The FFC has definitely made a good move by coming to Skopje, Macedonia! A crowd of some 6,000 enjoyed 12 fantastic fights, and there was certainly no shortage of knockouts, great moves and perfect strikes, so it's no wonder that the spectators were on their feet many times during the night. The atmosphere was truly electric!
The event was opened with a fight between young Macedonian Slobodan Kajmakoski and his Croatian counterpart Teo Mikelic. In an excellent battle, Teo was the more dominating combatant by a small margin. As the fight neared its end, Slobodan was having trouble keeping up with the pace and the referee had to count down for him twice. Teo ultimately won via unanimous decision.
Igor Emkic dominated against Greece's Mavropoulos. The Bosnian fighter clearly has a sizable fan base in Macedonia as well, and carried by this support he overcame his opponent rather easily.
What followed was a fierce clash between Shkodran Veseli and Ile Risteski. The match didn't take long to finish, as it was all over after only one minute, when Shkodran landed a high kick to knock out one of the best Macedonian kickboxers.
Igor Mihaljevic lost on points to Tomas Hron, and Mladen Brestovac continued on his victory path with another triumph, this time beating Belgian giant Kirk Krouba.
Rustemi Kreshnik definitely justified all expectations, showing why he had already been a participant at some major events. Dino Belosevic had trouble finding a way to oppose him, even though he landed many quality strikes, but, ultimately, Rustemi accumulated more points on the scoresheets.
The MMA section began with Croatian Matija Blazicevic and Macedonian Viktor Stojanov, and the latter proved not much of a threat for his opponent. Matija dominated throughout the fight, getting a TKO win.
When the time came for the Macedonian Risto Dimitrov and Greek Georgios Vardis to face each other, the crowd went berserk, loudly supporting the local fighter, and he responded in the best possible way – by winning.
Patrik Peresa lost his FFC debut in the last minute of the third round. The fighter hailing from Pula, Croatia, had a marginal lead during the fight, and he would have almost surely won via decision had the match not ended prematurely, as Enev managed to finish him with a guillotine choke.
Vaso Bakocevic reaffirmed his reputation as a true showman, delighting the crowd with his dancing antics in the ring, and he went home happy as he put a stop on a losing streak. He went back to winning ways via unanimous decision.
Gzim Selmani bounced back after his heavy defeat in Osijek earlier this year with an instant win in Macedonia. Already in the first half of round one he defeated Tomaz Simonic by an arm triangle.
Finally, it was time for the main event. Nestoras Batzelas confronted former UFC champion Ricco Rodriguez, who had one of the best fighters of all time, Mirko Filipovic, in his corner. In an attractive fight, Ricco dominated for the most part, even landing an excellent high kick at one point. Ricco also got a big round of applause for the attempt captured on the photo above, and a little later he proceeded to win the fight via TKO.
FFC 10 MMA
Ricco Rodriguez def. Nestoras Batzelas – TKO R2 3:33
Gzim Selmani def. Tomaz Simonic – submission (arm triangle) R1 1:54
Vaso Bakocevic def. Stanislav Enchev – unanimous decision
Kostadin Enev def. Patrick Peresa – submission (guillotine)
Risto Dimitrov def. Georgios Vardis – unanimous decision
Matija Blazicevic def. Viktor Stojanov – TKO R2 1:51
FFC 10 KB
Rustemi Kreshnik def. Dino Belosevic – unanimous decision
Mladen Brestovac def. Kirk Krouba – unanimous decision
Tomas Hron def. Igor Mihaljevic – unanimous decision
Shkodran Veseli def. Ile Risteski – KO R1 1:15
Igor Emkic def. Kleanthis Mavropoulos – unamios decision
Teo Mikelic def. Slobodan Kajmakoski – unamios decision