Samantha 11-0 The Amazing Spider-Mouth
I travelled down to London a day earlier (Thursday 8th November) to watch the City Warriors Model Fight Night event where four of the MWM athletes were competing (Nina Foxx, Kryptonite, Tiger and Isabella). Great to see the MWM (
www.mwmuk.net) management team there too and Trinity Star. I’ll not give away any results in case City Warriors are selling videos of the bouts. But a couple of sentences on each. Nina Foxx was against an opponent who had an excellent defence but found a way round it involving a body shot followed by point scoring punches to the head. There was always the risk of taking a punch when throwing the body shot but Nina kept moving and working. Kryptonite was up against an opponent who was in a heavier weight category, she was also ill on the night and in hind-sight should not have started. Don’t worry about the audience Kryptonite, your health is the top priority. Tiger kept the tempo high against her opponent, excellent footwork and great stamina. It was a close one and both athletes did well. Isabella had been dancing away with her supporters during the interval and I mean energetic dancing and I was worried she might not have any energy left for the fight! How wrong I was, this was the last bout of the evening and the two athletes set a heck of a place from the outset and just kept going right to the end. Great ducking and weaving in defence by Isabella, also giving her a way in without conceding punches. This match was just brilliant, both athletes throwing great single punches and combinations, Isabella was coming forward more which helped keep the weight behind the punches.
I had a good night’s sleep, and exchanged texts with Jim the Strangler to discuss tactics. I advised Jim that I would avoid letting her get my back because I knew she had got rear naked chokes for several points against Jim earlier this year. Jim advised to concentrate on her arms to tire her out and I also reckoned keeping on top as much as possible would make her work, tire and maybe I could snatch a late point. OK that was the mega-plan – so what happened in reality?
I spent the morning at the Imperial War Museum which was near my hotel, then the tube train up to Camden Town where I met Samantha and one of the MWM management. Samantha was looking fit, this was the first time I’d seen her, very attractive athlete as well, great sense of humour and easy to get along with. We entered the studio and I set up my computer to tweet updates, quick shower and then changed into green t-shirt and shorts, Samantha wore all black long sleeve top and light training bottoms that wend down just below the knee.
We started each round on our knees and it was not long before I realised how good Samantha was and how well Jim The Strangler had done to lose 4-6 to her. She reached diagonally with her right arm for the tight side of my head to get round the back, I evaded this but Sammie had a Plan B which she executed efficiently and effectively. After only a minute, Sammie had me in a guillotine hold and I had to tap.
The next round was much longer as I defended and frustrated some of Samantha’s moves, but I did not really get any moves on myself. Samantha had a few attempts at pinning me but my shoulder was always up before the count reached 5 and so she did not try pinning me for the rest of the bout and went for submissions instead. I was on my back but managed to get my legs round her waste, but she dug the elbows in and it forced me to loosen my grip on her. She pressed her chest down on mine and I grabbed her round the back with my arms to try and control her, even tried an upside down grapevine on her, … that was never going to work. Samantha got me with a kimura on my right arm. 2-0 to Samantha.
In round 3, Samantha again went for a kimura, but my arm strength allowed me to resist and my other arm connected to help me escape. Samantha then had me in a grapevine, but I vigorously worked my legs and one got free. However, I was then in a one legged grape vine that was more even more painful than the orthodox one. I held on and resisted but while I was focusing on the legs, Samantha’s fist was placed on my throat and I had to submit. 3-0 to Samantha. She is a bit of a perfectionist and said it should have been the forearm on the throat.
By this stage, I had got the measure of the guillotine attempts at the round openings and as she tried to keep her arms over mine as we locked up, I kept moving an arm over her’s. She tried to get my head with her left arm but her arm was behind her doing this and I was able to escape by keeping her other arm from connecting. But this only delayed the inevitable when Samantha found another way to make me submit, gaining a kimura, this time on the left arm. 4-0 to Samantha. At this point, she asked what my record defeat is! 20 rounds (8-28 v Sydney at LWS in 2007 and 1-21 against Demon at LWS in 2008 before she moved on to become Malicia at Monica’s WC). I guessed I might be in for a tough match as Samantha was looking for that record.
Struggling away in round 5, and Samantha was on top and had my left thigh trapped between her left thighs and was squeezing hard. It was a bit painful but not enough to make me submit. Then she tried another kimura but I slipped out because I was sweating quite a bit at this stage. I joked that my lack of fitness was a defence mechanism to help me sweat and slip out of holds …. “you can be too fit!”. However, a forearm to throat made it 5-0 to Samantha after another long round that meant the chances of her beating me by a record score difference of 21 were diminishing.
In round 6, Samantha pulled me down on top, and I avoided being pulled into a body scissors but as soon as I celebrated being on top, she told me she just fancied a change! I tried to get her arms planted, but could not get in a balanced position where I was in full mount . I tried a cross body pin but could not get her right arm between my legs. Eventually, I was toppled and Samantha worked her way on top and I had to submit to a breast smother. 6-0 to Samantha.
During the match, I had been using my spider defence which involves lying on my back and pushing the opponent’s leg down and then capturing it with my legs. I used this again in round 7 and Sammie said “here we are again!” She discovered my sides were ticklish which had me squirming but she did not tickle me much, she wanted to win each point on shear wrestling ability. She got me with another breast smother after my attempts to keep her away from my face finally dwindled. Samantha says she has never seen a man trying to avoid breasts so much! I speculated that maybe I might be gay without knowing it! It was a good humoured bout with a lot of comments throughout. I had to also explain why I’m called The Amazing Spider-Mouth – for the un-initiated, it is because I occasionally wrestle in a Spiderman outfit, and I mouth off that I can defeat my female opponents but can rarely back this up on the mats.
I tried a body scissors again in round 8, but Sammie used the elbows again to force me to retract the move. She then had my neck as I was lying sideways on the mat. My body was behind hers and I tried to get her legs with my ankles to pull her back towards my body and prize my way out of the neck hold. My arms were not able to get out of the neck hold, but the neck hold was not making me submit either, so once again Samantha went for the breast smother and this time it was one of her breasts that had me struggling for air and I had to tap. 8-0 to Samantha. I went to type an update of the score in twitter and had to tell my followers that if my typing deteriorates it is because I'm in oxygen debt!
With 10 minutes to go, Samantha wants a double figures score-line and I’ll not be able to stop her I don’t think. I was using my spider-defence to avoid body scissors, head scissors and my opponent getting the full mount position. She tried a kimura on my right arm, but I reached round behind her with my left to pull one of her arms away. I was trying to climb out from under her to the side – “oh no you don’t!” Sammie said. I tried to get up but she got my back and applied one had to my jaw which I kept there to protect my throat. She pulled my chin up to get her other forearm in, right on the wind pipe and I submitted. 9-0 as Samantha got the rear naked choke.
Samantha was on top again in round 10 but I was shifting and moving across the mats towards the wall to give me leverage to turn her over, still “arsing about” as I called it. I commented that I was seeing a lot of the ceiling. Sammie replied women were more used to that! I used the wall to get up to my knees but Sammie attempted a guillotine which I had to methodically unravel. Sammie was moving terrifically and got my back and I had to pull her arms away as she tried for the rear naked choke again. I ended up on my back again and a forearm to the throat had me submitting. 10-0 and time for one more round.
I struggled hard as ever in the last round and escaped another guillotine attempt and got Sammie’s back but failed to get the nelson move on before Sammie was rolling out and to the side and coming at me face on again. She got the full mount position and was working my arms, I slipped my body down between her legs and reached under one of her thighs with my hand because I wanted to slip out behind her. However, she had me totally planted on the mats. She finished the match in style with another kimura, 11-0 to Samantha. It was an awesome session, we hugged and I congratulated her on her win. I don’t think it is fair to compare this performance with my 20 point losses of 2007 and 2008. I’m a much better athlete now and more recent high scoring defeats have been against international stars such as Ina Black from Bulgaria (17-0), Gloria from Czech Republic (8-0 in a 20 min bout), and Tia from Hungary (9-0). Sammies 11-0 win today is my biggest defeat at MWM but I am pleased with my performance with a couple of rounds lasting 10 mins. It was a safe and fun work out and we both enjoyed it.
I quickly got showered and changed, met Cam as we were leaving, great to catch up on the after-party for the City Warriors event. Samantha gave me a lift back to Camden Town station - her black car matching the black she wore in today’s match. Thanks Cam for organising the session and tanks Samantha for a great match – you were superb xx
