Daily Loaf

SARASOTA, Fla., June 13, 2009 – The Florida State light heavyweight title bout between TJ Cook and Arriell Gandulla was the perfect climax to a night full of exciting mixed martial arts (MMA) action hosted by the Sarasota-based promotion company Art of Fighting (AOF) at the Robarts Arena. There is no doubt that the well-known MMA clothing and promotion company, TapOut, was on a hot lead when they were scouting Cook in September 2008.

Watch the TapOut preview featuring Cook here:

The title bout action can only be compared to a beautifully composed symphony, increasingly picking up in tempo and crescendo, and ending with an amazing and exciting final act that left the audience almost breathless. Even though Cook and Gandulla were scheduled to exchange fists and kicks for five rounds of five minutes each, both fighters made it clear that they had no intention to take up that much time.

Nevertheless, the action in the first round was rather slow with Gandulla holding back his attacks to feel Cook out and find his own rhythm. Cook, on the other hand, seemed extremely comfortable when he came out of his corner swinging and then chased Gandulla through the octagon for most of the first round while scoring several connecting kicks and punches.  About halfway through the first round even the referee got impatient with the lack of action and encouraged both fighters to pick up the pace.

In round two Gandulla finally came out of his shell and launched some attacks of his own without doing major damage to Cook. A successful takedown by Gandulla only resulted in an attempted triangle choke by Cook. Cook just kept increasing his pressure on Gandulla and seemed to dominate the fight throughout the first two rounds without any real challenge from Gandulla.

A few punches landed by Cook early on in round three seemed to suddenly awaken the beast in Gandulla, who turned the tables on Cook by thwarting his takedown with an extremely tight and effective guillotine choke. Just when it seemed like Cook had no choice but to tap out, he used an extraordinary display of willpower to break free from Gandulla’s hold and land a devastating punch to Gandulla’s chin that instantly knocked him out at 1 minute into round 3. The audience was gasping and jumped on its feet while applauding Cook’s incredible performance and his win of the Florida State Light Heavyweight Title.

For complete fight card results and event pics visit MMA SPHERE.

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