Shock N’ Awe 24: Andy Kerr vs. Chay Ingram

Saturday night led me to attending a Shock N’ Awe promoted event for the very first time, ‘Shock N’ Awe 24’. The promotion, founded in 2009 by Gareth Johnson and Brian Adams, largely acts as an outlet to provide competitors of local mixed-martial-arts gym ‘Gym 01’ (A gym in-which both Johnson and Adams coach at) an opportunity to build an amateur MMA career and take the first-steps in a professional career.

Shock N’ Awe successfully turn an average sized sports hall (The Mountbatten Centre) into a venue featuring high-level production values and present the audience with a ‘big fight night’ feel, especially in contrast with other shows of its type. Smoke machines, flames, big screens with a multi-cam filming setup, plus a professional looking entrance and cage leave a lasting impression, especially for myself who’s attended local smaller shows before of similar nature and came away feeling embarrassed about the conditions bouts where taking place in. Shock N’ Awe excel here and delivered on a number of entertaining bouts.

There was a total of 23 fights on this evenings card, I’ve only written a report up of the main-card portion. You can catch summaries from all the other fights that took place by clicking here.

Main Event: Welterweight title: Andy Kerr (c) vs. Chay Ingram
Andy Kerr picked up the Welterweight title submitting Ingram with a guillotine choke mid-way through the 3rd rd. Kerr had largely been controlling the fight, although Ingram was by no means a push-over opponent for Bournemouth competitor.

Catchweight (74.5kgs): Chris Tallis vs. Tyler Thomas
Unfortunately Tallis and Thomas delivered a dull affair here, the majority of the bout took place on the floor, however without very much action taking place, more just a lot of smothering. Tallis reversed an early Thomas take-down and subsequently comfortably won all 3 rounds, however left no major impression in a fight where he really could have seized opportunity in some of the positions he had worked.
Tallis won via UD, all three judges scoring the bout 30-27 in his favor.

Flyweight: Carlos Do Carmo Motta vs. Samir Faiddine.

Frenchman Brazilian Carlos Do Carmo Motta and Frenchman Samir Faiddine arguably put on the most entertaining bout of the evening in a wild affair. Motta opening the bout, screaming whilst attempting a flying-knee set the pace for the bout in a real back and forth contest. Spinning backfist attempts, powerful striking and some quality ground-work from both led to a highly entertaining clash, Motta marginally better in each round earned him the judges knod, winning via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-26)

Strawweight: Jade Barker vs. Sofie Langsford
Sofie Langsford wins via TKO from strikes in the 2nd round.

Portsmouth local Jade Barker brought a noisy following along to her bought this evening, however didn’t manage to pick-up the win Sofie Langsford looked impressive in both rounds, reversing Barkers earlier groundwork to finish the bout with strikes whilst on-top of her opponent.

Bantamweight: Nicholas Fielding vs. Andrew Mendes
Frenchman Andrew Mendes was involved in the evenings most bizarre bout, comfortably winning the opening round, Mendes was warned by the ref about keeping his fists closed to avoid eye-pokes and then deducted a point for not listening to said advice later in the round.

The same story continued into the 2^nd until the bout was called off by the ref, with Fielding picking up the DQ win.

A poor decision from the referee in my personal opinion, Mendes didn’t once actually catch Fielding’s eye and didn’t really look as though he was going to from my position, never really throwing his fingers anywhere near enough his opponents eye to question it. Mendes had adopted a cocky attitude of seemingly dancing/goading his opponent and the open hand defense appeared more as a taunt than anything else.

Nicholas Fielding wins via DQ due to Mendes not keeping his fist closed during bout.

Overall I had a thoroughly entertaining evening at SNA, if you’re in the area and looking to attend more events I can’t recommend the experience for both price and product enough. I look forward to attending the next show.