Carpenter started the first round in an advantage position sending Fitial laying flat on the canvass with almost nothing to do except hide his face behind his own gloves.
Like what he said prior to the fight, Fitial is representing the Marianas so he does not want to disappoint everyone.
Carpenter’s ground and pound attempt lasted for minutes before Fitial managed to shrimp his way out of the limbo and finally gained the upper ground.
Carpenter was looking for a take down and Fitial noticed that.
The Big Hit figured out he was dealing with a wrestler so he gave in for the moment as counted on his grappling skill.
“I waited for him to get tired so that I can turn him around and tried my best to keep fighting so the referee would not stop it,” Fitial said.
“It’s painful. But it needs to take your time a little bit. No pain, no gain,” he added.
On top of the situation, Fitial was aiming for the ground and pound this time and he was going to get, in fact many audience believe he already got it, when the bell rang for another round.
That was when mortars of paper cups started landing in the ring while angry spectators roared in dismay.
“It’s the bell thing. I thought I won already. But I just let it go for the second round,” he said.
Fitial managed to set it on a stand up fight and the audience at the ring side witnessed how he knocked Carpenter out halfway to the end of the second round.
The juncture, however officially resulted to a referee stoppage which drove the audience to, again, explode in anger and launched another wave of paper cup strikes.
“It was a nice fight. I tried my best. Like what I told you, I’m going to do it for the island,” he said.
Charleston “The Predator” Aiken put himself and perhaps, everybody in the underdog mood at the start of the round, as Guam Crew 671’s 319-pound Mike “Ogar” Davis landed numerous punches that threw the Predator’s face out of the ring a number of times.
Stand up fighter Davis, seemingly had to take a breath paused for seconds giving Aiken the opportunity he was waiting for.
The bull rush worked as Aiken went for a double-leg take down sending Davis to the edge of the ring.
Aiken said he was telling himself, “Damn it, man you can’t f@#$g knock out! So get up, and kick this guy out,”
Now, he hopes to get a call from Pacific Extreme Combat some time next month so he can get the belt again.
“I may be way underweight but I prove myself now,” Aiken said.
And for Davis to get the PXC belt he had been longing for, Aiken says, “he got to go through me again.”
Two-time Sea East Asian Games gold medalist and Asian Games silver medalist, Eduard Folayang of the Philippines defeated CNMIs’ Jerome Norita by technical knock out in the early part of the first round.
Folayang, a ju-jitsu fighter engaged Norita in a brief chase before sending him down and went for ground for pound.
He greeted his compatriots working on Saipan while being declared winner after the fight.
In the under cards, Predator Combat’s John Borja defeated Team Haga’s Neil Taisacan on a verbal tap out after dealing him with a headlock by the ring.
Robert “The Pitbull” Palacios beat Rick “The Slick” San Nicolas by tap out after a triangle choke.
Zogai’s Shane Camacho TKO’d Lino Borja as he dealt him with ground and pound.
Tara “Tarantula” Namauleg defeated Kristi Halstead by TKO.
Trench Tech’s Jay “Furbs” Santos won when his opponent, Joel Pangelinan failed to show up due to an injury.
