Benji Radach defeated “Ninja” Rua in impressive fashion on Elite XC’s CBS card and his hometown newspaper in Longview, WA gives him some love:

Many observers and bloggers, however, agreed that the Radach-Rua duel was the best of the night.

Both fighters set a furious pace in the opening round. Radach hurt the Brazilian with a series of strikes, but Rua came back with a dangerous ankle lock that had the ex-Rocket scrambling to survive. Radach summoned his Castle Rock High wrestling experience to escape and make it to the bell.

Radach (19-4) managed to get Rua (16-9-1) on his back during a furious start to Round 2, and when a string of blows delivered by Radach went undefended, the official stepped in and stopped the fight.

The match was seen by an estimated 6.5 million television viewers.

“I couldn’t pass up the publicity on this one, just because it’s on live TV,” said the 185-pound Radach, who finished fifth at 141 pounds in the state wrestling tournament as a junior for the Rockets and eighth at 148 as a senior.

“There was a big headliner — Ken (Shamrock) and Kimbo (Slice). The one thing about that fight is that they put people in the seats. They get a lot of people’s attention,” he added. “I definitely had to go with it. I couldn’t pass that up.”

Castle Rock’s Radach scores TKO in prime time MMA event @ The Daily News (WA)