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We are back with the second edition of the Canadian Corner. Much has transpired since the last edition and we need to get caught up on all things Canadian MMA. With only a few short weeks left before some major events including the World Freestyle Fighting Championships on May 14th and the TKO organization on May 22nd, let us move upwards and onwards. -Arnold Lim-
We are back with the second edition of the Canadian Corner. Much has transpired since the last edition and we need to get caught up on all things Canadian MMA. With only a few short weeks left before some major events including the World Freestyle Fighting Championships on May 14th and the TKO organization on May 22nd, let us move upwards and onwards. -Arnold Lim- TKO 16 and TKO 17 News and Notes
With TKO 16 about 3 weeks away Stephane Patry is already hard at work on the TKO 17 show that will make its way back to their home town of Montreal. The big news is that they will be moving from the familiar confines of the Pierre Charbonneau centre to the Bell centre! The Bell centre is a huge 20,000 seat area that seats the National Hockey League team the Montreal Canadians. We are told they will not use the whole arena but instead cut the arena off and have seating available for approximately 9000 MMA fans. It could possibly be their biggest card to date and will be titled “Unification” in reference to the unification of all the Canadian and World Championship belts in the TKO roster. Every Canadian Belt holder in every division will be defending his belt against the World Title holder of the same division so every title holder will be in action. Possible match-ups for TKO 17 card include: 145 Super Lightweight Championships
Mark “The Machine” Hominick vs. the winner of Wagney Fabiano vs. Tommy Lee. Tommy Lee (No not that Tommy Lee) defeated Hominick at Monte Cox’s Extreme Challenge 51, so if he wins Hominick will be looking for redemption. The Jiu Jitsu expert Fabiano, on the other hand, is back in the TKO fold after a short time away and could be on the fast track to a title clash with Hominick. 155 Lightweight Championships
David Goulet will be facing Donald Ouimet in defense of his Canadian Lightweight belt but the winner will have his hands full against Duane Ludwig who is the current TKO World lightweight champion, if that fight takes place. 170 Welterweight Championships
TKO Canadian Welterweight champion Georges St Pierre, who will fight in the upcoming UFC 48 event against Jason Miller, will be facing a different Jason the next time around. Next time it will be Jason Black, who holds the TKO World welterweight belt which he won at UCC 12 taking the belt from arch rival John Alessio. 185 lbs Middleweight Championships
If Chris Fontaine defeats David Loiseau in his upcoming fight at TKO 16, he could face Jeremy Horn for the unification of the two belts. If Loiseau wins the fight, he may or may not rematch Horn, if he decides to forego the unification, he will be stripped of the title and Horn will face someone else. 205 lbs Light Heavyweight Championships
Rich Franklin who is the number one contender for the vacant World TKO championship belt that was vacated by Jeremy Horn, will face the winner of Bill Mahood vs. Patric Cote, who is currently the Canadian Light Heavyweight Champion. 265 lbs Heavyweight Championships
Todd Gouwenberg who is NOT the Canadian heavyweight champion but the current number one contender, could go for the title against Sean Alvarez who is the current TKO Heavyweight Champion, having defeated Mike Radnov for the title back at UCC 10. The Current TKO 16 card is as follows. David Loiseau vs. Chris Fontaine
Bill Mahood vs. Patrick Cote
Donald Ouimet vs David Goulet
Tommy Lee vs. Wagnney Fabiano
Curtis Brigham vs. Stephane Vigneault
Travis Galbraith vs. Jonathan Goulet
Sam Stout vs. Stephane Dube In Preliminary action Bryan McGee vs. Martin Tremblay
Todd Gouwenberg vs. Iccho Larenas
Shane Rice vs. Phillipe Lagace
Steve Proulk vs. Jeff Davis
Sonny Leong vs. Sylvain Cloutier WFF news
WFF 6 Card is coming together nicely. The WFF will be coming to the Croatian Cultural centre in Vancouver British Columbia and will take place on Friday, May 14th at 3250 Commercial Drive, and the doors open at 7:00. The upcoming WFF 6 Card looks to be as follows. Travis Fulton vs. Ulysses Castro
Antonio Carvalho Vs Bob Shabaga
Shannon Rene Vs Brad Cardinal
Tim Jensen Vs Ben Greer MMA Ring Report Fighter of the Night
In our own news, MMA Ring Report has announced they will be awarding the “MMA Ring Report Fighter of the Night” honor at various events that members of the MMARR staff cover. MMA Ring Report will award it at the Post fight press conference to the fighter that best displays “heart, determination, sportsmanship, and the will to win” in their respective bout. The winner will be chosen by the MMA Ring Report Staff and not the event’s promoter. As an unbiased third party, we will do our best to present the award in an impartial and even handed fashion. As many event promoters manage fighters and or train fighters, we feel that an objective third party organization selecting the winner is the best way to designate the honor. We will be displaying the winner in our site and keep a running log of all the fighters that win the award from here on out. The first two events that we will award the "MMA Ring Report Fighter of the Night" will be WFF 6 on May 14th and TKO 16 on May 22nd. Team Allen Management ?
Greg Allen’s Management team is staying busy as both Chris Peak and Bill Mahood returned from Australia after competing in the Spartan event. Bill Mahood impressed by defeating the always tough hometown hero Chris Haseman in a grueling war that some have called one of the finest fights of the year t date. Another high profile member of his team, Jason MacDonald recently defeated France’s Anthony Rea at the AFC event in Florida and in doing so captured the AFC Light Heavyweight belt. He defeated the stand up ace via submission in the first stanza, and he is now back in Red Deer and training hard for his next challenge. The biggest name Greg Allen’s team is Young Jiu Jitsu standout Denis Kang and he is negotiating a 3 fight deal to fight for the young Spirit MC event. “The Sushiboy” may be accompanying him to South Korea to cover the Spirit MC event and offer coverage and a pre fight and post fight story on the Denis Kang as he makes his way through his adopted homeland of Korea. Mr. Allen is getting ready to officially announce his management company with a press release and launch of a brand new website sometime in mid to late May. UGC
Liv Vallone and the Ultimate Generation Combat, better known as the UGC, will be holding their next event in June on either the 18th or 19th of the month. The venue is still up in the air at this point but they will be moving into a larger venue that seats approximately 3000 people, a big jump from the previous 1500 seat venues they have frequented in the past. They are interested in trying for an American vs. Canadian theme and are hoping for 10 fights in total with 10 Canadians fighting 10 Americans on the card. Rumored to fight on the card are Fritz Paul and Yves Jabouin. In addition to their fast approaching fightcard, they have recently inked a deal to have their shows on Canadian PPV and UGC 6 is scheduled to play sometime in May. More info can be found on the UGC website at www.ugccombat.com Shut up and...Grapple?
The “Shut up and Fight” organization has been hard at work and have a lot on the go in the coming months. On top of thier HUGE MMA facility dubbed " Evolution MMA", Leslie Dickens revealed that he will be holding the Abu Dhabi North American Finals in Vernon in his brand new facility in September 18th. The Canadian trials will be held in London Ontario with the finals in Vernon British Columbia. In September they will be holding a Mixed Martial Arts weekend with a jam packed weekend of fights, grappling and seminars. They will be holding two four man tournaments at two weights, the 155 lb lightweight class and the 185 pound middleweight class. There will again be an American vs. Canadian theme as well as a four women tournament to round out the action! The first rounds will be held on Friday September 17th, with the finals held on Saturday the 18th. They will also be holding a grappling tournament to round things out with cash prizes for the winner on the same weekend. Eddie Bravo will also be hosting a two day seminar in Vernon on Saturday September 18th and Sunday Sept the 19th. The well publicized gym will be open on the 10th of May 2004 with the grand opening later in the month or the first of June. Amazingly Mr. Dickens revealed that they have already received inquires for living in their huge facility before they have even opened the doors and before they have done any advertising for the state of the art MMA facility. Showdown, Showdown, and more Showdown...
The Showdown crew is staying very busy with their next magazine scheduled to be released pending a new deal that Editor Mike McNeil is currently hard at work on. Instead of having the magazine come out every two or three months, they are hoping to have the magazine come out on a regular monthly basis. “Showdown” Joe Ferraro is currently hard at work on numerous projects; aside from his full time job, he is working on having MMA regulated as a sanctioned event in Ontario, a daunting task to say the least. In addition, two of his fighters will be busy in the coming months as Antonio Carvalho, and Justin Bruckman, will be staying active with Carvalho taking on Bob Shabaga in the WFF 6 event on May 14th and Bruckman rumored to be fighting in the near future. So that raps 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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