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Once again much has transpired, and for once I have not missed a month of happenings! In terms of events, things have slowed down a little with no TKO event till September, but there is also a new show in Montreal called Apex and they are looking to make some noise out east. Lets get caught up on all things Canadian MMA. Upwards and onwards. -Arnold Lim-
Once again much has transpired, and for once I have not missed a month of happenings! In terms of events, things have slowed down a little with no TKO event till September, but there is also a new show in Montreal called Apex and they are looking to make some noise out east. Lets get caught up on all things Canadian MMA. Upwards and onwards. -Arnold Lim-
TKO
TKO 17 “Revenge” is now just one month away. UFC veterans will clash in the main event with David “The Crow” Loiseau taking on recent UFC veteran Curtis Stout. Loiseau is coming of a big win over Chris Fontaine and Curtis Stout off a loss to Trevor Prangley at UFC 48. Much like the UFC 48 card rematches are the focus of the card and their will be a total of 4 rematches on the card. Patric Cote was scheduled to fight Ricardo Francois in the fifth rematch of the card, but due to his upcoming fight with Marvin Eastman in October he will not be fighting on the TKO card. The card is as follows. Card is subject to change.
Main Card
LW CHAMPIONSHIP (REVENGE): David Goulet vs. Donald Ouimet
SLW CHAMPIONSHIP (REVENGE): Rich Nancoo vs. Mark Hominick
MW CHAMPIONSHIP: Curtis Stout vs. David Loiseau
SLW (REVENGE): Stephane Laliberte vs. Stephane Vigneault
WW SUPERFIGHT: Jason St Louis vs. Jonathan Goulet
LW SUPERFIGHT: Sam Stout vs. Steve Claveau
HW SUPERFIGHT: Bryan McGee vs. Iccho Larenas
SLW SUPERFIGHT: Ryan Diaz vs. Thierry Quenneville
HW CHALLENGE: Jacob Conliffe vs. Martin Tremblay
LW CHAMPIONSHIP: Kultar Gill vs. Fabio Holanda Preliminary Action
SLW CHALLENGE (REVENGE): Sonny Leong vs. Sylvain Cloutier
SLW CHALLENGE : Mark Loft vs. Phillipe Lagace
LW CHALLENGE : John Fraser vs. Sean Ragnitz
HW CHALLENGE: Serge Lafond vs. TKO 18 “Unification” is starting to take shape. The card is unknown at this time but rumors have been circulating that Sven Bean will have several fighters on the card. George St Pierre is unlikely to participate on the card due to his fight with Matt Hughes being less then a month before the card is to take place. The “Unification” event will likely take place in mid to late November. TKO president Stephane Patry promises some HUGE news regarding TKO 18 “Unification” in the coming weeks. Stay tuned for that. Canada’s newest fight promotion
Apex Fighting Championships or “Apex” for short will be holding their inaugural event in Montreal Canada on September 5th. They will debut with a card that features UFC veteran Ivan Menjivar in the main event against 135 pound standout Ryan Ackerman. The fight will be at 145 pounds where Menjivar feels most comfortable and he will be looking to make some noise after his loss to Matt Serra at UFC 48 in Las Vegas. Alex Caporicci, formerly of mmaweekly.com fame as well as a short stint with the TKO organization, is the matchmaker/promoter of the event. He will be taking the reigns of the upstart organization, an event that will be in the same town as the Ultimate Generation Combat (UGC) as well as the established TKO organization. Mr. Caporicci tells us however, that he is not trying to compete with TKO or the UGC and is trying to reach out to other markets. He does however feel that the market is big enough for two organizations, not three. He feels that one of the organizations may end up falling by the wayside but who that is, if anyone, remains to be seen. The card is still being constructed but the tentative lineup is as follows. Main Event
Ivan Menjivar (145) vs. Ryan Ackerman (145) Gerald Strebrendt (155) vs. Santino Defranco (155)
Dennis Hallman (185) vs. Anthony Fryklund (185)
Steve Berger (170) vs. Keith Wisniewski (170)
TBA vs. Ryan Schultz (155)
Fritz Paul (185) vs. Stephan Potvin (185)
Mike Rogers (HW) vs. TBA
TBA vs. Brent Beauparlant (205)
Anthony Rea vs. Tim Mckenzie Epic management back on track
Greg Allen and his MMA management company hit a couple snags in the road but they are now ready to fire on all cylinders. Their website www.epicmma.com will be back up as soon as they resolve a couple of issues. In fact, one of Greg Allen’s heavyweights Ullisses Castro will be fighting in a heavyweight tournament in the MFC organization In Atlantic City. He will be fighting the hard hitting Paul Buentello in the first round of the 8 man tournament, an event that is shaping up to be quite a card. In addition to Paul Buentello, who is the current King of the Cage heavyweight champion, and Ullisses Castro, the card features a strong lineup of up fighters from all over the world including Russia, the USA, and Brazil. The first round of the heavyweight tournament will take place on October 16th 2004. The second round of the tournament goes on December 11th with the finals on Feb 26th 2005. The tournament brackets are as follows. 8 Man heavyweight tournament
Ibragim Magomedov (RED DEVIL, Russia) vs. Travis Wiuff (, MN)
Jeff Monson (ATT, FL) vs. Brian Stromberg (Team Quest, OR)
Ulisses Castro ( Canada) vs. Paul Buentello (Team AKA, CA)
Roman Zentsov (RED DEVIL, Russia) vs. Antoine Joaude (Ruas VT, Brazil) Alt Bout:
Ben Rothwell (MFS, Bettendorf, IA.) v. Jonathan Wiezorek (Valdosta, GA) This is a very tough tournament and consists of 3 UFC veterans as well as the King of the Cage Heavyweight champion. The winner of this tournament could put himself in a great position to have one of the big shows take a very close look at them. Another Epic MMA member Jason Macdonald is the light heavyweight champion of the AFC having defeated Anthony Rea for the belt and is a possibility for the Light heavyweight tournament that will also take place over three events. The match-ups are still up in the air at this point but the first round would take place in the same event as the second round of the Heavyweight tournament mentioned above on Dec 11th. The second round would take place in the same event of the finals of the heavyweight tournament on Feb 26th and the finals on April 30th. All the events are scheduled to take place at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Other names that have been mentioned for the tournament are Fabio Leopaldo of the Renzo Gracie academy, Chael Sonnen of Team Quest, George Delchev, Anthoney Rea, Rikard Anderson, Rich Franklin, Mike Van Arsdale, , and Alexei Veselovzorov but nothing is set in stone at this point. WFF
The first ever WFF Shooto event has come and gone and everything went off without a hitch. The WFF 6 DVD’s were available for sale at the event and they are looking at bringing out more DVD’s of all their events in one form or another in the near future. For the full report of the WFF 7 event that took place on July 23rd including photo’s click HERE…. The WFF event that was scheduled to take place at the Croatian Cultural centre on September 24th will not be taking place in Vancouver due to a scheduling conflict. The WFF is currently hard at work looking at other venues and could move the show to another lacation. Fighters rumored to be on the card regardless of locale are Mike Adams
Bob Shabaga
Justin Bruckman
Dave Sholton
Jamie Varner
Sam Morgan
Chris Fontaine The next event after the WFF 8 event is scheduled to take place on November 19th, again at the Croatian Cultural Centre which is quickly establishing themselves as the home of the WFF. This event will not be moved and will be in Vancouver 100%. MMA Ring Report
In the first installment of the “MMA Ring Report Fighter of the Night Award” The “Sushiboy” was on hand to award the inaugural trophy to the fighter that best displayed, Heart, Sportsmanship and the will to win in his performance in the WFF 7 event. MMA Ring Report is pleased to announce that the award went to Justin Bruckman who coincidently turned 30 on the day of his fight against Chris Ade. In one of the most overwhelming contests of the evening, Bruckman defeated Ade at 26 seconds of the first round. While there were many fighters on the evening that could have won the award, we would like to congratulate Mr. Bruckman who fought his heart out and proved that he embodied the spirit of the award in full. Shut and Fight / Evolution MMA
On Monday July 19th the Matchmaker of the Shut up and Fight organization Jason Darrah went to a meeting regarding the formation of an Athletic commission and got good news and bad news. It looks like the MMA portion of the Shut up and Fight weekend that was originally scheduled to happen on the 17th, 18th, and 19th of September will not happen. They are moving forward however and it looks like they are making some serious headway in the formation of an athletic commission in Vernon, British Columbia, a commission that will sanction their MMA events in the future. He is now in the process of finding a minimum of 9 local doctors that state in writing that they would be interested in sitting in on the commission. The commission would then appoint 3 of the doctors of their choice to sit on the board. Although there won’t by any MMA bouts, the Abu Dhabi Submission grappling tournament’s North American trials are still a go in Vernon. Shut up and Fight will be hosting them and they are expecting some of the greatest grapplers from North America to attend the event and try their hand at the highest level of Submission grappling in the world. The Abu Dhabi North American trials happen on the 18th of September and will most likely take most of the day and be finished on the same day. If it takes longer then expected, the Trials could spill over to the morning of the 19th at the latest. Shut up and Fight will also be holding a submission grappling tournament of their own on the 19th with a cash prize of $1000 dollars for the winner of the absolute division. Mr. Darrah also mentioned that if there is someone serious about forming an athletic commission in their hometown, to contact him as he has finished much of the leg work in his quest to form an athletic commission in Vernon. He is more then willing to share his knowledge with anyone serious in having an athletic commission appointed in their hometown in Canada. The laws in Canada state that ever town must have their own athletic commission to sanction local events. Georges St Pierre to fight Matt Hughes for the UFC Title.
If you haven’t heard already, George St Pierre will be one of only a handful of Canadians that have fought for the title in the UFC. Interestingly enough the last person to do it was also in the Welterweight division against the same fighter, Matt Hughes. St. Pierre signed a multi-fight deal with the UFC, which is doing it’s best to lock up it’s champions and potential champions from here on out so they cannot leave them much like BJ Penn, Murilo Bustamante, and Jens Pulver have. “IF” St. Pierre wins his fight with Matt Hughes, he will be locked up with the UFC and cannot fight for any other organization without their permission. He will not even be able to fight for the TKO/UCC organization that has built his career from the beginning and is based in Montreal where he is quite popular and is managed by the promoter Stephane Patry. Speaking of Mr. Patry, he is hoping to schedule a bus ride to Atlantic City for UFC 50 on October 22nd for fans from Montreal and the local area to see their local hero George St. Pierre fight live. He will be organizing something for as many fans possible to buy a block of tickets and support St. Pierre as he fights for the welterweight championship of the UFC. Mr. Patry is also looking at setting up a training camp for St. Pierre in Gresham Oregan so he can work out and train with former heavyweight and light heavyweight champion Randy Couture. Patrick Cote to fight Marvin Eastman in the UFC
Another Canadian will be making his way to the UFC. Patrick Cote has a tough fight ahead of him taking on the formidable Marvin "The Beastman" Eastman at UFC 50. Pain Peters signs with Aristeia management.
The popular "Pain" Peters has signed with new management. He will now be represented by Ariseteia management which also represents Ivan Menjivar. Gibson Pankration
Mr. Lance Gibson sent us a Press Release
"From Lance Gibson Sr: Formerly no #1 ranked shooto fighter,
UFC, Superbrawl and Abu Dhabi veteran, The manager and Head trainer to the one the strongest teams in North America. Is Happy to announce that Kultar Gill, Ryan Diaz and Todd Gouwenberg have signed a multi fight agreement with TKO. This will enable Canada’s top fighters to stay active fighting in Canada’s top MMa event to date. The TKO president Stephane Patry has also offered Blake Fredrickson Canada’s unsung hero coming off a big win over
Justin Mercado of Egan Inoue club. The winner of the Donald Quimet and Dave Goulet fight, for the championship belt. As well as we will be preparing Cameron Brown’s return to the TKO with many exciting Team Gibson necomers as well. Be prepared for an action pack year from one of Canada’s most successfull fight teams." Team Tompkins
Mark "The Machine" Hominick, Rob "Maximus" Macdonald, Sam "hands of stone" Stout, and Jacob Conliffe have all signed new 4 fight contracts with TKO and will be displaying their talents starting from the TKO 17 show in Sept. Hominick will have one bit of business to attend to before he steps in the ring against Richard Nancoo at TKO 17. He will be fighting in the IFC Sturgis show against Jake "Thunder" Hatten in a Kickboxing match. After that fight is over it is back to MMA training for "The machine", Hominick, Stout and Conliffe are all scheduled to fight on the TKO card and MacDonald could be in action in the next TKO event. Speaking of Macdonald he was on hiatus for a while while he endeavored to become a policeman in Toronto. Now he has done so and is interested in taking himself back into the MMA arena but this time he is looking to try his hand at heavyweight instead of light heavyweight. He has reportedly bulked up to a massive 240 pounds and is gunning for the TKO heavyweight belt. Sam Stout will be fighting at TKO 17 but he is also looking to try his hand at the K-1 tryouts in Las Vegas Nevada. If all goes well he could be a fixture in both MMA and Kickboxing. Rodrigo Munduruca
Rodrigo Munduruca is busy getting Krystof Soszinski ready for his upcoming fight in WFF along with some fights for Lance Cartright and possibley 4 others competing in Bill Mahood and Bruno Saligari’s XFC event in Prince George. Chris Fontaine who is coming off a loss to David Loiseau could also be in action in the upcoming WFF against an unknown American opponent. Upcoming Canadian events August 14th - Abu Dhabi Canadian Trials, Toronto Canada
September 5th – Apex 1 – Montreal Quebec, Pierre Charbonneau
September 18-19th - Abu Dhabi North American Trials. Vernon B.C
September 24th - WFF 8 Location unknown
September 25th - TKO 17 “Revenge” Victoriaville Quebec
October 16th – XFC 3 Prince George Multiplex, Prince George, B.C
October 23rd – “Unfinished Business” Lethbridge, Alberta
November 19th – WFF 9 Vancouver B.C, Croatian Cultural Centre
November – TKO 18 “Unification” So that wraps up the second 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, until then this was “The Sushiboy” with the Canadian Corner. -MMARR-
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