Archive for the ‘British Fighting Championship’ Category
Ultimate Force Extra
Jim Wallhead clocked up another impressive win, but a clue to his success may have been outside the cage. The Rough House guys always turn out in numbers to support their team mates. In attendance at the Donny Dome were: international superstars Hardy and Daley, TV heart throbs Amasinger and Winner, Lee Livingstone, Jim’s management and no doubt plenty of others I didn’t recognise. Fighting is the ultimate individual sport. You’re all alone; but having the backing of a good camp makes a huge difference.
Jason Ball’s shorts bore a British Fighting Championship logo. A reminder of a massive missed opportunity.
Marc Goddard: great ref, but sometimes he lets the fans down. During the Gary Enderby / Chris Fields fight, the eagle eyed Brummie noticed the cage door was unlocked. The action was stopped until the problem was sorted. Of course fighter safety is important and all that but, in these troubled times, wouldn’t we all enjoy the slapstick gold of two blokes leaning on an open door and falling through it.
Neil Fraser was wrongly announced as being from Barnsley, Fortunately, he was able to clear matters up by turning round and pointing out the huge, claret and blue Burnley tattoo on his back to the audience.
Back to team work. Neil Fraser had the Sinclair brothers in his corner. To get the most of their wisdom, he planted Chris Stringer bang in front of them at the start of the second. As the pair urged him on- they were able to point at the exact areas they wanted Fraser to work on. In no other sport do you get your coach literally in your ear while you work.
With hindsight, the main report didn’t give the Fraser / Stringer fight enough praise. Fraser was coming off a string of good wins, including dominant turn against Leeroy Barnes and the way he controlled Stringer was impressive. He wasn’t able to find a way to finish, but that is credit to his opponent. I looked up Chris “Menace 2 Society” Stringer’s record again. He’s got a few Ls but mainly early on and check the names: Grzegorz Tredowski, Samy Schiavo, Augusto Frota and Bendy. There’s coming up the hard way but that’s taking the piss. The more I think about it, the better his win over Fraser was.
Decent numbers turned up at the Dome on Saturday. Down on some previous shows, but still respectable considering the economic meltdown. They got value for money as always.
Danny Mitchel looks to have a rosy future. He got caught up in a leg lock duel early in his title challenge, kept his composure and nicked the win. Danny already brings a sizeable following at the Dome and he looks set for big things if he works hard and keeps his feet on the ground. Then again, he’s only young. He could probably get away with going totally off the rails and waste a couple of years in a haze of drink, drugs and loose women and still have time to come back and have decent career. It would make his autobiography a juicier read as well.
BFC Dream Over
Back in February, at the launch of the British Fighting Championship, I asked one of the organisers: “When is it all going to go wrong?”
It was a joke. Basking in the optimism generated in the UTC, it looked clear that the idea was a winner. A huge step on the road to establishing the sport in this country. The comment did have a deeper edge however. UK MMA has a history of grabbing defeat from the jaws of victory. The scene is populated by many great people who work diligently to keep the sport alive. Unfortunately, there are also a large number of con artists, carpetbaggers and all round tosspots who will stop at nothing in their quest to nick a pound note off out of someone else’s pocket.
The collapse of the BFC is a disaster for UK MMA. All those who tried to make it work deserve credit. Those who actively worked to destroy it deserve nothing but contempt.
Everyone who is involved in the UK MMA scene will suffer as a result of this.
BFC Kick Off
The British Fighting Championship is finally here. After the predictable lies, pull outs and backstabbing that we associate with UK MMA, the BFC is going ahead with a much stronger roster than many would have predicted.
The three first round megacards take place in Nottingham (16 May), Newport (30 May) and Barnsley (26 June). Before that, a tasty aperitif, as two of the brightest youngsters in the UK clash for the honour of a place in the Bantamweight first round proper. James Saville and Dan Korbley have been tipped for big things for a long time. A fight between the two would be a big deal any time. The fact that it is the official kick off of the BFC makes this even more significant.
The winner will get a shot at Steve “Taz” McCombe. A dubious honour: the chance to eat punches from a hard hitting veteran in your second pro fight. On the other hand: it’s the chance to catapult yourself up the rankings by claiming a big scalp. In other words; this is the perfect example of why the BFC is the best idea to come out of UK MMA in ages.
Another reason to be cheerful this week is the debut of the UK M-1 team. Rob Broughton, Tom Blackledge, Matt Thorpe, Simon Phillips and Ian Butlin fly out on Saturday and fight in Japan on Wednesday. hurtbusiness has always been a huge fan of the M-1 Challenge and can’t wait for the UK team to get started.
You will be able to see the fights streamed live on cagewarriors.com next Wednesday morning.
BFC Draw Reaction
For audio interviews with Ian Butlin, Ross Pointon and Ian Dean go to the main site:
Keep up to date with everything British Fighting Championship related at:
British Fighting Championship Draw
Bantamweight 1st Round Match-Ups
James Doolan vs Dan Monroe
Phil Harris vs. Lee Coville
Leigh Remedios vs Paddy Doherty
Steve McCombe vs. James Saville/ Dan Korbely
Neil McLeod vs. Neil Seery
James McGuinness vs. Mark Handley
Mark Chen vs. Gareth Davis
Paul McVeigh vs. Declan Williams
Featherweight 1st Round Match-Ups
Vaughn Harvey vs. Phil Else
Neil Fraser vs. Simon Boulter
David Smyth vs. Pete McGurk
Danny Batten vs. Karsten Lenjoint
Jean Silva vs. Ashleigh Grimshaw
Owen Roddy vs. Micky Young
David Lee vs. Jordan Miller
Aaron Blackwell vs. Jared Ferre
Lightweight 1st Round Match-ups
Paul Sass vs. Tim Radcliffe
Daniel Thomas vs. David Johnson
Harvey Harra vs. Ian Butlin
Jason Ball vs. Jason Young
Abdul Mohmamed vs. Ian Jones
Lee Wieczorek vs. Andrew Fisher
Greg Loughran vs. Leandro Santo
Paul Jenkins vs. Sami Berik
Welterweight 1st Round Match-Ups
Lee Livingstone vs. Emmet McNally
Ross Pointon vs. Cliff Hall
Wayne Murray vs. James Bateman
Lee Doski vs. Jason Kubiak
Che Mills vs. Kurt Warburton
Simon Phillips vs. John Quinn
Lukasz Les vs. Leslee Ojugbana
Jim Wallhead vs. Fabio Taldo
Middleweight 1st Round Match-Ups
John Phillips vs. Lloyd Clarkson
Chris Rice vs. Andrew Punshon/Adan Cole
Matt Thorpe vs. Greg Siwy
Paul Cahoon vs. Jose “Ze” Marcello
Pierre Guillet vs. Eugene Fadario
Denniston Sutherland vs. Lola Bamgbala
Mark Weir vs. Alex Reid
Alex Cook vs. Christian Smith
Light-Heavyweight 1st Round Match-Ups
David Wilson vs. Linton Vassell – Winner will fight Arunas Andriuskevicus
Kenny Dougan vs. Dave Rintal – Winner will fight Tom Blackledge
Ryan White vs. Lanus Jones – Winner will fight Daniel Burzotta
Ryan Robinson vs. Ian Rush – Winner will fight Przemyslaw Mysiala
Heavyweight Quarter Final Match-Ups
Damian Grabowski vs. Rob Broughton
Chris Cooper vs. The winner of the Wayne Buck/Darren Moore
Stav Economou vs. Shawn McKenning
British Fighting Championship Draw
The draw for the British Fighting Championship takes place this Friday.
For full details go here.
I’m not sure what format the draw will take. I’m hoping for some World Cup style spectacular with cherubic kids pulling balls out of ornate glass jars.
As a normally glass half empty kind of guy, I’m quite disturbed about how optimistic I am on the subject of the BFC.
There will be a series of exciting, meaningful fights. The Grand Prix winners will be able to declare themselves the genuine British champs and all the other belts will look just a bit silly (like they always have really). This can only be good for the development of the sport. The best fighting the best.
There are tons of potential fringe benefits: co-operation sowing the seeds for an effective governing body, better purses and conditions and a higher profile for the sport.
All these things are down the road and depend on those involved collaborating effectively. The first test will be the draw.
I’m confident that it will be the first step to a bright future for our sport in this country.
The BFC draw will take place from 12.00 at the Ultimate Training Centre in Brum.
BFC Facebook group
BFC Facebook Event Page – The Draw
2009: Hope and Progress
The always excellent Boxing Monthly gave their 2008 review the ace title:
Another year of stupidity, absurdity and embarrassment.
Boxing aficionados know that, even now, when we fans are enjoying some of the best fights ever, the game is only ever a hop and a step away from the gutter.
Boxing: A great sport full of great honorable people. Also, a business full of con artists, thugs and shysters with complete contempt for the punters.
This is not a let’s knock Boxing rant. The same description could be used to describe MMA in the UK. At a time when everyone is always talking up the sport of the future- there are plenty of people in the scene who are willing to do others down if there’s a pound note in it for them. We’ve got stupidity, absurdity and embarrassment to spare.
This week- there was an announcement that gives real hope for the future of MMA in the UK.
“Following on from many discussions during 2008, an alliance of MMA promoters have come together to help the growth of the sport in the UK and to assist home grown talent to the international stage by creating a unified set of British Belts.
Titled the BFC – British Fighting Championship – the aim of this joint venture is to include established and new promotions across the UK regions to grow their fighter talent in a free and unrestricted market and for all to benefit from the media exposure that one group brand will be able to provide.
Founders of the group include; FX3, Ultimate Force, Ultimate Warrior Challenge, AMMA & Cage Warriors who between them will provide the UK MMA scene with 12 BFC shows in 2009 including an end of year Night of Champions when the 2009 season contenders for the British belts go head to head. The belts will cover 7 male and 2 female categories to be as inclusive as possible and will be worth up to £250,000 in total tournament purses.”
hurtbusiness unreservedly welcomes this news as a major step forward for UK MMA. The only way our sport is going to be successful on a domestic level is through co-operation. With so many of the leading promotions on board- the belts on offer will really mean something. Building towards an end of year championship showdown will generate interest and should benefit everyone involved (great minds think alike).
It could all go tits up and dissolve into a mess.
It could be the most significant event in the development of UK MMA.
2009: A year of hope, unity and progress?
hurtbusiness 