ILLINI MMA CENTRAL: O'CONNOR & MOLOGOUSIS
Welcome to your first fight promotion, Austin O'Connor, now here's your first fight!
As you can see, the fight is set for June 9 in Rosenberg, Texas. Having lived in five different cities that span Texas from South to North and from left to right, I can say that I had never heard of Rosenberg. The city has a population of 38,282, and is about 30 miles out of Houston.
Most importantly, Rosenberg is about 50 miles from Tomball, Texas, which is where War Training Center is located. Fontenot fights out of War Training Center in Tomball, Texas. Those two cities are on the opposite sides of Houston.
Hopefully, there won't be any homers judging the bout.
June in Texas will already be very hot and extremely humid. (I lived in Beaumont about 80 miles away, and it is swampland; still never heard of Rosenberg or Tomball.). At least there will be easy travel from Chicago to Houston.
According to Tapology, Camden "Cam" Fontenot is 3-1 with a #27 bantamweight ranking in the State of Texas. Thing is, this bout will be fought at featherweight. Three of his four fights have been in Texas, one in Florida. Of his three Texas fights, two were in the Houston Area.
Fontenot's loss was by Guillotine choke. I'm not a betting man, but I'd wager that's how his next match will end, or perhaps a rear-naked choke. Front or back, it doesn't matter which. His three wins all went the distance and two of them were split decisions.
His last fight was about a year ago, and it was at bantamweight or 135 pounds. He weighed in at 137.2 pounds. This bout will be at 145 pounds, or featherweight, and there might be a one-pound allowance given it is a non-title bout. As we all know, Austin won his NCAA championships at 157 and 149. He last wrestled at 149 in 2021.
Fontenot has a wrestling background. He was a regional qualifier in Pennsylvania as a Sophomore, then moved down to Texas and won a state title. He wrestled for Pennsylvania at Fargo in both Freestyle and Greco and was apparently recruited to wrestle at Pitt but didn't wrestle a match for them.
Even with just four professional fights, there is a nice chunk of MMA video of Fontenot. He is on the left in the image below. Here he loses by that guillotine at about 3:43, though he claims that he didn't tap out:
The match at this link is on Instagram and was a disputed split decision. Fontenot's last bout is also on YouTube and it was a unanimous decision win:
In two of his fights on video, the Texan came out swinging wildly, basically leaving himself unprotected, then went for an immediate takedown. He was able to dominate the ground game against these guys, but how will that same ground game stack up against a 2x NCAA Champion?
Even in his last videotaped match above, he went very quickly to a double-leg takedown, without the bull rush, and just enjoyed his superior wrestling skillset.
Austin should have a one-inch height advantage and, depending upon the weigh-in times, a decided weight advantage. The fight will be on UFC Fight Pass. Check it out!
JOHNNY MOLOGOUSIS
Holy Mike Tyson's Knockout, Batman! Johnny Mologousis is thrashing people alive in the cage. His very angry hands--you might call them fists of fury--have disposed of opponents in record time.
This is what the last guy looked like:
As ILLINI fans know, but we should note for other readers, Austin O'Connor is an Assistant Coach for the ILLINI Wrestling team. Johnny Mologousis was a starter for the ILLINI, mostly at 157. This was one of our favorite Goose bits until we realized he was Greek and not Italian. D'oh!
Mologousis has already had three fights even though his first bout took place in February of last year. He's 3-0, and he's yet to see a second round. Here's his page at Tapology. And here's his last go round, which lasted 32 seconds:
Below, you can see his debut. The fight announcement lasted longer than the 71-second fight. The post-fight interview was three-times longer than the fight:
Johnny has fought out of the APFC promotion, but for how much longer? He has been Mr. Excitement with his furious takedowns and then letting the leather fly!
JESSE DELGADO
Another two-time NCAA Champion put the gloves on and fought MMA in the Bellator promotion, retiring undefeated at 1-0. (We've seen him with the gloves on in pretty recent videos, so we don't know if he might attempt a comeback.
He is running Relentless Training Center (South) in Champaign now, right out of the ILLINI facility at Huff Hall. Here's his Tapology page and this is a link to his pro debut and retirement fight all rolled up into one.
That video is on YouTube, but Bellator will only let us watch it there. So, here's a video of Jesse's glory days in what we call The World's Coolest NCAA Championship Wrestling Scramble:
MARIO GONZALEZ
You remember him as your 197 pound Big Ten Champion for the Fighting ILLINI, but he's also a World Champ. In Warsaw, Poland last year, Mario beat a giant viking-type dude in the Gold Medal match. This is a tiny part of his amazing story:
If you're in the Chicago-land area, you can find Mario at his Grappling school, The Barracks. As it says on the home page: "Click below to sign up for a FREE WEEK." Learn from the World Champ!
DEUCE RACHAL, WE RACHAL, ERIC BARONE & MOUSA JODEH
Fighting out of Lakeside BJJ, what amounts to half an ILLINI Wrestling team starting lineup, you have Blackbelt Deuce Rachal, We Rachal, Eric Barone and Mousa Jodeh. Additionally, we recently heard that Joey Gunther and at least one unnamed former Purdue wrestler works out at this center. That's more than half of a B1G starting lineup! How fricking cool is this picture?
Our words can't do it justice.
BRYAN MEDLIN
We feel like idiots not including the Godfather of ILLINI MMA in the post when we first posted. He used to do the thing back when it was a new and very scary thing. Big props for the courage! Here's his Sherdog page and from that site, an image:
He was the OG.
And he downplays it now--Brian Swaw had to do some research to find out about this glorious past--but you can see the fighter in him when some Greco ref ***** up a call!
This man has the credentials to teach you Folkstyle wrestling, Freestyle, Greco, and MMA. What else can he do?
BROOKS BLACK
A big time recruit for ILLINI Wrestling became a starter, was beset by injuries, but now he's back and he's bad! He just had a fight and a win in the cage. Here he is celebrating in the post-fight interview:
Here's his Tapology page, which hasn't been updated yet with his arm triangle win. Brooks or "Big Rig" as he's called in the cage is now a co-Head Coach for the Union County High School wrestling team.
IZZY MARTINEZ
Although not affiliated with the ILLINI team (although he did get a very cool ILLINOIS state patch with a big orange "I" on his new singlets), there is another OG in Izzy Martinez. He's coaching in the area, and he's been on the biggest MMA stages. I don't think you can call him a greybeard yet, but his knowledge of the fight game is certainly greybearded.
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