Thomas defends crown

By KEVIN JAKAHI

Tribune-Herald sports writer

Chad Thomas showed a new look in defending his Just Scrap heavyweight title on Saturday night.

With his hair closely cropped, Thomas proved that he’s no mixed martial arts Samson, a power only with long hair in a quick first-round dispatch of Pao Paongo before about 1,200 fans at Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium.

Thomas bull-rushed his Oahu challenger, got him in a clinch and landed a knee to the stomach. Then he got a takedown and eventually applied a guillotine choke, but Paongo escaped.

Back standing, Thomas (9-3) took down Paongo (17-4) again, and from half-guard landed haymakers until the referee stoppage for a technical knockout.

Paongo, who owns several title belts, is hearing impaired and apparently disagreed with the outcome and went after Thomas. The ending suddenly became ugly with four police officers jumping into the octagon to restore order.

That was the only extracurricular activity of the night. Other than that, things went smoothly for the other amateurs willing to get punched in the face for free. And the three other title fights offered similar dramatics.

In the 155-pound lightweight title bout, Joey “The Tazmanian Devil” Gomez submitted Robby Ostovich with an arm-bar triangle in the third round, right before the three-minute bell.

Gomez (6-0), smaller than his opponent, was effective in his takedowns and management once the battle hit the floor, getting a full mount in the third round, before reversing positions with Ostovich (3-2) and applying the submission from his back.

In the 170-pound welterweight title fight, Lavelle “Nature Boy” Brown scored a first-round TKO over defending champion Jason “Suave” Soares, who was making his first title defense.

Soares (4-1) slammed Brown (5-0), got superior half-guard position but couldn’t inflict any damage, and later went for a guillotine choke. But the “Nature Boy” slipped out and maneuvered to mount “Suave” and windmilled him with punches until the referee stoppage.

In the inaugural 125-pound flyweight title bout, Wayne “House of Pain” Emche got a three-round decision over Keola Arakaki, who landed the most significant blow — a straight right to the chin that floored Emche in the third round.

In that final round, Arakaki pressured Emche, who escaped from three guillotine chokes and scored a takedown in the waning seconds, but couldn’t fire off any shots before the bell rang.

Mr. Runway

Kiko “The Freako” Nascimento is known for his grand entrances and his latest turned promotional, with a huge banner touting “Pacific Gymnastics.”

Little kids dressed in costumes walked down the runway with young girls in leotards showing off their gymnastic moves, entertaining the patrons with backflips and such.

“The Freako” was a little demure in his opening activities, not dancing or displaying his yoga athletics. Instead, he carried himself wearing a black Spiderman costume. Then he stripped to his white uniform shorts and went to work.

His entrance lasted longer than his fight against Eddie Wine, who lost by submission just 2:05 into the first round.

Nascimento charged Wine, clinched him and backheel judo-tripped his long hair, pony-tail opponent to the floor. “The Freako” got full mount, landed a few punches and rolled Wine over for a rear-naked choke.

* Ashton “One Whack Medivac” Castro def. Varaha Mims, first-round submission via rear-naked choke.

* “Wily” Adam Collarile def. Ranson Hamilton, first-round TKO.

* Michael Pereira-Thompson def. Jonah Aiona, second-round TKO.

* Nat “The Body” Rowland def. “Crazy” Chris Miranda, submission via guillotine choke.

* Awson Barozo def. Stetson Kaholo, TKO.

* Kevin Villanueva def. Steven Rojo, TKO.

In exhibition youth bouts, with no winner declared, Kamuela Mamone fought Gary Durguran, and Ricky Mamone battled Angel Sellers.