Bryan Humes TKOs Ray Savant at MMA Xplosion

By Hepi Mita

Sunday, Feb. 21, 2010 | 1:19 a.m.

Before the opening bell of Saturday night’s MMA Xplosion Super Fight Night main event, Bryan Humes (6-0) knew his opponent was planning something devious.

“I could see it in his eyes that as soon as we touched, he wanted to hit me,” Humes said.

Ray Savant (0-1) was eager to start his professional MMA career with a bang, and threw a punch at Humes immediately after the fighters touched gloves to begin the bout.

“That’s an amateur move,” Humes said. “We always touch gloves to start the fight, it’s just a sign of respect.”

The heavyweight responded to the etiquette faux pas with a devastating right hook that sent Savant to the canvas and almost out of the ring completely.

“When I dropped him my eyes went big,” Humes said. “But he went through the ropes, so I couldn’t do anything about it.”

But there was no coming back for Savant, as Humes slammed him back to the canvas almost immediately after the knockdown. From there Humes transitioned to the mount where he rained down blows upon Savant’s head until referee Steve Mazzagatti stopped the fight 2:23 into round one.

Hume’s TKO victory was the only knockout in a night where four of the six fights ended in submission.

Even fighters known primarily for their striking showed off their skills on the mat.

“I’m definitely known for my stand up with my Muay Thai,” said Danny Davis Jr. following his fight against Moses Lewis. “But I’ve also been working on my ground game with Robert Drysdale and I want to be an all-around mixed martial artist.”

That work paid off as Davis (3-1) put Lewis (0-1) in a rear naked choke 4:19 into round three after a brutal barrage of ground and pound from the mount.

“I was laying the bombs, dropping some elbows and he turned around,” Davis said. I saw the opportunity, and I went for it, sunk in the rear naked and I got it.”

Coincidentally, Davis’ training partner Blas Avena (7-4) also ended his welterweight matchup against Kenny Marzola (1-1) with a rear naked choke.

“Me and Blas have a team on the side called Team Lethal,” Davis said. “Blas is my boy, we work on everything, we work on every situation and luckily we both got the rare naked choke it was a great evening for the both of us.”

Avena, however, pulled off his choke just 1:34 into round one, after slamming Marzola to the mat with a suplex.

“I think he thought he was going to get out of the suplex, but I have some different ways of taking people down from that position,” Avena said. “He hit the ground and started posting his arm up and that’s when I went for the rear naked choke.”

However the submission of the night belonged to lightweight Odis Ruiz (2-0) who pulled off a triangle choke on Xtreme Couture’s Jason Trevino (2-3).

When Trevino is not fighting, he is a referee and he had officiated five of Ruiz’s amateur bouts before their fight on Saturday night.

With that in mind, Ruiz prepared a special game plan.

“All the times he was refereeing my fights he never saw a triangle from me,” Ruiz said. “I knew that he already knew all the moves that I had, so I had to do something that he had never seen.”

The win gives Ruiz consecutive wins over Xtreme Couture fighters. Ruiz won his professional MMA debut with a spinning backfist KO over Xtreme Couture’s Mike Dizak in MMA Xplosion’s Gunderson vs. Sharp event last October.

Ruiz’s success has sparked a rivalry between himself and Xtreme Couture.

“Ryan Couture mentioned he wants to fight me,” said Ruiz referring to a Jan. 8 2010 article that appeared in Las Vegas Sports Magazine. “They asked him who in Tuf-n-Uff would he like to fight next, after he beat Joe Tussing, and he said that he wanted to fight me. It’s a shame, I’m not an amateur no more, and I’d love to fight him some day.”