Going into his fight Saturday night, Anthony
”
Antdawg
”
Figueroa had a plan to feed his opponent a steady diet of
knuckles.
Going into his fight Saturday night, Anthony “Antdawg” Figueroa had a plan to feed his opponent a steady diet of knuckles.
But just a minute and 30 seconds into his matchup with Darren Uyenoyama, Figueroa found himself on the wrong end of a guillotine chokehold, ending the Gilroy native’s hopes for a victory in one of nine Strikeforce/EliteXC fights being held at HP Pavilion in San Jose.
Figueroa (4-2) admitted to being disappointed in the outcome but said by no means was the defeat going to dissuade him from working towards his goal of making a name for himself in the sport of mixed-martial arts.
“It was a bad night for me,” Figueroa said. “I’m not going to take anything away from him. I’m going to work my way back. It’s going to make it that much nicer when I see him again.”
Figueroa added that he wouldn’t be holding out for a rematch with Uyenoyama (4-1). “I really just want to get back in there with anybody and redeem myself,” he said.
After meeting Uyenoyama in the middle of the steel cage octagon, Figueroa withstood a couple kicks to the upper body before being taken down to the floor, something he expected Uyenoyama would try since he is trained primarily in Jiu Jitsu.
“I knew he was game. I knew what he was going to do,” Figueroa said. “As I was trying to get position (on the ground), I exposed my neck and he pinched in there pretty good. … Originally, I was on the bottom and I bridged over and got on top and kind of gave him more leverage on the choke.”
Similar to other sports of punishment, such as boxing or wrestling, one false move in MMA can mean the difference.
“In this sport you can get caught, whether it’s a submission move or one nice clean hit to the chin,” Figueroa said. “It’s just the way the game plays out. But I’ll be back, stronger and faster.”
The evening was prevented from being a complete wash for Figueroa when his training partner and mentor, Cung Le, defeated Frank Shamrock in the Strikeforce Middleweight Title Match.
Shamrock did not answer the bell for the fourth round as blood could be seen running from his right ear and down his neck. What was not obvious to the naked eye was that Le had broken Shamrock’s right arm at the end of the third round, leaving the San Jose-based brawler with no other choice but to concede his title.
“He broke my right arm on the kick,” Shamrock (24-9-1) said inside the ring. “I can feel it clicking.”
Confetti rained down from the rafters as Le (6-0) – leading 30-29 on one judge’s scorecard and 29-28 on two others’ at the time of the stoppage – tried to grasp what the victory meant. “This is a dream come true coming from Vietnam and now being champ,” he said.
The evening’s other marquee matchup featured San Francisco’s Gabe Melendez (14-1) beating Gabe Lemley (11-7) in the Strikeforce Lightweight Title Match. Melendez won by laying on top of Lemley and punching him in the face for the better part of seven minutes.
