The city of St. Louis received a rare treat of having two combat sports promotions throwing events on the same day literally within 15 minutes of each other. It was a night that saw blood, victory and defeat but echoed the sentiment that is being felt in the rivalries presented in college basketball during March Madness. Not that these promotions were competing by any nature, it was just nice to see a combination of all that is right in combat sports and for yours truly that started in The Center St. Louis Sports complex in Affton, Mo to see the new promotion Prime FS hold their second event. An astounding 20 fights provided a full evening of entertainment showcasing a plethora of disciplines from kids K1 kickboxing, grappling, and of course mixed martial arts. A packed house of hundreds of fans familiar to the people behind the promotion who are also involved with their sister organization Fight Hard MMA. Shane Rice and crew bring a different air to combat sports to the city of St. Louis which will only make everything better for us all.
In the main event of the evening we saw a heavyweight battle between Mike Wasem and Byron Stevens. Stevens is known for being a heavy hitter with vicious ground and pound but tonight he was out matched by the striking and pressure of Wasem. Well timed pushed kicks bothered Stevens all night and before he could get anything going he was immediately put in a clinch by Wasem. A few good low leg kicks by Stevens kept this competitive but it just never seemed as if he got comfortable with the strength of Mike Wasem. It was a very entertaining heavyweight bout but the title changed hands and Mike Wasem won by unanimous victory.
Charles Johnson and Erik Newman put on an entertaining co main event. Both guys were willing to engage on the feet early with a little clinch work between an assault of leg kicks from each fighter. Johnson had the advantage early but Newman ate everything thrown his way and kept pressing forward. There was a moment in the fight when Johnson had Newman pressed against the cage and he threw a knee that clearly went to the jock of Erik. Maybe Newman didn’t do a good enough job of selling the blow because the ref really didn’t have a good angle to see the knee. Newman’s corner was not pleased and the referee knew about the knee but it was nothing really he could do. The second round started similar to the first but Erik scored a takedown but this allowed Johnson to work off his back. He immediately went for the triangle submission and worked his legs up around the head of Erik who could not find his posture. Soon Johnson was able to sink in the submission and after a ton of fight from Newman he could no longer hold it off and tapped.
The rest of the card saw wins by Donte Butler, Jake Willyard, Jason Stevenson, and James Davis winning the Prime FS featherweight title. Tina Brown got an impressive first round TKO in her first ever MMA event. Dee Cannon held off Mike Garrett and there was a grappling match that went to a draw between Andrew Wiltse and Chris Heatherly. Jordan Reynolds won by unanimous decision over Colton Schone to win the inaugural kids K! title to complete the engaging main card. Speaking of titles this writer got a moment to chat with the Fight Hard MMA 135 champion and St. Louis woman fighter of the year Michelle Pearce. She said her finger is almost back to a hundred percent and she has been training. Hopefully we will see her in the cage soon. Prime FS will return on June 6th, so we can’t wait to see how much the company grows to the next event. Special thanks to Debo Lin Hart and Dustin Hill of The Sports Cage for helping provide me with results of the matches.
Images courtesy of Ryu Sindberg.