UWC Invasion Brings Action to the Patriot Center

By Connect Mason Sports Director Damien Sordelett
Photos by Connect Mason Photographer John Porter

For those that have not caught on to the national craze of Mixed Martial Arts, MMA, Saturday was the perfect opportunity to get an up-close and personal look at one of the fastest rising sports in the world.

The Ultimate Warrior Challenge, UWC, brought Invasion to the Patriot Center, drawing a strong number in the seats of the arena nestled 20 minutes southwest of Washington, D.C.

• See photos from the official weigh-in.
• See photos from the event.

“The sport has grown so big, I’m loving the chance to be here,” said Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, arguably the best-known fighter in MMA. “We have some great fans here, a lot of people are very knowledgeable about the sport. This shows you how big our sport is getting and how much it is growing. I love it.”

The fight card did not lack local flavor, featuring eight fighters from Virginia and Maryland in the nine scheduled fights. And the first bout did not disappoint.

Sterling, Va. resident Reshad Woods had little trouble with Temple Hills, Md.’s own Ron Stallings. Woods was trapped in an armbar, a submission move used to cause immense amounts of pain on an opponent.

Instead of submitting or trying to break the hold, Woods picked up Stallings, while still in the armbar, and powerbombed him to the mat. Stallings head bounced off the mat, seemingly knocking him unconscious. However, since the referee had not signaled an end to the fight, Woods added a strong right hand to the skull of Stallings, putting an emphasis on the 85-second match.

“I know that his submission skill is far more superior than mine, so I tried to prevent the submission,” said Woods, who improved to 4-1 in MMA action. “He was out [after the powerbomb], he was looking at the ceiling; the ref didn’t say anything. It’s MMA, anything can happen.”

Fight No. 3 was more difficult for the fans to pick a favorite, much like the first one. Former George Mason All-American wrestler Johnny Curtis brought his 1-0-0 heavyweight record against Virginia Beach resident Josh Feldman, who was also an All-American wrestler at Virginia Tech.

Again, this fight was short and sweet with some action in between. Less than one minute into the bout, Feldman landed a headshot to Curtis. The former Patriot backpedaled and seemed out of it, which would explain the beating he took quickly there after and the KO at the 1:07 mark.

“I had a strategy that if I worked on my hands, that it would pay dividends and the wrestling would cancel each other out,” said Feldman, who won his MMA professional debut. “I had no aspirations of taking him down, I was trying to keep on my feet, and the work I did on my hands paid off.”

“I was feeling pretty comfortable actually, which probably hurt me in the long run,” said Curtis. “I hit him in the stomach and I went for the same thing again. When I did, I guess my guard wasn’t up, because he caught me and I honestly don’t remember the rest too much.”

Which comes as a surprise after one of Curtis’ pupils took care of business earlier in the night.

“I wrestle with Johnny Curtis, a George Mason hall of famer,” said Woods. “I train everyday with him, his takedown is superb and is wrestling is superb. He has helped me a lot with my takedown defense.”

Takedown defense was big in the fifth fight on the card, much to the crowd’s chagrin. Aaron Riley and Thiago Minu battled in a lightweight bout for the full three rounds. Much of the battle was contested in ground attacks, until the third round when Minu's elbow connected with Riley's head, causing a gash that saw blood spew everywhere. This brought the crowd to its feet.

Depsite the blood, it was the experience of the now 24-10-1 Riley that won out over the 8-3 Minu.

“Experience is definitely something that will pay dividends in a long fight,” said Riley, who has been living in Herndon for the past six months and will require six stitches to close up the gash on his scalp. “You definitely draw on that crowd support. I’d rather have it going for me than against me.”

For the night, the crowd was generally into the fights. While many left after the Carlo Prater-Marcelo Brito fight due to its length of three rounds and lack of attacks, they missed out on an armbar and triangle choke submission win by Thomas Schulte and then a Pete Spratt-KO win over Jason Von Flue in the main event.