Vitale wins, Cabbage loses in mixed martial arts event

By Michael Tsai

Falaniko Vitale defeated Mavrick "Soul Collector" Harvey with a controversial first-round TKO and Wesley "Cabbage" Correira lost a grinding match to Texas fighter Chris "Monster" Marez at last night at X-1 World Events' Xtreme Fighter 2 at Blaisdell Arena.

A crowd of more than 3,000 watched as Vitale shrugged off a vicious kick to the head and wrestle Harvey to the canvas. Vitale then maneuvered onto Harvey's back, where he delivered nearly a dozen blows before the match was called.

Harvey, who remained on the canvas clutching his head and neck for several minutes, later blamed the referee for allowing Vitale to strike the back of his head, which is illegal in the sport.

"They should have (separated) us after the first one or two, but he got seven shots in," Harvey said.

Vitale said that if he inadvertantly struck the back of Harvey's head, it was because Harvey was turning away from his punches.

"I leave that to the referee," Vitale said.

In the other main event, Marez, a corrections officer, outpunched Correira to gain the decision, despite fighting with a badly bruised right thigh, which he suffered during a sparring accident two weeks ago.

"There was not much difference between us," Correira said. "I thought I could put him down, but he was just too big."

Full Results
Chris "Monster" Marez def. Wesley Correira (3rd rd. dec)
Falaniko Vitale def. Mavrick Harvey (1st rd. TKO)
Kaleo Kwan def. Danny Steele (3rd rd. dec)
Mark Moreno def. Nik Lentz (1st rd. TKO)
Shane Nelson def. Kolo Koka (3rd rd. dec)
Brett Rogers def. Deutsch Puu (2nd rd. KO)
Paco Woods def. Kaipo Gonzales (3 rd. dec)
Dave Moreno def. David Padilla (2 rd. submission - choke)
Harris Sarimento def. Henry Martinez (3 rd. dec)
Fernando Gonzalez def. Jay Carter (3 rd. dec)
Tonya Evinger def. Shoni Plagmann (2 rd. KO)

(Source)