It's not often a fighter can walk away with a championship without beating an opponent, but that is what happened to Natu Visinia.
The former Saluki offensive lineman was awarded the Kage One Heavyweight Championship at Battle at the Blast II Saturday after his opponent withdrew from the fight because of a death in his family.
Visinia is the first fighter to hold a championship for the promotion.
Though he was awarded the title during a presentation in the first intermission, Visinia said he is going to set it aside until he earns it.
"This is not my belt until I actually fight for it," Visinia said.
Even with the cancellation of the title fight, Battle at the Blast II offered 16 bouts for the fans in attendance.
The main event pitted nationally ranked Jill Fickes against April Penrod, a late substitution for Marie Colangelo after she pulled out. Fickes overcame a near 20-pound deficit against Penrod to win a unanimous decision.
Fickes' first flurry of punches hurt Penrod as she fell to the canvas, but Penrod was able to recover, which led to a close fight for the next two rounds.
Tim Fickes, the promoter of Kage One and Jill Fickes' husband, said he thought his wife handled her opponent's weight advantage well.
"She would have liked to do a little better, but she realized she was giving up a good amount of weight," Tim Fickes said. "That was a tough girl. She took quite a few punches and kept coming."
Marion native Steve Campbell was not as lucky as he suffered a loss to Bobby Brents due to medical stoppage. Brents was relentless in the first round and hit Campbell in the face with an uppercut to finish the round.
The ringside doctor ruled the cut Campbell suffered in the first round was too severe for him to continue.
Brents said it was his first time competing against Campbell and that he had no hard feelings towards him.
"I have never had any animosity towards anyone before," Brents said. "I just put on a show for the people. I like the guy, he is a nice kid."
Tim Fickes' Dojo USA team fared well, winning all of its fights except Campbell's and Dylan Hughley's. Hughley lost to former training partner Nick Mosca, who trains with SIU's mixed martial arts club at the Recreation Center.
Mosca pulled off the upset by outwrestling Hughley for most of the fight with frequent takedowns. Hughley said Mosca was too strong in his wrestling.
"I don't think I was prepared to fight someone with the amount of wrestling strength he had," Hughley said. "He caught me once in the first round with an overhand right that woke me up and then kept coming."
The two were friends before the fight and Hughley said nothing has changed, which could be seen by their immediate embrace after the final bell.
Herrin native Damian Jeffro may have had the best performance on the night as he displayed strong striking, wrestling and ju-jitsu in less than two minutes. Jeffro nearly knocked out his opponent with his first punch, followed it with a slam and then transitioned to his opponent's back to secure a rear naked choke for the submission win.
Amid all the fighting during the show, the 6-foot-7-inch Rick McGraw gave fans a different form of entertainment. After easily defeating his opponent, McGraw executed a post-fight dance to one of the biggest ovations of the night.
Tim Fickes said he thought the show was a huge success and was glad that all of the fighters walked away with only minor injuries. He said he plans to continue to hold shows in Carbondale and his next installment, Battle at the Blast III, will take place on April 26.
The show is tentatively scheduled to have Visinia return to defend his title. Until then, Visinia will fight Feb. 23 on Pay-Per-View for the Chicago-based Xtreme Fighting Organization's number one contender slot.
Jeff Engelhardt can be reached at
536-3311 ext. 269 or jengel@siu.edu.
