YAMMA Pit Fighting made its debut tonight on pay-per-view from the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, N.J. The show featured an eight-man heavyweight tournament that included former UFC heavyweight champion Ricco Rodriguez, Travis Wiuff, Sherman Pendergarst, Marcelo Pereira and more.
In addition, Eric “Butterbean” Esch took on Pat Smith in a “Masters Super Fight” and Mark Kerr attempted to derail Oleg Taktarov (both were two round, five-minute fights).
Tonight’s event also included the unveiling of “The Yamma,” a new fighting surface that uses sloped edges within the cage. The format, YAMMA executives say, could revolutionize MMA strategy and help avoid fighters from stalling against the fence.
The night belonged to Travis Wiuff, who defeated Marcelo Pareira, Ricco Rodriguez and Chris Tuscherer to win the eight-man heavyweight tournament. Despite blocking some punches with his face in the opener against Pareira, Wiuff pretty much dominated his fights. He looked a little wobbly towards the end but that isn’t a fair criticism considering it was his third opponent.
Butterbean hasn’t been able to buy a win in the past year, and I’m wondering how long before his novelty wears off. We know he can throw hands, but in mixed martial arts, heavy hands just aren’t enough.
Taktarov and Kerr are two guys pushing 40, and boy did they look it. I guess we should be grateful it was over so quickly. And speaking of things that are obviously over, I’m not sure what the answer is for Sherman Pendergarst. He’s 2-6 since 2007 and doesn’t look to be turning it around.
Here are the full Yamma Pit fighting quick results:
Lamont Lister defeats Oleg Savirsky via TKO (strikes) - 0:33 of Round 1.
Bryan Vetell defeats Antwain Britt via unanimous decision.
Alexey Oleinik defeats Sherman Pendergarst via submission (choke) - 4:18 of Round 1.
Chris Tuscherer defeats Tony Sylvester via unanimous decision.
Travis Wiuff defeats Marcelo Pareira via unanimous decision.
Ricco Rodriguez defeats George Bush via unanimous decision.
Oleg Taktarov defeats Mark Kerr via submission (kneebar) - 1:50 of Round 1.
Chris Tuscherer defeats Alexey Oleinik via unanimous decision.
Travis Wiuff defeats Ricco Rodriguez via unanimous decision.
Patrick Smith defeats Eric “Butterbean” Esch via TKO (strikes) - 3:17 of Round 1.
Travis Wiuff defeats Chris Tuscherer via unanimous decision.
It will be interesting to see what the pay-per-view numbers are, and how that will affect the future of the organization. For now, we got a chance to see the new fighting platform and some decent fights.
38 Comments »
i predicted wiuff to win. way to go!
I survived YAMMA
Worst event ever! Just horrible. The new surface does the opposite of what its supposed to. It makes it easy to take down opponents because their legs are easier to grab when they are higher, plus they are off balance. A bunch of fat guys humping for 5 min at a time.
Worst event ever! The new surface and format just leads to a bunch of hugging on the ground for 5 min at a time. Travis just held people down the whole time. Complete waste of time. The new surface is terrible.
is ther any pics of the yamma pit surface?
LOL, george bush was fighting? JK, I wish it would have been a different GW I’d definitely pay to see someone punch him in the face
Without ‘W’, and his philosophy on national defense (and courage to implement it), you would either be dead or studying the Koran right now. Besides that, I bet he’d kick your ass!
I didn’t want to bring politics into this I was just making a joke. But since you’re taking it serious… Keep believing that lie and vote for McCain, let’s see where you guys are in another 4 years from now (sorry, I’m not American). I really don’t mean to be condescending though and I sure wish all the best to the American ppl. I work with exporting, trust me, because of the value of the dollar deals with the US are now at the lowest where it used to be 90% of our general sales. We are now selling mostly in euros. You might say that no one cares about the company I work for, but if we’re not selling in dollar anymore, others are probably changing ships as well. Countries that used to sale in dollars are now selling in euros, which affect your economy dramatically. Hope all the best, vote smart! Peace :p
Yes, I’m sure you are sorry that you are not an American.
PS, I’m an atheist and there is no way I’d turn into a muslin, ever (but I gotta tell you, I do have a huge interest in studying the qu’ran. Just like my current love for studying the bible. It’s something many atheists do with our free time, it’s weird that most theists don’t do with theirs).
40 bucks for this Bull Shit? What a joke.
i will NEVER EVER watch this shit EVER again!!! a total waste of my time!!
I agree thew surface didn’t seem to do anything except cause new problems. You can be easily rushed back only to slide from underneath yourself and then loose all control. I still can’t believe I watched the entire thing.
thats 40 dollars and 2 hours of your time that yall are never getting back i knew this event whould be crap i looked at other sites and thers over a hunderd people complaing about how shitty it was
How do you think I felt…..I won free tickets to this crappy display of mma (sort of). I was there live and trust me, it was terrible (in my charles barkley voice:
Just Terible! lol)
Out of all the mma events to win free tickets to, I had the misfortune of going to this Yama crap. The surface was far from an improvement….what a waste of a friday night.
Agreed…who in their right mind would pay for this trash? Butterbean?? What was Elvis Sinosic busy that night?
I feel asleep before Butterbean got beat up. The surface is a joke. I was hoping for a better fight between Wiuff and Rodriguez. Ricco needs to lay of the fast food, beer, or something. I could not believe the horrible shape he was in.
This will probably be their one and only event. Years from now, people will look back
on all these tiny, pathetic attempts to cash in on the growing mma trend and laugh their asses off. Mark Kerr should fight with a t-shirt on.
Comment by Gord
2008-04-12 00:02:57
Maybe someone should translate ENGLISH for you. GSP said,”HE WOULD BEAT SERRA”, Then he said , he will fight him 10 times with the same outcome. To bad you only like USA fighters, because your American ego is going to get CRUSHED in just over a week. Why don’t you mind Anderson Silva (Brazilian) spanking all your American buddies. No offence to Americans,just this mentality.
LOL, this guy must have missed my (100 or so) posts that say Anderson Silva is my favorite fighter. Sorry I couldn’t fully understand “frenchy’s” broken english. I can’t wait until Serra knocks him out again!!!
Q: Your opponent, Matt Serra, has described himself as Rocky in Rocky IV and you’re the Russian freak with no heart named Drago. How do you see this fight?
A: I’m like Rocky in Rocky III where I lose the first time, then come back and beat Clubber Lang.
Just read this from an interview from GSP and had to laugh at all the Rock references. He said in the UFC promo he was like rocky 2, now he’s like Rocky 3, and next week he will be like rocky 4, but not as the russian…but as Apollo!!! LOL
I didn’t see the event, but just looking at the results, that’s a lot of decisions to go to. 3 unanimous decisions in one night from Travis Wiuff doesn’t sound particularly exciting to me.
If my understanding of the Constitution is correct, someone would have to be both over 35 years old and a natural born U.S. citizen to defeat George Bush, and I don’t think Ricco Rodriguez qualifies.
The Surface of the Yamma Cage is going to be used as a reason/excuse for losing. Example, Kerr might say “If i was fighing on flat suface like a ring or UFC/Strikforce, ect setting, i would have beat Oleg”. And, the same goes for Rodriguez. Rodriguez always complains about losing. Not to mention, Rodriguez was in an interview with Bas, and he claimed he could have beat Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira if he were allowed to use elbows. Now, i’m just proving my point on why i think the Yamma Pit Fighting seeting will not fly, and the “Ring” is just one of the reasons why Yamma is out.
It seems that the decision by Yamma to pay per view this event v.s. airing it for free might be a blessing for them as few people watched it. It might give Yamma a chance to “go back to the drawing board” and work on and change the ideas that obviously plagued their first event. A free event, younger fighter, a redesigned cage, and a new website might all be good starts.
…You sir, have just made Yamma more exciting. At the same time, the whole Yamma Venue is restructured.
I guess channel 13 isn’t a network channel cuz it’s been airing UFC WIRED for sometime now?
I couldn’t even watch the whole thing. It seemed like most of the fighters save for a few were out of shape. Then there was Butterbean, that guy’s legs just straighten out when he gets taken to his back, real good defence there. It made me feel like I could take that guy on now. lol I feel sorry for you john, having to sit through the whole thing.
The production values with the show was simply horrible. It felt like the 1990’s again.
The Yamma Pit reminds me of a skateboard pool ramp. I like the idea to keep the action fast paced by eliminating stalls against the cage. But, clinching against the cage, dirty boxing against the cage, ground and pound against the cage are part of cage fighting. Fighters like Dan Henderson and Couture use the cage with a lot of effectiveness.
Personally, I enjoy the intricacies of cage clinch work - overhooks, underhooks, leverage, wrestling.
If these guys want FAST PACED non-stop action, sign better fighters.
11 fights
2 submissions
2 TKO’s
7 decisions
The surface promoted ‘hump and lay’ tactics, not elimited them.
War Taktarov!!! Tak ix naxui!
The event was boring, the fighters washed up and out of shape, the surface made every fight end up on the ground, the ring announcer was talking a lot of bull, the entire event felt like a complete waste of time. This Yawna ground fighting will not survive… Can’t imagine why they wasted their money producing this???
Butterbean’s best feat ever was Knocking out Johny Knoxvile in a department store.
did anyone really expect much with butter bean and pat smith as the main attraction. if the next one features the brady bunch vs the partrige family dont expect much, now you will still order it because who wouldn’t a fight is a fight but dont expect a technical bout.
Ricco Rodriguez defeats George Bush via unanimous decision. Lol George Bush
Butternean’s leg kick were the funniest thing i have ever seen in mma. Thanks Yamma for a good laugh.
Where did they find the announcer?? At first I couldn’t stand him but by the end i was loving his voice. He sounded like a munchkin popeye. Brilliant!
Did anyone else feel bad for Butterbean when he fell over and looked like a fat turtle on his back that couldn’t get up?
Yamma pit fighting, in my opinion, turned out to be a spectacular event. I sat ringside watching the event which proved above the hype. One thing I didn’t notice was the push into the cage entrapment to just beat the crap out of someone. This environment was not conducive to that. As a lifetime martial art enthusiast I felt that it showcased more skills and gave the wrestler a fighting chance. The 28 degree angle of the dojotube surrounding seemed to bring people back to the ring. It also seemed to maximize take downs. A slighter degree angle may decrease that scenario. All in all I think we watched more exciting fights. Let’s hope Bob Meyrowitz has the insight to bring in big named fighters that would attract more viewership and ultimately be good for the sport. We’ve got interviews with every fighter after their victory and some clips you just can’t see anywhere else at http://www.dojotube.com Dojoe.