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Martial arts boxers go for the kill

A capacity crowd were treated to a rousing time at the inaugural Dubai Fighting Championship (DFC-1) at Al Habtoor Grand Hotel.

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Published: Sun 6 May 2012, 12:36 PM

Last updated: Tue 7 Apr 2015, 1:58 PM

Contestants had to fight every inch before chalking up wins at the inaugural Dubai Fighting Championship (DFC-1) at Al Habtoor Grand Hotel

Twelve bouts were seen through including the heavyweight ex-UFC Champion Ricco ‘Suave’ Rodriguez against Stav ‘Crazy Bear’ Economou feature round.

The Malik ‘Smiler’ Omarov (Russia)-Stuart Davies (UK) show was the most adrenaline-charged.

DFC-1 kicked off with the semi-pro bouts between Evan O’Reilly from Ireland and Shafeeq Iqbal from India. Within 2 minutes and 4 seconds, O’Reilly half-mounted Iqbal into a keylock submission.

The event further intensified as the matches moved on to the Prelims-Pro bouts with Brazilian fighter Nilson Lopes against Morteza Minbashi from Iran.

The crowds cheered on as Lopes managed to take down Minbashi to the floor, becoming the winner of that match with an arm-bar.

The swiftest round of the night was between Fabricio Nascimento hailing from Brazil, against Mohammad Naemi from Iran. Nascimento managed to side-mount Naemi and become the winner by an arm-bar within 52 seconds.

The co-main event with Muai-Thai fighter Malik ‘Smiler’ Omarov against Stuart Davies from England – who flew in from the U.K on short notice, stole the show. After what seemed like an endless back and forth slugfest, round 3 ended with Omarov winning by TKO due to Davies’ injured knee. Dubai radio personality and commentator of the night Chis Fade announced this match as the “fight of the night”.

DFC’s CEO, Tam Khan, described the event as epic. “History was made at the Al Habtoor Grand Beach Resort & Spa with DFC 1.

“We had a packed house and sold out before the event started. The atmosphere was electric. Even as a promoter I found myself being drawn into the excitement of the match ups.” Khan further exclaimed “There were amazing displays of skill shown tonight by the fighters, from slick submissions to devastating striking. There were NO losers in my opinion”.

In the main event of the evening, Stav Economou picked up a unanimous decision win over Ricco Rodriguez, which had the fans on the edge of their seats with anticipation over the final results of the heavyweight match. Even though Economou appeared to be losing the first round to Rodriguez; this appearance quickly faded away by the second round with Economou knocking Rodriguez to the ground and unleashing a flurry of punches to his head.

The third round split the DFC crowds between cheering for Rodriguez and Economou. Both fighters at this point are evidently injured due to the intense match of round two.

Round three commenced with Rodriguez failing in his attempt to grab Economou’s leg kick, allowing Economou to ultimately wrestle Rodriguez to the floor, and continue to strike Rodriguez until the round had ended. Khan described the main event with ex-UFC champion Ricco Rodriguez as a “huge honor” as the main-match for the inaugural event.

DFC 1 was undoubtedly an action packed evening with hundreds of MMA enthusiasts in attendance. With regards to the future of DFC Khan expects it to be “bigger and better”. He further exclaimed, “There is so much room for growth. We feel this experience tonight will enable us to take it to the next level for the future events.

“We already have planned a DFC ‘Fight Night’ which is a show that concentrates on future DFC stars; fighters who are not yet professional but would want to display their skills on a smaller scale. The event is planned for June 8^th at the Boracay Nightclub in the Asiana Hotel in Dubai.”

The evening ended with an entertained crowd excited for DFC’s next live event in Dubai.