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Lightweight and Lightheavyweight have been feral combats deepest two divisions since its opening in early October and as such will be the first to gain champions- with many contenders ready to stake a claim to these belts their claims are being decided by an eight man single elimination GP in each class. The first round of this took place at Feral Combat 4, in the lighter weight class Dan Smith (6-2 MMA, 3-0 FC) submitted Alan Oro (4-1 MMA, 0-1 FC) by first round arm bar, Ben Jackson (2-1 MMA, 2-1FC) scored an upset victory over Dok Mookjai (1-1 MMA, 1-1 FC) with a second round kimura, while Matt Gentry (2-1 MMA, 1-1 FC) and Francis Drake (3-4MMA, 2-0 FC) scored unanimous decision victories over Neil Bonham (0-3 MMA, 0-2 FC) and Mateusz Dinozaur (1-2 MMA, 1-1FC) respectively.
In the heavier weightclass Will Dickinson (9-0 MMA, 3-0 FC) earned his second submission of the night award with a first round armbar over Chandler Cannon (1-2 MMA, 0-2 FC). KO of the night went to Jake Dixon (6-0 MMA, 2-0 FC) extending his unbeaten run with a rare third round finish of Jack Fist (4-5 MMA, 0-3 FC). Lee Christmas (2-2 MMA, 2-1 FC) scored a first round TKO over previously unbeaten prospect Gary Dove (5-1 MMA, 1-1 FC), while promotional newcomer Mariusz Oliwa took just 17 seconds to turn an ill judged takedown attempt by Rick McBane (0-2 MMA, 0-1 FC) into a guillotine choke to secure his passage to the semi finals.
For the majority of the winners the next step towards gold came at Feral Combat 5: Path to Glory on December the 8th- at lightweight Smith took on Gentry and Drake faced Jackson. At LHW Lee Christmas initially earned a place in the semis but due to a contract dispute with another promotion withdrew from the contest- his replacement, promotional newcommer Gniewomir "Grom" Gromowladny (1-1 MMA) instead squared off against Will Dickinson. The second light heavyweight semi final, due to injury, took place 4 days later at Bar Brawl 2 between Oliwa and Dixon.
FC5 turned out to be a night of submissions- with 6 of the 9 bouts ended by tapout, including all 3 semi final bouts. The fastest came in just two and a half minutes as Smith took Gentry down almost immediately, passed from guard to mount and as Gentry rolled away from the ground & pound Smith took the back and secured the tap by rear naked choke- the 5th submission win of his career. After a back and forth round brown belt Dickinson proved too much for late replacement 'Grom' as he pulled guard and slapped on a triangle- echoing his win over Jack Fist in his Feral Combat début- just in time at 4.59 of the first round. Ben Jackson also secured his place in the finals by triangle- this time 1.23 into the second round after a fight of the night performance against Francis Drake.
While FC5 was a night for grapplers Bar Brawl 2, the following Wednesday was a night of knockouts- the final 7 bouts of the night we're ended by strikes. Oliwa and Dixon each entered the cage putting unbeaten records on the line, and it took less than a round to set the two apart- after Oliwa spending the majority of the stanza on top mixing both ground & pound and submission attempts to suppress Dixon the ref stepped in after a series of unanswered shots with just 3 seconds left on the clock.
Both finals take place at Feral Combt: Night of Champions, which takes place on the 22nd December at Hayashis lounge, London- Making it Feral Combat's biggest event to date. Dickinson (9-0 MMA, 4-0 FC) squares off against Oliwa (0-2 MMA, 0-2 FC) at 205- Oliwa has finished all his opponents in the first round while Dickinson is a brown belt with 6 submissions to his name.
In the Lightweight division Smith (7-2 MMA, 4-0 FC) puts his streak on the line against Jackson (3-1 MMA, 3-1 FC), in what could be an epic ground battle- like their 205lb counterparts both men are BJJ brown belts, all of Jacksons wins have come by submission, while Smith has seemingly returned to his submission grappling roots after an interlude of TKO victories at FC1 and FC3, extending his record to 5 submission finishes including 4 arm bars.
All four finalists we're in London today for a press conference ahead of the finals held at Wild Bobs, amongst the usual bravado of predictions from fighters, plugs for sponsors and hype from the promotions spokes people there was one thing of note- the unveiling of the new belts. A beautiful design, hand made, consisting of both gold and silver metalwork mounted on a purple leather strap. Both tournament finalists will compete for a belt in their own weight class, and they will be joined as champions by either Gunnar Sigbjornsson (2-1 (1NC) MMA, 2-1 (1NC) FC) or Frederick Barbarossa (11-4 MMA, 4-1 FC) as 'the rook' and 'the polar bear' clash for the heavyweight crown. The display case unveiled at the press conference also contained a 4th and 5th belt- widely believed to be reserved for the future kings of the middleweight and open-weight divisions- whilst Feral Combat head of marketing Anna-Marie Raven, who was hosting the press conference, refused to be pinned down on any details or dates or speculate about which fighters may compete for the vacant straps it was strongly hinted that in addition to expecting to seeing all three champions crowned at NoC make their first defence in January 2013 we may also see at least one more champion crowned in the near future.
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