As fight fans piled into the Winstar World Casino on Saturday night for King of the Cage: Total Construction, little did they know that the night would bring a whirlwind of action.

With a stacked fight card and two title fights capping off the night, fans buckled up and were taken on a ride. The night would include questionable scoring, big submissions, and devastating finishes.

Means Mangles Brown

To say that Tim Means is a fighter in another class than Tyrel Brown would be inaccurate. However, a hungry Means did show up to fight on Saturday and demonstrated just exactly why he is the champ.

Already the King of the Cage junior welterweight champ and having defended his title twice, Means reached out and snatched the vacant lightweight belt from Brown’s reach.

The fight only took a lightning fast 40-seconds to come to a conclusion. Both fighters came out looking to strike when Means caught Brown with a knee to the body that clearly left Brown hurt.

Looking to capitalize on this opportunity Means pinned Brown against the cage delivering repeated knees to the body and head until Brown dropped. From there Means threw a barrage of strikes until Big John McCarthy had to step in and stop the fight.

O’ Grady Outlasts Albrecht

The welterweight title fight between Dom O’Grady and Bill Albrecht went the distance and turned out to be a battle of attrition. The five-round fight featured some exciting exchanges but was spent mostly on the canvas with O' Grady grinding away at Albrecht and Albrecht attacking from his back.

The fight started with both fighters looking to exchange but quickly O’ Grady took the fight to the mat, looking to impose his will. Albrecht took the opportunity to attack from his back. The first round found its end with O’Grady attacking from side control.

Round two seemed to reverse the first as Albrecht reversed a takedown attempt getting O’Grady to the ground for more submission attempts. After another series of submission attempts the fight was stood up and both fighters finished the round banging. At this point in the fight Albrecht looked exhausted and it didn’t look like either fighter had a lot in their gas tanks.

Rounds three, four, and five were almost identical with O’ Grady getting Albrecht on the mat and attacking the rear naked choke. At one point Albrecht came close to a submission but O’Grady held the more dominant position for the majority of the bout attacking with strikes and submission attempts.

When the fight ended it was clear that O’ Grady was the new champion but you were left wondering how one of the judges scored the bout 48-47 for Albrecht. The remaining two judges scored the fight 48-47 and 49-46 for O’ Grady. The later of the scores were a better reflection of O’ Grady’s dominance and he is a well-deserved champion.

Undercard Disappointment

The undercard of this fight card was far from lacking in action but delivered several surprising outcomes to fights that were thought to go the other way.

Undefeated Treston Thomison faced pro debut fighter Mike Maldonado who was considered the underdog. While both fighters are considered submission specialists, both came out swinging and Thomison was caught with some huge blasts. The fight would only last 31 seconds ending in a flurry of shots from Maldonado. Thomison later would say that he was not hurt and believed that the fight was an early stoppage.

Thomison went into this fighter number five in the King of the Cage bantamweight rankings. While this may find itself changing one thing is certain and that is that Thomison will come back stronger, faster, and better than before. He will continue to be a force to be reckoned with and will make his mark in King of the Cage.

Former HIT Squad member Cortez Coleman looked to be a more experienced fighter sporting a better record against Terrell Thomas. The first round of the bought featured explosive exchanges that made it clear that Coleman wanted the finish. However it was Thomas’ wrestling that turned out to be the highlight.

While only taking down Coleman once in the first round, Thomas put on a clinic in the second round on a clearly exhausted Coleman. Too tired to defend Thomas’ submission attempts Coleman would lose to a rear naked choke. While suffered his second consecutive loss, Coleman is a driven fighter who is making his return to the cage following a break from training and fighting. This fight will serve as motivation to take his game to the next level. After the fight Coleman revealed that he was very dehydrated and that is what contributed to his lack of energy.

The first major disappointment of the night came in a women’s bout between Liz Carreiro and Anita Rodriguez. Both ladies showed up to fight and laid it all on the line for three rounds. The fight was fought on the feet and both fighters went back and forth landing some serious combinations. In the end the judges scored the fight a unanimous decision for Rodriguez.

This fight was incredibly close and looked to have gone either way. However with the judges scoring the victory for Rodriguez it seems that at the least it should have come across as a split decision. In a fight that had no one fighter completely dominating the fight it seems unrealistic for all three judges to give every round to Rodriguez. Carreiro fought her heart out and if given the chance will prove herself to be a top women’s MMA fighter.

The remaining four undercard bouts ended with finishes as Brad Nordquist, Terry Acker, and Chris White solidified their victories with submissions over their opponents while Sidiah Parker once again used his heavy hands to put away a tough Ryan McCurdy. The following are the full results

Tim Means defeated Tyrel Brown via TKO due to knees at :40 of 1st round
Dom O’ Grady defeated Bill Albrecht via split decision (48-47 O’Grady, 48-47 Albrecht, 49-46 O’Grady)
Mike Maldonado defeated Treston Thomison via tko at :31 of the 1st round
Terrell Thomas defeated Cortez Coleman via rear naked choke at 4:07 of the 2nd round
Sidiah Parker defeated Ryan McCurdy via tko due to strikes at 2:27 of the 1st round
Chris White defeated Tony Quintero via arm bar at :30 of the 1st round
Anita Rodriguez defeated Liz Carreiro via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Terry Acker defeated Turrell Galloway via rear naked choke at 4:20 of the 2nd round
Brad Nordquist defeated David Roberts via triangle choke at 4:00 of the 1st round