Weekend Rundown: O'Brien, Bowling Impress at 'Triple Threat'

UFC veteran Jake O'Brien submitted Dave Hess with a second-round kimura in the MMA Big Show “Triple Threat” main event on Saturday at the Belterra Casino Resort and Spa in Florence, Ind. The end came 4:21 into round two.

O’Brien, based at the Integrated Fighting Academy, controlled the match with his superior wrestling skills and softened Hess with ground-and-pound en route to the submission. Cut by the UFC following his loss to the surging Jon Jones last summer, the 25-year-old O’Brien has won two of his last three fights. He had never before won by submission.

Meanwhile, 27-year-old welterweight prospect Roger Bowling remained undefeated through seven professional fights, as he stopped Jerrod Appenzeller on strikes 14 seconds into the second round. A Neville, Ohio, native and recent Strikeforce signee, Bowling battered Appenzeller throughout the first round and finished him early in the second. He has stopped all seven of his opponents.

Finally, Rashid Abdullah coaxed a tapout from T.J. Ball with a guillotine choke in just 73 seconds. Abdullah trains alongside former UFC welterweight champion Matt Hughes and one-time EliteXC middleweight titleholder Robbie Lawler at the H.I.T. Squad gym in Granite City, Ill.

Villante, LaFlare Take Ring of Combat Titles

Unbeaten prospect Gian Villante needed all of 40 seconds to dispatch Mike Cook and capture the heavyweight championship at Ring of Combat 28 on Friday at the Tropicana Resort and Casino in Atlantic City, N.J. Cook, a late replacement for Bret Kohan, succumbed to a rear-naked choke.

Villante, a former college football player at Hofstra University, has finished all six of his foes, five of them inside one round. He trains at the Bellmore Kickboxing Academy in Bellmore, N.Y.

Villante’s teammate, Ryan LaFlare made his own mark, as he knocked out World Extreme Cagefighting veteran Justin Haskins 1:36 into round two to win the Ring of Combat welterweight crown. A left hook from the unbeaten 26-year-old ended the night for Haskins.

Meanwhile, UFC exile and International Fight League veteran Andre Gusmao struck Vagner Fernandes into submission 3:25 into the first round. The defeat halted a two-fight skid for the 32-year-old Gusmao, a Renzo Gracie disciple who was pruned from the UFC roster following his knockout loss to Krzysztof Soszynski at UFC 98 in May.

Fujiwara Retains Zst Title

Keisuke Fujiwara retained his bantamweight belt in a five-round unanimous decision against Shunichi Shimizu in the Zst 23 headliner on Saturday at Shinjuku Face in Tokyo.

Fujiwara bounced back nicely from his decision defeat to Tomoya Miyashita at Dream 12. Shimizu, a Deep and Pancrase veteran, failed in his bid to avenge his November 2008 knockout loss to Fujiwara.

In the co-feature, UFC veteran Naoyuki Kotani battled Kenichi Ito to a draw. Ito, unbeaten in his last five appearances, entered the match on the heels of his TKO win over Masayuki Okude three months ago. The deadlock snapped Kotani’s two-fight winning streak.