Elliot, Griffin shine at Cage Rage Contenders 11 in London

LONDON -- "Fight of the Night" honors at Cage Rage Contenders 11 must surely go to Steven Elliot and Richard Griffin who seemed content to rip into each other as if their lives depended on it. Griffin proved to have a vicious penchant for ground and pound and tested Elliot's resolve at every opening. He appeared to have the fight in hand, aside from his opponent's very active hip work from the bottom, throwing up a variety of submission attacks. Elliot flowed through two armbars and a heel hook before settling on a Kimura with little over a minute to run in the second round.

Zorro-look-alike Sami Berik was all class in his knockout victory over the tough Afnan Saaed. Starting off cautiously, both fighters measuring each other's timing before Saeed used the strikes to setup a takedown, effective but short lived as Berik scrambled back to his feet and out of immediate danger. Both fighters appeared to be cracking the others timing, but Berik solved the puzzle first landing a vicious left hook before following up with a short diagonal right. Lights out for Saeed as Berik reminds us of his power.

The bout between Brett Bassett and Steven Dossett had all the ingredients to be a slugfest and initially started of as so with some heavy handed exchanges before Dossett put his adversary down with a big haymaker. Scrambling fast to capitalize, he landed in Bassett's guard before finding himself on the wrong end of a tight triangle choke. Clearly dejected at not getting a good chance to throw his hands around, Dossett's disappointment dovetailed with Bassett's elation.

Leigh Alliss picked up a hard-earned victory over Dyson Roberts to become the winner of the Fighting Hurts TV show. Alliss clearly had the measure of his opponent standing and was landing well with the exchanges forcing Roberts to ground the fight at regular opportunities, non linear hooks and uppercuts proving particularly effective.

Despite Roberts' eager runs at a guillotine and an armbar, it proved to be Alliss who picked up the submission win with a rear naked choke shortly into the third stanza. It was clear that both fighters are still developing their games, as was evident in the lack of guard work throughout, but the potential is there for development and both showed great heart.

The anticipated bout between Ryan White and Marvin Arnold never came to bear as it emerged that Arnold had been refused medical clearance to fight.

Jamaine Facey scored a massive takedown to open his offensive on Joe Holder before working his way to mount, avoiding a guillotine attempt on route. He then set about with strikes forcing the turn before sinking in a tight Rear Naked Choke for the tap.

Chris Grieg laid a ground and pound clinic on opponent Kevin Ludick throughout the duration of the first round before being interrupted by the bell mid-armbar. Realizing that he was unlikely to stop Ludick with strikes, he set about finding a Keylock submission for the victory.

In other action Giorgio Andrews picked up a submission victory over the scrappy David Byfield via rear naked choke and Peter Bowden forced the referee to call time on his encounter with Carl Lawrence courtesy of his ground and pound offensive.

Rounding out the card, Anthony Leslie forced a doctor's stoppage due to a broken nose over opponent Darren Walsh, Tony Carney withstood the persistent takedown attempts of Ben Smith to record a victory via ground and pound, and John Tomkinson hammered away at Roy Allison to also record a ground and pound finish.

-Leigh Alliss def. Dyson Roberts via Submission (Rear Naked Choke) at 0:47, R3 -Sami Berik def. Afnan Saeed via KO at 1:44, R1 -Steve Elliot def. Richard Griffin via Submission (Kimura) at 3:57, R2 -Giorgio Andrews def. Davin Byfield via Submission (Rear Naked Choke) at 4:47, R1 -Brett Bassett def. Steve Dossett via Submission (Triangle Choke) at 1:05, R1 -Peter Bowen def. Carl Lawrence via TKO (Strikes) at 4:05, R2 -Jamaine Facey def. Joe Holder via Submission (Rear Naked Choke) at 2:02, R1 -Chris Greig def. Kevin Ludick via Submission (Key Lock) at 2:29, R2 -Ryan White vs. Marvin Arnold -- Not Medically Cleared -Anthony Leslie def. Darren Walsh via TKO (Broken Nose) at 0:45, R1 -Tony Carney def. Ben Smith via TKO (Strikes) at 1:02, R2 -John Tomkinson def. Roy Allison via TKO (Strikes) at 1:45, R1