Venator II took a risk by signing two troubled stars, Rousimar Palhares and Jason ‘Mayhem’ Miller for their third event in Italy this past weekend, and neither performed well on the night.
Shamed former UFC and WSOF fighter Rousimar Palhares is still serving a two-year suspension in the United States for repeatedly holding on to submissions after his opponents tap, but he didn’t have an opportunity to get up to his old tricks in the main event last night.
Up-and-coming Norwegian fighter Emil Meek was able to remain standing when Palhares drove in for an early takedown against the cage, and then landed repeated elbows to the side of ‘Toquinho’s’ head while he was on his knees, then transitioned behind him and hammered away with hooks for a 45 second KO finish.
Meanwhile, Jason ‘Mayhem’ Miller had showed up a whopping 24lbs overweight for his fight with Luke Barnatt at Friday’s weigh-ins, which led to the bout being cancelled, but in a last minute switch he was given another opponent that was more his size, Italy’s Mattia Schiavolin instead.
Schiavolin had actually lost to Barnatt last time out in the Venator cage, but he was able to get the better of ‘Mayhem’, who stumbled to the mat after some sloppy striking mid-way through the fight, which enabled the Italian to take his back and sink in a fight-ending rear-naked choke with 3.10mins of the second round gone.
Elsewhere on the card, Luke Barnatt also fought a late replacement Stefan Croitoru, finishing him by second round TKO, while Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou KO’d Matt Hamill in just 37 seconds.
