Kendall "Da Spyder" Grove continued his attempt to re-establish himself as a middleweight to be reckoned with by beating another grizzled veteran on Saturday.
Grove dominated positions on the ground to earn a unanimous decision against popular Japanese fighter
Ikuhisa Minowa in the main event of ProElite 3 in Honolulu. With the result against Minowa, following a victory over
Joe Riggs in August, Grove has won consecutive bouts for the first time in almost three years.
Minowa never had a chance to attempt one of the leglocks that have been his bread-and-butter submissions for more than a decade. In suffering his 33rd loss, Minowa - a stalwart of the Japanese scene for his success against ungainly, much heavier men - ran into his usual difficulty in implementing submissions against high-level fighters relatively close to his own weight.
He scored one takedown in the first round but managed little offense, while finding himself in bad positions for much of the last 10 minutes of the fight.
Grove, who has only been submitted once in 25 fights, used his long limbs to tie up Minowa and climb his back multiple times. The eventual winner spent most of the third round mounted on Grove's back.
"I was trying to finish him from the back," said Grove, who spent years in the Ultimate Fighting Championship before the promotion released him last year. "He defends well... He's a tough legend. It's a privilege for me to fight a guy like Minowa."
Saturday's co-main event saw 135-pound prospect
Sara McMann stay unbeaten with a victory against her toughest opponent yet. McMann entered the bout with a record of just 4-0, compared to 18-8 for
Hitomi Akano, but the younger woman fought like a seasoned pro.
Showing the wrestling skills that resulted in a silver medal at the 2004 Olympics, McMann threw Akano to the ground each time they clinched. Akano frequently elevated her legs for potential submission and landed light strikes from the bottom to stay busy, but McMann defended well, stayed in dominant positions and landed some ground-and-pound strikes. All three judges scored the fight for McMann.
Before the fight, Akano and McMann were Nos. 5 and 9 in the Unified Women's Rankings.
Other results from the Honolulu show's main card:
- Ryan Martinez and Richard Odoms advanced the final of ProElite's inaugural heavyweight tournament. Martinez outpointed Cody Griffin. Odoms submitted Jake Heun with a rear-naked choke in the second round.
- Pat Cummins submitted heavyweight Tasi Edwards with a head-and-arm choke in the first round.
- Brent Schermerhorn knocked out fellow middleweight Kaleo Gambill with a left hook only 45 seconds into the first round.
)
