Digging Doug

Animal grace and back-alley toughness meet in the two bodies we see stretching and warming up at the start of Movimus's newest UltraHD download. In his third match, Dave Markus, 5'9", 171#, has the poise and composure of a GQ model, whereas newcomer Doug Acre, 5'6", 164#, makes me think military or law enforcement. Both are knockouts, and the match would be worth its price for the eye candy alone, even if they weren't both formidable mat grapplers too, which I'm happy to report they are.

Markus, who bowled me over in his initiatory matches (against Thornton and Stokes), hits a wall with Acre, who brings (we're told) over ten years of wrestling experience with him to the Movimus mats. The two wrestlers are in a dead heat for a solid 17 minutes. What Markus lacks in experience, he makes up for in resilience and unflinching nerve, along with a small but significant height and weight advantage. Acre opens aggressively, putting Markus on the mat and on defense, but Markus is a born fighter, with limited experience but excellent instincts.

Within five minutes Acre is shiny with sweat, but Markus stays cool and collected as a process server. At first it looks like Dave may be letting Doug wear himself out, but if anything Doug intensifies the offense as the contest goes. Soon enough, Marcus is panting as Acre permits him no rest. There are no coffee breaks while Doug is on the mat. He sticks on Markus like a tick. Yet Markus withstands everything Acre throws at him. For all their differences, this is a close and tight contest to the end, one of Movimus's most engaging to date.

This match ends with enough unfinished business between the contestants to fill up two or three rematches. And if they are anything like the bold horn-butting we see here, I will want to see every single one.