By Randy Griffith
\nTHE TRIBUNE-DEMOCRAT<\/p>\n
Johnstown’s Carlton Haselrig’s first mixed martial arts cage fight in his hometown started the same way countless others have: With a takedown by the former six-time national NCAA wrestling champion.<\/p>\n
But Haselrig’s debut in the Cambria County War Memorial Arena got a little more interesting when opponent Chris Larkin managed a vicious headlock and the two grappled intensely until Hasselrig freed his head and took control.<\/p>\n
Unlike NCAA rules, punching is allowed in mixed martial arts. The hometown crowd erupted as Haselrig pushed the more-experienced fighter against the cage fence and opened what he later called “a barrage of punches”\u009d on Larkin’s head, face and body.<\/p>\n
It didn’t take long for the referee to see Larkin had enough.<\/p>\n
He stopped the fight at 3:18 in the first round, upping Haselrig’s professional record to 3-1. Larkin drops to 6-6-1.<\/p>\n
After the fight, Haselrig took time to greet fans and pose for pictures with former coaches at Pitt-Johnstown, where he earned six national wrestling championships before going on to a pro football career as a lineman for the Steelers.<\/p>\n
Home cooking was the icing on his latest victory, Haselrig said.<\/p>\n
“As you can see right here,”\u009d Haselrig said, extending his arm to the crowd of well-wishers, “you can’t beat this. It’s about love.”\u009d<\/p>\n
The fight was a learning experience, Haselrig said.<\/p>\n
“I had the takedown,”\u009d he said. “But he got me in the guillotine position. That was my fault, I let my head down. We’ll work on that in the gym.”\u009d<\/p>\n
Hasselrig’s fight capped the Iron Will Fighting Championship 11-bout card, which was the first sanctioned mixed martial arts event in western Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n
The War Memorial crowd was treated to just about everything the fast-growing sport has to offer.<\/p>\n
The night started with another local favorite taking a hard-fought victory in the amateur division.<\/p>\n
“South Fork; South Fork”\u009d Josh Killinger’s cheering section chanted as he was declared unanimous winner over Kevin Myers, 29-28, 29-28 and<\/p>\n
30-27.<\/p>\n
Killinger’s fight was primarily boxing and kicking, while others involved more grappling.<\/p>\n
Several ended with the loser “submitting”\u009d “often with head locked in a choke hold.<\/p>\n
In the amateurs, Matt Zupon beat Jon Seiber and Tim Landis outlasted Marc Farabaugh, both winning by submission.<\/p>\n
Hollidaysburg’s Charlie Brenneman moved to 8-1 as a pro, beating Chris Thomas with a second-round referee stoppage in the other main event.<\/p>\n
Rounding out the professional fights, Joe Demore won by referee stoppage over Brad Pole; Louis Armezzani beat Curtis Hall by submission; Noe Quintanilla received a unanimous judges’ decision over Jason Trzewieczynski; Ryan Lopez choked Joe Lewis to win by submission; Evan Delong defeated Corey Mahon by submission; and Mitch Whitesel won by referee stoppage over Marcus Ajian.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Randy Griffith THE TRIBUNE-DEMOCRAT Johnstown’s Carlton Haselrig’s first mixed martial arts cage fight in his hometown started the same way countless others have: With a takedown by the former six-time national NCAA wrestling champion. But Haselrig’s debut in the Cambria County War Memorial Arena got a little more interesting when opponent Chris Larkin managed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1,13],"tags":[208,209],"class_list":["post-2972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wrestling","category-mma","tag-carlton-haselrig","tag-mixed-martial-arts"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":6}},"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2B7Di-LW","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2972\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}