Venator FC III: Luke Barnatt retains middleweight crown amid the good, the bad and the 'Mayhem'

Southampton-born Barnatt kept his composure to see off late addition Stefan Croitoru

Barnatt, pictured during his 2015 fight against Mark Munoz (Getty)

To tell the full story of Venator FC III this weekend, you would need ten-thousand plus words and a few thousand synonyms for 'surprise' and 'crazy'. It was a bizarre week in Milan for one of Europe's newest MMA promotions and last night it was capped by the United Kingdom's Luke Barnatt retaining his Venator FC middleweight crown when he defeated late replacement opponent Stefan Croitoru.

The real craziness of the week started when Barnatt, who was previously booked to face loose cannon Jason 'Mayhem' Miller, was given a new opponent at just 24 hours’ notice after Miller weighed in at a whopping 24lbs overweight at the weigh-ins. The Venator bosses subsequently decided to reorganise the card and replace Miller with Croitoru to face Barnatt in the co-main event.

The late change in opponent briefly seemed to put Barnatt off his game as his new Italian opponent revealed his gameplan early. He went for takedown after takedown in a frustrating opening five minutes for the Brit where he struggled to impose himself fully on the fight.

In the second round though, 'Bigslow' settled into his game and established his striking as he attacked the body with well-placed kicks and hooks. The end of the fight came in a rather bizarre fashion as Barnatt landed another front kick to the body and his opponent fell to the mat. The referee, seeing the Italian was in no place to continue defending himself, abruptly stopped the fight before Barnatt could follow up and with that, the Brit retained his middleweight title.

The event last evening was held in the PalaSesto arena in Milan in front of approximately two thousand Italian fans who were treated to an entertaining night of both domestic and international fights.

In the main event of the evening, the week's theme of crazy continued when the much-fancied Brazilian Rousimar Palhares was defeated by Norway's Emil Weber Meek, with the referee stopping the fight after just 45 seconds of the first round.

The beginning of the end came when Palhares shot for a takedown and Meek side-stepped, sending Palhares stumbling forward. With Palhares turtled against the fence, Meek proceeded to lay down ground and pound to force the finish in somewhat controversial fashion - many claimed the strikes were landing to the back of the head. Regardless, the referee ruled the fight over and it was the Norwegian who had his hand raised in an upset no one saw coming apart from Meek himself.

On the undercard, Jack Hermansson put on an impressive performance to stop his highly durable opponent Ireneusz Cholewa after one minute and five seconds of the third round. It was a good performance by 'The Hammer' who put on a striking clinic working well behind his left jab throughout.

After his weigh-in debacle on Friday, Jason 'Mayhem' Miller put on a brave display in a losing effort when he was submitted in the second round of his last minute scheduled light heavyweight contest against Mattia Schiavolin.

Final thoughts…

Miller’s entrance to the cage last night truly summed up an event that I won't be forgetting for a very long time. It was crazy, a little stupid but most importantly it was actually just a lot of fun.

Critics will no doubt have their say on Venator FC III in the aftermath of this week. It will no doubt be called a freak show, a circus and a laughing stock but speaking as a reporter who's seen a lot of MMA this year and been to plenty of events, it was refreshing to encounter something totally new and see a promotion not afraid to try out new things and not just be a poor imitation of the premier brand the UFC.

Having met the infamous 'Mayhem' for the first time in my career, it's plain to see he's a man of two characters. On one hand he's a crazy lunatic and on the other he's a humble guy who finds solitude in MMA. Miller missing weight by 24lbs was ridiculous but from a different perspective, you can say far bigger crimes have been committed. The sober 'Mayhem' Miller is the better of the two characters and I hope for his sake that after this weekend he goes away and builds on this.

Venator FC III was good, bad, ugly and utterly fantastic all at the same time. Talking to people after the event both online and offline the word repeatedly used was 'fun'. That bodes well for Venator FC IV, which is expected to take place later October or early November.

Venator FC III full results

Emil Weber Meek def. Rousimar Palhares via technical knockout
Round 1, 0:45

Luke Barnatt def. Stefan Croitoru via technical knockout
Round 2, 2:32

Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou def. Matt Hamill via knockout
Round 1, 0:37

Marvin Vettori def. Igor Araujo via submission (guillotine choke)
Round 1, 1:13

Mattia Schiavolin def. Jason 'Mayhem' Miller via submission (rear-naled choke)
Round 2, 3:10

Karl Amoussou def. Giovanni Melillo via technical knockout
Round 1, 4:51

Jack Hermansson def. Ireneusz Cholewa via technical knockout
Round 3, 1:05

Cody McKenzie def. Valeriu Mircea via submission (guillotine choke)
Round 2, 1:30

Che Mills vs. Terry Montgomery - declared no-contest due to an illegal elbow
Round 1