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By Astrid Bidanec

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• Boffil clinches Hernandez

TAMPA, Fla., April 17, 2009— Real Fighting Championships (RFC) hosted the mixed martial arts (MMA) event, "Street Kings," at a sold-out A La Carte Pavilion. Ring announcer Duane Spires dedicated a moment of silence to Charles “Mask” Lewis, who died in a car accident on March 11, 2009. Lewis was the co-founder of the well-known MMA promotion and clothing company, TapOut.

The fight card consisted of eight professional bouts with Eddy “The Hulk” Hernandez vs. Chris Boffil as main event.

The Hulk made it clear that he meant business when he signaled Boffil that he would cut his throat as referee Hosegood explained the fight rules.

Boffil, however, did not seem shaken and fought off Hernandez’ attacks by clinching him. This strategy only saved him for 1:20 minutes before Hernandez landed a destructive punch that sent Boffil straight to the mat. Referee Hosegood called the fight before Hernandez could continue his punishment of Boffil.

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• Thurlow kicks Petus

The double debut of Daniel Petus vs. Jeremy Thurlow was one of the bloodiest fights of the night. A vicious cut below Petus’ eye resulted early on from Thurlow’s rain of elbows during the intense ground-and-pounding he unleashed on Petus. Both fighters seemed somewhat out of gas in round two with the action slowing down significantly. At 3:02 in round two Thurlow submitted Petus via rear naked choke, and referee Waugh awarded Thurlow the win.

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• Ocasio attempts a triangle choke on Cenobie

Brandon Ocasio put his excellent jiu jitsu skills on display in his fight against the debuting Chute Fighter, Patrick Cenobie. An immediate takedown by Ocasio led to intense ground-and-pounding of Cenobie. Cenobie was not ready to quit yet, though, and fought his way back into a stand-up game only to be taken down by Ocasio again and again, followed by brutal blows to his head and several submission attempts by Ocasio. At the end of round one Cenobie made one brief attempt to submit Ocasio via guillotine choke, but Ocasio slipped right out of it. Round two started off with a low blow by Cenobie. Ocasio had a hard time recovering from the unintentional foul and was forced to quit at 0:21 minutes into round two.  Referee Hosegood declared Cenobie the winner.

Due to some confusion in regards to the Ocasio vs. Cenobie decision Referee Troy Waugh stated:" In this case his corner stepped up on the apron of the ring and stopped the fight (similar to throwing in the towel) prior to the 5 minutes being up. Because his corner stopped the fight prior to the 5 minutes it did not go to the official Florida rules of declaring the fight a technical draw or no contest as result of the unintentional foul."

Watch the Ocasio vs. Cenobie fight below:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWzXlCix-04[/youtube]

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• Referee Waugh tends to the knocked out Brashears

Allen Arzeno impressed the audience with the fastest knockout of the evening. He dealt Brandon Brashears a destructive right hook that sent him straight to the mat at 0:46 minutes of round one.

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• Greeson pounds Berisha

Hysen Berisha and Mike Greeson were the only fighters who punished each other for the entire three rounds that were scheduled. While it was hard to tell the two apart during the fight due to the matching red shorts, it was clear that Greeson was landing more of his punches and kicks. Bresha nevertheless put good effort into various takedown attempts which led to a frequent switch between ground-and-pound and stand-up action. In round two, Greeson maintained the upper hand although he was bleeding from cuts below his right eye and on his left cheek bone. Berisha showed signs of fatigue in round three when he stumbled after several hard punches from Greeson. Although Greeson was bleeding severely and seemed to have suffered extensive damage, he managed to throw in a last-minute bonus for the audience when he attempted a flying knee kick that did not connect. It might have done the trick for the judges, though, as they scored the bout in Greeson’s favor and awarded him the win.

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• Barboza and Steadman

Edson Barbazo was the only fighter on the card who was debuting far from his home in Brazil. Nevertheless, he was able to overcome the also debuting Aaron Steadman’s home-turf advantage by unleashing a fury of incredibly fast kicks, knees and punches straight from the start. This impressive performance immediately earned him the very vocal audience’s admiration. Steadman, on the other hand, was not able to find his own rhythm and suffered several cuts to his face. Barbazo finally sealed the deal with a devastating blow to Steadman’s head that knocked him out at 3:34 in round one. Referee Waugh awarded Barbazo the win.

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• Murphy pounds Lee

The RFC veteran, Jack Murphy, was visibly hungry for a win after his recent loss to Brian Eckstein at Cage Warriors in January. He went toe to toe with J. Lee, exchanging powerful kicks and punches. Lee was able to escape several submission holds by Murphy and reverse the fight advantage with choking attempts of his own. While the action in round one was very fast with both fighters giving their maximum effort, Murphy was able to wear Lee out with his merciless ground-and-pound in round two. Referee Hosegood called the fight at 4:29 in round two and awarded Murphy the win.

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• Cabral submits Byrnes via arm bar

Marcelo Cabral stunned the audience in the final fight of the night when he submitted Micheal Byrns with an arm bar just as the time keeper was about to ring the bell at the end of round one. Byrns will probably forever remember the expression ‘saved by the bell’ as a bitter afterthought.