Saturday, May 30th featured 18 live mixed martial arts fights at the Hammond Civic Center.  Total Fight Challenge 15 featured fighters from all around the area, with the main event of Charles Wilson vs Rob Menigoz.

With the TFC amateur fights being 2 rounds each, 3 out of the first 4 fights resulted in draws, including a 155 pound amateur title fight between Martin Jimenez and Eric Rasmussen.  Although the crowd seemed unhappy, the judges scored the fights correctly, and due to simple math, 1-1 would result in an equal score.

In that title fight, Rasmussen was able to dominate the stand up during the first round, dropping Jimenez twice with straight crosses.  Jimenez clinched to avoid the powerful shots delivered by Rasmussen.  Rasmussen however was still able to trade knees with Jimenez to end the first round. Second round came as Jimenez shot a double leg takedown on Rasmussen and successfully gained mount.  Rasmussen gave up his back, where Martin Jimenez road his hooks nearly the entire round looking for a rear naked choke.  With about 15 seconds left, Rasmussen managed to roll into Jimenez’s guard, but the round soon ended.  The fight was scored a Draw, with Rasmussen winning the first round, and Jimenez winning the second.  Despite there being no winner, the fight was very exciting.

Another exciting fight featured Torres fight Eric Oria vs Xtreme Couture Illinois Grey Reddington in the bantamweight division.  Oria was able to control Reddington with relentless takedowns throughout the first round.  Second round similar to the first, as Oria kept up with a ground and pound resulting in winning by TKO.

The fastest ending of the night featured Jeff Neal’s Torrey Vogel vs Team Terror’s Roscoe Cook.  Torrey landed a devastating straight cross that dropped Cook to the mat as Torrey Vogel continued to throw down punches until the ref came in to stop, resulting in a 13 second TKO victory.

An amateur Featherweight title was up for grabs featuring Milan Milutinovic vs Brandon Harrison.  The fight kicked off with Milan scoring a double leg takedown.  Very soon after being taken down, Brandon Harrison made it back up to his feet and was able to take Milan down. Harrison threw punches from Milan’s guard as the ref stopped the fight declaring a TKO, gaining the first ever TFC Featherweight Title.

Another quick ending featured Mark Sinclair vs Brian Fielder.  Sinclair shot in for a takedown, but did not position his head correctly, resulting in a 21 second submission victory for Brian Fielder by Guillotine Choke.

In the lightweight division, Team No Ego’s Dan Rodriguez faced off against Duneland Vale Tudo’s Darren Elkins.  Although Elkins’ last fight was over 6 months ago at C3 Domination against Pat Curran, he showed no ring rust whatsoever by taking Rodriguez down and controlling position.  With an escape attempt by Rodriguez, Elkins successfully took his back and sunk in the rear naked choke to get the victory.

Co-Main Event came as local favorite Juan Magana took on Brent Mehrhoff.  This fight did not give the audience something to cheer about.  Brent scored a takedown in round one where Juan claimed guard.  Although not that much action, the fighters were not stood up, rather stayed where they were at for the entire round.  Second round was much the same, although near the end, Juan managed to get to his knees and gain top position, however was nearly caught in an armbar.  On his way to defend, the bell rang ending the second round. Third round came as Mehroff landed a spinning back kick to the body of Magana, and shot in again.  He became a little more active with his ground and pound until the end of the fight.  Mehrhoff was awarded a Unanimous Decision.

The main event was in the Bantamweight division, with a vacant title up for grabs.  The fight was between Charles Wilson and Rob Menigoz, scheduled for 5, 5 minute rounds.  The majority of the first 2 rounds had Menigoz take Charles Wilson down, as Wilson would get back to his feet, and look for a takedown himself, after a few minutes of exchaging punches, knees, and kicks on the feet.  The last 3 rounds were in Menigoz’s favor, with more successful takedown attempts, takedown defenses, and a more active ground game.  The judges scored the fight a Unanimous Decision for Rob Menigoz as he gained the 135 lb TFC Championship title.