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ICON SPORT: TO HELL AND BACK
Main Event Coverage
Kala "Kolohe" Hose vs Phil "The New York BadAss" Baroni
Saturday - March 15, 2008 
Kala "Kolohe" Hose is the NEW ICON Sport Middleweight Champion of the World
Rarely has there been an ICON Sport event more aptly named. Kala "Kolohe" Hose finally got his long awaited shot at the ICON Sport middleweight World championship belt, and just like the name of the event says, Kala had to go "to Hell and Back" to come away as the new champ. Kala had to weather a brutal and savage onslaught from Phil "The New York BadAss" Baroni early on in the 1st round. There seemed to be a point during the initial attack from Baroni where it looked like Kala was beaten, and there were a couple of occasions where referee Chris West was close to stopping the fight. Kala, however, persevered and managed to survive and shortly after started to turn the tables on Baroni. Unable to maintain such an intense pace, Baroni inevitably gassed some and Kala seized the opportunity to start in with some punishment of his own. Kala, energized by the deafening roar of the crowd, proceeded to dole out a beating for the next 4 rounds before finally dropping Baroni in the beginning of the 5th round and following up with some hard shots, causing the fight to be stopped. BOTH of these fighters deserve a ton of respect for displaying an incredible amount of heart. Neither seemed willing to quit at any point in the fight and both seemed prepared to go out on their resepctive shields if that's what it came to. In the end, it was Kala "Kolohe" Hose who won the war and became the new world champion. 
Never at a loss for flare, Baroni's ring entrance lived up to the expectations...
Kala came out with his traditional entrance, draped in the original flag of Hawaii, sporting shorts with matching colors...
Baroni surprised many by shooting immediately for the takedown...
Many thought he would stand and trade with Kala for awhile before taking the fight to the ground...
Once Baroni secured position, he began barraging Kala with a series of very hard punches...
Baroni clearly had Kala in trouble for much of the 1st round...
Baroni's assault continues...
Baroni landed several devastating strikes and kicks throughout much of the 1st round...
Even though Kala was in a bad position, he did, however, manage to land some amazingly hard strikes from the bottom...
Baroni was visibly gassed at the end of the 1st...
Beautiful Larene (sporting the popular RAZE / ICON Flora Tribal design) announces the beginning of the 2nd round...
Having weathered the storm, Kala initiates his own offensive...
Baroni's impressive wrestling pedigree helped him get the fight back to the ground, but Kala continued to punish from every position...
Kala goes for a Kimura but Baroni was able to muscle out of it...
I'm guessing Kala would've actually had to rip Baroni's arm off and take it home with him since Baroni didn't seem like he had any intention of tapping...
Kala sprawls to defend the takedown and unleashes some hard body shots...
Kala looks to his corner for direction...
Kala inadvertently landed a couple shots to the back of the head (illegal in ICON Sport) and had a point deducted as a result...
The fight is reset and started standing after the point deduction...
Kala winning the exchange on the feet...
Baroni is forced to drop and chase the takedown which Kala defends...
Kala ends up in Baroni's guard and starts raining down punches...
Kala backs out of Baroni's guard and continues to attack from the feet...
Kala continues his assault...
Baroni runs out of room...
Reset in the middle of the ring...
MayheM with a genuine look of concern for Baroni between rounds...
Round 4 begins with more of the same from Kala...
Baroni, who just refuses to give up, fires back...
Baroni runs out of room trying to get away from Kala and loses a point for going under the ropes...
Fight starts back on the feet...
Kala continues to throw combos to a beleaguered and exhausted Baroni who refueses to quit...
Baroni turtles absorbing more punishment to the body...
Baroni's face tells the story... His body beaten and broken, but his will ignoring the facts...
You won't see THIS in most other fight orgs...
Or this...
Or this...
Relentless...
MayheM's re-enactment of the round...
5th and final round... respect between 2 warriors...
The beginning of the end for Phil...
Continuing the attack, following to the ground...
Too many unanswered and un-intellegently defended shots...
Chris West says enough's enough...
Either someone threw a beer over my shoulder or there's a meteor shower in the ring...
o_0
Champion of the World...
Kala "Kolohe" Hose is the NEW ICON Sport 185 lb Middleweight World Champion!!!
Dictionary definition of Ohana and Aloha...
To the victor go the spoils?... Nah... Kala's a family man...
But everyone's a fan...
There were TONS of these shirts in the stands...
Kala definitely proved that he's one tough local boy that can hang with anyone. He earned that belt and paid his dues to get it. I can't think of anyone that's had to go through what he went through to get the title. He certainly had to go to Hell and Back to get it, having to patiently suffer through several cancelled fights when Lawler was unable to fight, and even in this fight with the vicious beating he took early on, only to persevere and come out victorious in the end. Rarely has someone been SO deserving of accolade, respect, and reward. This fight definitely goes down in history here in Hawaii as one of the greatest. See the accompanying article for coverage of the rest of the fights...
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