Saturday night marked the return to action of two local Lethbridge favourites, and they did not disappoint.
Rumble in the Cage 60 took place in Lethbridge, Alta. and was headlined by both Spencer Rohovie and Tim Tamaki returning to the cage.
In the co-main event, Tamaki (now 18-28-1) was impressive, leaving with the first round submission victory over Jeremy Henry (now 5-8), by way of rear-naked choke.
Tamaki said he felt better than he ever has inside the cage and that everything came together perfectly.
“It went awesome,” said Tamaki in an interview.
“I wasn’t focused on winning or losing; I was just focused on performing the best I could and having the most fun I could.”
This marked Tamaki’s first MMA fight in nearly four years, but he said now that he’s back, he’s looking to get right back it.
He said with the team he has around him at Canadian Martial Arts Centre, he believes he has plenty more wins in the tank.
“I want to get back in there,” said Tamaki.
“I have such a good team and when we’re training hard and we’re mentally on, I feel like we can beat anybody. I’m ready for whoever.”
Rohovie was equally impressive in his return, locking in an arm-in guillotine choke in the first round to finish in style.
Rohovie won’t have much time to bathe in the glory of his victory, however, as he’s set to jump right back into training for his scheduled bout with Nick Hrabec on Dec. 7 at Unified MMA 35.
Dominance From Theocharis
In the other professional bout on the card, Tom Theocharis (now 2-2) collected his second win, while playing the role of spoiler for the Lethbridge crowd backing Gerra Gossen (now 1-4).
Theocharis was in command for the entire 46 seconds in the cage with Gossen, eventually landing a flurry of strikes that would lead to the first round TKO stoppage.
“After losing my last fight, I came in with the intention of kill or be killed. There was no way I was losing this fight,” said Theocharis in an interview.
“I was super confident in my striking and anywhere the fight went. I told my coach, Chris Horodecki, I was visualizing the whole time I was going to end it with my right hand, and that’s exactly what I did.”
Theocharis has been active so far in his young professional career, with this being his third fight of 2018.
Having not taken any damage in this contest, Theocharis said he’s looking to take a couple weeks off right away, but then will be eyeing a return to action early in 2019.
“I want to get right back into it. I’m 25 years old and this is what I want to do,” said Theocharis.
“I want to fight internationally and maybe starting making some real money. This is what I want to do.”
John Moore, Aaron Anctil, Semir Ali, Dan Kovalchuk, Eric Stevens, Russ Long, and Rylie Marchand were also victorious in the evening’s action.
