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 Good evening fans, um sorry, I mean GAMMA fans. Welcome back to more GAMMA Gossip with me, AC Jimbo. First up, I must apologize for being off the air before. Unfortunately I fell ill ahead of filming – which had absolutely nothing to do with celebrating my birthday the night before, and couldn’t make it. It turns out I’m the only damn guy with a key to the studio so they couldn’t run the show without me!
So today we’ll briefly go over the key goings on from GAMMA 289, 290, 291 and 292 (phew!) and a quick look forward to our next two events. Hopefully amongst all that we’ll also have time for an interview with another GAMMA legend in the making.
So we’d best get on with things – GAMMA 289. Wow that seems like a long time ago! However, that doesn’t mean we can’t remember what happened because this had the much anticipated heavyweight title fight between defending champ Fidel Duberry and former champ and world number one, Anton Chigurh. This one didn’t fail to disappoint, although in totally the opposite way to their first fight. This time the dominant fighter came away with the win...and it was Duberry! His powerful strikes caused Chigurh problems right from the start and it was clear he was in trouble. After just three minutes he was looking winded, and it was only a matter of time before he was caught as his hands dropped lower and lower.
GAMMA 290 was being represented by the legend that is Raz Matazz, in a rematch against Usain Watts. I really must have been coming down with my sickness when we were last on the air as I predicted a win for “The Atom Smasher” here, but instead he got subbed out in under three minutes. A very impressive performance from “The Chosen One, and his second revenge win in a row. He’s now been given the opportunity to challenge for the title, something which is fully deserved.
For that title shot he will be coming up against Keith Green, who successfully defended his middleweight belt against former champion Fred Ettish at GAMMA 291. In yet another decision win, Green comfortably dealt with the challenge of Ettish although it again demonstrated the potential peril of leaving to the judges as that comedian, Cecil Peabody, scored the fight in favor of Ettish whilst the other two judges opted for 49-46 scores, which was consistent with the majority of onlookers.
Finally, at GAMMA 292 Danza Kuduro, yes he of the silly nickname, destroyed Degen Gambler to forcefully remove the light-heavyweight title from him in a brutal first round knockout. Now I’ve enjoyed making some jokes at his expenses, but he’s been kind enough to join us for an interview.
AC Jimbo: His Danza, thanks for joining us.
Kuduro: You are welcome.
AC Jimbo: What better place to start than with your amazing ascent to the top of the pile at 205 pounds. Quite the win at GAMMA 292!
Kuduro: Not really. Gambler is just a guy that got lucky. Crassus told me all about him and the fact I would destroy him inside of the round. So I went out there and done what had to be done and took the jaw from his face.
AC Jimbo: This is the culmination of quite the hot streak you’re on at the moment – four consecutive wins, but moreso that they’ve all been extremely violent knockouts. Have you changed anything in your preparation to turn the corner like this? I mean, no disrespect, but it wasn’t long before then you dropped three straight.
Kuduro: Manager change. I got my ass kicked by Mitchell who was managed by Dean. I asked him to take me on and he did. We tried using my wrestling at first but it wasn't really working the way I wanted it to. So we watched some videos of Chuck Liddell and decided to give that a try. As you see it has worked pretty well so far.
AC Jimbo: Now you had been promising to deal with Gambler severely back when you signed the deal to fight him, so clearly you’re a fan of making bold predictions and then acting on them. Who, or what, is next in your sights? I mean, we know you’ve got basically a mandatory defense against number one contender Danny Tanner next, but surely you’ve got bigger and better plans than that, right?
Kuduro: Yeah I do. Tanner shouldn't be much of a problem. I expect it lasts no longer than a round either. I want to become the next Tonal. The most scary mother f*cker around. I believe he holds the record for most title defenses that will be the first record I go for.
AC Jimbo: Who has had the biggest influence on your career to date? It’s well known that you’ve moved management teams, but you’re still fighting under the Convicted banner – are there any guys in particular there you’ve learned from or look up to?
Kuduro: Tonal. My original manager wasn't from Convicted. I signed with Dean just as he joined Convicted. I am going to be the next best fighter in Tycoon. I have the skills to get there. People in Tycoon have only ever seen one man like Tonal. I will be the next.
AC Jimbo: *Jimbo shoots a nasty glance at someone off screen and mutters something under his breath about choking the research assistant* Okay, there’s time for one more question before I let you go – if you were a biscuit, which would you be, and why?
Kuduro: A Jaffa Cake. Not quite a biscuit not quite a cake.
AC Jimbo: Okay, that’s fantastic. Bit too orangey for me but never mind! Thanks for coming on, Danza.
Our new champion at 205 pounds, ladies and gentlemen!
Now we need to get on and preview the next couple of events before we run out of time. Let’s hope they’re good, because they’ve got a lot to live up to from those last four events we’ve seen!
And that will be starting with GAMMA 293: Gump v Fedotov. I’m told we’re running short on time, so we’re going to jump straight to the main event. Forest Gump (18-7, GAMMA 6-2) is taking on Vladik Fedotov (21-8-2, GAMMA 9-3-1). Despite these guys boasting an impressive combined win percentage of around the 75% mark for their respective times in GAMMA, each of them enter this fight off the back of a loss.
Gump had been celebrating his rise to the top of the pile at 170 pounds not so long ago, but his hopes of a gloriously long reign were shattered when his first defence was abruptly ended by Renan St Juste. Fedotov, on the other hand, has been a perennial challenger, just bubbling under the title picture, but again blew his chance in what was effectively a number one contender fight against Pennanen.
So both fighters will be extremely motivated to get back on the wagon here in this fight for the reasons just given, and so the possibility of then going on to challenge for the title will just serve as the cherry on the top for the winner. Plus reportedly Fedotov was making fun of Gump’s purple hair recently back home in an interview in a Russian newspaper. He claims the journalists here are confusing the translation, but I don’t think he’s fooling anyone.
The question I know you’re all asking back home is which way does the wise Jimbo think this one’s going? Well Gump is the more talented striker and certainly the better grappler, whilst Fedotov has a dodgy chin. It’s obviously going to be a win for Gump. No brainer.
Then we move onto GAMMA 294: St Juste v Pennanen. The victors over the two main event competitors from GAMMA 293 do battle themselves here. Renan St Juste (21-6, GAMMA 6-2) is the new welterweight champion and he will make his first defense against Juho Pennanen (14-7-1, GAMMA 1-0), who made what on paper was a slightly underwhelming start to his GAMMA career with a majority decision win over Fedotov.
The deciding factor in this fight, though, is likely to be whether the dynamite-like power of St Juste will be enough to overcome the sturdy chin of Pennanen. St Juste has 16 knockouts in his 21 wins, whilst Pennanen is yet to be stopped and in fact we can’t find any record of him being knocked down although it’s possible it happened much earlier in his career.
In my opinion, which I do like to share with you all, St Juste has served the more demanding apprenticeship and come out the other side still banging with the best of them. I expect this to stand him in good stead for this fight. Fedotov is a good, technical kickboxer but lacks that bit of magic to defeat the elite level opponents. This means that when he comes up against opponents of this calibre he is left struggling a bit as he has no plan B for how he will get the win due to having no offensive ground game. Renan St Juste is going to confirm he’s no fluke winner of the title by downing Fedotov this time. Whether he’ll get the knockout, even I’ll admit I don’t know whether he can because Fedotov is very durable. However, that is about as far as my compliments are able to extend to him in this fight.
To finish tonight, I have news of some more super-fights coming up. This time Mentor has managed to negotiate a series of bombastic battles with ONI, the top ranked organization in Tokyo. I can’t reveal all of them yet, but one of them went public earlier today and that sees GAMMA’s own heavyweight champ, Fidel Duberry, head over to Tokyo to lock horns with their heavyweight champion, Vangelis Kokkalis. A combined record heading into this one of 34 wins and just five losses, 28 of those wins by knockout – this one looks set to be nasty, just like we love them! Both of them are probably not even entering the peak of their powers yet, this could be an epic that we see replayed again in the years to come. It should be available on pay-per-view, so it’s worth checking now to see if you can buy it!
We’ve run out of time – gotta run, see ya!
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