The Canadian MMA Scene is growing at a brisk pace and what better proof is their then attendance. Just a few short weeks ago a small community on Vancouver island with a population of approx 75,000 people drew over 3000 people to an MMA event. The Luminous future of MMA in Canada is apparent in the number of practitioners, fighters, fans, and media representatives that grow day by day. The population of Canada has produced some very highly skilled fighters considering their relatively small population of roughly 30 million people. To top it off, 12 million of Canada’s 30 million live in the province of Ontario, the largest province in Canada, where MMA competitions and events are illegal and un-sanctionable to this day. In comparison to the “MMA powers” of the world, our population is one tenth of the United States with almost 300 million people, less then one quarter of Japan with almost 130 million people, and approx one sixth the size of Brazil with 180 million people. Considering the small population it is quite satisfactory that top fighters such as Carlos Newton, David Loiseau, Denis Kang, Georges St Pierre and so much more are representing Canada on the International scene in a big way. Canada is a growing country and the sport off MMA is only going to mature, with the spirit of growth in mind, welcome to the inaugural edition of the Canadian Corner. -Arnold Lim-

TKO Gets it’s biggest venue ever?
Some interesting developments have taken place within the TKO organization and in a big announcement TKO President Stephane Patry is “Excited and Proud” to announce that TKO 16 “Infernal” will take place in Quebec City, at the Historic Quebec Colisee. The event will take place on the 22th of May and has 6 fights signed to the card as we speak. The popular Colisee has a capacity of well over 15,000 but TKO will configure it to hold approx 9000 people, if you remember, it is the former home of the NHL team the Quebec Nordiques before they moved to Colorado and became the Colorado Avalanche. The next biggest venue that the TKO organization has been to in the past has held a maximum of 6000 people, which they sold out a while back. TKO 16 Infernal should be an exciting show and is promising some big things starting with Quebec City native Patric Cote taking on one the biggest Challenge of his career in Bill Mahood.

TKO News and Notes
There has been a lot of smack talk on the net between “The Butcher” Bill Mahood and Patrick Cote of late, and it looks like Cote will be putting his Canadian Light heavyweight title on the line against the man who defeated Yan Pellerin at the past TKO event. This east meets west Canadian title bout is building up some bad blood and things could get more interesting as the bout draws closer.

That will not be the only title fight on the line as David Loiseau will be returning to consecutive TKO shows, and will be fighting Chris Fontaine of Winnipeg for the Canadian Middleweight crown. If you remember, Fontaine just won the title against Steve “The Lionheart” Vigneault at TKO 15, knocking him out with a knee in impressive fashion. He will have his hands full against Loiseau but it should be an entertaining fight. Losieau is coming off a quick loss to Jeremy Horn so he will be looking for redemption.

The third title fight will have David Goulet defending his belt against Lance Gibson product Kultar Gill. In Goulet’s last bout with Shawn Davidson at TKO 14, he severely hyper-extended one of his arms when he was caught in an armbar that he eventually found his way out of. He is now back and ready to defend his belt against Gill, who is widely considered the best Lightweight in Canada, but he has recently been battling a bad back injury that kept him on the shelf for some time. He is now back and ready to fight for the TKO belt.

Other possibilities for the card include Todd Gouwenberg who recently dispatched of Marc Cambier at TKO 15, Stephan Potvin who lost to Kyle Sandford in at the same event, and Team Extreme member and UFC veteran Anthony Fryklund. Speaking of Kyle Sandford, he injured his knee throwing a kick in the first round of his bout with Stephan Potvin. It looks like that injury may keep him out of action for some time. He is scheduled to undergo surgury on April 2 and it will keep him on the shelf for 4-8 months.

Much ballyhoo will follow Jason MacDonald who will find his way to the province of Quebec and fight Yan Pellerin for his first appearance in the TKO organization. Stephane Vigneault, younger brother of Steve Vigneault will also return against experienced veteran and lance Gibson fighter Ryan “The Lion” Diaz.

Shooto Canada?
The Shooto organization is a possibility in Canada for the first time ever. David Lea and Jason Towns have put together 5 World Freestyle Fighting shows and it appears that Shooto sanctioning their events in Canada is a prospect. This is big news for Canadian fighters and fans, as the fighters could have their fights in the WFF enter the world Shooto ranking system.

Not long after the news hit that David Lea and Jason Towns could bring Shooto to Canada, David Lea left the WFF and will be pursuing a career in radio. Jason Towns will be taking over the reigns of Shooto Canada and has 4 shows tentatively scheduled that could start sometime in May.

The finest MMA gym/facility in Canada?
The Shut up and Fight show has news of their own as they will be opening up a brand new top of the line Mixed Martial Arts Academy in Vernon British Columbia. The facility dubbed the “Evolution Mixed Martial Arts Academy” will be a completely brand new state of the art training facility that may even have an altitude chamber. The 6000 square foot facility will have a 4000 square foot training area, 40 x 40 foot wrestling mats, a 20 x 20 ring, a corner that is perched up like three sides of a caged Octagon, full shower, free weights, polar heart rate monitors and more. They will host bi monthly seminars, and have a tentative May 1st opening date for the facility as well as the opening of their website www.evolutionmma.com . The facility can even house events and the local amateur boxing club will also be holding events out of the facility every three months. A chat with Shut up and Fight matchmaker Jason Darrah also revealled that they are starting up their own MMA management company that will grow a stable of fighters to eventually fight on the international stage. The gym will feature

Derek Tisdale
Len Smith
Gary Armburst
Lee Mein
Jesse Bongfeld
Jason Day
Justin Tabernini

On May 22 a few of those members will be fighting in Guam. Len Smith will face Justin Mercado of Grappling Unlimited and
Justin Tabernini will take on Luis Gonzalez who is a Baha Gracie brown belt.Derek Tisdale Vs Steve Roberto from Grappling Unlimited.

Many high profile fighters will be doing seminars in Vernon as well, tentatilvely scheduled are Chris Brennan in the last week of May, the week after his June appearance in the UFC Matt Hughes will make his appearance, and in September Eddie Bravo. The next Shut up and fight event will be held in Vernon and is tentatively scheduled for September as well and the team is currently hard at work on securing sanctioning in the area. More specific dates will be available in the coming months.

New Canadian MMA Magazine
Showdown magazine has seen it’s first issue come and go and they are gearing up for an even better follow up to their inaugural showing. Their first issue which featured Carlos Newton on the cover has hit the shelves with 10 000 copies coast to coast with nearly one third being subscriptions. They will be Canada’s premier MMA magazine and features the photography of Mike “The Shooters Shooter” McNeil and the hard work of “Showdown” Joe Ferraro, Danny Yen and more. For more information on the magazine you can check out their website http://www.martialvision.net/home/home_page.cfm

Will the “Beast” Return?
The Enter the Beast event came and went and it all turned out to be a good show with a weak main event but the crowd was vibrant and looked to be in the 3000 head range. The event was sold out but at this point it is unclear when Stan Peterec will hold his next event, if he holds another one at all. Although the main event from Enter the Beast was less then spectacular, the overall mood of the fans was positive, so hopefully another event is forthcoming.

New Management team in Canada
There is another new management team in town and although it is yet to be official, well known local film maker Greg Allen has started to build a promising stable of fighters that look to make their mark on the Canadian and International scene in the near future. At this point the fighters that have been mentioned as strong candidates to be on the MMA team are:

Bill “The Butcher” Mahood
Denis Kang
Jason “The Athlete” MacDonald
Kyle Sandford
Kajan Johnson
Chris “Mountain of Mayhem” Peak
Ulysses Castro
Garret Davis
Shane Rice

The MMA management team is yet to be named.

So that raps up the first Canadian Corner and you are up to date on the Canadian front. If you have any Canadian news that you would like to let us know about email the Sushiboy HERE… Many more exciting things are scheduled to happen in the coming months, in and around the sport of MMA around the world. There is no doubt that Canada will surely be in the mix, and until then this was “The Sushiboy” with the Canadian Corner. -MMARR-

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