2013-02-15
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GAMMA Gossip Edition#6

Global Association of MMA, Fight Organization, London
Company profile by Mentor Guru Corleone

Goooood evening! GAMMA Gossip is ready to roll, with me, AC Jimbo, as your host. We’ve got a whole host of stuff to get through tonight, so without any further ado let’s get started.

We’ll begin by looking back at GAMMA 283 and 284.

First, GAMMA 283: Kuduro v Gillis in front of a sell-out crowd at the Wandalay Bay arena. Jorge Cruz quickly dismantled Jt Colossus, just as I had predicted it was really just a case of which of them could be the first to land a meaningful strike and in the end it turned out to be “The Titan”, also as I predicted it would be. Someone could be getting seriously rich following my predictions if they’re smart enough to listen to the voice of GAMMA!

The main event was over in even swifter fashion, with Danza Kuduro disposing of Jamie Gillis in just two and a half minutes. I think the crowd were actually a little disappointed that they hadn’t seen more action, but boy what a knockout it was, for which Kuduro rightfully took home the award for knockout of the night. Again, it was another correct prediction for AC Jimbo, and I’d even told you it wouldn’t make the third round – I’ll admit it, though, even I was a bit surprised at just how quick this one was over with!

Following that we were honored to tune in to GAMMA 284: Duberry v Grimes II. In the penultimate fight of the evening, Kuiskaaja Rajantakaa took home a close decision win against Livingston Barclay thanks to the all-round game that he has and the advantages that brought him (do I really need to remind you that I called this one, too?). So it’s back to the drawing board for Barclay, who sees an end to a recent impressive spell.

The same could be said of Buster Grimes, who despite having the weight of my prediction behind him (well one has to get the odd one wrong every now and then to ensure people don’t think the fights are fixed...), came up short in his rematch with Fidel Duberry. In the fight of the night, these two giants of GAMMA fought back and forth before the judges decided that Duberry deserved to keep his title. This was his second successful defense of the GAMMA heavyweight title, and I heard just before we came on air that both he and Anton Chigurh have now signed on the dotted line to rematch for the title at GAMMA 289 – that is a huge fight to look forward to!

But all of that is in the past now, so let’s take a look forward to the future GAMMA events.

First of all, GAMMA 285: Green v Matazz. This is an evening of middleweight action. In the co-main event Doc “The Bone Breaker” Thomas (28-14-1, GAMMA 4-2) is taking on “The Chosen One” Usain Watts (29-12, GAMMA 1-2). They are relative newcomers to GAMMA but Watts has actually already had a taste of the big time by receiving a title shot at Raz Matazz on his GAMMA bow. However, both also share an unfortunate tendency – at least so far since they’ve arrived – to fail to make the grade when the time of reckoning has arrived. This is something that each of them will want to change, starting right here.

They’ve slipped down the pecking order slightly, so it’s unlikely that this is a straight shootout for a title shot, but certainly the winner will feel rather more happy about their future prospects. They have actually already met, at GAMMA 274. On that occasion “The Bone Breaker” survived a few rocky moments in the first round before turning up the heat, which proved to be too much for Watts to handle. There was definitely enough in that first meeting, though, to suggest that the rematch should be hugely interesting to watch as “The Chosen One” was not too far away from emerging victorious. As a result, I’d actually mark Watts as being the slight favorite for this one as long as he can avoid getting caught with any big shots on his slightly suspect chin.

The main event sees our current top two middleweights lock horn for the title: “The Atom Smasher” Raz Matazz (37-8-1, GAMMA 35-7-1) against Keith Green (12-2, GAMMA 5-0). This is a swift return to action for both of these guys as they last competed only a matter of weeks ago, but we understand that they were both keen to get this fight on.

For Matazz, this represents the chance to put yet another young buck back in his place, as he has done on countless occasions in the past. GAMMA 282 was just the last time when “The Atom Smasher” proved that he is a tough nut to crack by immediately regaining the 185 lbs title from Fred Ettish. I had made the bold prediction that Matazz would fall short in that fight, but it only goes to prove that you should never write off this old boy.

His opponent this time is another of GAMMA’s young prospects. He hails from the highly successful DILLIGAF camp of Matt Cave, where the current GAMMA heavyweight champion – Fidel Duberry – also trains, so it is obvious that he will be excellently prepared as he steps out under the bright lights for the biggest night of his career thus far.

In many respects there appears to be very little to choose between them, except perhaps if the fight goes to the ground where it is expected that Matazz should have the edge, but they are very similar in height, build and striking ability. The area of greatest difference is undoubtedly the relative experience of each of them – with Matazz being the great master of GAMMA, and organization hero, while Green is pretty much still making his way in the fight game. He isn’t a complete stranger to stepping into the cage with big names, though, as in just his third professional fight he took on Igor Glozman, falling to a narrow decision loss.

This one looks far too close to call, and I expect that you’ll be on the edge of your seat for the duration of the fight. However, to give us his perspective on the fight, we’ve managed to persuade Raz Matazz himself to give us a quick interview.

AC Jimbo: Hi Raz, thanks for joining us this evening. How’s it going?

Raz Matazz: No problem AC, happy to stop by. Life's great man, it's good to be me.

AC Jimbo: Let’s begin by going back to your most recent win at GAMMA 282, can you describe for us how you felt regaining the GAMMA title? This is now the third title reign of your career here.

Raz Matazz: I won't lie, it felt great. Winning the title is one thing, but stomping some chump who never should have held the strap in the first place is extremely satisfying. I'll admit that I underestimated him the first time around, and spending the week before that fight getting wasted and banging Victoria's Secret models on my yacht probably wasn't the best training regimen. For this fight I did the same thing, but on the way to the arena on fight night I stopped by my boxing gym and hit the speed bag for 20 minutes. As everyone in attendance saw, that was more than enough to beat his ass all over the cage for 4 rounds. I took the 5th round off because I wanted him to be conscious when my hand was raised and the crowd chanted my name, so he could see what a real champion looks like. He was already in need of a hospital, but any more damage and he would have needed a mortician. The knee to the balls with a minute left was just for fun.

AC Jimbo: How did you celebrate winning that fight? Or do you even bother celebrating wins these days, as you’ve had such an illustrious career they must have become a bit passé?

Raz Matazz: Man, my whole life if a celebration. I got a BJ from the ring girls (yes, all 3 of them) and then me and my crew hit the clubs as usual.

AC Jimbo: So turning our attention to your next title defense, how is the training camp going at the moment?

Raz Matazz: I haven't gotten in the gym at all yet, actually, I've just been taking some time off to work on my tan. Green seems like a pretty tough guy though (even if he does have pillow hands), so I might actually get in a few days at The Office (that's the name of the MMA gym I started last year).

AC Jimbo: As for the fight itself, how confident are you of being able to hold onto the title this time? Your previous two reigns as champion have been very short, yielding just one successful defense in those two reigns combined, which is a far cry from the first time you came to fame where you made fifteen successful defenses before running into Jeremy Tonal at 205 pounds.

Raz Matazz: I'm confident going into every fight. Confidence has never been a problem for me. I mean, look at me, how could I not be confident? And yeah, my first title run was pretty epic, and probably one that will never be matched. I just wanted a new challenge at the time and wanted to try my hand against some of the bigger guys. People seem to forget that I was beating Tonal in our first fight until he got that lucky takedown into full mount in the 3rd round. In our second fight he landed a beauty of a liver kick that completely gassed me out and nearly ended the fight by itself, so it was just a matter of time before he got that win. To be honest I'm not all that disappointed in those losses. Tonal was one of the greatest fighters of all time.

AC Jimbo: Sorry for mentioning Tonal’s name, by the way, I guess he might be a sore subject. Anyway, he’s not around anymore, so instead what do you make of Keith Green?

Raz Matazz: Nah man, not a sore subject. Every fighter has good days and bad days, and if he doesn't have a loss on his record he must have never challenged himself. I don't know much about Green, but he seems like a good dude. Time will tell if he's really ready for the big stage, since this is his first shot at a belt, but I plan on testing his chin early and often.

AC Jimbo: Okay, thanks Raz. Now before we let you go in peace, one final question: if we gave you an elephant, where would you hide it?

Raz Matazz: Why the hell would I hide it? I'd ride that sonofabitch out during my next fight entrance. In fact, I think you've just given me an idea...

AC Jimbo: Great! Well thanks again for your time, Raz, and good luck for the fight.

That was “The Atom Smasher” Raz Matazz there, ladies and gentlemen, a great ambassador for GAMMA down through the years, and now possibly the first man preparing to make his way to the cage on an elephant, what a guy! Now then, we’ll move swiftly on to GAMMA 286: Gump v Juste II, where it will be the turn of the lighter guys at 170 lbs to entertain us. The co-main event features Justin Bieber (15-9, GAMMA 3-3) and William Barker (22-11, GAMMA 4-2).

Both of them are coming into this fight off the back of losses, Bieber having been devastated by Fedotov’s vicious knees at GAMMA 279, and Barker being laid out by Juste’s power-punching in the first round of their contest on the same night – both results being as I predicted. This fight represents the first rung on the ladder for one of them to get their career back on track, whilst for the loser there is the chance that they will see themselves drifting off into the doldrums.

I told you before that Bieber’s chin is dodgy, and that still remains his greatest weakness, and one that Barker will surely need to exploit in order to get the win. As for Barker, he has paper skin, but does have the power to knock Bieber out. Strangely, though, we’ve been receiving reports that Barker’s been performing less well in training in recent times, with reports that his famed jiu jitsu skills are falling behind and onlookers saying he was no longer worthy of the black belt he’d previously earned. However, in my mind there’s no disputing that it only takes one decent punch and Bieber doesn’t know where he is, so I think Barker still has enough to win.

The main event pits the current champ, Forrest Gump (18-6, GAMMA 6-1), and Renan St Juste (20-6, GAMMA 5-2) against each other. This is their second meeting after Gump beat St Juste at GAMMA 268. That fight was over three rounds, rather than the championship five, but even in that fight there looked to be enough in it to make for an exciting rematch, as St Juste was certainly not significantly outmatched.

Despite being the younger fighter, St Just has more in-cage experience than Gump, although Gump’s opponents have generally been of a higher caliber. He’s proved he has a reasonable chin, and power to finish fights, but that is exactly what his opponent has as well. This makes it an intriguing fight as I suspect it means that neither will necessarily be able to gain a decisive advantage on the feet, which is why, for my money, Gump comes in as the favorite due to his more varied ground game. In their first meeting, Gump didn’t go all out to take the fight to the mat, but he was certainly more effective in the rounds when he did get the takedown, so I expect we will see more of the same tactics from him this time.

Despite being the defending champion, due to his recent super-fight loss, Gump comes into this fight lower ranked than St Juste, which is something he’ll be keen to rectify. If he wins again this time, then I’m sure he can look forward to many more big paydays around the world. I think he’ll manage it, although I’ll be surprised if he can gain the stoppage before the five rounds are up.

Anyway, that’s all we have time for today. Thanks for joining me on GAMMA Gossip, and please do join us next time. Ciao!

 

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