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Art of War 13: Results

Tuesday, 21st July 2009 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)

The most recent installment of the Art of War fighting series, Art of War 13: Rising Force, was a bit quieter than the big-time coming out party that was Art of War 12, but still featured plenty of drama.

The third Art of War MMA event this year, Rising Force went down at the Olympic Sports Center Auditorium in Beijing. Here are some of the results and a few observations: (Full results here)

Champ goes down hard
Wu Hao Tian, winner of the main event at Art of War 12, was matched against the shaggy Shukhrat Minovarov from Uzbekistan, who looked like he'd been grabbed out of a pool hall and tossed into the ring. Minovarov came out like a street fighter with a flurry of punches, including a tap to the sweet spot that put Wu on the canvas and ended the fight at 21 seconds into the round. Those 21 seconds felt more like 8, and now the 23-year-old Wu definitely has something to prove next time around.

The Main Event
The main event featured China's Wang Sai, who faced Claes Beverlov of Sweden. Beverlov came in with seven fights under his belt and a record of 5-2; the much less experienced Wang was 2-0. It wasn't the night's most exciting fight, but both
fighters clearly showed up confident and well prepared. Neither Beverlov nor Wang was overwhelmingly dominant, and the Swede won with an arm bar about three minutes into the second round. It was one of those fights that could have gone either way, but it was Beverlov who was able to take advantage of an opportune moment and force his opponent to submit.

Still no win for Dai
The next fight was the complete opposite, pitting Art of War 11 main event fighter Dai Shuanghai (an Inner Mongolian who makes one of the more entertaining entrances among the fighters) against Polish judo champion Marcin Pionke. Neither of the two fighters has much punching or kicking skill, so there was a lot of stalking around the ring waiting for the other guy to swing first. The fight was better when it got to the ground, and Dai opened up a huge gash that had Pionke's left eye bloody red and swollen shut for much of the fight. As no one tapped out before time expired and Art of War uses no judges, the fight ended in a draw. It was Dai's third tie out of three fights, a fact he expressed frustration with in the post-fight interview.

Is this stuff fixed?
That question is still floating around among the general public, mainly due to skepticism about fighting in general and China in particular. The fights look legit to me, and the results seem to support that. Only one Chinese fighter won on Saturday, and that man, Zhang Li Peng, got his win at the expense of his own countryman, Yao Qiang. China went 1-7, with one draw. While rigging the matches in favor of the home team is only one way to fake it, not letting them get one international win wouldn't seem a wise strategy for attracting local fans.

A welcome addition: Mongolia
Art of War 13 introduced two new fighters from Mongolia, Dorjderem Munkhayasgalan and Jadambaa Narantungalag. Mongolia has a strong wrestling tradition, and both fighters showed superior skill and killer instinct en route to wins over much younger opponents. The South Koreans also put in a strong performance, winning all three of their fights.

Watch it all online
The Art of War Web site carries all of its past matches online, beginning with Art of War 1 here.

The next event, Art of War 14: Ground Zero, takes place September 26, moving from Beijing to The Venetian in Macao.

Tags: Art of War, Art of War 13, Beijing Olympic Sports Center Auditorium, Dai Shuanghai, martial arts, mixed martial arts, MMA, Wu Hao Tian