The Bully Gang had a rough night Feb. 21 at Capital City Cage Fights in Salem, with two of its cage fighters losing their bouts.
Both fighters went a couple of minutes during the first round before losing.
Ken Medores, 1-1, lost by technical knockout to newcomer Marcuss Street, 1-0, of Portland’s Team Saga at 155 pounds.
Eli Pauls, 1-1, tapped out to Mike Moreno, 1-1 of Impact Jiu Jitsu at 155 pounds.
Brad Furst, 1-0, 170 pounds, was scheduled to fight Mark Wright of Scholkast. Wright did not show up, so Furst was unable to fight.
“Standing up, we were just exchanging blows for blows,” Medores said. Street connected with a good right, and Medores made a mistake.
“I wasn’t thinking, and I took him to the ground,” he said.
Medores was bleeding from above his eye and unable to fight, so the referee called the fight.
Medores said he shouldn’t have taken the fight to the ground.
“I need to practice my ground game,” he said. Even his opponent told him that his boxing and kicking were great, but taking the fight to the ground cost him.
“That won’t happen again,” Medores said. “I’m going to have to do a lot more ground work.”
That means he’ll be in the gym five days a week, three hours a day, he said.
“He’s tough,” Bully Gang owner Cory Graham said. “He can definitely handle his own. The first couple of minutes, they were toe-to-toe.”
He just needs a little more work, Graham said.
Pauls looked strong and quickly had an apparent advantage during his fight.
“I had a great start, but he had a vicious kick to my right leg,” Pauls said, and he hit the back of Pauls’ head and “rang my bell.”
Pauls pushed forward to end the fight as quickly as possible and took the fight to the ground.
“I was too aggressive and shoved my head right underneath his arm, and he just did me in,” Pauls said. Moreno put him in a rear guillotine. Pauls hit him twice in the side, but Moreno applied more pressure to Pauls’ Adam’s apple. Pauls couldn’t breathe and had to tap out.
Pauls is strong, and he likes to use his head to maneuver, Graham said. He had his opponent on strength alone, but the strategy didn’t answer his opponent’s technique.
“This guy that he’s fighting is known for Muay Thai, Graham said. The strategy going in was to take the fight to the ground and take away that tool.
“I’m happy with my movements, and how I worked into him,” Pauls said, but he should have gone ahead and stood with Moreno and “banged it out.”
“Brad’s going to try to fight on the next one (Capital City Cage Fights), which is in April,” Graham said.