[JonInMiddleGA]

January 31, 2003

So ends another month without a CSA card, although we're pretty happy with the XCC attendance. Our CSA losses were about $114k without a gate to generate revenue while WEFF lost $7,300 for the month, XCC lost $55,319, not insubstantial but somewhat tolerable for feeder promotions.

We aren't the only people who lose money at times, SIGMA is reportedly on the verge of being taken over by their creditors & are over a half million dollars in the red but it's understandable as between us, A-1, and GAMMA their roster has been picked over repeatedly.

Naturally no show did not mean we just sat around on our hands.

January saw the official exits of two fighters on the roster: FW Zhao "Ka" Pow (11-11, 0-3) who goes with our best wishes in his future endeavors & MW Bill "The Marine" Brown (8-2, 6-1) who chose to sign an exclusive with GAMMA instead of staying with us. That's twice now, as he left at the end of 2000 to go to Alpha-1 for a 1-1 cup of coffee. At some point I'm liable to start thinking it's personal instead of business.

During the month we extended the contracts of LW Lazaro Campos (6-0), MW Patrick Thomas (11-11), HW Brady Crawford (10-8), MW Genki Shinashi (10-6), WO Natalie Rogers (8-8), WO Tara O'Brien (10-3), and WEFF announcer Jimmy Stonor.

And as you've probably come to expect by now, we added some new names to the roster
-- 27 y/o LHW Ryuji "Shogun" Ganaha (0-0), a promising MMA-influenced wrestler from Sakai, Japan. He was actually on the Gamma roster for the past year but saw no action. We should be able to give him some work in XCC.
-- 26 y/o LW Min-Soo Sik (5-1), a Kifo Mokonko fighter from Jeongseon, South Korea. He's the reigning Omega LW champion after beating Francisco Jiminez in December.
-- 26 y/o MW Osmosis Benn (11-3), a wrestler from Albuquerque, New Mexico. He'll come to us riding a 5 fight winning streak in Gamma where he's spent his entire major professional career. Notable that he's 6-1 lifetime against current members of the CSA roster, including a win over Stuart Strange.
-- 19 y/o LHW "Guts" Gerald Burkman (2-0), a Muay Thai fighter from Naperville, Illinois. He'll come to us after a short stint with Sigma who failed to actually book him during his time there.
-- 25 y/o HW "The Great Bear" Aleksander Ivanov (9-1), a sambo fighter from Moscow. He's the reigning 2-time Sigma HW champion with his only pro career loss coming to Lefter Oktay 13 months ago.
-- 32 y/o LW Lubos "The Experiment" Plasil, a former Russian Combat Sambo instructor from Olomouc in the Czech Republic. He's currently riding a four fight winning streak, mostly in Gamma since last spring.

Elsewhere during January, Mike Watson regained his Gamma LHW Title by beating Shane Gilchrist by UD and Bernard Blue forced Kyuwa Itou to tap out on television to claim the Gamma MW Title. Several of our fighters worked elsewhere in the past month, Joaquim Fontes beat Ralph Kohl in 3:18 for Sigma, Gareth Grundy got knocked out by Frank Sheedy in Omega where Genki Shinashi got a submission win over Hunter Scribbins. Brady Crawford also suffered a KO loss, failing to claim the TOP Heavyweight Title from Khru Dunagjan.