London's Brawling

Editorial by Bricktop McKenzie

Welcome to issue 4 of London�s Brawling, due to a busy weekend this edition is being written later than usual on a Monday evening. This means that the weekends events will be included in the reviews and you�ll get an even more up to date slice of MMA wordsmith.

As well as the usual reviews and previews I have an interview with Stu Baboon, owner of one of London�s fledging orgs Heroic Warrior Championship. I�m not biased though, if any other org owners want me to highlight their org let me know. The grilling is pretty gentle, Paxman I am not.

The week that was:

With a slightly longer period to review than usual it�s going to have to be a big fight or event to get my attention, fortunately there have still been plenty of those around. We start with the new number 1 org in London, London Fight Night Club. Two big events this week catapulted them into the top slot. LFNC 95: Holiday Hangover saw Konrad Koltun defend his title against Dave Ming Chang in the main event. Koltun used the clinch well to take all 5 rounds. He is undoubtedly the top Featherweight in London at the moment.

LFNC�s second event, LFNC 96: Friday the 13th scored a massive 220.27 event rating. This was despite the main event (headlined by one of my fighters) scoring a miserable 32% fight rating (sorry about that Joe). Defying my prediction Sean Quinn retained his Welterweight Title with a 2nd round TKO of M Sgt Ernest G Bilko. At least I picked correctly in the Co-Main event as Hades Underworld retained his Middleweight Title with a 2nd round KO of Tommy Kane.

Last weeks number 1 and this weeks number 2, Bloodsport Fighting Championship continued their frenetic pace holding 5 events in the period. Even allowing for the slightly longer review period this is more than I can review, so I�ll just focus on Bloody Hell XXXIV which I previewed last week. As predicted both Torture and Schmitt retained their titles. Further down the card Andy Silva picked up a decent win against Dave Gahan to earn a title shot against Owen Schmitt. Silva already holds a win over Schmitt and this could be a tough test for the champ.

climbed to 3rd in the rankings with IC 83: Runati v Botwin. This event scored a 211.28 and saw Daniel Runati deliver a kickboxing master class to retain his Light Heavyweight Title by 3rd round TKO.

Finally, lower down the rankings, HITME! Fight Club held Toast v FTW. Hitme is, as far as I am aware, London�s only ID restricted Org and is one of the places you might want to check out if you have a new fighter looking to start his career. The main event saw French Toast stop BJJ FTW at 4:59 of the first round. I bet FTW was furious with the ref for jumping in with 1 second to go. Toast now holds a record of 5-0 and is a sure bet to be one of the contenders for the Heavyweight Title when it is put up for grabs.

Upcoming:

London Fight Night Club - LFNC 97 - Salvatore v Rollins

Headlined by Hunter Rollins challenging Nick Salvatore for his Lightweight Title this card should be a barnstormer. Salvatore beat Rollins to earn the shot at the title which ultimately saw him beat Wilson Walters to become the champ. Rollins responded by beating Wilfried Handel and is now out for revenge. The co-main event sees two ex-champions clash as Charlie Magri takes on King Marvin. I know how good Marvin is as he took the LFNC title from my fighter Carlton Robinson and successfully defended it 4 time before losing it to Raul Sanchez. Magri doesn�t have the same pedigree having lost his title in his first defence. He is a dangerous striker however and that taste of glory will no doubt have made him hungry for more.

Invidious Combat LXXXIV

Hoping to capitalise on recent good form Invidious have another strong card. So strong in fact that the title fight isn�t even main eventing. That honour goes to Knocko Blocko v Von Han. Blocko lost his Heavyweight Title so Alex Cordoba on new years day and will be hoping to bounce back with a win over Von Han. Han is a good all-rounder with sensational Muay Thai skills and he is a real challenge for the ex-champion. The winner here will surely find themselves in contention for a title shot.

The Co-Main event sees the Welterweight Title on the line as Forrest Ortiz faces Mikio Okita. Okita is a dangerous ground fighter but he will need to take Ortiz down to have any chance here. I don�t see it happening and I think this will be a repeat of their last match up.

Nonstop Entertainment Incorporated - Heatseekers 6

NEI are a midlevel org in London, they get a mention here though due to their focus on the entertainment side of the game. The owner encourages managers to interact with each other. This has lead to a very busy smacktalk thread. Heatseekers 6 will no doubt generate a whole lot of beef on the forums as it sees 10 exciting match ups take place. The main event see Allan Nelson take on David Giljotin. Giljotin is a BJJ blackbelt who�ll be looking to take Nelson down. Nelson has the advantage striking but I�m not convinced it will be enough. Whatever the outcome here I�m sure we�ll the build up on the forums will make this a must watch event.

Special Feature

Previously I�ve brought you profiles of several Orgs and also fighters. This time round it�s an interview with Stu Baboon, owner of Heroic Warrior Championship, one of London�s up and coming orgs. Obviously he is incredibly busy putting together HWC�s upcoming cards but I managed to grab him for a few quick words.

Bricktop: You're relatively new to the game but you're jumping in with both feet. What made you decide to run an org rather than one of the other businesses?

Stu Baboon: I decided to run an org after being employed as a preview writer which i really enjoyed, after spending a couple of weeks doing so i guess i got caught up in the world of MMA Tycoon and decided i wanted to experience running an org and instead of buying one with fighters already signed I just thought what the heck, I�ll start from scratch, and now here I am.

B: And have you sought advice from any, more established managers?
SB: I have approached by other managers who offered advice after seeing I had opened an org, the most established I guess is David Stewart from Bloodsport.

B: I notice that a lot of HWC�s signings have been relatively high ID fighters. Is that a direction you see yourself going in?
SB: HWC is not an id restricted org, however I did try arranging a 185lb tourney which was ID restricted, I believe in having an open org and making all match-ups as fair as possible.

B: HWC are off to a good start, you've held several events so far and have several more planned. The 135 lb and 185 lb divisions in particular are looking good. Was that a deliberate strategy, or just the way the signings have panned out?
SB: At first I did plan to have all weights but as Aaron Jason and I started recruiting we recruited just a few weights and have stuck to these since, I am planning on extending in the future to all weights but that is way in the future.

B: And you have a 185 lb tournament planned for March, will that be used to crown HWC's first champion or do you intend to keep the tournament and belts seperate?
SB: This was a Tourney just for 185lbs with prizes such as $100000 or a vip, there was no belt involved and these will be separate, i actually have an event coming up just for title fights and co main fights, it will be very exciting and this is when the champions will be crowned, after this i intend to hold titles nights every few weeks so more fighters get the chance to go for a title fight.

B: Obviously it's early days but are there any particular fighters signed up you think we should keep an eye on?
SB: I believe Gary Glamour and Aaron Jason are defiantly fighters to keep an eye on, they are both very strong.

B: And what are your hopes for HWC in the future?
SB: My aim for HWC is to be the peoples org and try my best to accommodate most managers needs, I also hope to be able to get into the Biggest arena eventually, I�m not too interested in the money but obviously I need a certain amount to pay the wages, its more the challenge I enjoy.

B: Well thanks very much for your time and all the best, we�ll definitely be keeping an eye on HWC in the future.
Well that brings another edition of London�s Brawling to a close. There is so much going on in London there is no way I can cover it all. However if you have an Org, Event or Fighter you would like to bring to my attention just drop me a line.
Brick
Invidious Combat

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