Two Sweet Home fighters lost fights Saturday night at Capital City Cage Fights at the Salem Armory.
Trevor Tagle, 2-1, of the Bully Gang lost to Sierran Fletcher, 2-0, of Team Megaton in Eugene at 165 pounds by decision in three rounds.
Brian Giddings, 1-1, a Sweet Home resident who competes for Barracks Gym in Albany, lost in heavyweight action to Isaac Risseuw, 1-1, of Premier Martial Arts in West Linn by knockout in the second round.
The Bully Gang had one more fighter on the card, Brad Furst; but his opponent did not get his blood work finished on time and could not fight. The fight was called off less than an hour before the show.
Two Bully Gang fighters, Nathan Rice and Brad Seiber, did not make the fight card.
Staying on his feet, Tagle more than matched his opponent before Fletcher, also a successful high school wrestler, took Tagle to the ground.
“He took me down at the end, but I got good strikes,” Tagle said. “I threw some flurries.”
In the second round, Fletcher looked tired, which Tagle noticed, he said.
“I was happy with the second round.”
Fletcher took Tagle down, but Tagle reversed it and dropped Fletcher on his head.
In the final round, Fletcher seemed to catch a second wind and took Tagle back to the ground.
“He got on top of me,” Tagle said. “He was just so heavy trying to take him down. I felt like I was trying to take down Nathan Rice.”
Tagle, who won a state high school wrestling championship at 140 pounds two years ago, weighed 161 pounds Saturday night, while Fletcher was fighting down at 165 pounds from a usual 185 pounds.
“He’s consistent, always coming at you, not doing too many dumb things,” Fletcher said of Tagle. “I was expecting wrestling, but he came at me with some swings.”
“It was nice to get out there and swing on my feet,” Tagle said. While he did lose this fight, he could see good improvement in his fighting skill from his first two fights, both of which he won.
“It’s never fun to lose, but it’ll make me work harder,” Tagle said.
Fighting Risseuw, Giddings said he was still conscious in the second round and getting “right back up” when the knockout call was made.
“I felt like I was doing fine at first,” Giddings said, but Risseuw hammered away at Giddings and built a definite advantage.
“The bottom line, I just dropped too much weight,” Giddings said. “I couldn’t do it.”
In a month and a half he cut his weight to 280 from 340 pounds, which, he said, was a factor in the fight.
“I fought my fight, but I just didn’t have what it took,” Giddings said.
New to cage fighting, Giddings said he got into it because he loves the sport, “the competitiveness, the drive to be a contender.”
He started training with Team Spartan, he said. At the time, he lived in Albany, and Albany didn’t have a mixed martial arts team, so he and his brother-in-law, Ryan Miller, opened The Barracks Gym.
Bully Gang owner and manager Cory Graham said the team is planning to field four fighters at the Capital City Cage Fights event in August.