By Alex Villafania, Lawrence Casiraya, Erika Tapalla, Janie Octia, Edzelle Pena and Rastle Lozano

A Venue on Makati Avenue became host to amateur mixed martial arts featuring college students in URCC University Challenge III, and INQUIRER.net was there to record the matches.

In the 11th and last match, Ateneo de Manila University’s Mikhail Ignacio was victorious over Paolo Gomez of De La Salle University, giving Ateneo a 3-0 slate over La Salle in the amateur mixed martial arts event. Ignacio won halfway through the first round when the referee stopped the match. It was the shortest fight of the three main bouts with Gomez unable to recover from Ignacio’s strikes and grapples.

In the 10th match, Niko Presbitero of the De La Salle University started the match strong, firing punches at Ryan Marquez of the Ateneo de Manila University in the tenth match of the URCC University Challenge III being held at the A. Venue events hall in Makati City. In Round 2, however, Marquez started to recover, holding onto Presbitero in a reverse chokehold, forcing him to submit and giving Ateneo its second win over La Salle.

In the ninth match, De la Salle University’s Doi Rodriguez tapped out against Ateneo de Manila’s Ronnie Ticao after a series of ground-and-pound attacks by the latter. In both rounds of the fight, Ticao reigned the ring despite Rodriguez’s attempts to turn the tables against him.

In the eighth match, PMI College’s Jay Co Telan threw wicked roundhouse kicks against opponent Jeff Dogma of Perpetual. During the second round, Telan delivered strikes to the head and stomach of Dogma and almost caught him with an arm bar but ran out of time. Telan finished the eighth match of the evening with ground-and-pound techniques on Dogma, forcing the referee to stop the fight.

In the seventh match, Perpetual’s Giovanni Valenciano dominated University of the East’s Raymond Carlos, delivering several knee-strikes. The fight had to be paused several times when the fighters grappled toward the ropes.

In the sixth match, it was a close battle between fighters Alvin Ramirez of AMA and Kalayaan College’s Carlo Juarez. Both fighters traded good blows but in the end the judges decided Ramirez was the better warrior.

In the fifth match, Miguel Gerard Alo of the University of the Philippines Diliman won against AMA’s JR Amores in the second round. Alo dominated the match against Amores with several body slams. He was able to hold on against a ground-and-pound attack by Amores in the last few seconds of Round 1 but by Round 2, Alo completely dominated the game with a flurry of strikes that became the highlight of the fight.

In the fourth match, San Beda Alabang’s Mike Dula was victorious when the referee stopped his fight against Val Castelano of the De La Salle University early in the third round. Castelano was being pummeled the entire second round and early in the third round, forcing the referee to stop the fight.

In the third match, Lawrence Chan of Emilio Aguinaldo College won via submission at the expense of TESDA’s Robin Pajantoy in the first round via an arm bar. The fight was momentarily stopped when Chan’s headgear was loosened. Chan was losing the match but was able to reverse Pajantoy’s hold in the last few seconds of Round 1.

In the second match, UP Diliman’s Gilbert Ombao was on top of AMA College’s Angelo Christi all throughout the fight, leading the judges to call it in favor of Ombao after the second round.

In the first match, Franz Altarejos of the Entrepreneurs’ School of Asia won via submission using a choke hold against Jonathan Lacson of the University of the Philippines. Altarejos dispatched of Lacson in 43 seconds of the first round, quickly wrapping up the first match.

Visit our URCC University Challenge III Special Site at www.inquirer.net/specialreports/urcc