“The Natural” John Alessio (24-11) knocked welterweight Gideon Ray (15-10-1) cold on the mat in 45 seconds.

Xtreme Couture’s Alessio whipped a left hook over a Ray right hand and dropped Ray.  Alessio finished the job with hammer strikes, leaving the fellow former UFC fighter unconscious.

“Quicksand” Mike Pyle (18-5-1) of Xtreme Couture transitioned slickly into an armbar from full mount to tap welterweight Brian Gassaway (28-19-2) as he attempted roll free at 4:21 of round one in another battle of former Octagon fighters.

Xtreme Couture welterweight “Thorobread” Jay Hieron (16-4) won a one-sided unanimous decision over late replacement Chris Kennedy (6-6) by judges’ scores of 30-27 three times.

Hieron’s original opponent, Bryson Kamaka (6-13), failed his pre-fight urinalysis.

Light heavyweight “Sick Dog” Hector Ramirez (8-3-1) also won a UD over “The Jet” Rick Roufus (4-4) by scores of 29-28 three times. 

After blocking a high kick with his head in round one, Ramirez kept the kickboxing legend off his feet for the “W”.

TUF 3 finalist “Bring the Pain” Josh Haynes (11-10-1), of Xtreme Couture, tapped middleweight Sean Salmon (15-6) in an Achilles lock at 2:49 of round two.

“JJ” Jonathan Mix (2-3) TKO’d welterweight John Halverson (16-7) at 4:25 of round one.

Xtreme Couture prodigy Kui Gonsalves-Kanoho (2-0) tapped “Mighty Mouse” Shawn David (2-2) in a Kimura at 3:51 of round two.

Ryan Haas (1-0) tapped Ian Omalza (2-1) in an armbar at 3:09 of round one.

Former IFL titlist Hieron has been matched, if not undermatched, versus Bryson Kamaka (6-13) while Pyle will fight vet Brian Gassaway (28-18-2).

Also on the card, welterweight “The Natural” John Alessio (23-11) will return after a “W” over “Secret Weapon” Pete Spratt (18-14) in A Night of Combat’s debut to battle Gideon Ray (15-9-1).

Light heavyweights “Sick Dog” Hector Ramirez (7-3-1) and kickboxing vet “The Jet” Rick Roufus (4-3) will face-off.

And, TUF 3 finalist “Bring the Pain” Josh Haynes (10-10) will fight “Seargent” Steve Byrnes (6-1).

The card features eight men’s MMA bouts at the Thomas & Mack Center.

After a paced and cautious first round for both fighters, “Bartimus” began working kicks in the second, first a solid body shot, then snapping at Cox’s leg.

During the final flurried exchange, Palaszewski wheeled a wide left hook to Cox’s body, backing Cox into range for the right high kick finisher.

Palaszewski literally lept out of the cage upon the stoppage “W”.

In the main event, Michael Russow (10-1) manhandled late replacement for “Snowman” Jeff Monson (24-8),  Jason Guida (17-16), tapping Clay’s big brother in a standing neck crank against the fence at 2:13 of round one.

“I hope he’s OK,” Russow related after the stoppage.

Hometown hero Rory Markham (14-4) said, “Let’s get serious.  That guy just jumped over me!” after “Silent Assassin” Jay Ellis (5-19) launched a flying knee at the opening bell, indeed, flying right over Markham.  “So, I decided I was going to keep it on the ground.”

Markham pounced on Ellis; but, Ellis swept to Markham’s guard, which Markham climbed into a triangle tapout at 57 seconds of round one.

H.I.T. Squad lightweight Clay French (16-2) pulled rank on “Sergeant” Jameel Massouh in a second round rear naked choke submission at 3:18.

French took Massouh to the mat at will and, when French began posturing out of the rubber guard Massouh originally used to neutralize French’s G’n'P, he bullied Massouh to his stomach and sank the choke.

Middleweight Terry Martin (17-4) took three kicks to the groin before the referee disqualified Daiju Takase (7-12-1).

“The last one hit me right in the cup,” Martin admitted after the fight, “but…damn!”

Takase slammed his mouthpiece to the mat at the second round disqualification.

“Meat Cleaver” Forrest Petz (14-5) survived a first round knockdown by “Mandingo” Brian Gassaway (28-18-2) to win a unanimous decision by 29-28 three times in his first post-UFC fight.

“Mandingo” floored Petz with left in the first, but was unable to finish before the end of the round.

Gassaway was gassed in the second and third rounds and Petz began landing more in the sporadic flurries and dominating the mat with G’n'P.

Team Curran welterweight Mike Stumpf (10-1) TKO’d Dom O’Grady (4-1) at 3:53 of round one.

O’Grady controlled round one with technical kickboxing, keeping Stumpf at distance with a jab and snapping leg kick.

Two minutes into the second round, Stumpf lunged forward in a flurry, dropping O’Grady with a left hook.

O’Grady turtled up beneath Stumpf; but, Stumpf took O’Grady’s back and rolled him over.  O’Grady slickly flipped and twisted into Stumpf’s guard, quickly closing to a leg triangle as O’Grady yanked free.

O’Grady dropped again amidst another flurry from Stumpf.  This time, Stumpf pounced and windmilled punches for the referee stoppage.

Light heavyweight Aaron Rosa (11-2) obliterated “Killing Fields” Ron Fields (24-26-1) with a big right at :34 of round two for a KO victory.

Rosa and Fields had wrestled most of round one; and, but for the cage stopping Fields’s momentum, Fields nearly locked in an armbar on Rosa.

Kentucky boy Joe Jordan (42-12-2) schooled the kid, lightweight Ryan Williams (5-3), for a unanimous decision.

Jordan set-up downstairs with heavy body shots, then climbed to Williams’s head, leaving a welt on the left side of Williams’s face and a cut on the right.

Whether due to the body shots or bright lights, Williams was lethargic and never really got off in the fight.

Featherweight Joe Pearson (26-10-1) dispensed with the stand-up toot sweet after getting tagged with a John Hosman (7-4-1) southpaw overhand right.

Pearson clinched up, tripped Hosman into his guard, and wriggled under Hosman’s G’n'P before catching the less experienced fighter in a leg triangle in the first round.

Light heavyweight Louis Taylor (3-0) was able to bookend a gassed out second round with a first round of counter punching and third round of G’n'P to win a unanimous decision over Adam Maciejewski (6-5) by scores of 29-28 twice and 30-27.

Maciejewski left the first round with cuts under both eyes from Taylor’s quick, if wild, hands.

Taylor wore himself out tagging Maciejewski and took round two off before tripping Maciejewski in round three and piecing together enough looping shots to win the decision.

Fighters.com scored the fight 29-28 for Taylor.

The most damaging strike landed to Hector Urbina(12-4) by David Kleczkowski (5-4) was a first round thumb to the eye.

That just pissed off Urbina, who tagged the herky-jerky Kleczkowski with a jab, left cross, well…you name it.

No one will question Kleczkowski’s granite chin though.

He survived to 1:19 of the second round before the referee ended the beating with Urbina pounding Kleczkowski against the mat.

Heavyweight “Meat Truck” Kerry Schall (21-10) barrelled into center cage to begin his fight with “Herc” Antoine Hayes (7-5), tagging “Herc” with straight rights.

Then, the “Truck” down shifted to Hayes’s pace; and, “Herc” secured a standing North/South, kneeing Schall relentlessly in the second round.

By the third round, Schall was out of gas and Hayes ground’n'pounded to a UD by 29-28 three times.

Welterweight Tom Belt (4-1) mounted and pounded out Marcus Levesseur (5-2) at 4:10 of round one.

As reported by Fighters.com, the main event matches grappler “The Snowman” Jeff Monson (24-7) versus wrestler Michael Russow (9-1) in a mat struggle.

“The Snowman” will fight Russow just two weeks after taking on Fighters.com’s third-ranked heavyweight “Babyface Assasin” Josh Barnett (21-5) at Sengoku II in Tokyo.

UFC fighter turned boxer Terry Martin (16-4) will fight Japanese middleweight Daiju Takase (7-11-1) before his hometown crowd.

Martin comes off UFC losses to “Crippler” Chris Leben (18-4) and “Beastman” Marvin Eastman (15-7-1), but won his boxing debut 12 April with a knockout of Ricardo Upchurch (0-2 in boxing).

Lightweight jiu-jitsu player Alberto Crane (8-2), who lost both of his UFC fights, will bounce back matched against King of the Cage vet Clay French (15-2).

IFL lightweight standout “Bartimus” Bart Palaszewski (28-11), who’s taken three tough losses consecutively, will rebound in his hometown versus Jeffrey Cox (9-5), who lost his UFC debut to “Pitbull” Manvel Gamburyan (8-2) last month in Denver.

Also on the card to be held at the Sears Centre:

“The Freak” Tony Fryklund (14-9) v Brian Gassaway (28-17-2)
Taiwan Howard (4-1) v Rory Markham (13-3)
James Giboo (11-2) v Mark Miller (8-3)
“Herc” Antoine Hayes (6-5) v “Meat Truck” Kerry Schall (21-9)
Rob Kimmons (20-3) v Hector Urbina (11-4)
Aaron Rosa (10-2) v “Killing Fields” Ron Fields (22-25-1)
Dom O’Grady (4-0) v Mike Stumpf (9-1)
Joe Jordan (39-12-2) v Ryan Williams (5-2)
Christian Reynosa (6-2) v John Hosman (7-3-1)