Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
Two of four Sweet Home fighters came out on top in cage fight action held Saturday night in Corvallis.
Trevor Tagle defeated Darrell Caven of Downing Gym of Corvallis by decision after going three rounds in his debut cage match during the Brass Knuckles Promotions cage matches.
Shorty Weikel, 145 pounds, of the Bully Gang forced Eugene Absolo of the Rats of Crescent City to tap out in the first round.
Josh Rossini, 135, tapped out in the fourth round of a title fight against Colby Kepping of Team Spartan of Salem.
Rossini, Tagle and Weikel compete for the Bully Gang team.
Chris Ensley, 170, of Kut Throat Committee of Albany, who formerly competed for Bully Gang lost his title to Donnie Evenson of Team Oneness of Junction City.
Tagle, a state champion wrestler while in high school, trained with Joe Rosa, who has since dropped out of cage fighting, Tagle said. Leading up to his opening fight, he trained on his own with Sweet Home wrestlers.
“It was fun,” Tagle said. “I wish I could’ve knocked him out.”
But he was tired and was threatened twice in the third round with an arm bar, Tagle said. He squeezed out of the first one, and the second time, he picked his opponent up and shook him loose.
Standing up, Tagle thought he had the edge over Caven, he said, but what gave him the win was, “I’d have to say, my wrestling.”
Once he was tired, he said, his wrestling came through for him.
Weikel, now 4-0, opened the fight aggressively, attacking Absolo with a relentless barrage of punches.
“I was wanting to stand up in the beginning, but he took me down,” Weikel said. Taking control on the ground, Weikel let Absolo up a couple of times, toying with him, before closing the deal and finishing the fight.
Now, “I want a belt shot,” Weikel said.
“That kid is the toughest,” Bully Gang Manager Cory Graham said. “He deserves a shot at the title.”
Team Spartan has three belts he could go after, Graham said, from 125 pounds to 135 pounds; but Team Spartan has been reluctant to match up to Weikel in a title fight. The rules will force a match soon though, Graham said.
Rossini, now 1-1, gassed out against Kepping, Rossini said. “He’s actually a high school wrestler. He has a lot of gas.”
The two wound up wrestling on the ground much of the fight.
“I just pretty much let him wrestle away a little bit of energy,” Rossini said. “I was hoping he’d try to stand up.”
In the fourth round, Rossini had a shot at the win with Kepping in a choke hold, but the referee called him for holding onto the cage, something Rossini didn’t think he had done.
“Josh Rossini did well,” Graham said. “He went the distance as long as he could. He’s got plenty of heart. The kid’s a real good fighter. It just wasn’t his night.”
Rossini joined the Bully Gang after members of the Sweet Home area team approached him at cage matches in Coos Bay.
Ensley, now 6-2, entered the cage already injured, he said. While warming up for his fight, another man knocked over a divider wall striking the backs of Ensley’s calves and cutting one to the tendon.
His team told him not to fight, but he went on anyway.
It cost him, he said. “He got in on me good.”
As soon as Ensley went to defend it and pushed off his injured leg, he collapsed, tapping out 26 seconds into the match.
Both teams and his opponent have agreed that a rematch will happen after Ensley has time to heal, he said.