Alfred Posted December 31, 2017 Author Report Share Posted December 31, 2017 Iron Man Fight Club XXXI (30th December 2017 – King Theatre, Los Angles) Post Fight Recap Main Card Main Event – Iron Man Division Title (Champion) Mew Choo vs. (#1) Brooklyn Brawler It was another cool, calm and collected performance by undefeated champion Mew Choo and the kind that we are starting to take for granted. Challenger Brooklyn Brawler gave it his best shot but in the end it wasn’t even nearly good enough to trouble the champ and take away the title that he has now successfully defended for the sixth time this year. The fight started with Choo looking to take the fight to the ground immediately, no doubt feeling that his biggest advantage would be on the floor. Brawler ate a couple of quick punches before taking the fight into the clinch where he has been so strong in all his previous fights. The crowd tensed up, anticipating what was to come and eager to find out just how would the champion Mew Choo fare in the vice grip of challenger Brooklyn Brawler’s clinch. The answer is still unknown. Brawler managed only one missed body shot before Choo dragged his opponent to the ground and into the guard that has been so dangerous in the past. Brawler attempted to keep his posture but Choo worked relentlessly off his back, switching his hips and attempting to make space for an armbar or triangle. Just after the one minute mark, Choo sat up and wrapped his arm around the neck of the challenger and, squeezing with all his might, forced the Brawler into submission and his second guillotine victory in a row Mew Choo defeated Brooklyn Brawler by Submission (Guillotine) at 1:23 of Round 1 With this loss Brooklyn Brawler ends the year with a very respectable 8-3 record and for a fighter that got into the game a little later than most, has had a terrific career in the IFC so far. He now drops down to #5 in the rankings and, with the best young fighters in the IFC starting to peak, will no doubt have to fight very hard if he is to once again challenge for the Iron Man crown. For champion Mew Choo, who remains undefeated at 11-0 and with no opponent making it past three rounds with him, his reign of domination at the top of the IFC has been undeniable and it is going to take a truly herculean effort to dispose of him from his throne. But, with so many fresh new talents arriving constantly at the doors of the Iron Man Fight Club and the bulls eye on the champions back growing larger with each victory, the year 2018 is going to be an extremely interesting one for Mew Choo and the IFC Co-Main Event – Iron Man Division (#4) Louis CK vs. (Top15) Taz “Crash” Bandichoo It was back to winning ways for a returning Louis CK who had taken some time away to improve his game after a failed title challenge back at IFC XXII. He made his return against clumsy but dangerous brawler Taz Bandichoo and dominated from beginning to end. Starting fast, CK began with some sharp shots to the head and body of Bandichoo whilst avoiding what was being returned. Quickly moving into the clinch, CK spent the better part of the next two minutes working Bandichoo over from inside. Hitting low, then going high, CK was relentless and clinical in his precision managing to land every short, jarring shot that he threw. With Bandichoo seemingly helpless from this position he blew a sigh of relief when he was eventually able to break free of CK’s grasp but it was short lived as CK showed some great footwork and speed in getting in and out to land his stinging shots and avoid the clumsy strikes of Bandichoo. It was always going to be a tough night for Bandichoo without attempting to refine his style against a striker like CK and the bout came to it’s conclusion around minute four when CK landed a huge open hand strike that wobbled Bandichoo and from there once again entering the clinch to deliver some more heavy shots just for good measure that slumped Bandichoo to his knees and left the referee to mercifully stop the fight Louis CK defeated Taz Bandichoo by TKO (Strikes) at 4:14 of Round 1) A superb return for the former title challenger CK who adds another win to his record and moves up a spot in the rankings to #3 Another poor performance from Bandichoo who now drops out of the Top 15 completely with a record of 6-6. Some dramatic changes are going to be necessary if he is to replicate the run of form that brought him to the top of the IFC roster in the first place as his wild, brawling style has seemingly been figured out. Fight 8 – Iron Man Division Jaxson Wilder vs. Japa Koniu Japa Koniu has gone pretty much unnoticed since entering the IFC at Mid Week 11 but after tonight's fantastic “Fight Of The Night” battle with Jaxson Wilder there is no doubt that people are going to be watching him more closely from now on. It was three rounds of intense stand up action with both fighters inflicting much damage on each other and at times those watching wondered if the fight would even make it to the end without a doctor stepping in. Wilder hit hard and plenty and looked to be very dominant in the clinch during the brief periods of the fight spent there but it was Koniu’s volume that won him the fight, managing to land over double that Wilder did. Both fighters gave it their very all but in the end Koniu took two of the three rounds in the eyes of the judges and was declared the winner by unanimous decision Japa Koniu defeated Jaxson Wilder by Decision (Unanimous) With the fifth win of his career and a 5-1 record overall Japa Koniu enters the Top 15 after only two fights in the IFC. A great start for him and this performances will have earned him a great deal of new fans. Disappointment for Wilder who now drops to his second loss in a row and a 6-3 record overall. It was a superb fight and he should hold his head up high but one can’t stop to wonder why the reluctance to use his high level wrestling and BJJ Brown Belt especially when the advantage in those areas are so vast. Fight 7 – Iron Man Division Dave “Tight Ass” Brooksbank vs. Gosha Lopez It was another big performance from young submission wrestler Gosha Lopez who took on perhaps his biggest challenge to date in BJJ Brown Belt and former Top 10 ranked Dave Brooksbank. Brooksbank has been very inconsistent in his performances but tonight gave a good account of himself managing to get a nice takedown early in round 1 and really test the up and coming prospect Lopez’s grappling defense. Lopez came through with top marks however and was able to control Brooksbank and force a stand up where he took over the fight with some frantic clinch work. It wasn’t pretty or accurate and with over a hundred and nine strikes thrown, some were bound to land and what did clearly hurt Brooksbank who eventually succumb to the power of Gosha Lopez mid way through round two. Gosha Lopez defeated Dave Brooksbank by KO (Punch) at 3:21 of Round 2 Lopez remains undefeated at 4-0 and closes in on the Top 15 position of the IFC rankings whilst Dave Brooksbank falls some way from there with his eighth career loss and third in a row. Main Card Boss Yonic put on another one of his grappling clinics to defeat BJJ brown belt Donald Trenchard by unanimous decision. It was his second win in a row and improves his record to 8-5-1 overall. Soul Shadow and Kyle Ryan’s super competitive three round battle came close to earning them “Fight Of The Night” honors with both fighters laying it on the line to get the win but in the end two of the three judges saw the fight in Shadows favor earning him a majority decision win and the forth of his young career. As for Ryan, it was double disappointment as he found himself unceremoniously dumped by his management team after the bout and will now contemplate whether to hang up his gloves or try to find a fresh start with new leadership. A departing Leonel Ventura got the stand up battle he desired when he took on Curtis Page in his last fight and received a nice scar on his face as a parting gift before eventually getting the first round KO win. Prelims Urban Go Bucks made good use of his size and power to take out Kick Boxer Shigeru Miyamoto with a first round TKO and improve his record to 2-1 IFC newcomer Pacer “The Turnip” Dalton got off to a winning start in his professional MMA career when he showcased his very high level grappling pedigree against journeyman Lenny Manelito. It wasn’t fun for the crowd but it was effective as Dalton managed to completely shut off any offense from Manelito and controlled his opponent on the ground over three rounds. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The following "of the night" awards are sponsored by IniTech Nutrition who stock both 160q Stamina Fuel and 160q Muscle Bulk along with their pioneering Chaos Energy 160q Recovery sup. Fight Of The Night goes to Japa Koniu vs. Jaxson Wilder KO Of The Night goes to Louis C K Sub Of The Night goes Mew Choo Performance bonus also goes to Soul Shadow and Kyle Ryan for their three round battle After today's event the Road to the Gold is currently looking a little like this... #Champion (1) Mew Choo (11-0, W,W,W,W,W, 191lbs) #1 (2) Klaus Chugman (10-2, W,W,W,W,W, 130lbs) #2 (3) Steve Butabi (7-1, W,L,W,W,W,, 290lbs) #3 (4) Louis C K (10-1, W,L,W,W,W, 202lbs) #4 (8) Vincent Lemiuex (8-4, W, W, W, W, W, 270lbs) #5 (1) Brooklyn Brawler (8-3, L,W,W,L,W, 190lbs) #6 (6) Don Joe (8-3, L,W,W,W,L,190lbs) #7 (7) Iain Tower (6-0, W,W,W,W,W, 275lbs) #8 (8) Wilson Reyes (7-5, L,W,W,W,L, 287lbs) #9 (9) Brock Sampson (5-1, W,W,W,L L, 170lbs) #10 (10) Steven Kennedy (8-6, W,L,W,L,W, 178lbs) Top 15: (#11) Schmorgen Biscuit, (#12) Ricky Hughes, (#13) Tommy Walcott, (#14) Evgeni Lomachenko, (#15) Japa Koniu Rankings are determined by hype/pop, p4p rank, win/loss record and a few company internal criteria. Rankings can and will change frequently after each event 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alfred Posted January 1, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 1, 2018 Iron Man Fight Club – New Year Bash (31st December 2017 – Hyashi’s Lounge, Los Angeles) Post Fight Recap Main Card Main Event – Iron Man Division Thor “New Viking Era” Magnunsen vs. (#9) Brock “The Bodyguard” Sampson In a fight that held little surprises, IFC newcomer Thor Magnunsen used his size and strength in the clinch to absolutely tear through a brave Brock Sampson and end the fight a little before two minutes into the first round. It was always going to be difficult fight for Sampson who took the bout knowing full well that it was a major step up in competition for himself, but perhaps he didn’t realize by just how much. From beginning to end, Magnunsen pummeled Sampson with heavy shots to the head and body and allowed Sampson no space to return fire during this quick and dominating performance. After one too many shots that dropped Sampson to his knees the referee mercifully stepped in and stopped the bout Thor Magnunsen defeated Brock Sampson by TKO (Strikes) at 1:58 of Round 1 It was a big performance from the newcomer Magnunsen but one that could possibly his last in the IFC as his management have not been seen for quite some time now. With this win Magnunsen enters the rankings at #2 and a record of 13-3 but unless his situation changes, this could be short lived. For Sampson, who is really still only at the beginning of his career, the loss marked the second of his career and brings his total to 5-2. He also drops down a few spots to #12 be we have no doubt he will return soon Co-Main Event – Iron Man Division (#7) Iain “The CN” Tower vs. (#14) Evgeni Lomachenko In the co-main event of the evening towering title prospect Iain “The CN” Tower ended the year of 2017 with a big statement of intent. He wants the title and he wants it now. In what is likely the quickest finish in the Iron Man Fight Club history, Iain Tower needed just five seconds to blast poor Evgeni Lomachenko’s jaw into the stratosphere and earn his seventh professional career win. It was a fight so quick that the fans didn’t even have to time to decide whether they enjoyed it or not. Screaming into the camera immediately after his victory, Tower called for a title shot and at 7-0, all by way of first round finishes, there is no doubt that he isn’t at the very least terrifyingly close to getting his wish. For now though Tower will need to be patient with several other fighters still above him in the rankings but make no mistake here folks, Iain Tower is a fighter destined for greatness. Iain Tower defeated Evgeni Lomachenko by KO (Head Kick) at 0:05 of Round 1 Fight 8 – New Blood Championship Fight (Champion) “The Bully” Fay Gott vs. (Challenger) Kenny Tchusuk It would be “The Bullys” first and final time of defending his New Blood title belt as no matter the result against unlikely challenger Kenny Tchusuk, Fay Gott would be leaving the division afterward as he had turned twenty years old. It wasn’t against the opponent that he expected and it possibly wasn’t as easy as many predicted but on this occasion Fay Gott, in keeping with his moniker, pummeled Tchusuk for three whole rounds before ending the fight with a massive uppercut four minutes into the third round. Tchusuk showed some major heart to take the punishment he did for so long but was unable to get of any real offense of his own and test the departing champion. Gott’s clinch work was too strong and showed absolutely no mercy. Fay Gott defeated Kenny Tchusuk by TKO (Strikes) at 3:59 of Round 3 It was the kind of performance we’ve come to expect from Fay Gott over the past few months that including him winning the first ever New Blood tournament and becoming the first ever New Blood champion and now we wait to see whether this young fighter will continue on with the IFC and step into the arena with the big guns of the org or whether he will seek glory elsewhere. Whatever he chooses we wish him nothing but the best of luck. Fight 7 – New Blood Division “The Hunk” Jack Dawson vs. Patrick Thompson “The Hunk” Jack Dawson was another young fighter who would be making his last appearance in the New Blood division due to age but he made sure to go out in bloody fashion as he carved his opponent Patrick Thompson face into pieces. Not wanting to stand and trade with the kick boxer Thompson, Dawson moved into the clinch and both fighters went to town but with Dawson landing the much heavier shots. Thompson had a little success landing shots to Dawson’s body but “The Hunk” gave us a glimpse of his viscous side as he landed elbows to the head and opened up a cut on Thompson. Smelling the blood in the water, Dawson clamped down and landed another and another to leave Thompson face a bloody mess of disfigured flesh and force the doctor to end the horror show before the end of round one. Jack Dawson defeated Patrick Thompson by TKO (Cut) at 4:30 of Round 1 An evil display of striking in the clinch from Dawson who possibly has a bright career as a surgeon if it doesn’t work out for him in MMA. Dawson improves to 5-2 and has already signed on the dotted line and will return the Iron Man division where he got his start and has already had success. As for Thompson, he drops to 1-2 and will most likely need quite a period of recovery for his wounds to heal but will no doubt be back again in the future. Undercard Maximilian Kirby gave a typical Kirby performance to defeat a game Juannon Brephgrad by TKO just before the end of round 1 in what was also his last fight in the New Blood Division. Brephgrad drops to 3-2 but is still up there in title consideration land and still has time enough to cement a real challenge while Kirby moves to 3-0 and looks to have a very bright future ahead of him wherever he chooses to go. Tough boxer Jerome Steel also made his final appearance in the New Blood division and went out with a first round KO over Anton Touchard. He leaves with a record of 2-1 in the division and a record of 3-2 overall. Steel has decided to move on from the IFC and will decide his future in time. Anton Touchard suffers his first professional loss after four straight wins but still has plenty of time left in the division Pate Paukuttaja managed to take down smaller One Fortytwo and end the fight with strikes on the ground in their New Blood division match up and improves to 2-1. It was Fortytwo’s third loss of his young career who’s record now stands at 2-3. In the Iron Man Division, boxers Chara Zaad and German Cordova went at it in an entertaining bout that could have gone either way at one point. Zaad had Cordova rocked and cut early on in the bout but Cordova held on and was able to come back and take over winning by KO in the second round. Prelims Alfred Touchard defeated Hennig Muller to erase his past loss to Jerome Steel and moves to 5-1 in the New Blood division while Muller still looks for his first win in MMA after three attempts Gusto Silva defeated Long Thai by first round submission to go 4-1 but unfortunately no longer seems to have active management and will most likely end up teaching MMA in some far flung corner of the earth from this point. Long Thai remains without a win after three fights --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The following "of the night" awards are sponsored by IniTech Nutrition who stock both 160q Stamina Fuel and 160q Muscle Bulk along with their pioneering Chaos Energy 160q Recovery sup. Fight Of The Night goes to Fay Gott vs. Kenny Tchusuk KO Of The Night goes to Iain Tower Sub Of The Night goes Alfred Touchard After today's event the Road to the Gold is currently looking a little like this... #Champion (1) Mew Choo (11-0, W,W,W,W,W, 191lbs) #1 (2) Klaus Chugman (10-2, W,W,W,W,W, 130lbs) #2 (NE) Thor Magnunsen (13-3, W,L,W,W,L, 290lbs) #3 (2) Steve Butabi (7-1, W,L,W,W,W,, 290lbs) #4 (3) Louis C K (10-1, W,L,W,W,W, 202lbs) #5 (4) Vincent Lemiuex (8-4, W, W, W, W, W, 270lbs) #6 (5) Brooklyn Brawler (8-3, L,W,W,L,W, 190lbs) #7 (7) Iain Tower (7-0, W,W,W,W,W, 275lbs) #8 (6) Don Joe (8-3, L,W,W,W,L,190lbs) #9 (8) Wilson Reyes (7-5, L,W,W,W,L, 287lbs) #10 (10) Steven Kennedy (8-6, W,L,W,L,W, 178lbs) Top 15: (#11) Schmorgen Biscuit, (#12) Brock Sampson, (#13) Ricky Hughes, (#14) Tommy Walcott, (#15) Japa Koniu Rankings are determined by hype/pop, p4p rank, win/loss record and a few company internal criteria. Rankings can and will change frequently after each event 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alfred Posted January 3, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 3, 2018 Iron Man Fight Club XXXII Preview (January 6th 2018 – King Theatre, Los Angeles) Main Card Main Event – Iron Man Division Light “Son Of” Heavyweight (20-1, 220lbs) vs. (#1) Klaus “The House” Chugman (10-2, 130lbs) Making his IFC debut tonight after a massively successful island campaign is Light “Son Of” Heavyweight. During the islands six month period Light Heavyweight dominated the Island FC light-heavyweight division managing to win it’s title in only his third fight and went on to defend it a further eight times. On his ninth defense he fell to his only career loss so far, a second round triangle choke submission but got back to winning ways instantly in his return fight and near the close of the season regained his title once more and managed his ninth defense proper before the Island’s end. If that wasn’t enough success for one man, Light Heavyweight took his 15-1 record into the end of season tournament against fighters from all over the Island and trampled each and everyone one on his way to becoming supreme Island champion. A run that included revenge against the one fighter who had defeated him previously. Now with a record of 20-1 and with every single one of those victories coming by way of knockout, Light Heavyweight arrives in the Iron Man Fight Club and the buzz surrounding his arrival could not be more intense. The man who will test himself first against this ferocious knockout artist from the Island is current #1 ranked natural bantamweight Klaus “The House” Chugman who has been having his own successful run lately and finds himself on a win streak of six with a record of 10-2. Chugman currently holds the distinction of being the IFC’s most prolific submission artist and leads the org with a total of eight submission wins so far. His last fight was possible a career best when he embarrassed former #1 contender Tommy Walcott in just one minute and thirty nine seconds making the developing boxer look quite average in the process. In terms of match up the keys to victory are quite simple for each fighter. Klaus Chugman really only one hope to finish this fight and that is by getting the takedown and getting Light Heavyweight off of his feet. The fact that Heavyweight has lost once by submission may embolden Chugman but if you were to look deeper into that fight, Heavyweights opponent needed to mix things up with some heavy strikes first and that is something that just isn’t going to come from Chugman. In turn, Heavyweight will just need to simply stay on his feet to win. He will know exactly what one thing is coming but that one thing has proven very difficult to stop as Chugman has rarely had trouble getting the takedown despite his small stature. Any exchanges on the feet or in the clinch are not going to be fun for Chugman especially as Heavyweight seems to hit not only with power but with clinical precision. This is a big fight for both fighters. Chugman has already done enough for a title shot and will not want to lose his place to this new arriving fighter and Light Heavyweight will be eager to continue his run of dominance from the Island now he is on mainland soil. Don’t blink as bookies predict that, one way or another, this isn’t going past the first round Co-Main Event – Iron Man Division Super “Dominator” Heavyweight (16-2, 280lbs) vs. (#8) “Corpse Making Cowboy” Don Joe (8-3, 190lbs) Taking the co-main event slot for the evening is Super “Dominator” Heavyweight, a fellow team mate of Light Heavyweights and one with almost the same level of success. Like his team mate, Super Heavyweight dominated the Island FC only this time in the +265lbs division. He won their title in his third appearance and managed to defend it a superb seven times before dropping to his first professional loss. Ending regular season with a 12-2 record, Super Heavyweight went into the end of season tournament and ran through his opposition all the way to a successful end and now arrives in the IFC as a 16-2 Island Champion. Welcoming him tonight will be the “Corpse Making Cowboy” Don Joe. Don Joe comes into this fight off the back of a very poor performance against “Big” Steve Butabi in a fight that he got completely wrong. After a change of management brought fresh life to a discarded fighter, Joe put together a string of victories that included two former IFC champions and then #2 contender Taz Bandichoo with more of a hit and run style of tactic then previously seen. Against Butabi however Joe forget to add any of the “Hit” to the run and ended up going three rounds of not doing very much at all and lost a very one sided and very uneventful unanimous decision. Now eager to make amends for his past performance and put on a show for his fans he takes on a big challenge in Super Heavyweight. Don Joe will have the advantage on paper when it comes to striking but Super Heavyweight has an absolutely gruesome one hundred percent knockout ratio which belies his meagre proficent boxing skills. Like his stablemate Light Heavyweight, Super Heavyweight combines power with precision and usually lands what he throws so Don Joe will have to get things very right if he is to comes out on top this time and will need to strike a fine balance between engaging and evading. Heavyweight has a big edge in experience and comes from a very capable management team that doesn’t tend to make many mistakes. Coupled with his size and recent form it would be a brave man indeed to bet against him. Fight 8 – Iron Man Division Alexander Porto (8-6, 180lbs) vs. Ken “The Worlds Most Lethal” Shamrock (5-5, 175lbs) Next up, yet another competitor who got his start on this seasons island with natural welterweight Alexander Porto making his first appearance on the mainland and he’ll be taking on the inconsistent but always entertaining Ken “The Worlds Most Lethal” Shamrock Alexander Porto had a decent island season managing to end with a respectable 8-6 but finds himself under new management as he begins his journey here in the IFC. Having built himself up into a well rounded fighter by now, Porto could still be considered a striker and has a strong record of knockouts to prove it. It will be interesting to see whether his new manager will follow course with regards to game plans and whether he will be able to improves Porto’s game when it comes to defense as he has been finished in each of his six losses by an even amount of KO’s and submissions. Back into the cage after only a short break is the returning Ken Shamrock who in his last fight managed to out-clinch the clinch fighter En Esch and win a unanimous decision. He has a reputation for fighting anyone and taking on the toughest fights and tonight is no different as once again he find himself with his back against the wall. Porto will have a big advantage in the grappling and although he hasn’t had to use it very much so far it is there for him unlike Shamrock who has put all his efforts into his stand up game. In that respect the grappling may not matter that much but if the fight ends up in the clinch Shamrock may rue his lack of wrestling skills. On the feet, Shamrock has a razor thin advantage on paper but Porto has the better record of knockouts. A very tough fight for Shamrock to win but we know he will be going for it anyway. Expect this fight to be war with some heavy leather thrown. Fight 7 – Iron Man Division Greg “The Gronk” Bell (6-8, 300lbs) vs. Hamish “The Pig” McTavish (5-2, 292lbs) Rounding of the main card of the evening we have rampaging grappler Hamish “The Pig” McTavish and he’ll be facing perhaps one of his biggest challenges so far in IFC gatekeeper Greg “The Gronk” Bell Greg Bell has a current record of 6-8 and whilst he has lost more than he has won, he has remained a tough challenge for those trying to break into the upper echelons of the IFC and tonight will put to test young up and coming Hamish McTavish. McTavish currently rides a four fight win streak and hasn’t been outside of the first round in his last three. His powerful ground and pound has taken him past BJJ fighter Andy Bogard and slippery striker Terje Warholm in the IFC so far and tonight he makes another step up to challenge former top 10 ranked Greg Bell. As is often said, styles make fights, and this could be a tough match up for McTavish who will find in Bell a durable opponent who has a good amount of skill on the ground. Bell is older and has been training for a while longer too so they will be factors that will go in Bell’s favour. In terms of size McTavish will be very close to Bell and that will be very interesting on the floor. McTavish has shown some terrifying power in his ground and pound and no matter how hard headed Bell is, he will not want to spend time underneath those hammers. Bell has a mediocre amount of boxing skill and could look to do some damage there as McTavish has shown no interest in any of the striking arts so far. A big fight for McTavish who would prove a whole lot with a win over Bell but it isn’t likely to come easy as the only way past him is to go through his strengths of which is his grappling. Undercard Fight 6 – Iron Man Division Daniel “The Unsanitary” Sainty (7-6, 150lbs) vs. Vedran “Blondebeard” Stefanovic (4-3, 260lbs) In the earliest days of the IFC, Daniel Sainty was a regular feature in the Top 10 reaching as high as #5 at one point. It’s been a while since that time however and though Sainty still remains a dangerous fighter and is currently joint second for most submission victories in the org, lately Sainty has managed only one win in his last four. His opponent tonight is heavyweight Vedran “Blondebeard” Stefanovic who comes into this fight off the back of a big win over Battle Ram in his last fight. Previous to that Stefanovic had faced a duo of tough young strikers and was stopped in the first round by both but tonight he will need to be more concerned with submissions than knockouts. Sainty has a small amount of striking skill which he does use sparingly every now and then in order to set up his takedowns but generally does not try to get into brawls with his opponent. In his last fight against Big Murha, Sainty was kept at arms length and struggled to get a hold of his opponent which lead to him suffering the fifth KO loss of his career. Stefanovic might find confidence in that result as generally he is a fighter that likes to strike at range and avoid any grappling at all. On the floor it would be no contest and Sainty would be unlikely to need very much time at all in order to secure a finish but the big question leading into this fight is whether he can get the big two hundred and sixty pound giant there in the first place. Fight 5 – Iron Man Division Mr Kaalee (4-2, 300lbs) vs. Terje “Nightmare” Warholm (221lbs) Mr Kaalee returns to the IFC cage after a tough bout against undefeated Iain Tower in which he found himself the recipient of a submission loss. Kaalee was expected to fare better on the ground than he did on that occasion so will no doubt want to make an example of his opponent Terje Warholm tonight. Warholm too will be coming into this fight on a loss only this time by KO on the ground courtesy of Hamish McTavish. The loss marked the end of a two fight winning streak and only served to highlight Warholm’s need to improve his wrestling despite some good efforts to get back to his feet during the fight. Kaalee is dangerous both on his feet and on the ground and actually has a submission win against McTavish whom to Warholm just lost. We’ve not yet seen what he can do in the clinch but we do know that Warholm seems comfortable in that area and will be interesting should the fight end up there. This fight represents a definite step up for Warholm and he will have his hands full no matter where the fight goes. Kaalee is a young fighter with a name that has been bandied around as a potential top 10 contender so he will without a doubt want put his previous defeat behind him. Bookmakers have Kaalee as the betting favourite going into this one Fight 4 – Main Division En “Metal Priest” Esch (5-7, 238lbs) vs. Tyrano “Action” Jackson (3-1, 215lbs) After a disappointing start to his MMA career in which he lost his first three straight, En “Metal Priest” Esch seemed to have turned a corner and had developed his fledgling clinch game into something capable of dominating those lower down the roster. During his best period Esch managed to put together a winning streak of three and move into the mid roster area but recently his form has slipped and the twenty year old fighter from Germany has only managed one win in his last four. Now, coming into this fight off the back of a disappointing defeat to fearless striker Ken Shamrock, Esch will have to dig deep if he is to regain the confidence he was starting to show previous. Making his last appearance in the IFC is Tyrano Jackson who comes into the bout with a record of 3-1 and on a two fight win streak. Esch will need to be cautious as Jackson will be looking to use his grappling advantage to bring this fight to the floor and end the fight with a submission. Jackson also has a mediocre level of skill in both boxing and Muay Thai which could give him extra time in order to secure the takedown. Esch will have something to prove in this one after getting outworked in the clinch by his previous opponent and will want to make sure not to let it happen again. If he can remain on his feet he will stand his best chance of victory but on the floor is unlikely to withstand Jackson’s submission assault. Fight 3 – New Blood Division Matteo “The Werewolf” Boretti (1-0, 205lbs) vs. Yordan Dimitrov (0-0, 208lbs) Our first fight of the night from the New Blood Division features two young fighters making their IFC debuts here tonight. Matteo “The Werewolf” Boretti has already had a taste of victory during a first round KO in the QFC recently. Showing some seriously heavy hands against a much older opponent, Boretti already looks to be a good prospect in the division going forward. Tonight he’ll face untested Yordan Dimitrov who looks to be a striker with a solid Muay Thai backround. The fight is highly expected to be fought on the feet and with Boretti already having gained a little experience would have to be considered the favorite. Prelims Fight 2 – New Blood Division Ivashin Dmitrievich (2-2, 240lbs) vs. Thomas “Elbow King” Farrier (0-0, 190lbs) Keeping in the New Blood Division once more we find Ivashin Dmitrievich, who is considered an experienced fighter by New Blood standards with a record of 2-2 and he’ll be taking on the New Blood Tournament V.2 alternate Thomas “Elbow King” Farrier who will be looking to pick up some experience and a victory in case he is called up to fight. Dmitrievich has had a mixed run so far but is currently riding a win against Hennig Muller in his last fight. In that fight he showcased some pretty heavy hands and managed to dispatch his opponent early in the second round by KO. Without knowing anything about Thomas Farrier it is difficult to say anything other than he looks to be a striker with a preference for Muay Thai over anything else. Dmitrievich will have the edge on the feet but could struggle in the wrestling should the fight end up in grappling range. He will have a significant advantage in the size department also and will weigh around fifty pounds heavier on the night. Thomas Farrier really has nothing to lose here but pride but the pressure is most definitely on Dmitrievich if he is to stand any chance of coming close to a title shot. For that to happen before turning twenty he would need at least a couple of very big performances to increase his name value to even by within shot of the belt but with no guarantees all that Ivashin can do is win big and that includes this fight right here tonight. Fight 1 – Iron Man Division Kirk Lazarus (1-1, 265lbs) vs. James “The Nervous” Gregor (4-9, 210lbs) Kirk Lazarus had a disappointing start to his IFC campaign when he dropped to second round KO loss to Albert Van Roy. It was a fight he was largely expected to win but, these things happen in MMA and tonight, Lazarus will get the opportunity to put his debut behind him and show the world what he can do when he takes on IFC veteran James Gregor. James Gregor is a young fighter who on paper looks to be grossly under performing. Since making his IFC debut all the way back at IFC III, Gregor has never stopped making improvements to his skill set but after a total of thirteen professional fights has managed wins in only four of them and, as well as finding himself on the wrong end of a five fight streak, sits firmly at the very bottom of the IFC’s overall ranking. Lazarus will come in as the bigger fighter but Gregor is not a small man by any means. A difficult fight to predict as both look to be relatively high skilled overall and neither seem weak anywhere. Though only two fights into his career, Lazarus hasn’t been particularly impressive so far and is yet to really show what he can do and Gregor’s current form is horrid. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alfred Posted January 3, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 3, 2018 Iron Man Fight Club New Blood Tournament V.2 Round 1 - Preview (January 7th 2018 – Hyashi’s Lounge, Los Angeles) Main Event – Iron Man Division (#11) Schmorgen Biscuit (8-3, 210lbs) vs. (#14) “Gypsy” Tommy Walcott (8-3, 140lbs) Our main event of the evening is one of two big rematches on the card beginning with #11 ranked Schmorgen Biscuit taking on #14 ranked “Gypsy” Tommy Walcott Schmorgen Biscuit has come a long way since losing a controversial decision to Tommy Walcott back at IFC XX with his striking in particular looking much improved since that encounter. Biscuit’s recent form has also been very good with his latest submission victory over one time title challenger Android Seventeen propelling him back into the IFC Top 10. In contrast “Gypsy” Tommy Walcott hasn’t fared quite as well since that fight having lost two of this last three and by quite a margin too. Beginning with a nine second KO loss to Taz Bandichoo in which Walcott, for the second time, lost the opportunity to challenge for the title and then in his last fight was dominated by diminutive grappler Klaus Chugman eventually losing by submission barely two minutes into round one. This is a very interesting match up between two developing young rivals both trying to cement their place at the top of the IFC rankings. The first bout was competitive but many believed Biscuit had done enough to win and should have been awarded the victory with round two being the biggest bone of contention for most but there are wise words concerning leaving your fate in another's hands and Biscuit will have learned a very hard lesson Walcott’s boxing is still far better than Biscuits and should without a doubt be winning any exchanges from striking distance but, despite making improvements to his grappling, will be no match for Biscuit should the fight end up on the floor. The clinch is the most interesting area of this fight as last time Walcott did most of his damage from there but this time around Biscuit returns with some improved Muay Thai and Wrestling and so it remains to be seen if the results would be the same. On form alone Biscuit might be considered the favourite this time around but it is a great match up and is expected be a highly competitive fight just like last time. Co-Main Event – Iron Man Division Wolfgang Lee Roth (6-4, 154lbs) vs. “Red Ribbon Army’s” Android Seventeen (7-7, 281lbs) Our second big rematch of the evening sees the return of Wolfgang Lee Roth after a long hiatus from fighting and he’ll be locking horns once again with Android Seventeen of whom he defeated in their first encounter in what was possibly a career best performance for Lee Roth. It’s been over three months since we saw Wolfgang Lee Roth in action with the last time being a heartbreaking last second third round submission loss to Brock Sampson in a match that Lee Roth was dominating up to that point. Perhaps such an agonising defeat is related to Lee Roth’s absence in the cage and we are eager to find out if Lee Roth used the time away to further improve and reflect on past performances. His opponent is a fighter who knows a thing or two about agonizing losses with perhaps no other fighter in the IFC having suffered such a dramatic turnaround in fortune. Entering the IFC as a 6-1 juggernaut and taking out then undefeated number one contender Tommy Walcott by first round KO, Seventeen earned the right to fight for the title against champion Mew Choo and since then things have just not gone right for the big heavyweight. Succumbing to a submission loss in the first round, it was a fight that sparked a run of what is now five submission losses out of his last six and a curse that, despite taking measures to address, looks no closer to being solved. Coming into this fight nothing much seems to have changed apart from Seventeen’s improved grappling skills that haven’t quite managed to help him as yet although tonight could be the night he starts to turn the corner. Those close to him say that Lee Roth’s mental state is a concern and that he still hasn’t recovered his confidence after back to back losses previously whereas Seventeen has never lost faith in himself or his abilities. On paper Android Seventeen should be beating Lee Roth but such was the case before when Lee Roth put on an absolutely stunning performance to pull of the upset. It would be a shame if Lee Roth wasn’t at his best to give himself the same chance once more but Seventeen is an android on a mission and he won’t care if Wolfgang’s head is in the game or not so long as he gets to knock it off his shoulders and get back to his terrorising ways of old. New Blood Tournament Round 1 (In order of tournament brackets) Fight 1 Mohammed Ruslanov (1-0, 235lbs) vs. Sal Sizzaro (0-0, 270lbs) Kicking off the second New Blood Tournament we have a battle of wrestlers with Mohammed Ruslanov of Russia taking on Sal Sizzaro of Jamaica. Ruslanov has managed to get a little experience before the tournament start when he picked up a KO win in the QFC. In that fight he surprisingly came out second best in the wrestling depart but through good use of his cement head was able to withstand some significant ground and pound long enough to turn things around and start dishing out some of his own. His opponent Sal Sizzaro is as yet a mystery with nothing known about this fighter other than some wonderful wrestling credentials and either a self depreciating sense of humour or cunning tactical mind. Given that this is a tournament full of mostly untested fighters predictions are tough but on this occasion Ruslanov looks to have a pretty solid base from what we’ve seen and with his Blue Belt in BJJ, has the only clear advantage so far Fight 2 James Dean Bradfield (0-0, 212lbs) vs. Jake “The Rattlesnake” Kirby (0-0, 180lbs) Next up we have Boxer James Dean Bradfield from Wales facing the unenviable task of taking on a Kirby, this time in the form of wrestler Jake “The Rattlesnake” Kirby representing the UK. Of course if the name Kirby sounds familiar it is because during the last tournament an unfancied fighter named Micky Kirby came out of nowhere only to end up fighting for the New Blood title in the final. Now with Jake Kirby coming from the same camp and looking remarkably similar we aren't expecting to be fooled twice and James Dean Bradfield will likely know just how tough a fight he has on his hands. Saying that, neither fighter has been tested yet so there is no telling if this Kirby is made of the same stuff that previous finalist Kirby is made of. Bradfield has a massive advantage in the stand up as well as around thirty pounds of extra weight in which to take out Kirby and if he is to do so he must make sure to do it early as the longer this fight drags on the more chance of getting caught off balance and taken down to the ground where, if Kirby is anything like his predessesor, Bradfield will feel like he is in quicksand Fight 3 Kurt “Nightcrawler” Wagner (0-0, 210lbs) vs. Dai Zexi (1-0, 220lbs) Another very interesting match up this time between Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu stylists Kurt “Nightcrawler” Wagner of the USA taking on China’s Dai Zexi Wagner is a mystery going into this one where as his opponent Dai Zexi managed to squeeze in a quick performance in the QFC where he made short work of his opponent to pick up his first professional win by first round submission. Both currently brown belts in BJJ the biggest difference between these two fighters will be in the wrestling where Zexi has gained a little more knowledge overall. With both fighters having no skills in any of the striking arts it’s unlikely that the fight develops into a slugfest instead this fight is highly expected to be finished on the ground. Bookies have Zexi as the favourite in this one stating his granite chin and experienced manangement camp as key factors Fight 4 “The Dangerous” Beast Incarnate (0-0, 145lbs) vs. Carver Frost (0-0, 258lbs) One of the most intriguing match ups of the tournament between two very interesting styles we have “The Dangerous” Beast Incarnate from the USA taking on New Zealander Carver Frost. Both fighters will be making their debuts here tonight and so there is not much we know about either of them. Beast Incarnate seems to be more of a submission wrestler with his base being built around his purple belt level of BJJ. He has a feeble amount of wrestling and a very slight amount of striking skills that make for a very interesting fighter. Frost on the other hand looks to be more of an obvious striker who is competent with his Boxing and Wrestling but who has also trained a little Muay Thai too. Could this be a classic grappler versus striker match up or is this something different? Whatever Beast Incarnate is looking to do he will need to do it in the face of a one hundred and twelve pound weight deficit which could be the defining factor in this fight. Bookies are out on this one but it definitely one of our most anticipated match ups in the tournament. Fight 5 Pedro Costa (0-0, 202lbs) vs. Armel Vidal (1-0, 146lbs) This one is without question a grappler versus striker affair with wonderful wrestler Pedro Costa of Brazil taking on natural bantamweight Kick Boxer Armel Vidal who will be representing the tiny country of Monaco. While nothing is known about Costa, his opponent Armel Vidal has already had his first taste of victory in the QFC where he won by first round KO in only forty-three seconds. Vidal has had a little bit more time to train and thus looks to have made some small improvements in other areas like his boxing and wrestling but it will still be tough going as all it takes is one momentary lapse in concentration to end up taken down to the mat. Vidal will be giving up around fifty-six pound of weight for this fight so will need to have some dynamite in his hands if he is to test the chin of his bigger opponent. The gut feeling of the bookies is that on this occasion the wrestler takes it. Fight 6 Dreamier Panda (0-0, 220lbs) vs. Warren Goldner (0-0, 245lbs) Yet another grappler versus striker match up with wrestler Dreamier Panda from Japan taking on German Kick Boxer Warren Goldner. Another two debutants ready to take their chance at New Blood glory with Goldner looking to have improved a little faster than Panda. Goldner will also be a little bigger in the weight and quite significantly so in the height which might help him in landing his strikes. Dreamier Panda comes from the same camp as previous tournaments third place fighter Xing Pugberg and so might have some helpful insight to pass on to his current entry. Panda will be looking for the takedown, Goldner will be looking to keep it on the feet. The rest we will see on the night Fight 7 Boris Boulder (0-0, 180lbs) vs. Paily “Dragon” Vattakkuzhi (1-1, 282lbs) Add one more to the grappler versus striker match ups with Boris Boulder of Ukraine taking on India’s own Paily “Dragon” Vattakkuzhi. Boulder Boulder will be making his debut here in the second New Blood Tournament but his stable mate Terry Crew has no doubt been able to pass along his experiences of competing in the previous tournament where he managed to make it into the second round despite having trained only a short time. Boulder has made some good progress in terms of skills and has already earned his Blue Belt in BJJ to supplement his wonderful wrestling skills. Facing him tonight is the tournaments heaviest entrant and also most experienced in Paily Vattakkuzhi. Vattakkuzhi actually had to cut down in order to make the -265lbs limit but has done so in good time and will now comfortably be able to make the weight without suffering a draining weight cut. Vattakkuzhi is the only fighter in the tournament that has had more than one fight. Taking part in a QFC tournament he managed to make it into the second round where he lost by submission round giving him an overall record of 1-1. Vattakkuzhi obviously has the size and power to end this fight with a KO on the feet but he will have to make sure that whatever he throws counts as Boulder is unlikely to have any trouble finishing the fight on the floor. Once again the bookies are going with the wrestler despite the size and experience of the big Thai Boxer. Fight 8 Georges “The Guillotine” Danton (0-0, 215lbs) vs. Nigel Farage (0-0, 220lbs) Rounding out the tournament at the bottom of the bracket is a battle between strikers with Georges “The Guillotine” Danton from France taking on England’s Nigel Farage. Both fighters have yet to make their first appearance inside a cage but both will have been training hard for this moment over the past few weeks. Danton looks to have made some very good progress in his boxing seems to have a clear advantage in the striking. In fact on paper Danton seems to have improved much faster than Farage but then Farage comes from the same camp as previous tournament winner Fay Gott so we known he understands what it takes to win this tournament already. This should be a great fight and potential fight of the night material. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NorthernNinjas Posted January 5, 2018 Report Share Posted January 5, 2018 http://www.mmatycoon.com/gallery/0/14913945358474.jpg Iain "The CN" Tower (7-0, 6-0 IFC) "The org isnt ready for me to be champ yet and guys like Butabi are trembling with fear when they get offers to fight me. Anyone got the balls to fight? I'm the best show in town, let's keep it rolling." 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cobra7 Posted January 5, 2018 Report Share Posted January 5, 2018 http://www.mmatycoon.com/gallery/0/14913945358474.jpg Iain "The CN" Tower (7-0, 6-0 IFC) "The org isnt ready for me to be champ yet and guys like Butabi are trembling with fear when they get offers to fight me. Anyone got the balls to fight? I'm the best show in town, let's keep it rolling." Hey boss dawson said he will take up the challenge if no one else has. He is awaiting his next opponent anyway 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cobra7 Posted January 5, 2018 Report Share Posted January 5, 2018 Update: provided common grounds are met which looks like everything is then starting next week you will be seeing this beautiful mug as the head of the new blood division. I can't wait to start? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alfred Posted January 6, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 6, 2018 Update: provided common grounds are met which looks like everything is then starting next week you will be seeing this beautiful mug as the head of the new blood division. I can't wait to start Looking forward to working with you mate. I'm sure the New Blood Division is going to be in good hands! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alfred Posted January 7, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 7, 2018 Iron Man Fight Club XXXII 6th January 2018 – King Theatre, Los Angeles Post Fight Recap With the influx of highly touted Island Fighters driving the sales up for this one, there was a buzz surrounding tonight's event that clearly contributed to producing the orgs highest rated event to date. It was an incredible night of action and with the upcoming split of the Iron Man open weight division into three separate weight categorizes it was even more interesting to witness each divisions rankings take form as the dust settles from the remaining open weight fights that will take place over the month of January. Main Event – Iron Man Division Light “Son Of” Heavyweight vs. Klaus “The House” Chugman There was some genuine concern for the safety of natural flyweight Klaus Chugman as he stood across the cage from 20-1 Island wrecking machine Light Heavyweight but in the end those fears were unfounded as Chugman took, without doubt, the biggest scalp of his career managing to defeat the former island champion in the first round. The fight began with Heavyweight flicking out a jab that landed and checking the probing inside leg kicks from Chugman before landing a big hook to the jaw that would have no doubt shook Chugman. Chugman didn’t shy away however and pressed forward aggressively with his own strikes managing to land a stinging inside leg kick. Unfazed, Heavyweight threw some combinations that Chugman tried to counter with a quick takedown to no avail and landed a big right to the jaw of the smaller grappler. Close to the minute mark Chugman chained together a failed attempt to get the fight to the floor with another takedown and this time managed to take Heavyweight off of his feet, something that had so far not occurred too often in Heavyweight’s career. From that point Chugman was relentless in his submission attacks and went about trying to force the finish. Heavyweight tried his best to control but Chugman proved to be a slippery character and with almost four minutes of the first round gone, Chugman took the back of Heavyweight and like a stubborn dog with a bone, clamped down hard and refused to give it up forcing the debuting Heavyweight to tap out for only the second time in his career Klaus Chugman defeated Light Heavyweight by Submission (RNC) at 3:55 of Round 1. With the new divisions just starting to form and with each of them currently vacant there has never been a better time for those in good form to stake a claim. Chugman has been at the top of the food chain for a while now, kept at bay purely by a fellow team mate holding the belt. Now Chugman will be free from that restraint in the Lightweight division and with his current 11-2 record and seven fight undefeated streak will be all but guaranteed the chance to compete for the new divisions title belt fairly soon. As for Light Heavyweight, despite tonight's loss he will still very likely be given first crack at the new Iron Man Middleweight division title alongside former undefeated open weight champion Mew Choo who vacated his title in order to move into the new division. Co-Main Event – Iron Man Division Super “Dominator” Heavyweight vs. “Corpse Making Cowboy” Don Joe The co-main event of the evening involved another big Island star making his first appearance on mainland soil with fellow team mate of Light Heavyweight, Super “Dominator” Heavyweight absolutely decimating the “Corpse Making Cowboy” Don Joe in barely more than a minute. A missed cross from Joe began the torrid night he was about to endure as Super Heavyweight countered with a stiff right straight to the head. Switching to the body, another couple of heavy shots thudded into Joe’s midsection before Super moved into the clinch and proceed to pulverize Joe from there. Joe covered up but could only block a few of the body shots while everything Super threw to the head landed clean and with Joe unable to fire back with anything significant it didn’t take long before Super dropped Joe to the canvas with a big uppercut. A brave Joe worked his way back to his feet with the aid of the cage fence but was clearly dazed and now at the mercy of a very unmerciful man. Super pressed Joe against the cage and drove a stinging shot to the body of Joe forcing his head to dip and there leveled him with a huge uppercut, once again dropping the prone fighter to his knees. What kept Joe in the game at this point no one knows but as before with the aid of the cage, Joe regained his footing only to be blasted with yet another thundering uppercut which thankfully moved the referrer to intervene and the suffering of the one time IFC title contender Don Joe Super Heavyweight defeated Don Joe by TKO (Strikes) at 1:18 of Round 1 It was a truly dominating performance and one in which you can see where Super Heavyweight gets his nickname from. With this win Super Heavyweight improves his record to 17-2 and currently stands head and shoulders above his fellow contenders in consideration for the vacant IFC Heavyweight division title. For Don Joe, this loss marked his second in a row and drops his overall record to 8-4. It was a big loss no doubt and a fight that he never even started to get going in but he has come back from similar situations before and we have hope that we will see him do so again. Fight 8 – Iron Man Division Ken “The Worlds Most Lethal” Shamrock vs. Alexander Porto Yet another former Island competitor made his debut here in the IFC tonight and Alexander Porto wasted no time in running through slugger Ken Shamrock. Showcasing a strong clinch game, Porto was able to dominate the fight there despite the best efforts of Shamrock who was making a fairly large step up to welcome Porto. Alexander Porto defeated Ken Shamrock by TKO (Strikes) at 2:21 of Round 1 A grand start for Porto who will be moving in the Middleweight division from here and with this win puts himself in a very good starting position in which to launch a possible run to the title. For Shamrock the future is unknown and having spoken of possible retirement over the course of his past few fights perhaps tonight's fight might lean him towards that choice once more? Fight 7 – Iron Man Division Hamish “The Pig” McTavish vs. Greg “The Gronk” Bell It was never going to be the easiest of fights for Hamish McTavish but no one predicted Greg Bell putting on the performance he did here tonight. Both fighters fought hard throughout in a back and forth ground war with both managing to pick up a round apiece going into the third and final round. From there Bell got a quick double leg that put the younger fighter on his back and after battling for control for a while, Bell was able to unleash a massive elbow that opened up McTavish’s ground defense and allowed Bell to get mount where he was able to start dropping some serious bombs and prompt the referee to end the bout Greg Bell defeats Hamish McTavish by TKO (Strikes) at 1:57 of Round 3 The win marked Bell’s second in a row in what could possibly be something of a resurgence from the super-heavyweight gatekeeper as he begins moving back up in the pecking order. A disappointing loss for McTavish who was expected to move past Bell despite the difference in experience but at only twenty years of age McTavish still has an abundance of time to improve on an already respectable start Undercard Daniel Sainty overcame big heavy hitting striker Vedran Stefanovic to win a first round submission victory and pull one back closer to Klaus Chugmans current org record of nine submission victories. A big win for Sainty who pushes his stock up further at possibly just the right time as the divisions split into three smaller ones. Terje “Nightmare” Warholm and Mr Kaalee put on an absolute war that earned them both “Fight of the Night” honours. Both fighters mixed it up well throwing kicks and punches from both the clinch and at a distance but in the end Warholm was given all three rounds by the judges and the unanimous decision victory. The fight was a close one with Kaalee perhaps missing an opportunity on the ground after securing a fair amount of take downs during the course of the bout. Warholm washes the taste of his previous loss to Hamish McTavish out of his mouth whilst Kaalee drops to his second in a row and a 4-3 record overall. Tyrano Jackson defeated En Esch by submission in what would be his final appearance in the IFC. In the New Blood division, Matteo Boretti made quite and entrance in his IFC debut scoring a thirty second first round KO over fellow debutante Yordan Dimitrov. Prelims Again from the New Blood division, Ivashin Dmitrievich improved to 3-2 overall after a picking up a TKO victory over debuting Thomas Farrier And lastly James “The Nervous” Gregor surprised most by snapping his five fight losing streak to heap further misery over Kirk Lazarus who is still searching for his first win in the IFC since making his debut back at XXVIII --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The following "of the night" awards are sponsored by IniTech Nutrition who stock both 160q Stamina Fuel and 160q Muscle Bulk along with their pioneering Chaos Energy 160q Recovery sup. Fight Of The Night goes to Terje Warholm vs. Mr Kaalee KO Of The Night goes to Super Heavyweight Sub Of The Night goes Klaus Chugman ***Rankings are currently suspended whilst the new divisions take form*** ***They will return shortly with title fight announcements for the IFC Lightweight, Middleweight and Heavyweight categories*** Rankings are determined by hype/pop, p4p rank, win/loss record and a few company internal criteria. Rankings can and will change frequently after each event 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cobra7 Posted January 8, 2018 Report Share Posted January 8, 2018 Omg a 5 second ko on a big heart...wtf game Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SixFootPenguin Posted January 8, 2018 Report Share Posted January 8, 2018 8 of the 8 fighters left are from different countries so diverse backgrounds. ill be interested to see how carver frost does as he is going to fight a brown belt in bjj next and if he wins than a wonderful wrestler so he has to go through a bunch of ground fighters to make finals and the first ground fighter he fought he won in 5 seconds. i cant wait to see the russian wrestler vs another kirby family wrestler who got to the finals last tournament. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alfred Posted January 8, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 8, 2018 Iron Man Fight Club New Blood V.2 Round 1 - Post Fight Recap 7th January 2018 – Hyashi’s Lounge, Los Angeles Main Event – Iron Man Division Schmorgen Biscuit vs. “Gypsy” Tommy Walcott The main event featured one of two big rematches of the evening with Schmorgen Biscuit taking on “Gypsy” Tommy Walcott. In their first encounter Walcott won a controversial decision in a fight that many believed Biscuit had edged. Nothing drastic had changed between then and now so fans of both fighters were looking forward to a witnessing a clear cut result this time around. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be as controversy reared it’s ugly head once again leaving things between these two even less definite. Round one opened with Biscuit securing an early takedown from the clinch and Walcott showcasing some improved ground defense as he fended off the submission attempt from Biscuit and managed to reverse his larger opponent. Biscuit fought hard to regain position but Walcott was content to stall from half guard and doing just enough to look busy for the referee. The action dropped a few levels as both fighters cancelled out each others actions but close to the end of the round Biscuit managed to slip a leg through and regain full guard but was unable to do anything with it as the bell sounded to close round one. Round two and Walcott landed a nice uppercut on Biscuit and followed up with some jabs and combinations that missed their mark. Biscuit moved into the clinch and began driving knees into Walcotts body with Walcott picking his chances to return fire when he could. Both fighters stayed active but Biscuit seemed to be the more aggressive. Walcott defended well and managed to block most of the knees from Biscuit as well as his attempts at a takedown and, as the round drew to a close, began to land more frequently. Going into the third and final round it was unclear just who was ahead but Walcott seemed to take the initiative and landed with a good uppercut. Biscuit attempt to follow up with a double leg but Walcott saw it coming and instead was bundled up against the cage. Biscuit landed a good knee to the midsection as he controlled Walcott in the clinch and managed to sneak through a nice elbow that open up a cut on Walcott. Biscuit worked aggressively once more but missed far more than he landed while Walcott managed to tag him back clean in return. Just after the three minute mark, Biscuit managed to secure a single leg and took Walcott down to the ground where he starting landing with some strikes on the ground. Walcott managed to reverse just before the end of the round. As the judges scores were read out it was clear that some had different opinions on what they’d just seen with one judge seeing it Biscuits way and two scoring for Walcott giving Walcott a split decision victory. Tommy Walcott defeats Schmorgan Biscuit by Decision (Split) Although it wasn’t the decisive conclusion that many had hoped for the result made it two for two for Tommy Walcott and with both fighters now going their separate ways in separate divisions it seems unlikely that their paths will need to cross again. Walcott now improves his record to 9-3 and is likely to enter the lightweight rankings at #2 but with some less than impressive recent form and an even more recent loss to division leader Klaus Chugman he may need to pick up another victory before he is guaranteed a place competing for the vacant lightweight title. For Biscuit, the loss ends a three fight win streak and adds another “L” to his record putting him at 8-4. Biscuit will now move into the IFC middleweight division and is very likely to be ranked somewhere around the #5 mark. Co-Main Event – Iron Man Division Wolfgang Lee Roth vs. “Red Ribbon Armys” Android Seventeen The co-main event of the evening featured a returning Wolfgang Lee Roth taking on heavy hitting heavyweight Android Seventeen in a rematch of their first encounter in which Lee Roth put on the performance of a lifetime to get the first round submission win in a fight many believed him to be the underdog. With rumors flying around that Lee Roth’s return wasn’t being taking seriously by his camp with Lee Roth’s mental state and absent manager being the biggest concern by those close to him, there were fears that we weren’t going to see the very best Wolfgang Lee Roth in the cage tonight. After thirty seven seconds of the first round, all those fears washed away. The fight started furiously with Wolfgang missing with a big telegraphed uppercut from far out and Seventeen pushing back with a slapping kick across the body and a crisp jab to the face before Lee Roth took the opportunity to bring Seventeen down to the mat and gain side control. Lee Roth quickly worked into position for a kimura and feeling secure, torqued the arm forcing Android Seventeen no option but to submit and end the fight Wolfgang Lee Roth defeated Android Seventeen by Submission (Kimura) at 0:37 of Round 1 A superb result for Lee Roth and with it removing all doubt of getting lucky in their first fight. Unfortunately however the future is uncertain with Lee Roth’s management having yet to resurface and sign the contracts takings him into the new lightweight division where he would no doubt be an instant top 5 fighter. The curse of the submission remains for Android Seventeen who now drops to his seventh loss in a row and sixth submission loss within those. Somewhere along the lines Seventeen must have really upset the gods of BJJ and perhaps only a pilgrimage to Rio to obtain his black belt could appease their fury. Seventeen will remain in what will now be re-branded as the IFC heavyweight division and will get back to fighting the bigger boys of the org New Blood Tournament V.2 – Round 1 (Fights in order of brackets) It was another intense night of tournament action with each and every fighter putting it on the line for a shot at the New Blood title. There was some interesting results with some fighters emerging as heavy favorites to take it all. Mohammed Ruslanov vs. Sal Sizzaro Our tournament opener featured one of the early favorites in Russian wrestler Mohammed Ruslanov as he took on big Jamaican Sal Sizzaro. It was a hard, gritty, competitive three round affair with Sizzaro faring much better than the oddsmakers would have had you think. Round one went to Ruslanov who took advantage of some wild striking by Sizarro to hit an early takedown and land in guard. Ruslanov kept very busy while on the floor constantly looking to improve posistion whilst peppering big Sal with some ground and pound throughout. Sizarro at least attempted some offense with a couple of submission attempts but overal it was all Ruslanov. Round two was more even more of a dominating one for Ruslanov as he once again hit the early takedown and proceeded to chip away at a prone Sizzarro for the entirety of the round. Going into the third and final round Sizarro would have known he was two rounds down and would need a finish to guarantee progress in the tournament and much to his credit he did manage to make things very interesting. Third round began with Sizarro throwing out jabs and body shots that missed by quite a distance and Ruslanov attempting takedowns which Sizzarro defended well. The fight went on like this for a couple of minutes and Sizarro still probing for the fight ending punch when he suddenly changed tactics and followed up an overhand right with a takedown of his own. Ruslanov reacted just a second too late and found himself on his back for the first time in the fight. He wasn’t there long however as he quickly reversed into the guard of Sizarro but perhaps that’s what Sizzaro had anticipated and instantly threw up a quick triangle attempted that Ruslanov was forced to defend. Ruslanov was happy to throw little shots from guard from then on but not before one final attempt to finish the fight by Sizzaro who in the last minute got an arm round the Russians neck and tried for a guillotine choke to no avail. The bell sounded and a knowing Ruslanov got to his feet to await the judges decision. Mohammed Ruslanov defeated Sal Sizzaro by Decision (Unanimous) Ruslanov now moves into the second round but after such a long and tiring fight like tonight he may have to take a little time off to regain his energy and that will eat into his training time. Jake “The Rattlesnake” Kirby vs. James Dean Bradfield Next up we got out first glimpse of this tournaments entry from the Kirby family and expectations couldn’t have been higher as Jake “The Rattlesnake” Kirby took on Welsh boxer James Dean Bradfield. It was no surprise to anyone when Kirby landed a lightening fast takedown with the first move on the fight and put Bradfield squarely on his back. Now completely out of his element, Bradfield could only wriggle uncomfortably as Kirby proceeded to tee-off on his defenseless opponent and it wasn’t long before Kirby opened up a big cut on Bradfield. A minute in and with Kirby laying it on heavy, Bradfield’s cut began to get worse and worse and after some big hammerfists to the face the referee halted to fight to seek the opinion of the doctor who decided that the damage was too severe and the fight needed to be stopped there. Jake Kirby defeated James Dean Bradfield by TKO (Cut) at 2:21 of Round 1. With expectations met, Jake Kirby marches on fresh and unscathed to set up a tantalizing second round showdown with fellow wrestler Mohammed Ruslanov. Ruslanov will have size on his side but will he be able to deal with the aggressive style of this Kirby fighter? We absolutely cannot wait to find out Kurt “Nightcrawler” Wagner vs. Dai Zexi Our third tournament fight was a battle of the BJJ Brown Belts with American Kurt “Nightcrawler” Wagner taking on China’s entry into the tournament Dai Zexi. Zexi opened up round one with some attempts at tagging Wagner’s body before following up with a nice takedown into side control. It was interesting to see whether Zexi’s slight advantage in the wrestling would effect the grappling element of the fight and initially it looked like it would as Zexi maintained control on top and threatened with submissions. Around a minute in Wagner managed to get back to half guard and made some attempts at a couple of awkward submissions from there. Zexi kept busy with some ineffective strikes from top and both fighters traded submission attempts before being stood up with thirty seconds of the round to go. Zexi once more missed with a sloppy shot to the body which Wagner punished with a quick takedown counter of his own and the round ended with Zexi attempting a weak triangle choke. Round two started with Zexi attempting to score points on the feet. He didn’t managed to land but it forced Wagner to shoot from a distance which Zexi was able to pre-empt and avoid. One shot from Zexi was a little too sloppy however and Wagner countered with a successful takedown into half guard. Zexi worked quickly in getting back to full guard and was able to push off into a loose triangle attempt that Wagner defended. With a slight adjustment however Zexi transitioned beautifully into a tight armbar and this time Wagner was trapped with no place to turn Dai Zexi defeated Kurt Wagner by Submission (Armbar) at 2:18 of Round 1 Dai Zexi moves into the second round now without suffering too much fatigue and will likely be back to training in a day or so. With Zexi showing enthusiasm for the stand up but without the finesse will he begin to work on improving in that area or will he put all of his effort into improving his wrestling in order to help him get the fight to the floor? With four weeks to go until the next round we will be keeping a close eye. “The Dangerous” Beast Incarnate vs. Carver Frost The opening rounds most anticipated match up between two very interesting fighters ending up being one of the most anticlimactic we’ve seen so far when “The Dangerous” Beast Incarnate was knocked senseless by New Zealand’s Carver Frost. “The bell rings for round one and we are underway….” “...Frost ducked down and unloaded an uppercut from hell that sent Incarnate clean off his feet...” Carver Frost defeated Beast Incarnate by KO at 0:05 of Round 1 It was a brutally quick end to a fight that never even began to get going. Frost moves on to the next round to take on BJJ fighter Dai Zexi and will now no doubt be bringing with him the utmost confidence in his own holy knockout power that rightfully earned him “knockout of the night” honors. Armel Vidal vs. Pedro Costa Heading into the bottom half of the bracket we had Monaco’s natural Bantamweight Armel Vidal giving up over fifty pounds to Brazallian wrestler Pedro Costa. Vidal had looked good in his previous one and only QFC fight but that was in his natural weight class and now he was face to face with a larger opponent and the bookies had predicted a wash out for the smaller Thai boxer. What was to take place however was nothing of the sort. For a fighter with no real striking experience Pedro Costa did exceptionally well on his feet against the highly skilled Vidal and tried to keep pace in round one, even managing to open a cut on Vidal. Though Costa was getting through, Vidal was a step ahead throughout and just edged the round due to his work rate on the outside and in the clinch. Round two saw Vidal come out strong early and pepper Costa with jabs to the head and body. Surprisingly Costa had not gone for a single takedown up to this point and many began to question his game plan in the face of superior striker Vidal. Costa moved into the clinch but was having no better success there. Close to the three minute mark Costa pulled guard and Vidal down with him. Costa began to attack with submission attempts off of his back but Vidal was able to hang on and stall long enough to force a stand up. With thirty seconds to go Vidal took the opportunity to seal the round and set about punishing the body of Costa who was visibly hurt with one particularly stinging shot. Going into the last round Vidal was up by two and most likely anticipating Costa going all out to secure the takedown and get the finish but that was not to come. Costa continued to press on without attempting to shoot while Vidal tagged him to the body and head for a full five minutes and coasted to a unanimous decision victory. Vidal Costa defeated Pedro Costa by Decision (Unanimous) Costa will likely look back on this fight and in hindsight wish that he had made more of an effort to get the fight to the floor where he would have had a significant advantage. Vidal never looked to be in trouble at any point in the fight and seemed very comfortable with his stick and move style of striking and now moves into the second round of the competition Dreamier Panda vs. Warren Goldner Another grappler versus striker match up in which the oddsmakers got wrong when Germany’s Warren Goldner upset Japanese wrestler Dreamier Panda with a stunning left hook that sent him crashing to the floor and then following him into mount and landing a few more for good measure. Panda barely got into the fight and coming from the team that placed third in the previous tournament will no doubt be disappointed to crash out so early and in such a fashion. Warren Goldner defetaed Dreamier Panda by TKO (Strikes) at 0:13 of Round 1 With this win, Warren Goldner moves on and will face fellow striker Armel Vidal in the next round. Goldner will certainly feel confident with his power having just KO’d a natural light-heavyweight and may feel that gives him an edge against the smaller Vidal. One thing is for sure though and that is that Goldner will feel very good about proving wrong those that predicted a Panda win. Boris Boulder vs. Paily “Dragon” Vattakkuzhi Coming up to the close of the tournament Ukrainian wrestler Boris Boulder took on the tournaments most experienced competitor in India’s Paily “Dragon” Vattakkuzhi. Boulder was giving up over one hundred pounds in weight to big Paily Vattakkuzhi and sensibly wasted no time in going for a takedown and the relative safety of the ground. Sitting in the guard of Vattakkuzhi, Boulder seemed content to stall and throw the odd shot which Vattakuzhi blocked easily. After about a minute of this the referee had enough and stood both fighters up. Now more prepared, Vattakkuzhi stuffed a takedown attempt from Boulder and countered with a strong right hand that opened Boulder up. Boulder sensed the power in the former super-heavyweight and once again made the smart move of taking his opponent off his feet. This time however Boulder showed more hustle and got down to the task ahead softening up Vattakkuzhi with elbows from mount and forcing him to give up his back. Boulder kept up the pressure and not long after was able to secure a tight rear naked choke to end the fight in the first round Boris Boulder defeated Paily “Dragon” Vattakkuzhi by Submission (RNC) at 2:58 of Round 1 A good result for Boulder who advances to the next round without taking too much damage from his bigger opponent. He will need a few stitches but generally is expected back in the gym very soon. Nigel Farage vs. Georges “The Guillotine” Danton Our final fight of the tournament and these warriors certainly saved the best for last when English kickboxer Nigel Farage took on French striker Georges “The Guillotine” Danton. Nigel Farage was representing the same camp that produced previous champion Fay Gott and because of that all eyes were firmly fixed on this fight. The first round started fast and furious. A jab from Danton found its mark and Farage sent a cross straight back which instantly opened up the face of Danton. In retaliation Danton cracked Farage with an open hand slap and from then on it was a brawl. Both fighters traded shots but Danton threw two to Farages one. Just over a minute in a stiff jab wobbled Farage and Danton fell upon him with shots to the head. Farage fired back and hit Danton with a nice hook that put Danton on wobbly legs himself. The fight stumbled into the clinch where Danton started to take over a little managing to out strike Farage on the inside. Danton racked up some extra points after managed a nice little trip to take Farage down but neither fighter showed much on the ground and were stood back up after a short period. Danton finished the round off strong tagging several times before the bell signalled the end of round one Round two began and perhaps sensing that his best work was done on the inside, Danton moved into the clinch. Once again Danton took over and Farage was starting to get hit more often without offering much back in return. Short rights and uppercuts landed for the Frenchman and started to take their toll. A couple of minutes into the round Danton cracked Farage with a big right that sent him crashing to the floor. Dazed but not out, Danton waved Farage back to his feet before connecting with a huge hook that dropped him again. By some sheer force of will Farage stayed conscious and Danton once more waved him to his feet but while the lights were on in Farage’s head, no one was home and he was at the mercy of “The Guillotine”. A massive overhand right landed and the referee could watch no longer stepping in to end the fight. Georges Danton defeated Nigel Farage by TKO (Strikes) at 2:29 of Round 2. A terrific performance from both fighters but especially Danton who out struck Farage by a significant margin. The fight earnt the approval of the crowd and the “fight of the night” honors. Early favorite Farage is out and Danton moves on but he will have a very tough match up ahead of him as he faces submission wrestler Boris Boulder in the next round. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alfred Posted January 10, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 10, 2018 Iron Man Fight Club XXXIII - Preview (13th January 2018 – King Theatre, Los Angles) Main Card Main Event – Iron Man Division Louis CK (10-1, 202lbs) vs. Steven “The Steamroller” Kennedy (8-6, 178lbs) Headlining tonight’s event we have Louis CK who will be making his final appearance in the IFC cage taking on former champion Steven “The Steamroller” Kennedy who will no doubt be aiming to send CK off with a bang. Louis CK had some great successful prior to arrival in the IFC having managed to rack up a 9-0 record consisting of mostly first round knock outs and also taking the Marty Robbins Fight Ranch sixteen man tournament title in the light-heavyweight division. It was this run of results that lead to an opportunity to fight for the IFC title against undefeated champion Mew Choo at IFC XXII. On that night Louis CK looked very good early on and pushed the champion further than he had ever been to date but ultimately, fell short and suffered a third round TKO and the first professional loss of his career. Taking some time away to improve his skills, CK made his return recently against heavy hitter Taz Bandichoo and proved that old habits die hard as he finished Bandichoo by first round KO in a fight he dominated. For his final fight in the IFC he will do battle against one of the longest serving Iron Man veterans and second ever IFC champion Steven Kennedy. Kennedy comes into this fight fresh from his quick dispatch of young striker Terry Bogard in which he carved through the takedown defense of Bogard early in order to give him a quick lesson in the art of submissions, getting the Kimura finish three minutes into the first round. Previous to that, Kennedy had been somewhat inconsistent in his results having alternated wins and loses over the course of five fights and managing to win just three of them. This form, whilst by no means terrible, had put Kennedy in the dangerous position of flittering in and out of the Top 10 and on the brink of getting swallowed up by the swath of hungry young talent coming up in the ranks. Though Kennedy has done quite well against some of the younger prospects he has faced, his opponent tonight might be his toughest yet. Though technically not too far apart in the striking department, CK has a far better record when it comes to the stand up and possibly performs beyond what might be expected for his level. CK will also have a small advantage in the wrestling which could be a key factor as Kennedy will doubtless want this fight on the floor sooner rather than later. Kennedy’s strength will be as always in his Jiu-Jitsu and if CK’s list of KO’s is impressive, Kennedy’s is equally so when it comes to submissions. Kennedy isn’t a typical BJJ fighter however and will mix things up with strikes in order to set up his takedowns but generally, if he cannot get the fight to the floor and keep it there, he doesn’t fare well and this is likely to be the case in this match up. Louis CK will be the strong favourite going into this fight but it isn’t without it’s dangers as Kennedy is a master submission artist and should CK find himself on the floor his odds for victory goes down significantly. Co-Main Event – Iron Man Division Vincent Lemieux (9-4, 270lbs) vs. Terry Bogard (5-3, 179lbs) Our co-main event of the evening could already be a contender for fight of the night with a rampaging Vincent Lemieux taking on skilled young striker Terry Bogard. Vincent Lemieux is a bad man. Currently on a winning streak of nine, it has been a long time since Lemieux has tasted defeat and that doesn’t look like it’s about to change anytime soon. Though Lemieux got a fair amount of his wins within the less competitive QFC system, he has now quite clearly proven himself with wins in the Steel Penn of Hilo org and now within the IFC. The most frightening part of Lemieux’s rise is the fact that every single one of those nine wins have been within the first round and by TKO or knockout. There can be no more doubt. Lemieux is the real deal and it’s going to take a super heroes effort to stop him. But could his opponent Terry Bogard be the one to do it? Terry Bogard’s career begin with aspirations of KT glory but through a twist of fate ended up with the IFC instead and thrown into MMA competition. Striking has never been a problem for Bogard but he has been found struggling once or twice with the other side of mixed martial arts and that is the grappling, though he has been making some improvements with his wrestling of late. Tonight Bogard will not need to concern himself too much with takedowns and submissions however as his opponent Lemieux is a man who likes to thrown down and that will suit Bogard down to the ground. The question is can he withstand the ferocious power of the much larger fighter and does Bogard himself posses the means to take out Lemieux? Technically Bogard is the better striker overall having worked almost as hard on his boxing as he has on his Muay Thai. He also has a perfect record of knockouts himself for each of his five victories so far but what is true on paper doesn’t always transition to the cage and truth is that Vincent Lemieux is a simple, straightforward fighter who throws with phenomenal precision and power and currently that is working perfectly for him. Lemieux will be the favourite for this one. Bogard is a good striker, is young and a good solid prospect but you just get the feeling that perhaps this isn’t quite his time and that Lemieux will be just too big and too powerful for him on this occasion. Fight 8 – Iron Man Division Bricks “Parpaing” Thrower (10-6, 204lbs) vs. Albert Van Rooy (2-2, 256lbs) Since making his Iron Man debut at IFC I, Bricks Thrower has been one of the most active fighters on the roster and is currently one of a handful tied for most fights in the org at 14 apiece. Thrower began his career at eighteen and threw himself straight into competition. His training has been hands on and in the cage but in spite of being so active Thrower has found time to improve his skills in the gym when he can and has slowly matured into a decent all round fighter. Recently he has been on a run of good form that pushed him up the rankings and onto a collision course with former champion Ricky “Big Tex” Hughes. It was a huge opportunity for Thrower but one that he was ultimately not ready for and as such dropped to his first defeat after four wins. Now once again Thrower is back and we will get to see how well he will deal with such a big defeat. On the other side of the cage is relatively inexperienced Thai Boxer Albert Van Rooy who after losing his first two professional fights has bounced back superbly and will be coming into this fight on a small two fight win streak. The turn around began with a shock second round knockout of hot prospect Kirk Lazarus during Lazarus’ debut and then most recently when he managed to survive a round on the ground against Japanese submission wrestler Yoshihiro Sexyama and win once again by second round knockout. Now in his return he will look to pull off another upset this time over the very experienced Bricks Thrower Despite the gulf between them in cage experience, this fight is expected to be very competitve and could go a number of ways. Van Rooy will fancy himself as the better striker despite Thrower having a decent amount of KO’s to his name and will very likely want to keep the fight standing. Thrower might consider taking the fight to the ground where Van Rooy has no real experience though he did showcase some good defense there during his last bout. Both fighters have suffered losses so it really is anyone’s fight to take. With Thrower’s experience and time in the game taken into consideration he could be considered the slight betting favorite but Van Rooy is improving and is in good form with wins over some very credible opponents. Fight 7 – Iron Man Division Bea “Rick” Mason (6-4, 175lbs) vs. “The Phenomenal” Orgasmic Bliss (2-2, 300lbs) Next up we have two fighters known mainly for their grappling skills with BJJ brown belt Bea Mason taking on purple belt wrestler Orgasmic Bliss. Bea Mason has a good early start to his IFC tenure managing three wins out of four with all three of those wins coming via way of submission. While his overall 6-4 record isn’t going to turn any heads right now he is still a young fighter and he seems to be improving his striking skills rapidly marking him as an interesting prospect well worthy of keeping an eye on. He’ll get the opportunity to further that record tonight as he takes on a fighter who has done okay for himself despite not having been involved in MMA for very long. Orgasmic Bliss comes into this fight with a record of 2-2. Suffering a loss in the QFC for his pro debut, Bliss arrived in the IFC near the bottom of the roster but quickly dispatched his first two opponents both by first round stoppages. This early success moved him up the rankings somewhat and into a much more competitive match up with Greg Bell. At that time however it was a possibly step too far and Bliss suffered under the heavy hands of Bell and in the end was stopped by a cut. Not a defining finish by any means with Bliss looking game throughout. This fight is most likely to end up being decided on the ground and it will be very interesting to see two different styles of grappling in play. One major possibility however is that Mason attempts to take advantage of his ever improving striking skills and keep this fight on the feet but with his lack of wrestling it’s unlikely that Bliss will have much trouble getting him down. Expect Bliss to come into this fight with guns blazing and to put pressure on Mason early but with the smaller BJJ fighter constantly improving each time we see him and a perfect submission finish rate behind him, Mason will definitely be the one with more options for taking the win here. Undercard Fight 6 – Iron Man Division Sirimongkol Niyotrong (3-3, 152lbs) vs. Jonathan “Money Shot” Davis (4-4, 142lbs) Our first fight of the evenings undercard and another fight that is being earmarked for potential fight of the night honours with natural featherweight Sirimongkol Niyotrong taking on natural bantamweight Jonathan Davis. Both Niyotrong and Davis would be considered strikers but both are coming into this fight with some very different recent form. Niyotrong has managed to scrap his way to three consecutive unanimous decision wins in recent times after a disastrous three fight losing streak starting with his debut. He has displayed some diverse clinch fighting and some good Muay Thai on the outside but is perhaps lacking power to really finish the fight? Jonathan Davis, on the other hand, comes into this fight off the back of a three fight losing streak after a very respectable start in MMA. His most recent loss was his debut in the Iron Man division after getting his start in the IFC during the first ever New Blood Tournament. In that fight he suffered a TKO loss to a much bigger Vladimir Impaler who managed to beat Davis to the punch far too often and was able to easily avoid the many combinations thrown by Davis during that fight. Davis' main strength is still his wonderful boxing skills which he was previously having a lot of success with but now looks to have improved his grappling skills by a fair amount also. Niyotrong has been training in both boxing and Muay Thai but hasn’t reached the same level as Davis with either of them. Grappling wise both fighters are fairly even with Davis having a slight edge in the wrestling. Davis has had a rough time lately and will no doubt be eager to put an end to his poor form and get back to winning ways whereas Niyotrong has already come though what Davis is going through and will not want to head back to that dark place. It’s been a while since Davis had his hand raised and he could really do with a victory here but don’t expect Niyotrong to have any pity. A very tough fight to predict an outcome except that it is likely going to be an absolute way and a treat for the fans watching. Fight 5 – Iron Man Division Gin Kobra (5-8, 140lbs) vs. Yoshihiro Sexyama (2-4, 190lbs) Next up, experienced IFC vet Gin Kobra looks to pick up his second win in a row when he takes on struggling Yoshihiro Sexyama Last time out, Gin Kobra put on a gritty performance against Boyd Clark to overturn a string of losses that had served to confine him to the lower ends of the IFC roster. His opponent Yoshihiro Sexyama is currently going through a similar situation and hasn’t managed to get his hand raised since beating Ivan Shtirko back at IFC Mid Week 7. A competitive fight is anticipated with Kobra’s superior experience excepted to play a major role. Fight 4 – Iron Man Division Yuri “Subversion” Bezmenov (2-0, 207lbs) vs. Lord “God of Destruction” Beerus (3-4, 185lbs) Stepping up to take on emerging monster in Yuri “Subversion” Bezmenov is Lord “God of Destruction” Beerus who is has had a rough few fights of late and comes into the bout on the back of a three fight losing streak. Bezmenov made his successful IFC debut at XXX managing to get the first round submission against a more experienced fighter in James Gregor. If Bezmenov’s imposing grappling skills weren’t frightening enough, his striking seems to be improving at an alarming rate too. It’ll be an almost impossible task for Lord Beerus to pull off the upset here where he will find himself at best only equal in BJJ. Bezmenov will have an advantage in every other area but with one caveat going into this fight being that if Bezmenov decides to simply try and bulldoze his way through Beerus he is likely to end up fighting from guard. This could play right into Beerus’ strengths and allow for the practically impossible to become possible and that is a submission finish from the fighter who has so far shown great aptitude for such things when presented the opportunity. Bezmenov the overwhelming favourite despite this being only his third professional outing Fight 3 – Iron Man Division Sascha “Widow Maker” Koniezko (2-5, 185lbs) vs. Chong “The Star Fish” Tay (6-6, 210lbs) Sacha Koniezko has perhaps started to find his groove in the IFC after a disastrous five fight losing steak to begin his career. His last two fights have been decisive KO finishes and now he is back looking to pick up where he left off but this time he will be facing dangerous striker Chong Tay Chong Tay has found it difficut to maintain any kind of decent form and usually finds himself alternating between wins and losses. On this occasion, Tay’s last fight was a loss and he will be bringing with his a record of 6-6 If he can manage to avoid the heavy hands of Tay and get the fight away from danger then he will have a very good chance of continuing his current run of wins Prelims Fight 2 – Iron Man Division “The Barbarian” Battle Ram (9-5, 220lbs) vs. Zoran Sablic (4-2, 204lbs) It’s been quite a roller coaster for “The Barbarian” Battle Ram since signing with new management and re-signing with the IFC. Starting with two losses only to bounce back with two wins, Ram has once again dropped to two in a row and is going to have to dig deep to turn things around once more. Tonight he’ll face Zoran Sablic who is also currently on a two fight losing streak since joining new management and will be hoping to return to the form that he started his career with when he amassed his first four wins. Confidence will be an issue here with neither fighting currently have much at all. This could lead to a very tentative fight which could favor Ram if Sablic is too timid to get in for the takedown he will surely need. A fight that both really need to win but could go either way on the night Fight 1 – New Blood Division Rock “The Hurricane” Lee (0-0, 155lbs) vs. Jason “Arm Bar” Card (3-2, 280lbs) Getting the evening started is a fight from the New Blood Division and young debutante Rock “The Hurricane” Lee takes on 3-2 Jason “Arm Bar” Card who comes to us from the same camp as current IFC hall of famer Ricky “Big Tex” Hughes. Lee is a striker who has made Muay Thai his sole focus up to this point and is really an unknown quantity at the point. Significantly smaller than Card, Lee will be thrown into the deep end with his introduction to open weight fighting and will need to be very careful not to get caught by his larger opponent. Card has already been busy in his very young career and has managed a 3-2 record so far whilst still only eighteen years of age. Card will be the slight favorite in this fight due to his size and experience advantage but without knowing anything about his opponent, any predictions are going to be difficult. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alfred Posted January 14, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 14, 2018 Iron Man Fight Club XXXIII (13th January 2018 – King Theatre, Los Angeles) Post Fight Recap Main Card Main Event – Iron Man Division Louis CK vs. Steven Kennedy A departing Louis CK will walk off with a swagger after dismantling former IFC champion Steven Kennedy in under a minute. Kennedy seemed to be performing well, mixing up his strikes and landing what he threw but CK was a step ahead and a nice string of punches to the body and head followed up with a big uppercut dropped Kennedy to floor. Clearly still hurt as he was waved back to his feet, Kennedy tried to avoid the oncoming assault but his legs were gone and a neat little feint to the midsection by CK caused Kennedy to drop his hands providing CK with the opportunity to land the killing blow. A left hook crashed into the side of Kennedy’s head and that was all she wrote. Louis CK defeated Steven Kennedy by KO (Punch) at 0:51 of Round 1 Louis CK now moves on and will take with him a 2-1 record from the IFC. Though he suffered the one and only loss on his otherwise perfect record he can at least hold his head high knowing that he gave undefeated IFC champion Mew Choo the toughest fight of his career. A tough break for Kennedy who won’t feel like he did a terrible amount wrong in this fight but nevertheless picks up the seventh loss of his career taking his overall record to 8-7. With some erratic form of late it will be interesting to see just where ends up in the new middleweight division rankings when they are drawn up. Co-Main Event – Iron Man Division Vincent Lemieux vs. Terry Bogard Vincent Lemieux came into this fight on a streak of nine crushing first round KO victories so it was no surprise when young striker Terry Bogard was tarred as the heavy underdog coming in. Giving up over ninety pounds in weight to Lemiuex there were also doubts as to whether he possessed the power to trouble his larger opponent but what transpired over the next forty-six seconds answered all those questions and them some. Lemieux came out swinging with Bogard doing his utmost to avoid everything coming his way but Lemieux followed up a missed uppercut with his trademark monster right hand that dropped Bogard instantly to the mat. Springing straight back to his feet, the damage was immediately obvious as the blood poured from a cut on Bogard. Lemieux rushed in in an attempt to finish the fight and missed with a big body shot and wild combination then out of nowhere BOOM! Bogard returned fire with his own big right hand that sent the big man crashing to the ground. Showing good composure, Bogard resisted the urge to follow him down and instead waved him to his feet. Resuming the action, Bogard landed a nice leg kick and Lemieux hit back with a nice one two. Another wild combination from Lemieux and this time Bogard countered with his own flurry of punches that dropped Lemieux backwards with his head making a sickening thud on the mat. This time Bogard followed up with a couple of strikes for good measure and walked off before the referee could even step in. Terry Bogard defeated Vincent Lemieux by KO (Strikes) at 0:46 of Round 1 It was a fantastic result for Bogard and one that he will no doubt find especially pleasing after proving wrong those that doubted him. Bogard will now move into the new IFC middleweight division and this win will surely go a long way as the new rankings are compiled. Lemieux tastes defeat for the first time in ten fights and will now need to go about recovering from this upset. He now moves into the heavyweight division with a record of 9-5 and will be expected to feature somewhere in the Top 5 of the new division rankings. Fight 8 – Iron Man Division Bricks Thrower vs. Albert Van Rooy Young IFC veteran Bricks Thrower was unable to put his superior experience to use as suffered a nine second KO loss to heavyweight Albert Van Rooy. It was the second quick first round KO in a row that Bricks has suffered and so it might just be the perfect timing for him to be move into the new middleweight division. Another solid victory for Van Rooy who has bounced back nicely after going 0-2 to begin his career. Now having won three in a row, he will move into the heavyweight division and surprisingly could find himself somewhere within the Top 10. Fight 7 – Iron Man Division Bea Mason vs. Orgasmic Bliss Natural welterweight Bea Mason picked up his third win in a row to move to 7-4 overall but it wasn’t without taking quite the beating to get there. His three-hundred pound opponent Orgasmic Bliss made sure to work him over good, dominating the first round with relentless submission attempts and some vicious ground and pound. Going into the second round Mason started to work his way back into the fight and landed a takedown of his own. Both fighters took it in turns to test the submission defense of each other but just before the end of the round, Mason somehow managed to the back of his much larger opponent and sink in a rear naked choke forcing Bliss to tap. Bea Mason defeated Orgasmic Bliss by Submission (RNC) at 4:50 of Round 2. Mason has been in good form of late and looks to improving his skills at a decent rate. He now moves into the new IFC middleweight division where being only several pounds away from making the lightweight limit, Mason will still be somewhat undersized in his new division. With performances like tonight however, perhaps that’s just how Mason likes it Undercard Fight 6 – Iron Man Division Jonathan Davis vs. Sirimongkol Niyotrong Sirimongkol Niyotrong battled to a three round unanimous decision victory over Jonathan Davis who has been struggling to recapture past form of late. Fight 5 – Iron Man Division Yoshihiro Sexyama vs. Gin Kobra Sexyama put an end to his three fight losing streak with a hard fought submission victory over veteran Gin Kobra. Kobra looked to have just edged the first round overall despite Sexyama threatening with submissions throughout. Sexyama made sure to get the job down in the second round however and just squeaked out the submission before the end of round bell Fight 4 – Iron Man Division Lord Beerus vs. Yuri Bezmenov Lord Beerus gave his very best trying to take out up and coming monster middleweight Yuri Bezmenov but could never have expected to be on the receiving end of a first round head kick KO from the exceptional wrestler from Russia. Bezmenov continues to climb the rankings as his improves his record to 3-0 Fight 3 – Iron Man Division Chong Tay vs. Sascha Koniezko Chong Tay made short work of Sascha Koniezko finishing the fight with a TKO at 0:14 of the first round. Prelims Fight 2 – Iron Man Division Battle Ram vs. Zoran Sablic Battle Ram defeated Zoran Sablic by TKO (Punch and Knee) at 1:46 of Round 2 Fight 1 – New Blood Division Rock Lee vs. Jason Card Jason Card defeated Rock Lee by TKO (Knees) at 4:11 of Round 1 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The following "of the night" awards are sponsored by IniTech Nutrition who stock both 160q Stamina Fuel and 160q Muscle Bulk along with their pioneering Chaos Energy 160q Recovery sup. Fight Of The Night goes to Terry Bogard vs. Vincent Lemieux KO Of The Night goes to Terry Bogard Sub Of The Night goes Bea Mason ***Rankings are currently suspended whilst the new divisions take form*** ***They will return shortly with title fight announcements for the IFC Lightweight, Middleweight and Heavyweight categories*** Rankings are determined by hype/pop, p4p rank, win/loss record and a few company internal criteria. Rankings can and will change frequently after each event 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alfred Posted January 18, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 18, 2018 Iron Man Fight Club XXXIV Preview (20th January 2018 – King Theatre, Los Angeles) Main Card Main Event – Iron Man Division Brooklyn Brawler (8-3, 190lbs) vs. Ken “The Worlds Most Lethal” Shamrock (5-6, 175lbs) Up next we have the final appearance from Ken “The Worlds Most Lethal” Shamrock as he enters his retirement fight against a very tough Brooklyn Brawler The last time we saw Brooklyn Brawler was at IFC XXXI where he was competing for the Iron Man Championship belt against Mew Choo. Those that truly believed that Brawler could topple the undefeated champion were few and far between but some experts predicted that the Brawlers strong clinch game could be the key to unlocking Choo. Even though he went in as the underdog, it was a disappointing performance from Brawler who never really managed to get going and was defeated in the first round by submission. Now Brawler makes his return for the last time in the Open Weight Iron Man division before moving into the newly opened IFC middleweight division and what a fight to finish on taking on game scrapper Ken Shamrock. Ken Shamrock has spent his entire career in the IFC after making his debut back in august of 2017 at Mid Week 3. Since that time Shamrock has had many ups and downs and has amassed a career total of 5-6 but no matter who his opponent or how tough, Shamrock has always come to fight. For his last fight he faces an extremely difficult opponent but no matter the result Ken Shamrock will always be fondly remembered for his epic white belt submission win over Terje Warholm during his debut. Could we see such an upset tonight? Anything is possible. Brawler will enter this fight as the favourite mainly due to his dangerous clinch game but Shamrock will have the advantage from a distance on paper at least. Brawler has a very good knockout record and could trouble Shamrock’s chin should he catch him so Shamrock will need to be very careful not to be too overzealous when coming forward. This fight is earmarked as a potential fight of the night. Both fighters come to fight and we hope that no matter the result, this will be a grand send off for the worlds most lethal Shamrock Co-Main Event – Iron Man Division Wilson “KO” Reyes (7-5, 287lbs) vs. Big Murha (4-0, 215lbs) Next up we have a big opportunity for up coming prospect Big Murha when he takes on high ranking super-heavyweight Wilson “KO” Reyes who will be no doubt be in a foul mood after recent KO loss to Vincent Lemieux in his previous fight. It was a huge blow to the title aspirations of Reyes who up until that point had racked up three wins out of three and had made quite the impressive entrance into the IFC since his debut at Mid Week 9. Still, his momentum wasn’t completely derailed by the loss and Reyes hung on to a Top 10 spot but if he wishes to remain there he will need to be on top form in order to take out his opponent tonight. Big Murha has been impressive during his young career and after four fights undefeated has definitely been a fighter worth keeping an eye on. Tonight he faces what is likely to be a big step up in competition for the young fighter as Reyes has over twice the experience of and has been training for a decent amount of time longer too. For the amount of time Murha has been training his improvements have been rapid and you can tell that he has been working diligently on perfecting his clinch game. Reyes is absolutely no push over but still will want to avoid any fighting from close quarters and will instead want very much to keep his distance and wait for an opportunity to hit Murha very hard. Reyes has the power to do it if he catches Murha but so far in his short career, Murha has managed to overcome each obstacle put in front on him. A tough fight for Reyes for sure and one he will need to be on form for if he is to walk out victorious. Fight 8 – Iron Man Division Japa Koniu (5-1, 235lbs) vs. Taz Bandichoo (6-6, 240lbs) Japa Koniu, a Polish heavyweight who came out of nowhere and burst into the IFC Top 15, will tonight face another big test this time in the form of aggressive slugger Taz Banichoo who has not quite been the same since losing his four fight win streak to Don Joe back at IFC Mid Week 9. Since joining up with the IFC, Koniu has managed to add another two victories to his then 3-1 record and will likely place somewhere in the Top 10 of the new heavyweight division once the rankings have been established. His last fight against BJJ brown belt knockout artist Jaxson Wilder was the first time that Koniu had been outside of the first round which goes a way to describing the level of competitiveness shown during that fight. It was a battle in which both competitors gave everything they had but in the end it was Koniu’s volume of punches that won him the judges favor. Now tonight he will need to do it all again against an opponent who, on his day, is more than capable and happy to knock your block off. Taz Bandichoo comes into this fight with an overall record of 6-6 with all six of those victories being by brutal first round knockout. A statement that would usually invoke a respectable amount of fear from a potential opponent only at this point, Bandichoo has not managed to deliver the goods in three of his last fights and instead seems to have had progressively worse results in each one. His last, against Louis CK, Bandichoo was outclassed and beaten to the punch for almost the whole of round one before falling to a TKO end. A far cry from the form that propelled Bandichoo out of from the bottom of the roster and into the Top 10 not so long ago but perhaps tonight is the night that “Crash” turns things around? As has been the case for his last few fights, Bandichoo will seemingly have the advantage in the stand up although that hasn’t counted for too much considering the results. A key factor however is that Koniu, like Bandichoo, has so far preferred to fight from the outside and avoid the clinch, a department that Bandichoo has shown clear weakness in recently. If this is the case then Bandichoo will quite possibly find more opportunities to land with his aggressive style if Koniu and if the fight did turn into a brawl Bandichoo’s chances of victory would improve greatly. It’s likely that Koniu’s wrestling and Jiu-Jitsu are more defence orientated but none the less could provide him with a lot more options in the cage as those areas are still something that Bandichoo has shown little interest in. This could be a big opportunity for Koniu to take out a former Top 10 fighter in Bandichoo and move himself further along in the rankings. A win would put him at 6-1 overall with a three fight streak and that would be a very good base in which to move forward. Bandichoo on the other hand has already fallen a fair distance from his best placing and will not want to drop any further. He will have a hell of a punchers chance but based on current form, Koniu will be going into the fight as the bookies favourite. Fight 7 – Iron Man Division (Brock “The Bodyguard” Sampson (5-2, 169lbs) vs. Stewart Pack (9-2, 265lbs) With almost one hundred pounds in weight between our next two fighters it’s fair to say that Brock “The Bodyguard” Sampson will once again have his hands full with IFC newcomer Stewart Pack. Brock Sampson comes into this fight off the back of a loss after making a huge step up in order to face a former Island org champion in Thor Magnunsen. It was a lot to ask and on that occasion too much as Magnunsen overwhelmed Sampson with his size and strength in the clinch and ended the fight after only a couple of minutes into the first round. Now Sampson returns in what is likely to be the last time he has to face such a massive weight disadvantage before moving to the emerging Iron Man Lightweight division and his fans will be hoping that he can fare better against his debuting opponent tonight. Stewart Pack enters the IFC arena with an impressive 9-2 record and even though the majority of those fights have been in the QFC system, Pack has looked dominant when winning and currently holds a 100% finish record for all nine victories. Pack is very much a ground fighter who looks to put his opponent on his back and proceed to pummel them unconscious while Sampson is a BJJ Brown Belt who likes to brawl which makes this match up very interesting as we get to see just how much of a part the weight difference will play here. Sampson has had good results so far with his hands when faced with equal or slightly better strikers so is likely to feel comfortable in taking the fight to Pack while Pack is realistically only going to be looking for the takedown. If Pack does managed to get the fight on the floor then Sampson will need to be very quick in finishing as he will surely not be able to withstand many big shots from the two-hundred and sixty five pound monster that is Pack. Bookies see this as a very close affair with perhaps Pack just edging it. Undercard Fight 6 – Iron Man Division Dave “Tightass” Brooksbank (6-8, 160lbs) vs. Boss Yonic (8-5-1, 185lbs) Next up we have a rematch between two long time IFC veterans and two accomplished ground fighters in BJJ brown belt Dave Brooksbank and submission wrestler Boss Yonic. In their first match up back at Mid Week 4, Dave Brooksbank was able to squeak out a submission win in the last minute of the last round in a fight that could have easily gone either way. With so much time having passed since then we look at the differences between them leading up to this fight. After winning the their first encounter, Brooksbank went on to win his next two fights against two very highly regarded young prospects in Terry Bogard and Cattan Engoria and with the momentum of these wins found himself within the Top 10 of the Iron Man Fight Club reaching as high as #7 at his best. Recent times haven’t been so fortunate however as Brooksbank currently rides a three fight losing streak and having been finished in all three of those by KO really does need to figure out a way of dealing with the strikers of the division although, tonight, he won’t have to worry too much about that. His opponent Boss Yonic hasn’t done badly at all for a fighter that has never seen the inside of a boxing or Muay Thai gym in all his life and what’s even more impressive if that fact that Yonic has never been knocked out in over fifteen professional bouts. Since his submission loss to Brooksbank, Yonic has managed to pick up four wins in six and though has made some decent upwards progress is still a little way short from his previous best #9 rank. Nothing too drastic has changed since their first battle except for possibly Yonic’s promotion from Blue to Purple in BJJ and perhaps some minor improvements for Brooksbank in wrestling and in the stand up. Brooksbank could look to turn this into a brawl although with Yonic’s granite chin it isn’t likely that he would manage to get the finish before Yonic lands a takedown but, none the less, it could score some points with the judges. What’s more likely is that this fight ends up being similar to their first with both fighters wrestling for control of the ground game. In that department Brooksbank has possibly the edge in submissions but Yonic’s wrestling has helped him control many a tough opponent in the past. Their first fight could have so easily gone either way before Brooksbank snatched the victory at the last second so look for this fight to once again be a highly competitive affair with no clear favourite at this point. Fight 5 – Iron Man Division Vladimir “The Horizontal” Impaler (5-2, 270lbs) vs. Crack Head “Roks” (8-5, 153lbs) Another David versus Goliath match up with heavyweight Vladimir Impaler taking on natural featherweight Crack Head. “The Horizontal” one Vladimir Impaler has so far managed a very respectable 3-1 record in the IFC and is currently riding the wave of back to back wins. With an overal record of 5-2 and still only twenty years of age, Impaler looks to be in a fairly comfortable position right now. His opponent Crack Head makes his first appearance after what would have been a disappointing loss to former rival Kongchai Phetboonme who called out Crack Head after losing their initial bout earlier last year. The loss was the second in a row for Head who previous to that had been starting to makes waves in the IFC going undefeated in his first three fights. Currently sporting an 8-5 record, Head faces a big challenge tonight and will need to navigate his way around a one hundred and twenty pound weight disadvantage to get through it. Most of Head’s victories have been through the use of his strong submission wrestling game and tonight he will need every bit of skill in that department in order to triumph. Impaler has some exceptional boxing skills and a proven KO record and so anything he lands is likely to send shock waves through Head’s skull. Impaler is let down a little on the ground however and though he has a mediocre level of wrestling, it may not be enough to stop the fight ending up on the ground and if that does happen Impaler’s size and strength will count for nothing. Bookies have Impaler as the betting favourite citing his size and KO power as being the main factors. Fight 4 – New Blood Division Tan Han Tuong (4-1, 271lbs) vs. Hank “Hill” Jones (3-1, 212lbs) Next up we have a very important match up from the New Blood Division with two fighters who could be due a shot at the vacant title pending a win here tonight. Tan Han Tuong has been tremendous since joining the IFC’s New Blood Division having gone a perfect 3-0 so far and with each victory being by way of first round KO. Now currently 4-1 overall and on a three fight win streak, another win here would all but guarantee Tuong the next crack at the divisions title so the stakes have never been higher for the natural heavyweight from Vietnam. Standing across from him tonight is Hank “Hill” Jones who began his career here in the IFC and has so far managed a very respectable 3-1 record. Though Jones will enter the cage confident from his last victory, a KO win over Tuong’s team mate Duc Minh Pham, he did suffer a loss previous to that fight and because of that may need an even bigger performance to be guaranteed the next shot at the title should he win here tonight. In regards to skills both competitors are fairly similar with Tuong’s wrestling being slightly more advanced than Jones’ but whether this will make much of a difference remains to be seen. Tuong will have almost sixty pounds in weight on Jones but will be some fifteen centimetres shorter than his opponent. This could be to Jones’ advantage if he decides to keep the fight on the feet but what’s more likely is that Jones’ decides to mix things up and has shown a decent offensive ground game when given the opportunity. This is a tough fight to call. Tuong has been in great form and looks extremely formidable with his Muay Thai but Jones does have a win over a fellow team mate Pham in his last fight. With so much riding on the result of this fight both fighters are sure to be extra motivated so make sure to keep an eye on this one folks as it could be a potential fight of the night Fight 3 – New Blood Division Gyukosho “Fukizilla” Fujimoto (1-0, 250lbs) vs. Matthew De Barros (3-1, 273lbs) Another match up from the New Blood Division and another two fighters making their debuts with Japan’s Gyukosho “Fukizilla” Fujimoto taking on South African Matthew De Barros. Gyukosho Fujimoto enters the IFC New Blood Division as quite the hot prospect. Having already made some very good progress in his skills at such an early point and having picked up an impressive head kick KO win in the QFC, Fujimoto already looks like he will be a big deal in the division. Tonight we get to see him make the step up to the professional leagues and he’ll be taking on a slightly more experienced fighter in Matthew De Barros. De Barros comes to the IFC with a record of 3-1 which he has built in the QFC system. Racing ahead to a quick 3-0 record all by first round KO’s, De Barros tasted defeat in his last bout when he in turn was finished by KO but in the second round. De Barros hasn’t seemed to make the gains that Fujimoto has on paper at least but often times this doesn’t mean as much as you might think. Fujimoto has accelerated past De Barros in all but his Boxing and it is this area that De Barros will need to make count if he is to make his debut a successful one. De Barros has a little size on Fujimoto in both height and weight and has proven to be adept at sleeping unwitting opponents and if Fujimoto doesn’t respect the power of De Barros he could be in for a shock if a stray bomb should land. Despite this Fujimoto will still go into the bout as the overwhelming favourite and with De Barros’ management team going through a period of absence Fujimoto’s odd’s just increased twofold. Prelims Fight 2 – New Blood Division Jammu Seta (2-0, 205lbs) vs. “The Unbreakable” Gideon Navarro (1-1, 182lbs) Next up in the New Blood Division two fresh young fighters both making their IFC debuts meet in what would most likely be a classic grappler versus striker match up. Jammu Seta comes to the IFC already marching the path to glory having picked off his first two opponents by submission in the QFC system. With only the barest of striking skills, Seta has so far made the best of his proficient wrestling ability to get the fight to the floor where he can really shine with his Brown Belt level BJJ. His opponent is “The Unbreakable” Gideon Navarro who, like, Seta, has already tested himself in the QFC on two occasions. Navarro has gone 1-1 there so far with his last fight being a submission loss which I’m sure he will hope is not a precursor to what is to come in tonight's match up. Navarro is slightly older then Seta and has had time build up a competent all round skill set to bolster his main weapon which is his Muay Thai. His is far from a novice on the ground but compared to Seta, the best he could hope for is to defend long enough to force a stand up. Navarro gets a slightly later start in the New Blood Division and will most definitely need to pick up a win here if he is to have a realistic chance of working towards the title. For Seta, at 2-0 and still only eighteen, he perhaps has a little wiggle room in that regards but still will no doubt battle hard to protect his early undefeated run. Hard to separate the two going into this fight but don’t expect the fight to go to the judges Fight 1 – New Blood Division Paul “Tapout” Walker (3-2, 186lbs) vs. Duc Minh “Ram” Pham (4-2, 175lbs) In his last bout Paul “Tapout” Walker punished wrestler Daniel Thielke’s lack of submission awareness with a rapid fire thirty second armbar in the first round and driving the final nail in Thielke’s decision to retire. The win gave Walker a winning record once again and also the slimmest of hope for possible competing for the division title before turning twenty and moving on. His opponent Duc Minh “Ram” Pham suffered a set back to that very same ambition in his last fight when he was stopped in the second round by a Hank Jones KO. With both fighters possibly out of the title picture it seems that only pride remains at stake. Walker has done well so far with his BJJ and a determined nature but his lack of skills in other areas make things so much more difficult for himself and without at least some solid wrestling to help get the fight to the ground, he may find himself struggling to compete against the more developed fighters he will comes across. On this occasion Pham’s wrestling might just be within reach for Walker to compete with and Pham will need work hard to remain on his feet and where he needs to be. Pham will enter this one as the favourite as Walker will need to work harder to drag the fight to the floor whereas Pham really need only keep his distance and pepper Walker with shots from the outside. 5 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NorthernNinjas Posted January 19, 2018 Report Share Posted January 19, 2018 Oops, I accidentally downvoted that. Nice work as always Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SixFootPenguin Posted January 19, 2018 Report Share Posted January 19, 2018 good as always however my only critic is the fact that it was never mentioned that brawler vs shamrock is actually a rematch of brawlers debut in ifc. it would of been a nice add to mention ken shamrocks retirement fight was a grudge match from earlier in his career. besides that small oversight though its always awesome to read my upcoming fight previews. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alfred Posted January 24, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 24, 2018 Iron Man Fight Club XXXIV – Post Fight Recap (20th January 2018 – King Theatre, Los Angeles) Main Card Main Event – Middleweight Division Brooklyn Brawler vs. Ken “The Worlds Most Lethal” Shamrock It’s wasn’t quite the grand send off that Ken Shamrock might have wanted for the final fight of his career but it was always going to be a tough fight from the start taking on a familiar face in Brooklyn Brawler. The Brawler put on a typically efficient performance with some heavy accurate shots on the outside and in the clinch and though Shamrock tried to provide some offence of his own it just wasn’t enough to keep up and Shamrock fell, for the last time, around the two minute mark of the first round. Brooklyn Brawler defeated Ken Shamrock by TKO (Strikes) at 1:57 of Round 1 So we pay tribute and say goodbye to Shamrock who has been an extremely game competitor in the IFC and never shied away from any fight, no matter how tough or impossible the odds. He leaves the IFC with a mixed but respectable record of 5-7. For the Brawler, another win on his record which now stands at 9-3 and with the recent split of the main Iron Man division, Brawler now looks to be sitting very high in the rankings of the new Middleweight division Co-Main Event – Iron Man Division Wilson “KO” Reyes vs. Big Murha In the co-main event Wilson Reyes found himself tasked with stopping the march of upcoming superstar Big Murha and on this occasion found himself on the receiving end of a nasty cut stoppage. Reyes tried to stay busy on the feet with kick and punches being sent Murha’s way but not too much was able to get through and all the while Murha returned fire with his own stinging assault that began to carve Reyes open. Midway through the first round Murha started to step it up a gear and really started to pour it on and it wasn’t long before Murha managed to catch Reyes with a huge combination of strikes that dropped the bigger man. Before Murha could pounce however, the referee called a stop to the action to seek the medical opinion of the doctor who decided that the cut was too severe and perhaps mercifully for Reyes, called the fight at this point. Big Murha defeated Wilson Reyes by TKO (Cut) at 3:08 of Round 1 It was a massive victory for Murha who was taking on his toughest opponent to date and with the win remains undefeated at 5-0. Now sitting firmly somewhere in the top 10 of the new middleweight division, Murha looks to be a very serious contender to the currently vacant middleweight title picture. For Wilson Reyes, it was his second cut stoppage in a row and no doubt he and his management team will be wondering whether this is just some fluke co-incidence having not shown previously any predisposition to cutting. Reyes still most likely keeps a spot in the top 10 of the new heavyweight division and so isn’t quite near crisis mode yet. Fight 8 – Heavyweight Division Japa Koniu vs. Taz “Crash” Bandichoo Japa Koniu battled to his third IFC victory in a row but he will definitely take away a couple of reminders from his opponent Taz Bandichoo after suffering an early cut in the first round. Koniu was surprisingly more aggressive than Bandichoo and managed to land a great deal of strikes to the head of the #2 ranked fighter and going into the second round seemed to have the measure of Bandichoo. Around the three minute mark Koniu landed a stinging jab and followed up with a monster right that dropped Bandichoo cold and finish a solid nights work for the IFC newcomer Japa Koniu defeated Taz Bandichoo by KO (Punches) at 3:06 of Round 2 Koniu maintains his meteoric rise size arriving in the IFC as a 3-1 afterthought. After going unnoticed even after debuting with a stunning first round TKO over Donold Trenchard, Koniu only really started to gain any attention after picking up a three round decision over prospect Jaxson Wilder. Now, with a win over a former ranked competitor, Koniu will no doubt have the rest of the Top 10 thinking up their own game plans should they ever have to cross paths. On the other side of the coin, Taz Bandichoo now drops to his fourth loss in a row and quite possibly will not even make the Top 10 cut in the new heavyweight division. It’s been quite a turnaround from only a few months back where Bandichoo fought his way into title consideration and now with a record of 6-7, Bandichoo has a lot of work to do if he is to work his way back there. Fight 7 – Iron Man Division Brock “The Bodyguard” Sampson vs. Stewart Pack Brock Sampson faced his second tough opponent in a row when he took on IFC newcomer Stewart Pack and was quite possibly surprised by Pack’s ability to fight inside in the clinch. The fight went the distance with Pack dominating each round in the eyes of the judges but not before suffering an early scare in the first round after Sampson popped him in eye and opened up a cut. Pack got some revenge in the third when his hard work in the clinch really started to pay off. Opening up a cut on Sampson, Pack soon after landed a big right hand that dropped his opponent to put an exclamation mark on the final round. Stewart Pack defeated Brock Sampson by Decision (Unanimous) A great start in the IFC for Pack who’s record improves to 10-2 and will find himself ranked rather highly in the new heavyweight division. Brock Sampson goes in the opposite direction and moves into the new lightweight division and though suffering his second loss in a row, both have been to very tough opponents and he still maintains a winning record of 5-3. Sampson is expected to be a competitive figure in his new division and we look forward to seeing what he can do against fighters around his own weight. Undercard Fight 6 – Iron Man Division Boss Yonic defeated Dave Brooksbank by Decision (Unanimous) Fight 5 – Iron Man Division Vladimir Impaler defeated Crack Head by KO (Punch) at 4:10 of Round 1 Fight 4 – New Blood Division Tan Han Tuong defeated Hank Jones by TKO (Strikes) at 2:52 of Round 2 Fight 3 – New Blood Division Gyukosho Fujimoto defeated Matthew De Barros by TKO (Strikes) at 4:44 of Round 1 Prelims Fight 2 – New Blood Division Gideon Navarro defeated Jammu Seta by TKO (Strikes) at 3:55 of Round 1 Fight 1 – New Blood Division Duc Minh Pham defeated Paul Walker by TKO (Strikes) at 0:12 of Round 1 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The following "of the night" awards are sponsored by IniTech Nutrition who stock both 160q Stamina Fuel and 160q Muscle Bulk along with their pioneering Chaos Energy 160q Recovery sup. Fight Of The Night goes to Japa Koniu vs. Taz Bandichoo KO Of The Night goes to Duc Minh Pham Sub Of The Night goes unawarded ***Rankings are currently suspended whilst the new divisions take form*** ***They will return shortly with title fight announcements for the IFC Lightweight, Middleweight and Heavyweight categories*** Rankings are determined by hype/pop, p4p rank, win/loss record and a few company internal criteria. Rankings can and will change frequently after each event 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alfred Posted January 26, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 26, 2018 Iron Man Fight Club XXXV - Preview 27th January 2018 - King Theatre, Los Angeles Main Card Main Event – Middleweight Division Steven “The Steamroller” Kennedy (8-7, 178lbs) vs. Alexander Porto (9-6, 180lbs) Topping the bill tonight a superb match up from the newly formed middleweight division between two well respected and experienced fighters in Steven Kennedy and Alexander Porto Steven Kennedy is a former IFC champion and though he only held the title briefly before dropping it to Mew Choo in his first defence, it still goes a long way in showing just how formidable he can be on his day. It’s true that consistency has been an issue with Kennedy and that is definitely something he will need to address if he is to ever reach the lofty heights that he has scaled before. Kennedy comes into this fight off the back of a rather disappointing loss to Louis CK in which the former IFC fighter dominated and dispatched Kennedy in less than a minute. Though Kennedy was the underdog going into the fight he was still expected to fare better than he did and so he will have a lot to live up to in his return. Facing Kennedy tonight is former Island fighter Alexander Porto who made a successful debut in the IFC last time out when he finished Ken Shamrock by first round TKO. It was Porto’s first fight under new management and it will have no doubt answered a lot of questions as to how well Porto would move forward after shifting camps and now with those early jitters out the way we get to see just what Porto is capable of. Both fighters have similar records and match up very evenly with each other. Both have their preferred methods with Kennedy’s superb submission skills going up against Porto’s very impressive record of KO finishes. Kennedy is no novice when it comes to striking but after the drubbing received by Louis CK in his last fight he may be more reluctant to engage on the feet and instead look to get the fight to the floor where he will have a favourable advantage. Porto is dangerous everywhere on his feet and Kennedy will not want to spend too long either in striking range or in the clinch. Porto does have slightly better wrestling then Kennedy but whether he has the take down defence to stuff the inevitable shot is something we will find out on the night. With the new divisions forming and title pictures only just starting to become clear there has really been no better time to start building a solid title challenge and that is exactly what both of these fighters could do here with a solid win. Co-Main Event - Lightweight Division “Gypsy” Tommy Walcott (9-3, 140lbs) vs. “The Unsanitary” Daniel Sainty (8-6, 150lbs) One of the first official fights of the newly formed IFC Lightweight division features something of a title eliminator as both “Gypsy” Tommy Walcott and Daniel “The Unsanitary” Sainty could earn themselves a shot at the currently vacate title against division leader Klaus Chugman. Both Walcott and Sainty made their professionals debuts with the IFC all the way back at the beginning with IFC I. For all of their time spent in the organisations ranks they have yet to cross paths but tonight under the new lightweight division banner they will finally meet and the stakes are extremely high. So far, Walcott’s career has been a fairly successful one with the only criticism being that he has lost big fights at crucial times. Twice already Walcott has missed opportunities for a shot at the title after falling short right at the end and only recently lost a fight to division leader Klaus Chugman. Because of that loss, a rematch with Chugman for the title was just too much of a hard sell right now and so Walcott must once again fight for the right to challenge. The man he must defeat this time around is Daniel Sainty, a dangerous submission fighter with a record of 8-6. It’s true that Sainty has tasted defeat quite often but it’s also true that Sainty has been victorious more and not only that over some very formidable opponents. In his last fight, he managed to take out much larger heavyweight boxer Vedran Stefanovic with a first round submission. It was a very good performance from Sainty, who managed to get through without taking any damage at all, and one that will no doubt give him confidence going into this fight where he will need every ounce of his grappling experience to conquer the quick hands of Tommy Walcott. Though Sainty is known for mixing up his strikes to lead into a takedown, he will not want to stand in front of Walcott for long. Walcott’s strength is in his boxing and Sainty would not be able to match him in that area. Sainty must get this fight to the floor but with Walcott’s improved wrestling that task is going to be more difficult. If Sainty can get the fight to the floor he is not expected to have much trouble in picking up the submission win with the best Walcott could hope for is to stall for a stand up. Walcott will go into this fight as the betting favourite but with a history of choking in these moments nothing is a certainty. Will it be third time a charm for Walcott or will he once again fall at the final hurdle? Fight 8 - Iron Man Division “The Hunk” Jack Dawson (5-2, 270lbs) vs. Evgeni Lomachenko (7-6, 152lbs) Next up the Open Weight format offers up one of it’s largest deficits as 270lb Jack Dawson takes on 152lb grappler Evgeni Lomachenko. “The Hunk” Jack Dawson makes his return to the open weight Iron Man division just in time for one more wild night before moving into the newly created IFC heavyweight division. For the past few months Dawson has been competing amongst the younger fighters of the org in the New Blood division and managed a respectable 3-2 record. He comes into this bout after rearranging the face of Patrick Thompson in his last bout and will no doubt be back to his brash, confident best tonight. In his last fight Evgeni Lomachenko faced the almost impossible task of figuring monster heavyweight Iain Tower and with almost one hundred pounds separating the two it was universally acknowledged that any exchanges on the feet would be bad news indeed for the smaller grappler. A mere five seconds into the fight and all of Lomachenko’s nightmares came true as Tower unleashed a high kick that cracked his skull like a baseball bat and put an end to the bout and all the preparation that went into it. It was a harsh reminder of the dangers that open weight fighting can present for the smaller guys but tonight Lomachenko might well be happy to be competing in that format for the last time before moving in the new lightweight division. Though Dawson could not be considered as well rounded as Tower, he still presents very much the same problems for Lomachenko on the feet and once again Lomachenko will need to avoid any and all exchanges less he suffer the same consequences as last time. Dawson has a good record of finishes with four out of his five wins being by tko and his clinch game is very good too. Lomachenko too has a good finish percentage and while most of his wins have come via submission, he really does enjoy letting go with some aggressive ground and pound and has finished fights that way too. Both fighters will be looking for wins here in order to improve their rankings heading into their new division. Dawson certainly has the power to end the fight early but if he is unable to stop the inevitable take down attempts from Lomachenko then he could be in for a rough night. Fight 7 - Iron Man Division Gosha Lopez (4-0, 135lbs) vs. Jaxson Wilder (6-3, 205lbs) Another bout with a significant weight difference features up and coming natural flyweight Gosha Lopez taking on light-heavyweight Jaxson Wilder. Gosha Lopez has gotten off to a fantastic start to his young career. Currently undefeated with a record of 4-0 he has not yet failed to get the finish in any of them. Lopez has also been improving constantly and at an impressive rate and though he started primarily as a submission wrestler, Lopez has now been working hard on his striking and in his last bout managed to pick up his first KO victory over submission fighter Dave Brooksbank. On this current trajectory, Gosha Lopez could end up being the next big thing within the new lightweight division but there is still a way to go and there is still firstly the matter at hand. Jaxson Wilder Wilder started off his career by going an impressive 5-0 in the QFC and finishing all by first round KO. He then signed for Kings in London but dropped a three round decision to a very tough opponent and left shortly after. He then made his way to the IFC where he managed to take out sensational heavyweight boxer Lavar Washington by second round Ko in his organisational debut and really cemented himself as an interesting prospect worth keeping an eye on. Since that time however, Wilder has dropped his last two fights and begun to look a little one dimensional with many beginning to wonder if Wilder has somehow forgotten that he is a high level grappler also. In tonight’s fight, Wilder may well be forced into a grappling match as Lopez is unlikely to oblige him on the feet too much and will no doubt look to take the fight to the floor at some point. Having yet to see Wilder’s ground game it is difficult to say whether Lopez would have any significant advantage there as, on paper at least, both are high level grapplers. Wilder will be dangerous on the feet as always and with his extra weight advantage and perfect percentage of knockouts, Lopez would do well to exercise caution. Lopez will perhaps have a little more to lose than Wilder being that he would most likely be near the very top of the lightweight rankings with a win here tonight but Wilder will have his own ambitions in the new middleweight division and will definitely not want to drop to a third loss in a row. Undercard Fight 6 - Iron Man Division Ispa Murhaa (4-0, 192lbs) vs. “Dangerous” Milo Yiannopoulos (3-2, 215lbs) Next up we have a big match up between young prospects Ispa Murhaa and “Dangerous” Milo Yiannopoulos and adding spice to it is the fact that both will be moving into the IFC’s new middleweight division afterwards. Since arriving in the IFC, Ispa Murhaa has dominated all three of his opponents and currently holds a perfect record of 4-0. He is made some incredible progress in his skills for such a young fighter and truly looks to be developing into a force to be reckoned with. Now he faces a very tough test in Milo Yiannopoulos in what is expected to be a very competitive bout. Yiannopoulos doesn’t have quite as impressive a record as Murhaa after having picked up loses in a previous organisation but he has been as close to perfect as can be since arriving in the IFC. He made his debut here against another young prospect in Urban Go Bucks and finished him in the first round by TKO and then in his most recent fight he KO’d Chong Tay in just over a minute and once again in the first round. Both fighters prefer the stand up with Yiannopoulos possibly just a notch above Murhaa from striking range but the biggest difference here, and perhaps the key to the fight as a whole, is Murhaa’s wonderful wrestling from which he uses masterfully to break down his opponents in the clinch. Yiannopoulos is no amateur there and he has shown that he is comfortable fighting in the clinch but Murhaa is a different animal and bases entire game around it and is far more aggressive. Yiannopoulos will be have around twenty pounds on Murhaa and that could add some power to anything that lands. He will also be around 5cm taller which again could aid him in keeping Murhaa at bay. Both fighters are in good form currently and both will want to pick up wins here. Murhaa as probably a little more to lose here with his undefeated record and the fact he is likely to enter quite highly in the new divisions rankings. Bookmakers have Murhaa the slight favourite but if Yiannopoulos can turn the fight into a toe to toe brawl he will stand a much better chance. Fight 5 – Heavyweight Division “Red Ribbon Armys” Android Seventeen (7-8, 281lbs) vs. En “Metal Priest” Esch (5-8, 238lbs) Sometimes, when the chips are down, a single fight is all it takes to turn things around and our next fight could very easily be that moment for two young fighters that have struggling of late. Android Seventeen is currently going through a run of form unseen since the unfortunate Jon Anderson graced the IFC cage. In his last seven fights, Seventeen has managed to lose them all and the curse of the submission has haunted him since the very beginning of that unfortunate streak with Seventeen having to tap out in six of them. His last fight, a rematch against Wolfgang Lee Roth where he lost a surprise submission loss first time around, was a fight he was expected to avenge but history repeated itself and for the first time in his career Seventeen goes into a fight with a losing record. His opponent En Esch, though not going through quite such a turbulent time, has still been struggling of late and has only managed one win out of his last five and has currently been without a victory in his last three. Esch has struggled before and managed to turn things around somewhat and make a push into the middle of the Iron Man rankings so perhaps all hope isn’t lost but he is going to have to start making some big improvements in his overall skills if he doesn’t want to get left behind. Seventeen has been making improvements in his grappling of late in an effort to ward off his abysmal submission loss record and as a result will go into this fight with a decent advantage in the wrestling and jiu-jitsu side of things which could go a long way to defend against Esch’s preferred clinch game. At striking distance Seventeen will also be favoured as he has some wonderful boxing and has in the past proven to be an extremely capable knockout artist. Esch must keep this fight in the clinch and hope that being the smaller fighter by some forty pounds translates into being the quicker fighter and help avoid Seventeen’s big right hand. Both fighters will be moving into the heavyweight division after this and nothing would be better at this point for either to put a stop to their bad form and start fresh in a new division Fight 4 - Iron Man Division “Dark And Light” Soul Shadow (4-3, 170lbs) vs. Leon “Hands of Stone” Lentz (2-0, 161lbs) Up next we have a very competitive match up between two young fighters that will both be moving into the lightweight division afterwards. After being called out by former New Blood division fighter Kyle Ryan in his last fight, Soul Shadow accepted without question and met the challenge head on. It was a hard fought battle that went the distance and while both fighters performed well, Shadow was giving the nod earning a majority decision from the judges. Now Shadow returns in what will be his last fight in the open weight format before moving into the new lightweight division. He’ll face a very tough challenge in org newcomer Leon Lentz, a fighter who has already successfully tested himself in the QFC system and arrives with a perfect 2-0 record both by first round KO’s. Lentz has, similarly to Shadow, built himself a very well rounded skill set but unlike Shadow who has really kept his training time split between all disciplines, Lentz has built his around his wonderful Muay Thai skills of which has been the obvious driving force behind his early success. Lentz will have the edge in the stand up, Shadow with his slightly better wrestling will most likely be favoured on the ground. Both fighters could gain a lot from a win here being that are both entering the least populated division afterwards and so have further to go to reach the top. Too difficult to pick a winner in such an evenly constested looking match up. Fight 3 - Iron Man Division The “Big Daddy” Requis (4-2, 266lbs) vs. Chara Zaad (6-7, 210lbs) Next up, two warriors with exceptional boxing skills will meet for the first time in the IFC cage. The Requis is a recent signing for the IFC and will shortly be a part of the new heavyweight division but for his first appearance will get a taste of openweight fighting when he takes on light-heavyweight boxer Chara Zaad. He comes to the IFC after a stint with the Tokyo Rage Fight Club in Tokyo where he managed to go a very solid 4-1 but will actually be going into this fight after suffering a loss in his last. Meeting The Requis from across the cage will be IFC veteran Chara Zaad who has not been in the best of form lately managing only one win in his last five. In perhaps an ominous omen, his last fight was also against a highly skilled boxer in German Cordova and it was a fight that Zaad will very likely want to forget as he was out struck on the feet and in the clinch and finished with a second round KO. Requis looks to have the most options going into this fight and won’t necessarily need to go toe to toe to get the job down. Having the slightly superior wrestling and jiu-jitsu means that Requis could in theory attempt to turn the fight into a submission battle if he felt he could capitalise though it is more likely that we see him looking for the KO. Zaad is the more experienced of the two however and has been training for a little while longer though is still surprisingly only twenty years old. The Requis will go in as the favourite for this one based on being the more well rounded fighter as well as Zaad’s recent poor performances of late. Prelims Fight 2 - Iron Man Division Pacer “The Turnip” Dalton (1-0, 220lbs) vs. Boyd “The Vanilla Og” Clark (4-9, 170lbs) Pacer “The Turnip” Dalton makes his return to the IFC cage after successfully navigating his debut against journeyman fighter Lenny Manelito. During that fight Dalton used his sensational wrestling skills to take Manelito down at will and control him from top position. It wasn’t pretty and it certainly drew the ire of the referee who stood the fight up several times due to inactivity but it was effective as Dalton completely neutralised any and all offence from his opponent. Now Dalton will take a very small step up in competition when he takes on Australia’s Boyd “The Vanilla Og” Clark. Clark comes into this fight with a record of 4-9 and a losing streak of two. It’s fair to say that Clark hasn’t yet set the IFC on fire but he is still young and he is still improving so there is still hope at this point. Clark will have a decent advantage on the feet but whether he will be able to take advantage of it is another thing. Dalton possess possibly the best wrestling in the entire org and it’s unlikely that he will have much trouble taking Clark down. In terms of submission ability both fighters are currently blue belts in BJJ and Clark does have a solitary submission win to his name making him at least a small threat to Dalton who likes to control from top. Dalton showed some tremendous skill to keep his last opponent from doing anything but he must be careful to keep active as each time he is stood up is another opportunity for his opponent to land the knockout strike. Dalton will enter the fight as the favourite but with only the barest amount of striking ability Clark will always have a punchers chance. Fight 1 - Iron Man Division Blitz “88” Krieg (5-5, 300lbs) vs. Tytus “No Neck” Aleksy (0-0, 175lbs) Next up we have super-heavyweight Blitz Krieg taking on IFC newcomer Tytus “No Neck” Aleksy who will be set to make his very first professional appearance in the cage. With a record of 5-5, Krieg knows a little about winning and losing and seems to be another fighter who is just content to get in there and throw down. The interesting thing about Krieg however is that he is still only twenty years old and though he hasn’t developed as well as most fighters hope to by the same stage, there is still time to improve in some key areas and perhaps improve the consistency of his results in the cage. Currently Krieg starring down the barrel of a three fight losing streak and tonight will truly have his hands full with young prospect Aleksy. With no amateur or professional record to speak of, Tytus Aleksy’s story is yet to be written but, with such a well regarded management team behind him and some impressive gains in the gym, it is sure to be an epic one. Neither fighter is likely to have any interest in the ground for this fight with both seemingly much more comfortable on their feet. Aleksy is far more developed than Krieg in most other areas however except for Krieg’s dedication to his boxing to which he has reached an exceptional level and slightly beyond that of Aleksy. It is this expertise that Krieg must rely on tonight and he will need to execute a perfect game plan and really keep Aleksy at arms length to stand any chance of winning. Aleksy looks to be a very powerful fighter and with his far superior wrestling, any action in the clinch is likely to go very much his way at that will be one of the key areas of interesting for this bout. Aleksy the favourite despite having never fought even a minute of MMA professionally. Krieg will have a punchers chance but with his confidence at an all time low, will he even be able to muster the motivation to throw a punch? 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alfred Posted January 28, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 28, 2018 IFC XXXV – Post Fight Recap (27th January 2018 – King Theatre, Los Angeles) Main Card Main Event – Middleweight Division Steven “The Steamroller” Kennedy defeated Alexander Porto by Submission (Triangle) at 3:39 of Round 1 Porto looked good early against Steven Kennedy instantly moving into the clinch and roughing up the former IFC champion for a while before Kennedy managed to pull guard and drag the fight down to the ground. Porto tried hard to get back to his feet but it was only a matter of time before the submission specialist Kennedy spotted an opportunity to end the fight which he did when he secured a tight triangle choke from guard. It was a big win for Kennedy and just in time to enter at #4 in the new Middleweight rankings. He will need at least another one or two big wins to guarantee another shot at the title but for now he can enjoy the moment and start preparing for his next fight. Porto might feel disappointed in the loss but it was certainly not the worst ever seen and with a 9-7 record still enough to enter in at #15 in the rankings. Co-Main Event – Lightweight Division “Gypsy” Tommy Walcott defeated Daniel “The Unsanitary” Sainty by Decision (Unanimous) A far tougher bout than expected for Tommy Walcott who really seems to have dropped a few notches in his last few outings and has done just enough to scrape by and get the win. Sainty had a good first round managing to counter a missed combination with a takedown and hand him a big opportunity to get Walcott out of there early. Some good defence from Walcott however frustrated Sainty and kept him at bay for the duration of the round and Sainty would be forced to start over again in the next round. Sainty was unable to get going again and Walcott began to take over, rocking him midway through round two but unable to finish. More of the same in round three with Walcott winning the stand up battle and Sainty unable to get the fight back to the floor which meant the fight went to the judges with all three of them seeing it two rounds to one in favour of Walcott Tommy Walcott now earns the right to challenge for the currently vacant IFC lightweight title against division runaway Klaus Chugman. Walcott has already suffered a quick submission loss to Chugman not so long ago so it will be interesting to see whether he can do anything to change the result this time around. Despite the loss, it was a brave performance from Sainty and many will see the improvements that he has made in his overall game. Though he has been somewhat inconsistent with his results, Sainty remains a well established fighter in the IFC ranks and a formidable submission specialist. With a record of 8-7, Sainty will enter in at #9 in the new lightweight rankings Fight 8 – Iron Man Division “The Hunk” Jack Dawson defeated Evgeni Lomachenko by KO (Knee) at 0:39 of Round 1 Jack Dawson made a triumphant return to the main division and pick up exactly where he left off; with a brutal knee KO. It was the last fight for both fighters in the disolving open weight format and with such a massive difference on display tonight Lomachenko might be even more for change. Lomachenko didn’t even get a chance to move in for a takedown before Dawson clinched up with him and began to work him over with punches, elbows and knees. Opening a massive cut on Lomachenko’s face then knocking him down with a sickening elbow, Lomachenko was allowed back to his feet only briefly before being put straight back down with an enormous knee to the head which ended the bout there. A superb result for Dawson who now moves into the heavyweight rankings at #8 and improves his record to 6-2 Evgeni Lomachenko will now move down into the lightweight division where he will get a fresh start amongst fighters around his same weight and having won only once in his last five fights it could be just what he needs to turn things around. Moving to 7-7 overall, Lomachenko will enter the rankings at #13 Fight 7 – Iron Man Division Jaxson Wilder defeated Gosha Lopez by KO (Punch) at 3:58 of Round 3 A big result for Jaxson Wilder tonight to turn around a two fight losing streak but he had to work hard for it and be patient against an extremely tough young bantamweight in Gosha Lopez Lopez started strong and did the sensible thing in taking Wilder off his feet as to avoid striking with the much bigger fighter. He maintained control of the ground for the most part but a referee stand near the end of round one put them in striking distance again but surprisingly Lopez seemed to be getting the better of the short exchange. Round two was more of the same but with Wilder managing to get back to his feet a little quicker and beginning to land a little more. In round three Wilder began to find his rhythm on the feet and started to land some heavy shots. Around halfway through Wilder landed a big shot inside the clinch that rocked Lopez and a short while over the fight was over after a massive uppercut landed that forced the referee to move in and save Lopez from taking any more damage With this result Jaxson Wilder improves his record to 7-3 and moves into the middleweight rankings at #12 For Gosha Lopez, this loss marked the first of his career and leaves him at 4-1. Lopez will now move into the lightweight division at #10 but he is regarded as a future prospect and expected to feature highly in his new division. Undercard Fight 6 – Iron Man Division Ispa Murhaa defeated “Dangerous” Milo Yiannopoulos by KO (Flying Knee) at 1:31 of Round 1 Fight 5 – Heavyweight Division “Red Ribbon Armys” Android Seventeen defeated En “Metal Priest” Esch by TKO (Strikes) at 0:28 of Round 1 Fight 4 – Iron Man Division “Dark and Light” Soul Shadow defeated Leon “Hands of Stone” Lentz by TKO (Punches) at 4:28 of Round 1 Fight 3 – Iron Man Division Chara Zaad defeated The “Big Daddy” Requis by KO (Punch) at 4:43 of Round 1 Prelims Fight 2 – Iron Man Division Pacer “The Turnip” Dalton defeated Boyd “The Vanilla Og” Clark by Decision (Split) Fight 1 – Iron Man Division Blitz “88” Krieg defeated Tytus “No Neck” Aleksy by KO (Punches) at 1:49 of Round 1 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The following "of the night" awards are sponsored by IniTech Nutrition who stock both 160q Stamina Fuel and 160q Muscle Bulk along with their pioneering Chaos Energy 160q Recovery sup. Fight Of The Night goes to Blitz Krieg vs. Tytus Aleksy KO Of The Night goes to Android Seventeen Sub Of The Night goes Steven Kennedy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alfred Posted January 28, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 28, 2018 Iron Man Fight Club - Official Rankings (28th January 2018) Lightweight (155lbs and under) #Champion - Vacant #1 Klaus Chugman (11-2, W,W,W,W,W, 130lbs) #2 Tommy Walcott (10-3, W,W,L,W,L, 140lbs) #3 Luiz Correia Azevedo (12-5, L,W,W,W,W, 148lbs) #4 Wolfgang Lee Roth (7-4, W,L,L,W,W, 154lbs) #5 Tzwrtzos Peidis (5-1, W,L,W,W,W, 165lbs) #6 Simon Jensen (9-3, W,W,W,W,L, 162lbs) #7 Soul Shadow (5-3, W,W,L,W,L, 162lbs) #8 Brock Sampson (5-3, L,L,W,W,W, 168lbs) #9 Daniel Sainty (8-7, L,W,L,W,L, 150lbs) #10 Gosha Lopez (4-1, L,W,W,W,W, 135lbs) #11 Maximilian Kirby (3-0, W,W,W, 165lbs) #12 Sirimongkol Niyotrong (4-3, W,W,W,W,L, 152lbs) #13 Evgeni Lomachenko (7-7, L,L,W,L,L, 152lbs) #14 Cj McGergor (4-1, W,L,W,W,W, 156lbs) #15 Ma Moru (7-5, W,L,L,L,W, 140lbs Middleweight (155lbs to 205lbs) #Champion - Vacant #1 Mew Choo (11-0, W,W,W,W,W, 191lbs) #2 Light Heavyweight (20-2, L,W,W,W,W, 220lbs) #3 Brooklyn Brawler (9-3, W,L,W,W,L, 190lbs) #4 Terry Bogard (6-3, W,L,W,W,L, 179lbs) #5 Steven Kennedy (9-7, W,L,W,L,W, 178lbs) #6 Big Murha (5-0, W,W,W,W,W, 215lbs) #7 Edson Ribeiro (10-1, L,W,W,W,W, 185lbs) #8 Luca Brasa lii (7-3, L,W,W,W,W, 205lbs) #9 Fay Gott (5-1, W,W,W,W,W, 190lbs) #10 Don Joe (8-4, L,L,W,W,W, 190lbs) #11 Ispa Murhaa (5-0, W,W,W,W,W, 192lbs) #12 Jaxson Wilder (7-3, W,L,L,W,L, 205lbs) #13 Jon Ubereem (12-6, L,W,L,W,L, 218lbs) #14 Boss Yonic (9-5-1, W,W,W,L,L, 185lbs) #15 Alexander Porto (9-7, L,W,L,W,W, 180lbs) New Blood (for 18-19 year olds, Open Weight under 265lbs) #Champion - Vacant #1 Tan Han Tuong (5-1, W,W,W,W,L, 271lbs) #2 Xing Pugberg (4-1, W,W,L,W,W, 130lbs) #3 Gyukosho Fujimoto (2-0, W,W, 250lbs) #4 Micky Kirby (3-1, L,W,W,W,W, 230lbs) #5 Kenny Tcusuk (2-4, L,W,W,L,L, 265lbs) #6 Ivashin Dmitrievich (3-2, W,W,L,L,W, 240lbs) #7 Terry Crew (3-2, L,W,W,L,W, 200lbs) #8 Matteo Boretti (2-0, W,W, 205lbs) #9 Alfred Touchard (5-1, W,L,W,W,W, 220lbs) #10 Juanon Brephgrad (3-2, L,W,W,L,W, 210lbs) Heavyweight (205lbs and over) #Champion - Vacant #1 Super Heavyweight (17-2, W,W,W,W,W, 280lbs) #2 Iain Tower (7-0, W,W,W,W,W, 275lbs) #3 Steve Butabi (7-1, W,L,W,W,W, 290lbs) #4 Japa Koniu (6-1, W,W,W,L,W, 235lbs) #5 Stewart Pack (10-2, W,W,W,W,L, 265lbs) #6 Vincent Lemieux (9-5, L,W,W,W,W, 270lbs) #7 Ricky Hughes (9-6, W,L,L,L,W, 264lbs) #8 Jack Dawson (6-2, W,W,L,W,L, 270lbs) #9 Schmorgen Biscuit (8-4, L,W,W,W,L, 215lbs) #10 Greg Bell (7-8, W,W,L,L,W, 300lbs) #11 Vladimir Impaler (6-2, W,W,W,L,W, 270lbs) #12 Albert Van Rooy (3-2, W,W,W,L,L, 256lbs) #13 Hamish McTavish (5-3, L,W,W,W,W, 292lbs) #14 Wilson Reyes (7-6, L,L,W,W,W, 287lbs) #15 Android Seventeen (8-8, W,L,L,L,L, 280lbs **Rankings are determined by hype/pop, p4p rank, win/loss record and a few company internal criteria. Rankings can and will change frequently after each event** 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alfred Posted January 30, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2018 IFC Mid Week 13 31st January 2018 – Hyashi’s Lounge, Los Angeles Main Card Main Event – IFC Middleweight Division Title Fight Mew Choo (11-0, 191lbs) vs. Light “Son Of” Heavyweight (20-2, 220lbs) The main event of the evening is without out a doubt the biggest fight in the history of the Iron Man Fight Club. Undefeated Mew Choo has vacated his Iron Man crown to move into the newly formed middleweight division and will look to pick up exactly where he left of and that is with IFC gold around his waist. He faces undeniably his most challenging opponent yet when he takes on a two time champion from the island in Light “Son Of” Heavyweight. In his eyes and in the eyes of many others, Mew Choo is the reigning champion of the Iron Man Fight Club and this fight is simply another defence that he needs to make. Though he will not be entering as the champion, it’s important to note that he never lost his belt in the first place. He has faced a long line of hungry challengers in the past and has always managed to triumph in the end but he has never faced anyone who has been such a proven force of nature nor with anywhere near the impressive amount of brutal first round KO finishes that Light Heavyweight has. The one obvious element that takes a little away from this fight is Heavyweight’s unsuccessful IFC debut in which he lost to natural flyweight Klaus Chugman by submission. That was however an open weight fight and also the first time that Light Heavyweight would have faced such an unfamiliar challenge so he should probably be given the benefit of the doubt Though that last fight isn’t expected to change very much going into this one, it does perhaps show Choo a small window of opportunity with regards to the submission defence of Light Heavyweight and this might be something Choo will look to exploit. Choo is technically the better striker but Light Heavyweight has a ferocious record of KO’s and a proven ability in the clinch and with almost thirty pounds of weight over Choo is likely to be dominant in that area. Simply put, Mew Choo will need to avoid any and all clinch fighting with Light Heavyweight and if he does find himself in the clutches of the former Island champion he will need to figure a way out pretty quickly before taking too much damage that he can’t recover from. Light Heavyweight too will need to follow a strict game plan and that will most definitely not include being on the mat with such a proven submission specialist such as Choo. Both fighters are champions and neither are strangers to the pressures of these high stakes fights. The bookies have Mew Choo as the slight favourite going into this fight though it is abundantly clear just how dangerous Light Heavyweight can be and as such stands a very good chance of walking away with another shiny gold belt. Co-Main Event - IFC Heavyweight Division Title Fight Super “Dominator” Heavyweight (17-2, 280lbs) vs. Iain “The CN” Tower (7-0, 275lbs) Our co-main event of the evening will crown another champion and this time in the newly formed heavyweight division. Former Island champion Super “Dominator” Heavyweight attempts to upset the very hungry and super talented young prospect Iain “The CN” Tower and take away everything that Tower has worked so hard to achieve in his time here. Super Heavyweight made an instant impact upon joining up with the IFC when he TKO’d Don Joe in just over a minute for his org debut. It was another win in a rather long line of victories from which the Dominator has made his name. A two time champion in the ISLAND FC org’s super-heavyweight division, Dominator went on to take the Island’s overall end of season tournament and now stands at an extremely impressive 17-2. Adding to his already fearsome record is the fact that in all of his seventeen wins the outcome has been an emphatic and definite KO and usually in the first round. The obvious conclusion we can draw from this is that once Super Heavyweight gets going the chances of his opponent waking up staring up at the ceiling is high. In the newly formed heavyweight division there is perhaps one fighter that will not be completely cowed by the massive challenge that is Super Heavyweight and that is twenty-one year old Iain “The CN” Tower. Though possessing no where near the amount of experience of his opponent, Tower has ploughed through the IFC rankings and dispatched of his opponents one after the other. Still undefeated with a record of 7-0, Tower has been almost untouchable since making his IFC debut and maintains a perfect one-hundred percent record of first round finishes. What makes this fight especially interesting is that Tower is exceptional well rounded and has a very good ability in all disciplines but the one area in which we haven’t really seen him engage in just so happens to be a favoured speciality of his opponent tonight and that is the clinch. Heavyweight is also extremely capable on his feet with a proven record that belies his strong boxing skills. It’s unlikely that he has come across someone as dangerous as Tower on the feet however so it will be interesting just how well he matches up in that department. Tower’s height could be a problem for Heavyweight and could be a definite factor should Tower decide to keep his distance but should Heavyweight manage to move into the clinch it would do a great deal to negate that disadvantage. Tower’s biggest advantage would lie in his submission ability. Tower’s list of finishes includes a decent amount of submissions and with his brown belt level of BJJ is unlikely to have much trouble figuring out a way through Heavyweight’s defences. If Tower did feel that area is his strongest chance of victory he would certainly face a tough time in getting the fight there as very rarely has anyone managed to take Heavyweight off of his feet. Overall this is tough fight for Super Heavyweight to win as despite his experience and proven championship level ability, Tower is younger and quite a bit more well rounded. Tower will have more options in this fight but that’s not to say however that Heavyweight only has a punchers chance. Heavyweight’s clinch game is extremely destructive and his stand up is often heavy handed and accurate. Should he be able to impose his game plan on Tower we could see the young fighter really tested for the first time. This is the moment that Tower has been waiting for. The opportunity to become a champion and wear the gold proudly round his waist. He has worked hard and improved his game constantly. Super Heavyweight has already been here. He knows what it means to be win a title and what it takes to defend it afterwards. Will that experience be enough to overcome Tower’s all round ability or will he become the eighth in a row of first round finishes for the youngster. I for one cannot wait to see. Fight 8 - Iron Man Division Edson Ribeiro (10-1, 185lbs) vs. “The Bully” Fay Gott (5-1, 190lbs) Though this bout will take place under the banner of the old Iron Man division it could in fact be considered a middleweight bout seeing as both fighters will be moving into that division shortly afterwards and it is a fight that will carry a certain amount of importance for the new division as both stand to gain quite a bit through a victory. Edson Ribeiro is a new signing for the IFC is one the few ex-Island fighters that have made their way over after the seasons end. It almost managed to be a perfect one as Ribeiro went on a ten fight undefeated streak that lead to a long title reign but after being inexplicably released by his previous manager, Ribeiro was picked up by his current and possibly due to the disruption and unfamiliarity with each other suffered his first loss right at the final hurdle. Now, in spite of his last result, Ribeiro arrives surrounded by a lot of buzz and enough hype to make those at the top of the new division take notice and will no doubt hope to get of to a winning start and begin his quest for more gold. But the man he will meet first is no stranger to championship belts himself. Answering the call for young talent to take part in the first ever New Blood tournament and fight for the honour of becoming the divisions first ever champion, Gott stepped up and went on to some truly dominating performances and seemed to get stronger as the tournament progressed. Winning the final in spectacular fashion with a first round KO, Gott became the first ever New Blood division champion and went on to defend his belt once before turning twenty. Now having made the choice to step up into the main division Gott has stated that he has one major goal and that is to compete against undefeated IFC champion Mew Choo and take away his belt. On current trajectory, Gott just might end up getting his wish. This will be a tough introduction to the IFC for newcomer Ribeiro who will very much need to get this fight to the ground if he is to match a rapidly improving Gott. Gott’s striking is far superior to Ribeiro’s and with an extra few pounds behind those fists of his any shots that do land might carry a little extra spice. Ribeiro has almost double the experience in the cage as Gott but with a new management team still needing to iron out the kinks with their fighter, this experience might not count for as much as it could. The last fight for both in a disbanding Iron Man division and a win for either, but especially Ribeiro, would put them very likely in he Top 5 for their weight. As both are former champions it stands to reason that the IFC middleweight title is something that will be very much on their minds. Fight 7 - New Blood Division Xing “Rufus” Pugberg (4-1, 130lbs) vs. Kenny “The Follower” Tchusuk (2-4, 265lbs) Next up we have a big fight from the New Blood division with Xing “Rufus” Pugberg taking on Kenny “The Follower” Tchusuk. It’s fairly common knowledge that a win for Xing Pugberg in this match up would grant him the opportunity to meet Tan Han Tuong for the vacant New Blood title but the man he must defeat has already once spoiled the party for another fighter in the same position. Kenny Tchusuk, eliminated early from the first New Blood Tournament, has worked hard to overcome a rough start and has really made some huge improvements in his skill set since that time and in a fight against monster Alambick Rana that was expected to be a mere formality for Rana before challenging for the title, Tchusuk shocked everyone with a nine second KO to hand Rana his first loss and send the title plans spinning. Now, once again, he has that same opportunity. Off the back of that victory, Tchusuk gained the opportunity to fight for the title himself against tournament winner Fay Gott. Though Tchusuk showed some real grit and determination in that fight he was ultimately outclassed and succumb to a third round TKO. Because of that and his overall losing record its extremely unlikely that Tchusuk would get the same opportunity a second time and so really is only fighting for pride. Pugberg has improved his boxing very slightly but has made nothing of the gains of Tchusuk who now looks to be a real handful in multiple areas. Pugberg is a submission wrestler through and through and will no doubt be looking to avoid striking with his much heavier opponent and get the fight to the floor where he stands a much better chance although both fighters are of a purple belt standard in BJJ. Wrestling will be the key here and perhaps speed too with Pugberg having to rely on both to get round the size of Tchusuk. This is a tough fight to predict as Tchusuk has the size and skills to cause real damage to the natural flyweight Pugberg should he connect with anything but overall Pugberg has only lost once in five fights and that was to the same fighter that just defeated Tchusuk too. A lot of pressure for Purgberg going into this as, at nineteen years of age, a loss here would all but end any aspirations of winning the New Blood belt before turning twenty where he will no longer be eligible to compete in the division. Undercard Fight 6 - New Blood Division Micky Kirby (3-1, 230lbs) vs. Alfred Touchard (5-1, 220lbs) Next up, another important fight for the New Blood division when tournament runner up Micky Kirby takes on 5-1 Alfred Touchard. This will be Kirby’s first appearance in the cage since losing in the final of the first ever New Blood tournament to Fay Gott as Kirby took some time away to improve in other areas. Kirby looks to have been working specifically on his submission game and has actually earned his blue belt in BJJ during his off time. That loss to Gott remains the sole blot on an otherwise perfect young career and Kirby will no doubt be keen to get back on track with a win here tonight. His opponent Alfred Touchard had a tough debut in the IFC against an older Jerome Steel and was unable to deal with the heavyweight strikers stand up and lost by KO last in the first round. It was Touchard’s first ever career loss but he dealt with it like a professional and came back with a superb submission victory over Hennig Muller in his last fight. Now, with a record of 5-1, he will look to build upon that last win and put on a performance against Micky Kirby. With little in the way of weight difference between these two young fighters, skill and ability will be a much bigger influence on the overall outcome. Both fighters have wonderful wrestling and both currently hold a blue belt in BJJ. Kirby of course is known for his effective ground and pound while Touchard has built up a reputation for being a capable submission artist. It could be argued that Kirby has fought the tougher competition during his career and that he has also fought under the pressure of tournament fighting. This experience could be a valuable asset against Touchard who has fought the bulk of his career in the less prestigious QFC system. The result of this fight could have a big impact on the New Blood division. If Xing Pugberg is unsuccessful in his fight then the role of title challenger would be completely up in the air and a big performance from either of these two fighters could end up being enough to get them the shot instead. Fight 5 - New Blood Division Matteo “The Werewolf” Boretti (2-0, 205lbs) vs. Ivashin Dmitrievich (3-2, 240lbs) IFC newcomer Matteo “The Werewolf” Boretti has managed to make an instant impact in the New Blood division largely off the back of two very impressive first round KO wins. Though still fairly green, Boretti has shown he has some serious KO power in his hands that has so far been too much for his opponents but tonight he makes a step up in competition when he takes on a more experienced opponent in Ivashin Dmitrievich. Ivashin Dmitrievich has blown a little hot and cold during his time here in the New Blood division as after a successful debut against One Fortytwo, he dropped his next two in a row with both coming by first round finish. He has since rebounded with back to back victories which brings his overall record of 3-2 but with time running out before turning twenty and becoming ineligible to compete in the New Blood Division and being several down the pecking order in terms of ranking, Dmitrievich would need a miracle to get the title shot over those ahead of him and you can count his opponent tonight amongst those in the running. Boretti will look a little behind Dmitrievich in terms of overall skill set but with obvious ability being only one factor of many that make up the result of a fight, Boretti will not be an overwhelming underdog going into this though it is acknowledged that it will be a very tough match up. Look for both fighters to come out swinging and don’t expect this fight to go to the judges scorecards. Fight 4 - New Blood Division Terry Crew (3-2, 200lbs) vs. Juanon Brephgrad (3-2, 210lbs) Yet another fight from the New Blood division featuring fighters that could be considered title contenders. Terry Crew is another alumni of the first ever New Blood tournament and did very well to move past the first round considering the lack of training and preparation time he had. It caught up with him in the second round however when he was eliminated by fourth place fighter Jonathan Davis by first round KO but since that time Crew has managed to go 2-1 and has really gone a long way to improve his ground skills and now looks like a serious force in that area. His opponent tonight is Juanon Brephgrad who will be making his final appearance in the division having recently turned twenty years old. For such a young fighter, Brephgrad has fought all over and in no less than three fighting organisations. Picking up his first win in the now defunct Dutch Series Of Fighting, Brephgrad moved to New Jersey MMA and went a further 1-1. Following that little stint Brephgrad found his way to the IFC as nineteen year old prospect where he was really on a time crunch concerning any title aspirations. His debut in the org went well winning a third round KO over Pate Paukuttaja but then in his last fight he fell to Maximilian Kirby by first round TKO and that essentially ended any hope of a title shot before running out of time. On paper, this fight is very much grappler versus striker and while it’s true that Brephgrad’s strongest attributes are in his Muay Thai, he has developed a competent well rounded skill set in other areas. Crew has neglected his striking for the moment to concentrate on furthering his skills on the ground and as a result is unlikely to have any trouble with Brephgrad on the floor nor getting the fight there should he have the opportunity but that will depend on whether he can avoid getting blasted on the feet before doing so. A big fight for Crew who could in theory still have just enough time left to challenge for the title but with a record of 3-2 and coming into this fight on a loss, it would all depend highly on other results. For Brephgrad this fight is merely for pride and can be considered his graduation into the outside world again. Wherever he chooses to go he will no doubt be a solid prospect as he has worked hard to build a solid base from which to move forward. Fight 3 - Iron Man Division Urban “Brutus” Go Bucks (2-1, 255lbs) vs. Andy Bogard (5-6-1, 150lbs) Next up, one of the few remaining open weight fights still to be determined and what an example of the differences that open weight match ups can bring with 255lb Urban “Brutus” Go Bucks taking on the much smaller 150lb Andy Bogard Urban Go Bucks came to the IFC as a good looking prospect and that outlook was further validated when he destroyed James Gregor in his debut. A disappointing first round loss to Milo Yiannopoulos followed however which raised some questions as to whether Go Bucks would be able to hang with the very heaviest hitters of the division and that is a question that will still need answering at some point. Go Bucks did bounce back nicely with a TKO finish over kickboxer Shigeru Miyamoto which was enough to send the Japanese fighter into retirement but, like tonight, that was a fight in which he outweighed his opponent by a significant amount. Now, with a record of 2-1, Go Bucks has a way to go in order to climb from the bottom half of the new heavyweight rankings but he could most definitely speed things up with a big one over his opponent tonight. Andy Bogard seems to have fallen on very tough times of late. Midway through last year he was on a streak of five wins and was performing superbly but after a gruelling three fight war with Terje Warholm that ended in a draw, Bogard has not been the same and now finds himself coming into this fight without a victory in his last four fights. Making matters all the more troubling is the fact that all four losses have been by first round TKO. Perhaps the biggest factor of those fights is that all have been against significantly larger opponents so it is perhaps a blessing for Bogard that the divisions have now split and after his bout tonight, he will move into the new lightweight division and face fighters closer to his own size and weight. Go Bucks looks to be better in everything but BJJ but previous to his bad run of form, Bogard was making a habit of out performing strikers in match ups he had no business in doing so. On the floor Bogard’s brown belt level BJJ is likely to be far too much for Go Bucks to handle but with Go Bucks’ respectable wrestling ability it’s hard to see how Bogard can get it there besides being knocked to the floor. In an organisation where fighters are really starting to come of age Bogard has seemingly stalled in his development and is either going to need serious improvements in his wrestling in order to help him get his opponents down or in his stand up so that he can back up his eagerness with some solid ability too. This fight is Go Buck’s to loss as unless he does something reckless like take the fight to the floor he is most likely going to be too big and too heavy handed for Bogard to deal with Prelims Fight 2 - New Blood Division “I Weigh” One Fortytwo (2-3, 142lbs) vs. Anton Touchard (4-1, 168lbs) Back to the New Blood division with former tournament fighter “I Weigh” One Fortytwo making perhaps one of his last couple of appearances in the division before moving on and he will be taking on 4-1 Anton Touchard. One Fortytwo has been a mixed bag in the division so far. He crashed out of the first ever New Blood tournament in the first round, losing to eventual fourth placed Jonathan Davis and followed up with another TKO loss in his return to Ivashin Dmitreivich. With the possibility of becoming the divisions whipping boy looming, Fortytwo managed to turn things around with back to back TKO victories of his own and went into his last bout at an even 2-2. Another TKO loss to tough Finnish fighter Pate Paukuttaja and Fortytwo now stands at 2-3 and though there will be no chance of fighting for the title in this division, Fortytwo still has the opportunity to leave with his head held high with at least an even record and pending time and fortune, perhaps even a winning one. The immediate obstacle to that however is his opponent tonight Anton Touchard. Anton Touchard came to the IFC as a 3-0 jiu-jitsu fighter with all wins having been earned in the QFC system. He brushed all questions of how he would do against tougher competition aside in his debut when he easily defeated Thai boxer Callum Kane in the first round and go 4-0. With the kind of record that people take notice of in the young division, all eyes were on Touchard as he made yet another step up to take on much heavier Jerome Steel who had just defeated his stable mate Alfred Touchard by first round KO. Unfortunately faring no better, Anton suffered his first professional loss when he was TKO’d in the first round in a little over a minute bringing his overall record to 4-1. Now Touchard will look to get back to winning ways with a win tonight and perhaps put himself back on the right path for a crack at the title. A grappler versus striker match up, Touchard has trained smart during this camp and has probably made enough improvements in his wrestling that getting the takedown against Fortytwo would be that much easier. Of course he will need to avoid getting tagged on his way in as Fortytwo has proven that he is capable of doing damage if he is left to find his range. Both fighters look to be in great condition both physically and mentally and while the fight isn’t expected to last very long due to the massive stylistic difference between the two, both fighters are very evenly matched and will be highly motivated to put on a big performance. Touchard will be the slight favourite due to his improvements in the wrestling but having to bounce back from your first loss is never easy and any trepidation could give Fortytwo the opening he needs. Fight 1 - New Blood Division Morris Kirby (1-0, 142lbs) vs. Patrick Thompson (1-2, 270lbs) Getting us started this evening is a fight from the New Blood division with newcomer Morris Kirby, fighting out of the well respected Kirby family taking on big striker Patrick Thompson. Morris Kirby arrives in the IFC having already got off to winning ways in the New Jersey org NJMMA. An all too familiar ground and pound style was on display as Kirby battered his opponent in under a minute. He’ll be giving up almost one-hundred and thirty pounds in weight tonight when he makes his IFC debut and he’ll definitely need to be cautious as he takes on a much larger striker in Patrick Thompson. Thompson will be coming into this fight off the back of a very painful loss to Jack Dawson in which Dawson sliced him apart in the clinch with vicious elbows. The fight didn’t make it out of the first round and Thompson will be very disappointed with himself and likely looking to do some serious damage tonight. Though Thompson does have a recorded victory, he is still actually looking for his first win in the New Blood division. Currently 0-2 in New Blood fights, Thompson will need to be lightening quick on his feet if he is to stop Kirby from taking him down. Kirby has some stand up skills but with only a minute of fight footage in which to draw a conclusion from, it’s unknown just how much work he intends to do on his feet. On the floor he is unlikely to meet much in the way of solid resistance from Thompson who’s sole means of winning this fight will be to rely on landing a big strike in the stand up and KO Kirby early. Kirby will be the betting favourite with Thompson only realistically standing a punchers chance 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alfred Posted February 2, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 2, 2018 IFC 36 - Butabi vs. Bell (3rd February 2018 - King Theatre, Los Angeles) Event Preview by BrotherHec IFC XXXVI is held with a lot of up and comers and men who are looking to get back to winning ways.There are two fights that as a fan I am very interested in watching and that is the CJ McGregor fight and the Peidis vs Roth fight. It will also be intriguing to see how the Kirby brothers perform in their first fight on the Third of February. It is expected that the King Theater in Los Angeles will sell over 5,000 tickets and one can surely hope that would be the case as these 16 fighters seek to dominate their opponents. Main Card Main Event - Heavyweight Division "Big" Steve Butabi (7-1, 290lbs) vs Greg "The Gronk" Bell (7-8, 300lbs) To get right to the main event at IFC XXXVI we have the Knockout artist “Big” Steve Butabi taking on a submission specialist in Greg “the Gonk” Bell. Bell will be looking to even out his record to a balanced 8 wins and 8 losses if he is able to dismantle the beast in Butabi. With Gronks majority of wins coming via submission it is fair to speculate that his game plan may have something to do with taking Butabi to the ground. This could prove dangerous for Butabi as the only loss he holds was when he was submitted against Mew Choo for the title last November. The odds may not be entirely against Steve however, recent reports coming in have stated that The Gronk is going through a morale funk. Sparring partners Crapollas gym have brought up how he looks to have dropped his desire in fighting. Only time will tell what will happen with these two warriors but you can almost guarantee that this fight will not be going to the judges. BrotherHec’s Prediction: Steve Butabi will land a head kick knockout in the second round. Co-Main Event - Iron Man Division Schmorgan Biscuit (8-4, 218lbs) vs "Corpse Making Cowboy" Don Joe (8-4, 190lbs) When two light heavyweights collide one can almost always expect fireworks. The case isnt different here when Biscuit and Joe square off. The two 205 pounders are coming off of some tough losses in their careers. Joe, who recently sought new management under Alfred Winterbottom II, suffered two defeats in his last two performances inside the octagon. The once terror with knockout power was left beaten within an inch of his life when he fought in his last match and now he looks to gain the momentum he once had. With Biscuit he lost a split decision that many had him winning in. No doubt looking to add his name back into the mix he will be hoping to take down Don Joe and submit him. Many of Biscuits sparring partners have already chalked it up as an easy submission win for him stating that “Joe is just not at the same level as Biscuit.” Social media have been in a storm as fans and pundits alike have been dismissing Don Joes chances of bringing the pain as he once did in the cage. BrotherHec’s Prediction: Biscuit will take Joe down in the first and submit him. Fight 8 - Lightweight Division Wolfgang Lee Roth (7-4, 154lbs) vs Tzwrtzos Peidis (5-1, 165lbs) Four time submission of the night winner Roth is looking to once again add another trophy to his collection. The only issue with this is that Peidis has never been submitted. Not only that but his wrestling ability has proven that none of his opponents have been able to take him down. At first glance one would see a brown belt against a white belt and quickly brush aside any chance of the white belt taking home the win. That would be of course, if Lee Roth was able to get the fight to the ground. With both of these men being identical in their wrestling skill its hard to see where the fight will end up. Proponents of Peidis insist that his infamous ten second knockout over Ferdinand Richmond or his most recent knockout against Alexander Magomedov will be the same way he finishes Roth. Just as roth has been knocked out twice before, they find it to be inescapable when he faces Peidis. Unfortunately for many the key aspect they are missing is that Roth is a veteran of IFC and Peidis is just making his debut for the organization. The skill level is a step up and an opponent like Roth will surely test if Peidis is up for the challenge. BrotherHec’s Prediction: Peidis will stuff a takedown attempt and score a second Round knockout. Fight 7 - Heavyweight Division Vedran "Blondebeard" Stefanovic (4-4, 260lbs) vs Randall "Natural" Couture (7-3, 233lbs) When Natural and Blondebeard square off it will be a tale of two fighters. These fighters both with the ability to end a fight with one punch are looking to do so to their opponent come Saturday. Blondebeard, a two time knockout of the night winner has seen quite the dip in his morale as he just can’t seem to find consistency in winning. It appears that ever since he joined up in the IFC he has been frustrated with not catching the classic highlight reel finish. Some of his training partners have talked about when his last fight ended there was something different in his eyes, many believe that he looks to correct what went wrong in his last fight. It will be a tough challenge for sure as he goes against a man known for his wrestling expertise in Randall. As he entered the IFC cage for the first time many find that he will look to win by riding out this fight to earn himself another decision victory. Natural himself has not been in the best of form as he as also suffered recent losses. The last two losses were both in the first round and by knockout, a way with which many see Blondebeard winning. Ever since the WFC has closed many speculated whether the fighters from that org could compete with those in IFC when they made their transition and the Natural is set to prove that to be the case. BrotherHec’s Prediction: Blondebeard will take home his third knockout of the night award. Undercard Fight 6 - Middleweight Division Kung Le (3-4, 178lbs) vs. Bea "Rick" Mason (7-4, 175lbs) *Fight was signed late. Apologies (Alfred) Fight 5 - Lightweight Division "Notorious" CJ McGregor (4-1, 156lbs) vs Aidan Aukhadov (0-0, 160lbs) They Hype train is real! At least that is what the irish fans have been claiming about Cj. They say that Cj McGregor is here to stay and he is looking to prove that when he takes on Aidan Aukhadov in one of the most anticipated striking matchups of the card. The former Kamikaze fighter is known to finish fights and in spectacular fashion. The 21 year old is looking to dismantle the unknown muay thai fighter with ease and to propel himself into talk for fighting for the 155lbs title. Aidan is relatively new to mixed martial arts and with what we have heard from him in the news it would be fair to say he is an underdog. Reports from Crapollas gym state that he is diligently working on improving his overall game inside the cage. His coaches have shared that a few sparring partners have succumbed to his high level kickboxing skills and has blast on the gym scene and by the end of the year will be the champion. When these two strikers finally get the chance to face off the story wont be so much about who has the better knockout power it will be about who holds the higher striking defense. It will easily go down to be the individual with the better defense that will walk away with this one. BrotherHec’s Prediction: Aidan will find a spot for an elbow in the clinch and end the fight via KO. Fight 4 - Heavyweight Division "The Phenomenal" Orgasmic Bliss (2-3, 300lbs) vs Pete "Red Bull" Blowkarski (2-3, 285lbs) In a fight where two men are looking to get their careers back on track you can be assured that there will be blood and sweat throughout the entire fight. Orgasmic Bliss has been seen working heavily on his ground game. The now purple belt in brazilian jiu jitsu is expected by many to secure a decisive win by submitting the less competent grappler in Pete Blowkarski. Proponents of Red Bull Blowkarski dismiss claims of Bliss finishing the new comer to IFC. His coach was quoted in saying, “He has faced high level grapplers in all of his fights. IF you look what he did to his last opponent who had a purple belt you would put your money on Red Bull too.” It is true that Blowkarski has an astonishing ability to counter his opponents and send them home. It was with one swift head kick in his last fight he took home the win and switched organizations. Bliss himself does not seem to be too worried about the incoming striker, especially when he puts him on his back. BrotherHec’s Prediction: Orgasmic Bliss via Submission in the first round. Fight 3 - New Blood Division Odogwu Agrinya (1-2, 240lbs) vs Thomas “Elbow King” Farrier (0-1, 190lbs) When phenomenal striker goes up against a balanced martial artist one can only speculate the outcome. Odogwu Agrinya first burst onto the mma scene back in September of last year suffering a vicious knockout from within the clinch. Just a couple of weeks later he found himself yet again being knocked out in the first round. Many fighters at this point are sacked from their managers when they dont show any promise, Agrinyas manager decided it was in both their best intrest to take a couple of months off of fighting and focus on improvements. Training out at The Garden in London England it is evident that Odogwu has taken his striking to a new level, a level we have never seen before. After that time of training was up he took on a dangerous striker in Christian Shaw who he completely dismantled in the first round. The question is will he be able to do the exact same thing to the Elbow King. Many fans have criticized the striking capability of the Elbow King stating that he has no business entering the cage with such a talented striker in Agrinya. His last fight was against a man arguably with lesser striker than Agrinya so it really makes one wonder what the Elbow King has up his sleeve. This really appears to be a one sided affair leaving us with uncertainty over how long Thomas will last. BrotherHecs Prediction: Elbow King gets knocked out in the first round. Prelims Fight 2 - New Blood Division Ruben Kirby (0-0, 265lbs) vs Hennig Muller (0-3, 184lbs) Fighting with IFC since their 25th event, the german warrior Hennig Muller is looking to welcome Ruben Kirby not just to IFC but to mma in general. Kirby relatively new to the sport has been in training for the past few months. Aiming to perfect his skills before he made his professional debut he found the perfect opponent to showcase his acclaimed knockout power. When a fighter like Kirby enters the scene the best place to get the scoop on a guy like him is to run to the gym he trains at and watch what goes down, and we were not let down. We watched Kirby hit the pads and do bag work. The hand speed was one thing but when it came to how hard his hands connected on the bag it left us worried not just for Muller but for the entire division. It left no doubt in our minds what Kirbys aim was so of course we had to get some footage of Muller training to have a fair comparison for everyone. Taking the month of January off Muller focused a lot on his ability to direct the fight in a fashion where he would succeed and do so massively. We studied the quickness with his takedowns and the counter striking he had on display when he sparred. For us it was the clear that Muller is coming to take Kirby down while Kirby is looking to keep this fight standing up. This is not a fight between two fighters as it is between two trainers. The tale is going to be about how the two of them have prepared their fighters. Will Kirby be able to defend and get his career started on the right foot or will Muller take Kirby down and earn a ground and pound victory? BrotherHecs Prediction: Kirby will be precise with his strikes and score a knockout victory ending Mullers career. Fight 1 - New Blood Division Vincenzo Kirby (0-0, 215lbs) vs Long Thai (0-3, 165lbs) When one Kirby brother goes to war the other goes to war, at least that is what it looks like. Vincenzo Kirby will be making his professional debut alongside his brother Ruben for IFC 36. It is expected to be quite a good night for Ruben but Vincenzo has a harder battle to fight by the looks of things. Long Thai is an elite striker. Expert in punches, elbows, kicks, and knees this man is dangerous everywhere the fight looks. Its no secret that his ametuer kickboxing record was flawless but since entering into the mma scene he has had no success in properly transferring his skills over. Long Thais first performance was a disaster as he came in over confident that he would really showcase his potential and easily pick apart his opponent. In doing so he had his hands down and got caught with a massive punch that he never recovered from. His last two opponents did not really want to engage with him on the feet so they took him down immediately. The question for Kirby is will he attempt to knockout Long Thai on the feet or take the fight to the ground. Speculation has loomed large for Vincenzo if he even really wants this fight. His training partners and coaches have stated that he seems more interested in making sure his brother pulls off the win rather than himself, perhaps that is just the instinct of an older brother. Although Kirbys striking is not terrible it is something that he probably will not rely too heavily on in this fight. Expectation is that he will stay on the feet for a while and before he begins looking for takedowns on Long Thai. Whatever the case Kirby will be more privy to Long Thais strengths and weaknesses more than the other way around. BrotherHecs Prediction: Kirby wins via decision. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alfred Posted February 3, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 3, 2018 Iron Man Fight Club – New Blood Tournament V.2 Round 2 (4th February 2018 – Hyashi’s Lounge, Los Angeles) Main Card Main Event – Heavyweight Division Vincent Lemieux (9-5, 270lbs) vs. Ricky “Big Tex” Hughes A big fight between big fighters will end the evening with Montreal slugger Vincent Lemiuex taking on the former IFC champion Ricky “Big Tex” Hughes. Up until his last fight, Lemieux had been on an absolute tear and managed to rack up a nine fight run of first round KO victories. He burst into the IFC in the same way, taking out big hitters Jaxson Wilder and Wilson Reyes in the process before running into young striker Terry Bogard and suffering the same fate that he had been dishing out. It was something of a shock result as many, including myself, didn’t think that Bogard had the power to stop Lemiuex in such a manner but these things happen and Lemieux will now look to put that result behind him. In order to do that however he will first need to get past IFC legend Ricky Hughes. Ricky “Big Tex” Hughes comes into this fight off the back of a solid TKO victory over Bricks Thrower and it was sorely needed as Hughes had been on a poor run of three loses previously. It’s fair to say that things haven’t quite been the same for Hughes since his reign at the top of the IFC rankings but that could all be set to change as Hughes begins anew in the newly formed Heavyweight division and will get to throw down with the big boys of the organisation. Tonight will be a great starting point too as they don’t get much bigger than Vincent Lemieux. On paper both fighters look to be very similar in most aspects of the fight. Both are around the same size in height and weight, both have similar records with a similar amount of KO finishes and both are predominantly strikers. Lemieux has the slightest bit higher ability in the boxing but Hughes could look to counter that with his mediocre Muay Thai which is something Lemieux has made no attempt to learn. The wrestling is an area that Lemieux might look to exploit and with his strong clinch game Hughes might do better keeping the fight at a distance or taking the fight to the floor. Hughes does like to mix things up and is usually a pretty good tactician when he has to be but one pretty big criticism of late has been his lack of accuracy with his strikes. He will need to make things count tonight as Lemieux is usually razor sharp with what he throws though he too has been seen to throw a little wildy of late. With both fighters currently residing in the heavyweight top 10 this will be an important fight and an especially big one for Hughes who is already on a win and could take a big step closer to his dream of regaining the gold strap with another win here tonight. Both fighters have the power to end the fight and both have a good record doing so. A very close fight to call. Co-Main Event – Middleweight Division Terry Bogard (6-3, 179lbs) vs. Jon “Enjoy Coke” Ubereem (12-6, 218lbs) Our co-main event of the evening features something of a grappler versus striker affair with high flying Terry Bogard taking on newcomer and former Island champion Jon Ubereem Terry Bogard will no doubt still be enjoying the adulation of his fans after his fantastic KO win over monster heavyweight Vincent Lemieux. It was a fight not too many expected him to win and defintely not in the way that he did. Perhaps in hindsight it shouldn’t have been quite as much of a surprise as Bogard does have a perfect percentage of KO’s in all his victories and now after taking out such a large opponent we have a better understanding of just how much power Bogard possess. For all Bogard’s success in mixed martial arts, his biggest failures have usually involved the grappling aspect and tonight he will be once again forced to deal with that side of things as he opponent Jon Ubereem is a very capable submission wrestler. Jon Ubereem makes his first appearance here in the IFC after a fairly successful period on the Island. Going 12-6 overall, Ubereem managed to briefly capture The Island Title’s light-heavyweight crown and though he dropped it in his very next fight, he would remain a top competitor for the org and would go on to challenge for it on another two occasions afterwards (Something of interest to note was that during the end of season grand tournament, Ubereem was eliminated in the second round by recent IFC signing Light Heavyweight) This is an interesting match up as both fighters have shown previous weakness to each others strong points. Fight 8 – Heavyweight Division Albert Van Rooy (3-2, 256lbs) vs. Hamish “The Pig” McTavish (5-3, 292lbs) Next up, a big opportunity for young Thai boxer Albert Van Rooy who is currently riding high on a three fight win streak and he will be going up against dangerous wrestler Hamish “The Pig” McTavish. Van Rooy struggled initially in his first couple of fights perhaps finding the adjustment from a pure striking art like Muay Thai into the all round world of mixed martial arts a little too overwhelming. However he has made some good improvements lately and has managed to bounce back with consecutive finish wins and move into the top 15 of the new heavyweight rankings. His opponent Hamish McTavish will be looking to bounce back from his first loss in five fights after a tough fight against IFC veteran Greg “The Gronk” Bell ended by third round TKO. It was a big step up for McTavish in the IFC who had up to then beaten his first two opponents with relative ease and make his way up towards the top of the heavyweight rankings. Now currently ranked #13 McTavish will look to put that loss behind him with a win over Van Rooy. McTavish will need to act swiftly and efficiently if he is to avoid taking any punishment from Van Rooy in the stand up. There is no doubt that he possesses enough of a wrestling pedigree to put Van Rooy down but whether he can do it before Van Rooy can launch a big shot or combination is the big question. McTavish is said to be still feeling the effects on his morale from his last loss but this would be no time to be hesitant. Despite his last loss and current mental state, McTavish will still enter the fight as the favourite but if he is too gun shy to get in close for a take down it’ll certainly be a short night for the Scottish grappler. Fight 7 - New Blood Tournament V.2 – Round 2 Armel Vidal (2-0, 146lbs) vs. Warren Goldner (1-0, 245lbs) The first fight from the New Blood tournament features two talent young strikers both who defied the bookmakers odds to make it past their wrestling orientated first round opponents. It will also be something of a David versus Goliath match up as natural bantamweight Armel Vidal gives up almost one-hundred pounds to heavyweight Warren Goldner. In his first round match up, Armel Vidal put on a fantastic display of striking against wrestler Pedro Costa who bizarrely made almost no attempt to take the fight to the floor. Instead it turned into a fifteen minute game of tag with Vidal launching in and out of distance and peppering Costa with stinging shots to the head and body. On the one occasion Vidal did find himself dragged to the floor by Costa he showed tremendous calm under pressure to fend off the barrage of submission attempts sent his way and managed to force the stand up by the referee. It was a solid performance in the face of such a weight deficit and really proved that a smaller striker can triumph over a much larger wrestler. Now he will need to do it all again only this time around it won’t be take downs he will need to be vary of. Warren Goldner had the second fastest KO of the evening at thirteen seconds and with it the shock underdog victory over Dreamier Panda who many had picked over Goldner to win. It took only a couple of shots to the head and body and one combination thrown with the meanest of intentions to thrust Goldner on into this second round match up and now, with that big KO behind him, he will no doubt feel very confident going into this fight tonight. With only the slightest bit of difference in wrestling between the two of them, Goldner’s height and weight is expected to factor heavily in the outcome of the fight. To be victorious, Armel Vidal is going to have to put on an absolute striking masterclass. He is going to have to hit and run, most likely for the full fifteen minutes unless he can somehow force a doctors stoppage via cut, all the while avoiding the heavy hands of Goldner and that could possibly be far too much to ask. Armel Vidal will be the overwhelming underdog in this fight but he will have many fans tuning in to see whether he can once again upset the odds or whether it will be the big German Warren Goldner in the next round. Undercard Fight 6 - New Blood Tournament V.2 – Round 2 Boris Boulder (1-0, 180lbs) vs. Georges “The Guillotine” Danton (1-0, 215lbs) Boris Boulder had a fairly straight forward first round fight against the largest fighter in the tournament Paily Vattakkuzhi and managed to avoid getting stuck on his feet against the heavy handed striker. He did have a little scare when the referee penalised him for stalling and stood them back up and Boulder paid for his inactivity with a large cut courtesy of a Vattakkuzhi right hand. That was the extent of the big mans offence however and Boulder was able to get another takedown and this time made sure to finish the fight with a rear naked choke. It was a solid performance but you get the impression that Boulder wasn’t really tested. Tonight there is no doubt Boulder is in for a real challenge. Georges Danton’s first round opponent Nigel Farage was coming from the same camp as previous tournament winner Fay Gott and so it was fair to say that Danton was the underdog. What transpired was a complete surprise with Danton utterly dominating Farage from the outside and in the clinch. As if to show just how well rounded Danton was, he also managed a takedown in the first round though it served mainly for points scoring as nether fighter had any real interesting in wasting too much energy on the ground. Danton was aggressive and deadly accurate and though it took him a little while, the striking onslaught eventually became too much and after several knockdowns was able to put Farage away for good. Though Danton has made incredible progress in his skills overall he will still be a few steps behind Boulder in regards to grappling. There is very much a grappler versus striker vibe coming off of the match up but that is mainly because we assume to know the game plan of each fighter. On paper Danton is overwhelmingly the favourite in the stand up and really this fight will come down to how well he can defend Boulder’s inevitable shot and ground attack. If he can keep the fight standing there is very little chance of him not finishing the fight inside three rounds. Usually the wrestler would be favoured but in this case the bookies are picking Danton to win based mainly on his rapid improvements over the past month and his all round skill set. Fight 5 - New Blood Tournament V.2 – Round 2 Dai Zexi (2-0, 220lbs) vs. Carver Frost (1-0, 258lbs) One of the most intriguing fighters in the tournament in Carver Frost makes his return in the second round and he is taking on China’s Dai Zexi who had a tough battle in his first round match up. Frost came into the tournament looking very unorthodox and many were speculating whether he was prepared for such competition. Five seconds into his opening round fight and all questions were answered by Frost’s ungodly uppercut that blasted his poor opponent clear off his feet. Though it wasn’t much to go on we can rest assured that, at the very least, Frost has enough power in his hands to put fear in his opponents heart. Standing across from him will be Dai Zexi, a BJJ brown belt who displayed some real eagerness to scrap in his first round battle against fellow brown belt Kurt Wagner and also some very good defensive capabilities as he managed to stuff eight out of the ten of Wagner’s takedown attempts and all of his attempts at a submission. Zexi was surprisingly aggressive in the stand up but in the end finished with a slick armbar from guard. There’s no illusion of this match up being anything other than a grappler versus striker battle with Frost’s biggest weakness being his white belt level jiu-jitsu skills. The problem for Zexi will be in getting the fight to the ground. Though there isn’t a massive gulf between them in the wrestling, Frost is slightly better and that may mean it takes longer than Zexi will want and in the meantime will have to stand in front of the man with a five second KO from hell. Zexi wasn’t afraid of throwing and mixing up his strikes in the first fight and though he didn’t manage to land anything, the mere fact that he isn’t just a one dimensional ground and submit fighter, he may find that his rudimentary striking skills are enough to distract Frost and help with securing the takedown. On the flip side it could also lead straight into a Carver Frost counter straight down the pipe. The most interesting aspect of this fight is that a win for Zexi in this round would give him somewhat of a favourable match up in the next round against one of the two current favourites in Mohammed Ruslanov or Jake Kirby. Both are ground and pound wrestlers and as it is said that styles make fights, Zexi’s is tailor made to catch out wrestlers. A tough fight to predict overall although there is really only two ways this fight will end. Either Frost will add another to his highlight reel or Dai Zexi will be adding another submission win to his record. Fight 4 - New Blood Tournament V.2 – Round 2 Mohammed Ruslanov (2-0, 235lbs) vs. Jake “The Rattlesnake” Kirby (1-0, 180lbs) The fight that is slated to decide the tournament with imposing wrestler Mohammed Ruslanov taking on one of the Kirby families own, Jake “The Rattlesnake” Kirby. Both fighters put on dominant first round performances though Ruslanov had to work much harder than was anticipated for his unanimous decision win over scrappy Sal Sizarro. Though Ruslanov would have needed a little time to recover after his first round fight he looks to have wasted not a single minute in the gym and has managed to get his promotion to purple belt and is even looking sharper in his wrestling too. Very scary considering he was already at a wonderful level. He displayed some exceptional control during his fight and remained active for the most part constantly peppering his opponent with strikes. Some critics commented on the power of those strikes however and his inability to finish the fight whilst in dominant positions. This almost came back to bite him when dropped the third round after finding himself taken down and fighting off submission attempts for the remainder so it will be interesting to see if he will adjust anything going into this bout His opponent Jake Kirby had no such trouble finishing his first round fight after taking down boxer James Dean Bradfield right at the start of the fight and hammered him with viscous ground and pound that opened up a huge cut and forced the doctor to step in. It was typical of the Kirby tournament style that we have come to expect and now we will get to see it tested against an extremely formidable opponent in Ruslanov. This fight is going to be pistols at dawn. The bell will ring and we will see who has the fastest draw. It is imperative for each fighter to secure the early take down and be the one dishing out the punishment rather than the one trying to regain position from their backs. We know that the Kirby style is a proven one but will it be enough to crack that granite chin that Ruslanov has? We also know that Ruslanov is exceptionally good at controlling his opponent but if he can’t get the finish in the first round will he be able to go fifteen minutes without giving Kirby an opening? So many questions that could be asked but hopefully we will find our answers tonight. Fight 3 - New Blood Division Nigel Farage (0-1, 220lbs) vs. Sal Sizzaro (0-1, 270lbs) Nigel Farage came into the tournament as a potential favourite off the back of his camp winning the previous tournament. Disappointingly, Farage was outclassed and KO’d in the second and eliminated at the first hurdle. An opportunity for redemption tonight perhaps but unfortunately his management team have been awol for almost two weeks so it doesn’t bode well. Ready to take advantage of this set back in preparation for Farage is Jamaica’s Sal Sizzaro who, despite his self depreciating demeanour put on a very gritty performance against tournament favourite Mohammed Ruslanov and pushed him to the very limit but ultimately lost a unanimous decision two rounds to one. This fight will be very much wrestler versus striker and currently it’s looking very likely that Sizzaro waltzes through Farage with ease. Unless Farage can come up with something last minute his game plan from his opening tournament fight will simply not cut it against a wrestler with good takedowns and an eagerness for submissions and so with that Sizzaro will be the heavy betting favourite going into this fight Prelims Fight 2 - New Blood Division “The Dangerous” Beast Incarnate (0-1, 145lbs) vs. Dreamier Panda (0-1, 220lbs) Next up, two eliminated fighters that will be feeling very upset with the results of their first round match up’s with “The Dangerous” Beast Incarnate taking on Japanese wrestler Dreamier Panda. Natural flyweight Beast Incarnate was unfortunately on the wrong side of the opening rounds quickest finish when he lost to Carver Frost in only five seconds. It was a massive anticlimax as the Incarnate/Frost match up was easily the most intriguing of the first round and to end like that, though spectacular in it’s way, was also disappointing in others. Another fighter who suffered from a very early exit is Dreamier Panda. Panda was coming from the same camp as previous tournament third place fighter Xing Pugberg and so was a clear favourite over striker Warren Goldner. It wasn’t to be though as Goldner absolutely hammered Panda with ferocious shots to the head and body and ended with a beautiful left hook that finished the bout in only thirteen seconds. With neither fighter managing to showcase any real offence in their first fights there’s still plenty of questions that will be needing answers. On paper we it looks like this fight is likely to Panda securing a takedown and purpler belt jiu-jitsu fighter Incarnate looking for submissions of his back. Of course that is just guesswork and we look forward to seeing the truth behind these two young fighters tonight. Fight 1 - New Blood Division Kurt “Nightcrawler” Wagner (0-1, 210lbs) vs. Paily “Dragon” Vattakkuzhi (1-2, 282lbs) Opening the tonight’s event will be two eliminated fighters from this ongoing tournament with BJJ fighter Kurt “Nightcrawler” Wagner taking on massive heavyweight Paily “Dragon” Vattakkuzhi. In his opening round Wagner was match up against fellow BJJ brown belt Dai Zexi and gave his all in a back and forth submission shoot out only to get caught with an armbar midway through round two. He’ll be facing big striker Paily Vattakkuzhi who despite being overwhelmed by superior a superior wrestler in Boris Boulder was able to showcase just how heavy handed he is when he opened up a cut on Boulder with his one and only punch. Usually the jiu-jitsu fighter is at a massive disadvantage against most types of fighter but in this case Wagner will be feeling pretty good about himself as those few wrestling sessions that he has been putting in lately look like they will be the key to the whole fight. With rumours that Vattakkhuzhi is also broke and hasn’t even been training since his opening loss bolstering Wagner’s chances this really is Wagner’s fight to lose. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SixFootPenguin Posted February 3, 2018 Report Share Posted February 3, 2018 great as always and i know im just being critical but Rusanlov amazingly had a purple belt for the first round and his only on paper improvement we saw was his wrestling going up to 13. can not wait to see him fight off with kirby and of course my 4th fight overall with peter dry, can he break his curse and finally beat me? if anyone could do it it could very well be danton. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.