Tom Breese Shows More Promise in Hard-Fought Victory

Tom Breese maintained his perfect record and made it 10-0 on Saturday having been victorious against 40-fight veteran Keita Nakamura at London's O2 Arena.

It wasn't the most aesthetically pleasing fight from the Birmingham native with his Japanese foe looking to initiate a grappling contest to negate his opponent's significant reach advantage. In fact, Nakamura actually took Breese down in all three rounds of their fight that ended in a unanimous decision win for the Englishman.

It was intriguing to see how Breese would handle that kind of pressure—a good indicator to see if a prospect isn't simply a flat track bully, beating the standard less-skilled opponents they're paired with in the fledgling stages of a career in mixed martial arts. "The Octopus" passed that test with flying colours.

Whenever taken down to the canvas, "K-Taro" passed to full mount a tricky situation for any fighter to find himself in. But, Breese used the threat of a heel hook to sweep Nakamura and gain a dominant position on the ground in those grappling exchanges. It was a technique that worked time after time despite Nakamura most definitely anticipating it having seen it in the rounds previous.

In fact, Breese almost finished the fight in the dying embers of the third round. He masterfully swept Nakamura, who was on top in Breese's half guard, and almost caught him in an inverted triangle choke with around 20 seconds remaining on the clock—if it had been earlier in the fight, we may well be talking about Breese maintaining his nine-fight streak of winning by either KO or submission.

Breese criticised his own performance in both his in-cage interview and in the post-fight press conference. Having been asked how he felt the fight went, Breese said: "It was a disappointing performance. I'll never make any excuses and he is a very tough guy. I will take a lot from the fight, I'll be going straight back to the gym and improve." But, ignoring his significant hype and the subsequent anxiety associated with it, he handily dealt with Nakamura—an opponent who brought more pressure to Breese than any of this former counterparts and a man who has four times the amount of professional fights.

That's nothing to be baulked at. Personally, I feel you can put more stock into this kind of victory over a wily veteran than dominant wins over a chinny Cathal Pendred—whose non-existent striking defence was asking for Breese's snapping left straight to the nose—and an aging Luiz Dutra, who was consequently cut from the UFC roster following two losses in his two appearances in the Octagon.

There have been plenty of examples of young MMA prospects failing to overcome experienced fighters—veterans who don't become overawed by the hype surrounding their opponents.

One example is the UK's John Hathaway. Having overcome big names in Rick Story and Diego Sanchez, big things were expected of the Briton. However, when Hathaway stepped up to fight UFC stalwart Mike Pyle at UFC 120, his hype train was derailed as the American's ground game overwhelmed the floundering Brighton, Sussex, native. You could even argue Breese's Tristar stablemate Sage Northcutt also buckled under the pressure when faced against an experienced opponent in Bryan Barberena, who went against the script and didn't listen to the hype surrounding "Super" Sage—despatching the young Texan prospect with relative ease.

Breese said it himself: Saturday night's performance has given him the drive and motivation to fly back to Montreal, Canada and quickly resume his training at the famed Tristar gym. As a professional athlete, it's good to manipulate situations such as these to strive for betterment. But, in reality, Breese won the fight convincingly. This contest will have added all-important ring time and experience to compliment the Brummy's ever-improving skillset—vital for any up-and-comer.