Sacramento, Ca - The War Memorial Arena in downtown Sacramento, California was rocking and rolling to the heavy beat of punches, kicks, and slams as Gladiator Challenge promoter Tedd Williams traveling slugfest came into town with all guns blazing! Featuring Jamie “The 301st Spartan Jara in a title fight against punch-out artist Jeff Morris, and Emanuel Newton against Brazilian jiu-jitsu star Arthur Cesar, direct from Rio de Janeiro, the northern California crowd couldnt have found more action at a Schwarzenegger and Stallone film festival!

Jaime Jara vs. Jeff Morris (185 lb. Title)
Cal Worsham Team X star Jaime Jara has come a long way. From his beginning as a pure banger who was long on courage but limited in technique, Jara has developed into a wellrounded gladiator with a complete arsenal of stand-up strikes and technical ground attacks. Trainer Cal Worsham, generally considered the top MMA coach in Northern California and one of the best in the world, deserves a lot of credit for that transformation. One thing you cant teach, though, is heart, which Jara has in spades. Although Jara prefers to brawl and will stand toe-to-toe with anyone, thanks to Worsham he does have a back-up plan when things go fubar. And against the explosive Jeff Morris, it was a good thing he did.

Stepping in and unloading from the opening bell, Jara rocked Morris and seemed to have him going backwards. Morris, however, shook off the blows and countered with a jumping kick that connected with Jaras head and sent him down to the mat. With visions of Gladiator belts dancing in his head, Morris followed Jara down to finish the job. Jara, however, though stunned and woozy on his back, slapped on a triangle choke out of pure instinct as Morris lunged in, locking it in at 1:48 of the first round to retain his belt.

Emanuel Newton vs. Arthur Cesar
This classic match between jiu-jitsu fighter Cesar from Rio de Janeiro and So Cal stand-up brawler Newton (aptly sponsored by No Wimps), plain and simply one of the toughest fighters anywhere in his weight class, played out over three exciting rounds. Although Cesar initially tried to bang with the powerful Newton, it quickly became apparent that he was out manned on his feet with Newton rocking him from distance and then landing punishing knees from the clinch.

When the fight went to the ground, however, it was Cesar in control as he launched continuous leg-lock, arm-bar, triangle and choke attacks on Newton. On the mat, Newton continually escaped by either punching his way out of trouble or by picking up Cesar and slamming him. As this scenario replayed itself over the course of the fight, Newton was able to dish out constant punishment due to Cesar pushing the action by being so active with his submission attempts. When the final judges tallies were announced, it was 30-27 from all three judges for Newton in a fight that was far more competitive than the score would indicate. Give Newton credit for an impressive victory over a tough foe. But keep your eye on Cesar as well.

Main Events Highlights
Ross œGrizzly Clifton at 6'6" tall and 420 lbs. is a crowd favorite whenever he fights. Colorful in the way he interacts with the crowd he always comes out swinging and mixes it up from the get-go. Against Dave Huckaba, who spotted him close to 200 lbs., The Griz started fast, laid down some leather, then got caught by a crackling Huckaba right that dropped him for the count at 1:51 of round one.

Gigo Jara, while not as technical and versatile as brother Jamie, still possess the trademark Jara-family toughness and is an effective ground-and-pound fighter with a solid takedown game. Against opponent Noah Schnable, Jara controlled the ground position for the better part of two rounds, landing an accumulation of blows that eventually cut Schnable and led to a TKO stoppage at 3:28 of round two.

Preliminary Highlights
Good efforts were turned in by Chris Werner, Jesse Bowen, and Dave Rowan as they stopped tough opponents Joel Crawford, Nelson Ocampo and George Rodriguez, respectively, by third round TKO, decision, and third round KO. The most impressive athlete in the early fights was Adrian Garcia, who employed lightning-fast takedowns, powerful slams, and dominating ground control to beat stubborn and tough-as-nails opponent Jerry Espinoza by a 17 second, round two, ground and pound TKO.

Officiating
While the officiating was generally sound there were several instances where it was clear that the referee had no clue about the ground game. This is one of the main problems with the athletic commissions who now oversee MMA. While sincere and well-meaning they are mainly former boxing officials who dont practice grappling or jiu-jitsu and apparently have never even watched it. While commissions never assign MMA referees to work boxing matches, they dont think twice about assigning boxing referees to work MMA matches. What is even more perplexing is that MMA referees are more qualified to work boxing, since boxing is at least part of MMA. Grappling and jiu-jitsu, however, are not part of boxing at all.

With the exception of a few officials such as Hurb Dean, Cecil Peoples, Big John McCarthy, Josh Rosenthal and a few others who understand MMA fighting from a grappling perspective, boxing-oriented mistakes such as too-quick stand-ups, breaking fighters while in the middle of a submission, and stopping fights too early are commonplace. With MMA now eclipsing boxing in participation, attendance, and television and pay-per-view ratings, there needs to be a review of athletic commission training to help transplanted boxing officials understand the œmixed part of mixed martial arts.

Conclusion
Tedd Williams has made the War Memorial Arena the centerpiece of his 30-plus show-peryear fighting empire and he sets up œwar camp at the Memorial four times a year. With the word getting out around town, he brings in a sellout crowd with each visit and tickets are becoming harder and harder to get. But those lucky few and their friends who bought early and often were treated to a night of high-energy excitement that left them eagerly awaiting Gladiator Challenge’s next invasion!

For more information on Gladiator Challenge go to www.gladitorchallenge.com.