Barra earned a TKO win at the 1:55 mark of the first round over Marianas Elite’s Vince “Sanity” Pua in their 160-lb MMA bout. The visiting fighter attacked early, throwing a barrage of punches on Pua, who fell to the ground in the opening minutes of the first round. Pua managed to stand up and tried to turn the stand-up fight to the ground, but to no avail, as Ramirez was too quick to move out of trouble and unleashed more punishing punches.

The Guam bet then cornered Pua and went for the kill, prompting referee Tony D’Angelo to step in and stop the fight. Pua had to be checked by the ring physician after the fight, as he sustained a cut near his left eye and lump on the left side of his forehead and his nose bridge started to swell.

Yatsui’s strong punches also gave him a TKO victory against the returning Ryan “Ttrobz” Ngirbabul at the 1:21 mark of the second round of their light heavyweight bout. After exchanging wayward shots with Ngirbabul in the opening round, Yatsui started to hit his foe on the face in the second round. With blood oozing from Ngirbabul’s nose, Yatsui stopped throwing punches twice and looked at D’Angelo, signaling to stop the fight. However, D’ Angelo was not ready to pull the plug on Ngirbabul, not until Yatsui cornered Ngirbabul for the third time and the latter haplessly stood there, taking more blows from his much younger foe.

The TKO victory was a big boost to the young MMA career of Yatsui, who had a thrilling punching match against Kevin “Big Stack” Patubo of Steam Slice during the Rites of Passage 15: Wrath of the Warriors in August this year. Yatsui lost the no-holds barred bout via split decision.

Meanwhile, Zalaka’s Allan “The Silver Bullet” Aguon, Tinian’s Paul Ayuyu, Marianas Elite’s John Tudela, and Spike 22’s Rob “Shiska” Alvarez also won their respective MMA bouts in Trench Warz 17.

Aguon recorded a tap-out win (arm choke) against Pwang’s Garry “Dissa” Ray at the 4:40 mark of the second round. Ayuyu prevailed in his debut against Trench Tech’s T.J. Sablan, gaining a TKO win at the 4:41 mark of Round 1, as he went on top of the latter and unloaded a string of punches. Tudela was also at the top position in his bout against Darren Michael and threw a flurry of strikes, prompting D’Angelo to call the fight at the 2:30 of the first round and hand the former the TKO win. D’Angelo also halted the Alvarez-Ben Flores duel after the Spike 22 standout locked in the latter on a rear-naked choke at the 3:34 mark of the opening round.