‘Pikaboo’ stops foe in PXC 54

Trench Tech’s Shane “Pikaboo” Alvarez poses for a photo during a weigh-in for PXC 54 last Thursday at the Pacific Islands Club’s amphitheater. Alvarez won his bantamweight bout against Emilio Urrutia last Friday at the University of Guam Calvo Field House. (Pacific Xtreme Combat Photo)

Trench Tech’s Shane “Pikaboo” Alvarez is back to his winning ways after beating Tiger Muay Thai’s Emilio Urrutia in their bantamweight bout in PXC 54 held last Friday at the University of Guam Calvo Field House.

Alvarez, who came into last weekend’s event with back-to-back losses, won over Urrutia via submission (rear-naked second) at the 4:31 mark of the second round. With the victory, Alvarez improved his record to 12-4, while Urrutia dropped to a 7-4 slate and has yet to win in PXC as the Thailand-based MMA fighter also bowed to Ernie Braca in his PXC debut early this year.

“My conditioning was on point for this fight and it’s what led me to victory. I was able to stuff all his takedowns and that got him frustrated and tired. I took advantage and was able to grind him out and get him to slowly break,” Alvarez told Saipan Tribune a day after getting his fifth win in PXC.

The Trench Tech bet went to San Diego, California for a fight camp before seeing action in PXC 54 and showed early that he was up to whatever Urrutia will throw at him, exchanging blows with his 29-year-old opponent.

“I was landing big shots from the beginning and he was landing nice straight punches right back. It was quite even in the first round but I was able to defend all his takedown attempts and land shots off the clinch,” the CNMI pride said.

Though he held his ground against Urrutia in the first round, there was one scary moment for Alvarez in the opening five minutes of their bout.

“He did catch me with one good punch that wobbled my legs a little bit. I wobbled for a split second but came right back with a flurry where most of my punches connected. It was a really good first round,” the 22-year-old fighter said.

The quality punches he unleashed gave Alvarez more confidence to finish Urrutia in the second round.

“I was feeling super good going into the second round and I could see Emilio starting to breathe quite heavy, so I said to myself, ‘now is the time to push the pace.’ I came into the second round just like the first, landing big shots when I was able and throwing lots of jabs to keep him guessing. Also I landed three front kicks to the stomach that I’m sure took his breath away for a few seconds,” the son of Trench Tech founder Cuki Alvarez added.

The younger Alvarez was on a zone that Urrutia nearly lost his mouthpiece after receiving punishment from the former.

“I was starting to really get my range and I threw a big left hook which connected at the back of his jaw and rocked him. His eyes were shaky and his mouthpiece almost came out, I knew it was time to explode. I came in with another big hook and he went for the takedown which I stuffed and almost sunk in a guillotine. He slipped out but I got to mount, then got his back for a few minutes, and eventually sunk in the rear-naked choke to get the win,” Alvarez said.

Despite topping Urrutia, Alvarez still gave credit to his opponent.

“Emilio is a really tough guy that could take big shots. I hit him a good amount of times and he was taking them quite well. I knew I had a lot of gas in my tank though so I wasn’t worried,” the bantamweight fighter said.

Camacho, Fitial lose
Alvarez’s win in PXC 54 gave CNMI MMA fans something to cheer about after Frank “The Crank” Camacho and Kelvin “The Big” Hit Fitial dropped their respective bouts.

Fitial lost his bloody rematch against Guam’s Roque Martinez via unanimous decision, allowing the latter to avenge his defeat at the hands of the former in PXC 24 five years ago.

Fitial was the aggressor early on, landing heavy jabs and kicks on Martinez’s face. The Guam fighter went on to sustain a cut above his left eye after Fitial unloaded more shots late in the opening round. Martinez survived the first round and went on to use his much superior grappling skills coupled with strong kicks to slow down Fitial and eventually win their third meeting via the judges’ scorecards. Martinez (10-4-1) and Fitial (10-8-2) settled for a draw in their first heavyweight encounter in January 2011.

In the welterweight bout between Camacho and Han Seul Kim, the Korean leaned on his long arms and legs to record a TKO victory over the former in the first round.

The 6-foot-1 Kim set up the Round 1 victory by kicking the 5-foot-9 Camacho on the face and peppering him with successive punches, forcing referee Jacob Guerrero to step into the action and end the fight. Before bowing to Kim, Camacho managed to connect a right hook that shook off Kim, but the Korean recovered on route to improving his MMA record to 8-3 and extending his winning streak to four. Camacho fell to an 18-4 mark.