MMA Results: Shooto Brazil 54 on UFC Fight Pass recap

Image: MMAWeekly.com

By Paul Fontaine, WrestlingObserver.com

The Big Takeaway – The inaugural Shooto Brazil event to air on UFC Fight Pass was not without it’s hiccups. Both former UFC fighters on the card got wins and Felipe Froes became the new Featherweight champion in the main event. Team Nova Uniao (Jose Aldo and Renan Barao’s team) had a team member in almost every fight.

Jason Chambers and former UFC Bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz were the commentators and they were not on site but in a studio somewhere. The presentation was top notch, not quite UFC standards but way above any regional promotion I’ve seen and on par with the old Strikeforce Challengers shows or current WSOF shows.

Cruz and Chambers were good, particularly Cruz, but not without their issues. Cruz mis-identified the fighters in the first fight for the first 1 ½ rounds, finally getting it right just before the finish. The records of the fighters on the broadcast were different from the notes that Cruz and Chambers had or what were listed on most major websites. Many of the fighters even had different names than what had been listed on most previews but that’s fairly common for Brazilian fighters.

There was a technical problem during one match where there was only audio for about two minutes before the feed completely cut out and a “technical problems, please stand by” graphic came up. The feed came back during the entrances for the next fight with no indication from the announcers as to who won the fight they’d cut away from so I’m assuming they were not aware.

Here are the results, with some notes, where applicable. Please note that some records and/or names may be different than what you see elsewhere:

Mattheus Nacacche (5-4) over Almir de Oliveira with a  2nd round KO

Finish was unique in that Nacacche hit a hard punch to the liver and Oliveira dropped and before Nacacche followed up with ground and pound, Oliveira tapped, even though he wasn’t in a hold.

Guilherme Doin (5-3) over Denilson Oliveira by unanimous decision

No scores were shown, although they were announced in Portugese. This was the case all night.

Elves Oliveira (1-0) over Carlos Eduardo with a first round submission (rear naked choke)

Francivaldo Nego (5-1) over Ivan Paiva with a first round submission (neck crank)

Alex Trem Bala (2-0) over Felipe Colen by decision

No scores were announced or even if it was unanimous so I’m assuming it may have been a split. Both these guys are very skilled and will likely make their way into UFC in the next few years. I had it 29-28 Bala but the third round was a toss-up as both guys came close to finishing at different points. If you watch one fight on this show, I’d recommend this one.

Gulherme “Leo Jacare” Leonardo def. Julio Splinter by u/d

This was the fight that the feed cut out on. Jacare had clearly won the first round and was winning the second when the feed cut out.

Luiz Cane (16-6) over Felipe Dourado by first round TKO (punches)

This was a bad stoppage. Cane, the former UFC fighter, knocked him down and had dropped in for ground and pound. Dourado was defending well and didn’t even look all that hurt and the ref stopped it anyways. The ref may have been Eduardo Herdy, who you’ll recall had a really bad stoppage in a UFC fight in Brazil earlier this year that cost Drew Dober a fight (later changed to a no-contest). Herdy definitely reffed the main event of this show.

Ronys Torres (29-5) over Benito Tavares by unanimous decision

Torres gave up a lot of size but pretty much had his way with Tavares for the whole fight.

Felipe Froes (12-2-1) over Thiago Manchinha by split decision to win the Featherweight title

This was three rounds, not five. I had Froes winning 30-27. 2nd round was kind of close but Froes clearly won 1 and 3 so not sure how Manchinha could’ve got the W on a scorecard. With 10 seconds left in the second round and Manchinha on top in dominant position, referee Herdy ordered a break, seemingly to check on a cut. While they were on their way back to the corners, the bell sounded to end the round and Herdy just acted like the round was over. Didn’t end up playing into the finish at all but was a bad mistake from a ref who’s had a bad year.

With a lot of MMA available via a lot of different platforms, this show is not anything that the most hardcore of hardcore fans needs to see. But I’ve seen a lot worse, I will say that.

If you’re interested in reading full fight recaps, I’ve got a play by play report up here.