You wanna fight? (WMMA2 1st dynasty try)

[JonInMiddleGA]

Saturday July 31, 1999

July ends with another losing month (- $11,702), more than $1k worse than last month in fact. Difference was in the prize money, not offset at all by the flat revenue.

In the past 30 days we've added one fighter, talented middleweight rookie Jakuchu "Sai" Abe. He's 20 years old from Tokyo, with a traditional Jiu Jitsu style. As mentioned, Greg Atteveld informed us of his retirement plans and Billy Russell suffered an injury that will keep him out until early 2000.

During the month we negotiated with a couple of fighters in other promotions who had expiring contracts but failed to reach agreement with Samantha Sachs or Cong Dun. Both were simply looking for more money than we were willing to pay right now (Dun wanted nearly double our largest salary, Sachs was close but we couldn't quite close the deal). Both resigned with their respective promotions.

Monthly Highlights from July 1999

GAMMA 46 (4,026 in Florida & 56,306 PPV buys)
Main: Sean Morrison (27-3) beat Peter Bracewell (21-8) by submission at 4:42 of Round 1 to retain the GAMMA Lightweight Title (Good)
Best other: Middleweight Patrick Thomas (11-4) beat Martin De Vries (13-6) by TKO at 4:50 of Round 2 (Great)

SIGMA: Basora vs Mullally (575 in Germany)
Main: Welterweight Mills Mullally (15-4) beat Alberto Basora (15-5) by TKO at 3:01 of Round 2 (Decent)
Best other: Middleweight Faas Smit (36-14) beat George Laurent (37-13) by submission at 6:11 of Round 1 (Great)

WEFF 23 (389 in Quebec)
Main: Jenny DeNeuve (4-0) beat Olivia Sweet (5-1) by TKO at 1:24 of Round 2 to retain the WEFF Women's Lightweight Title (Decent)
Best other: Roz Wareing (7-2) beat Rhonda Britton (9-5) by TKO at 2:57 of Round 1 (Fantastic)

KDM FC 11 (624 in Eastern Asia)
Main: Sukarno (5-0) beat Rayver Anzures (12-13) by Knock Out at 0:26 of Round 2 to retain the KDM FC Lightweight Title (Great)
Best other: Featherweight Ryota Sugimoto (5-0) beat Cong Dun (32-9) by TKO at 3:48 of Round 2 (Fantastic)

XCC: Watson vs Beattie (582 in California)
Main: April Watson (7-0) beat Alison Beattie (7-2) by Split Decision after 5 rounds to retain the XCC Women Title (Decent)
Best other: Samantha Sachs (7-0) beat Hester MacLean (8-3) by submission at 4:59 of Round 1 (Excellent)

-- Along with several dozen resignings, one notable roster change during the month, as heavyweight Gunnar Nilsson signs with GAMMA as his Alpha-1 contract nears expiration. He's currently ranked as the #10 heavyweight fighter in the world, so despite his age (37) and coming off a loss to Leon Banks in his last fight, this is a reasonably big defection as it gives each of the big two four of the top ten fighters in the division.

-- Retirements included veteran women Louise Griffin (6-5-1) and Diana Marr (0-4) and Argentinian old-timer Gustavo Bautista (62-23-9)

[JonInMiddleGA]

Combat Supercell presents CSA 7
Friday August 27th, 1999 in Dahlonega, GA

RESULTS

Light Heavyweight
"Glorious" Joshua Hope(2-0) vs Jordan "Fred" Flintstone (6-15)
We're privately hoping that Hope remains unbeaten
Blurcat says Hope should get the win
Hope wins by unanimous decision after three rounds (30-27x2 & 29-28)
The match was rated as being Average
Flintstone was able to punch almost equally with Hope but superior ground control proved to be the difference.

Lightweights
Dominic "Smash" Ash (6-0) vs "The Earl" Hinton Grey (1-1)
We're privately hoping that Ash wins in convincing fashion
Blurcat says Ash should win via ground & pound
Ash wins by unanimous decision after 3 rounds (29-27 x3)
The match was rated as being Good
Ash struggled through the middle of the bout & was actually in trouble on two occasions before dominating the third round

Middleweights
"The Total Package" Heath Kaladaris (1-0) vs "Mr. Fantastic" Ed Burridge (2-1)
We're privately hoping that Kaladaris stays on track for a showdown with Bill Brown
Blurcat says they can't see any way for Burridge to win
Kaladaris wins by submission at 4:59 of Round 1 (arm triangle)
The match was rated as being Decent
After going through the motions for several minutes, Kaladaris got the arm triangle from the top of half guard & Burridge tapped immediately

Heavyweights
"Silent but Violent" Wilson Franklyn (3-0)vs Stan "The Man" Blackheath (20-9)
We're privately hoping that this is an all out war that elevates Franklyn but doesn't hurt Blackheath much.
Blurcat says Franklyn will win
Franklyn wins by TKO at 0:21 of Round 2
The match was rated as Excellent
Blackheath had Franklyn in trouble early, threatening to punch the younger man right out of the fight. He survived & left nothing to chance in the second round, opening with an impressive flurry that Blackheath was unprepared for.

Main Event:Lightweights
"Scorching" Shuler Eigenberg (11-2) vs "The Colorado Cobra" Ian Linderman (7-2)
We're privately hoping that this is a hell of a fight that keeps Eigenberg & Ash on a collision course
Blurcat says Eigenberg should get a close victory
Eigenberg wins by TKO at 1:57 of Round 2
The match was rated as Decent
Fears that Linderman's training did not go well were well placed, as Eigenberg simply punched away at will throughout the fight.

Attendance: 255 for a gate of $3,825
Show Rating: Fantastic

[JonInMiddleGA]

Monday August 30, 1999

Well, at least nobody got hurt. Aw, it wasn't that bad really.

Attendance was up marginally again, by 14 this time, revenue up a few dollars too. Expenses for the fight grew by even more though, some $800 more paid out in prize money.

The good news is that we got wins from everyone we were hoping would win.
The bad news is that hardly any of the winners looked particularly good in doing so.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Tuesday August 31, 1999

Ouch.

Not only did we have five figure losses for another month, but those losses soared to (- $18,709) with big increases in spending on marketing & administration. Merchandising revenue more than tripled (to just under $9k) but the cost of doing so came with much higher prices in New York. Now we now what our owner has been doing while he was away I guess.

In the past month we've added no new fighters while subtracting one, as Hinton Grey's loss to Dominic Ash was his final fight for us as we chose to simply let his contract expire without renewal. It wasn't for lack of trying though, as we negotiated with more than a half dozen fighters who had expiring contracts with bigger promotions but failed to reach agreement with any of them.

Monthly Highlights from August 1999

Busiest month so far this year I think, with a total of 9 fights in the other major promotions.

GAMMA 47 (5,404 in Nevada & 70,665 PPV buys)
Main: Julio Regueiro (16-01-1) beat Darin Blood (13-3) by submission at 4:51 of Round 3 to retain the GAMMA Welterweight Title (Fantastic)
Best other: Light heavyweight Mike Watson (11-0) beat Mark Cohen (34-8-2) by TKO at 2:59 of Round 1 (Fantastic)

GAMMA Warriors (TV) (1,715 in Hawaii)
Main: Middleweight Adam White(7-1) beat Leonardo da Costa (15-3) by split decision after three rounds (Average)
Best other: Light heavyweight Ken Peters (10-0) beat Glenn Pimm (29-13) by submission at 2:34 of Round 1 (Fantastic)

ALPHA-1: Fezzik vs Mason (5,615 in Kanto & 41,541 PPV buys)
Main: Hassan Fezzik (27-0) beat Steve Mason (6-1) by submission at 4:59 of Round 1 to retain the ALPHA-1 Heavyweight Title (Good)
Best other: Lightweight Go Yamamoto (28-8-2) beat Mikio Inouye (7-4) by TKO at 1:36 of Round 1 (Great)

ALPHA-1 Battle (TV) (1,937 in Kyushu)
Main: Welterweight Claudio Palacios (23-7) beat Ricardo Fernandes (34-6) by submission at 9:21 of Round 1 (Excellent)
Best other: Middleweight Atsushi Nakajima (30-14) beat Juro Fukazawa (12-7) by submission at 4:05 of Round 1 (Great)

SIGMA: Sriyanto vs Yenkini (610 in Germany)
Main: Bambang Sriyanto (24-6-2) beat Casim Yenkini (10-3) by submission at 9:50 of Round 1 to retain the SIGMA Middleweight Title (Good)
Best other: Featherweight Norberto (28-5) beat Colm Dee (13-3) by submission at 2:17 of Round 1 (Fantastic)

KDM FC 12 (572 in Eastern Asia)
Main: Li-Kong Ho (20-0) beat Tan Su (10-7) by submission at 4:42 of Round 1 to retain the KDM FC Featherweight Title (Decent)
Best other: Featherweight Tomohiro Takeuchi (16-4) beat Seigo Tsuda (38-30-2) by TKO at 4:07 of Round 1 (Great)

BCF: Zaco vs Baines (518 in London)
Main: Middleweight Zaco (44-15) beat Rob Baines (27-11) by unanimous decision after 12 rounds (Poor)
Best other: Heavyweight Lenny McFadden (8-0) beat Percy Catcher (9-4) by submission at 3:38 of round 4 (Fantastic)

BCF: Kane vs Carpenter (578 in London)
Main: Middleweight Jim Carpenter (51-9-2) beat Will Kane (15-7) by submission at 4:58 of Round 1 (Good)
Best other: Heavyweight Curt Kitson (21-3) beat Rav Kapur (8-1) by submission at 4:06 of Round 1 (Great)

XCC: Ziskie vs Nunes (532 in California)
Main: Phillip Ziskie (12-0) beat Azor Portela Nunes (22-5) by TKO at 1:29 of Round 1 to retain the XCC Featherweight Title (Great)
Best other: Katherine Williams (3-1) beat Simone King (3-3) by submission at 2:22 of Round 1 (Fantastic)


-- A few upcoming roster moves of note, as Alpha-1 announces they will not resign middleweight Marcelo Oberto (22-17), XCC will not be resigning lightweight Francisco Jimenez (5-2), BCF will not be resigning welterweight Will Kane (15-7).

-- GAMMA adds a new PPV deal with American Option.

-- Retirements included Alpha-1's Atsushi Nakajima (30-14) who leaves with a win over Juro Fukazawa, Alpha-1's Ebizo Fujishima (24-14) who leaves with a loss to Naoki Itoh, KDM FC's Seigo Tsuda (38-30-2) who leaves after his third straight loss this time to Tomohiro Takeuchi, New York fighter 31 y/o Donna Del Agnostini (2-2), and graybeard "Highlander" Cliff McAddam (31-21) formally retires at the age of 47.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Combat Supercell presents CSA 8
Saturday September 25th, 1999 in Albany, GA

RESULTS

Light Heavyweight
Marlon "The Punisher" John (2-0) vs "The Green Machine" Rupert Dreck (4-1)
We're privately hoping that The Punisher rolls on
Blurcat says their even on the ground but John is clearly better standing
John wins by unanimous decision after three rounds (29-28x2 & 30-27)
The match was rated as being Good
The first two rounds were split as John inexplicably tried to grapple with Dreck. In the third John found some striking offense as Dreck tired, with a big slam pretty much sealing things.

Lightweights
"Mr. T" Tim Oldacres (1-0) vs Gonzalo "The Gangster" Ramos (1-2)
We're privately hoping that T remains unbeaten against a guy who we share with XCC
Blurcat says Oldacres simply looks too good for Ramos
Oldacres wins by submission (armbar) at 4:38 of Round 1
The match was rated as being Great
All Oldacres, with ground control setting up elbows from mount that cut Ramos below the eye & then a quick armbar for the win.

Welterweights
Evan "The Carpenter" Pizzarro (2-0) vs Zachary "Manitoba Misery" Gilbert (11-8)
We're privately hoping that Pizzarro wins & look ready to move up in weight
Blurcat says Pizzarro has a clear edge in some areas & should win
Pizzarro wins by unanimous decision after 3 rounds (30-27 x3)
The match was rated as being Poor
Gilbert's strikes kept missing, Pizzarro's didn't and he kept it simple in the final round to cruise to a win, much to the displeasure of the crowd

Light Heavyweights
Woody "Buzz Saw" Fierstein (10-3)vs Petey "The Broadstreet Bully" Barnum (21-14)
We're privately hoping that this is good, close, and helps one of them recover momentum after a recent loss
Blurcat says Barnum has to avoid being taken down at all costs
Fierstein wins by submission (Americana) at 4:19 of Round 1
The match was rated as Good
Both came out punching, Fierstein got the first good opening & took advantage of it

Main Event:Middleweights
"The Master" Greg Atteveld (37-15) vs "The Human Takedown Machine" Drew Jenks (7-1)
We're privately hoping that we get a slam bang main event from the retiring Atteveld.
Blurcat says Atteveld's only hope to win is to get the fight on the ground as quickly as possible
Jenks wins by sumbission(rear naked choke) at 3:39 of Round 3
The match was rated as Decent
Atteveld was equal to the task early but managed little offense. Once he ran out of gas it was just a matter of time for Jenks.

Attendance: 566 for a gate of $11,320
Show Rating: Fantastic

[JonInMiddleGA]

Blurcat.com rankings as of October 1, 1999

Promotion Rankings (size, change since July 99, top PFP fighter)
1. Alpha-1 (High Level National, +1, HW Hassan Fezzik)
2. GAMMA (Mid Level National, -1, HW James Foster)
3. SIGMA (High Level Regional, 0, HW Armen Sarkisian)
4. KDM FC (Mid Level Regional, +2, FW Li-Kong Ho)
5. WEFF (Mid Level Regional, 0, BW Jenny DeNeuve)
6. BCF (Mid Level Regional, -2, WW Helio)
7. XCC (Mid Level Regional, 0, FW Phillip Ziskie)
8. CSA (Mid Level Regional, 0, MW Jaromir Grygera)

Pound for Pound (Male)
1(2) Hassan Fezzik (27-0); Alpha-1 Heavyweight Champion since April 1996 beat Steve Mason by submission in August
2(4) Tadamasa Yamada (23-1); Alpha-1 LHW Champion since October 1996 beat #5 Katou by submission in September
3(3) James Foster (35-4-1); Gamma Heavyweight Champion since June 1998 beat Fatuma Roy by TKO in September
4(x) Julio Regueiro (16-0-1); Gamma Welterweight Champion since April 1998 beat Darin Blood by submission in August
5(1) Jin Katou (18-1); Alpha-1; Light Heavyweight lost to #2 Yamada in September
6(7) Matthew Dean (33-5); Gamma; Middleweight beat Stuart Strange by split decision in July
7(5) Neil Napier (16-0); Gamma Middleweight Champion since Nov 1998 last fought in March, next fight not scheduled
8(6) Sean Morrison (27-3); Gamma Lightweight Champion since June 1996 beat Peter Bracewell by submission in July
9(9) Zvonimir Asanovic (16-1); Gamma LHW Champion since January 1998 last fought in May, next fight not scheduled
10(8) Armen Sarkisian (14-0); SIGMA; Heavyweight last fought in March, next fight vs Ari Peltonen in October
Dropped out
X(10). Mike Watson (11-0); Gamma; Light Heavyweight

Heavyweights
1(1) Hassan Fezzik (27-0); Alpha-1 Heavyweight Champion since April 1996
2(2) James Foster (35-4-1); Gamma Heavyweight Champion since June 1998
3(3) Armen Sarkisian (14-0); SIGMA
4(4) Gregor Boniek (35-4); Alpha-1
5(5) Kunimichi Kikuchi (33-5) Alpha-1;
6(6) Raul Hughes (14-2); Gamma
7(7) Terron Cabal (14-0); Sigma Heavyweight Champion since October 1998
8(9) Rick Stanley (24-7-3); Gamma
9(8) Jeff Carlton (33-7); Alpha-1
10(x) Curt Kitson (21-3); BCF was #10 Light Heavyweight last quarter)
Dropped out
X(10) Gunnar Nilsson (43-10); GAMMA (was Alpha-1)

Light Heavyweights
1(2) Tadamasa Yamada (23-1); Alpha-1 LHW Champion since October 1996
2(1) Jin Katou (18-1); Alpha-1; Light Heavyweight
3(3) Zvonimir Asanovic (16-1); Gamma LHW Champion since January 1998
4(4) Mike Watson (11-0); Gamma;
5(5) Roberto Aldez (43-7); Alpha-1
6(7) John Rivero (16-2); Gamma
7(6) Nicolai Mickiewicz (21-4); Sigma
8(8) Leandro Piquet (23-5); Alpha-1
9(9) Anthony LeToussier (14-3); Gamma
10(x) Alex Cole (12-0); BCF
Dropped out
X(10) Curt Kitson (20-3); BCF moved up to Heavyweight

Middleweight
1(2) Matthew Dean (33-5); Gamma
2(1) Neil Napier (16-0); Gamma Middleweight Champion since Nov 1998
3(3) Heiji Endo (15-1); Alpha-1 Middleweight Champion since Nov 1998
4(4) JJ Reid (28-2); Gamma
5(5) Petey Mack (14-2); Alpha-1
6(7) Mac Fuller (30-6); Gamma
7(9) Buddy Garner (16-0); Gamma
8(6) Stuart Strange (12-2); Gamma
9(8) Thorbjorn Redkal (16-1);Sigma Lt Heavyweight Champion since Dec 1997
10(x) Bambang Sriyanto (24-6-2); Sigma Middleweight Champion since Feb '99
Dropped out
x(10) Jaromir Grygera (19-5); Sigma & CSA

Welterweight
1(2) Julio Rugueiro (16-0-1); Gamma Welterweight Champion since April 1998
2(1) Carlos da Guia (15-0); Alpha-1 Welterweight Champion since Nov 1997
3(5) Jack Humphreys (26-4); Gamma
4(3) Ichisake Miyagi (30-9); Alpha-1
5(4) Xie Ming (22-4); Alpha-1
6(x) Josh Aldarisio (5-0); Gamma
7(x) Helio (22-2); BCF Lightweight Champion since Sept 1999 (was #5 LW)
8(7) Gabriel Gallego (16-2); Alpha-1
9(10) Jim Carpenter (51-9-2); Sigma (was Sigma & BCF)
10(x) Giovanni Silva (23-7); Alpha-1 was #10 Lightweight
Dropped Out
x(6) Darin Blood (13-3); Gamma lost to Regueiro in August
x(8) Noach Van Der Capellen (10-3);Sigma Welterweight Champ since July 1998 no fights during this quarter
x(9) Joe Hinchcliffe (28-7); Gamma lost to Aldarisio in September

Lightweight
1(1) Sean Morrison (27-3); Gamma Lightweight Champion since June 1996
2(3) Fiyero Lermontov (10-0); Sigma
3(2) Go Yamamoto (28-8-2); Alpha-1
4(7) Bruce Steven (21-3); Gamma
5(8) Milenko Rudonja (19-4); Sigma
6(6) Luis Basora (23-3-2); Alpha-1 Lightweight Champion since Jan 1998
7(x) Lubos Plasil (8-0); Sigma
8(x) Datuk Ong Ka Ting (7-0); KDM FC
9(4) Fumiaki Hayashi (18-5); Alpha-1
10(x) Beau Gorshin (38-8); Gamma
Dropped out
x(5) Helio (22-2); BCF moved up to Welterweight
x(9) Bud Brockett (19-4); Gamma lost to Luke Hilton in August
x(10) Giovanni Silva (22-7); Alpha-1 moved up to Welterweight

Featherweight
1(2) Li-Kong Ho (20-0); KDM FC Featherweight Champion since June 1998
2(1) Phillip Ziskie (12-0); XCC Featherweight Champion since June 1998 & Sigma
3(3) Lars Bohlin (49-6-1); Sigma Featherweight Champion since Oct 1997
4(4) Tomohiro Takeuchi (16-4); KDMFC
5(6) Norberto (28-5); Sigma
6(x) Kei Maki (6-0); KDM FC
7(9) Rafael Tavares (13-2); KDM FC
8(x) Manish Khan (9-2); Sigma
9(x) Anthony Ray Shenkman (17-3); XCC
10(x) Francesco Marazzina (19-6); Sigma
Dropped out
x(5) Sammy Gaffigan (15-3); XCC lost to #9 Shenkman in September
x(7) Colm Dee (13-3); Sigma lost to #5 Norberto in August
x(8) Benedikt Street (19-6); Sigma lost to Heiko Pander in September
x(10) Cong Dun (32-9); KDM FC lost to Ryota Sugimoto in July

Pound for Pound (female)
1(x) Jenny DeNeuve (5-0); WEFF Lightweight Champion since Apr 1999
2(x) Samantha Sachs (8-0); XCC
3(9) April Watson (7-0); XCC Women's Champion since March 1999
4(4) Haley Croft (12-2); WEFF
5(1) Alisha Wood (6-0); WEFF Heavyweight Champion since Feb 1999
6(2) Mizuki Watanabe (8-0); KDM FC Women's Champion since April 1999
7(3) Vicki Summers (12-1-1); WEFF
8(x) Yuya Shimizu (8-0); KDM FC
9(7) Sayoko Ebisawa (12-1); former KDM FC Women's Champion
10(10) Rachel McGuiness (8-0-1); WEFF
Dropped out
x(5) Alison Beattie (7-2); XCC lost to #3 Watson in July
x(6) Sarah Vaughan (11-3); WEFF lost to #4 Croft in July
x(8) Janinha (8-1); WEFF lost to #1 DeNeuve in September

[JonInMiddleGA]

Thursday September 30, 1999

Good news, bad news I guess.

Good news is that revenue was way up, nearly triple our previous best.
Bad news is that expenses were up too. Bottom line is that we lost another $11,055 for the month, which is much better than the $18k lost in August but right about where we were for the several months prior.

I've been busier than any time since we officially opened, working the phones trying to find some names to beef up the roster. We're actually fairly happy with some of the talent we've put together but the fans are getting a lot more demanding about wanting to see names they know if they're going to come to the shows. With that in mind we've reached agreement with a half dozen new fighters that will be worked into the mix.

-- 34 year old middleweight Jaromir Grygera (19-5), from Teplic, Czech Republic, a wrestler who will start in our light heavyweight division. He mainly works for Sigma but joins us for up to 6 matches as an associate fighter.
-- 30 year old middleweight Vagner (14-5) from Curitiba, Brazil, a kick boxer who really isn't known much outside of his native country. He comes on board for up to 6 matches on a standard contract.
-- 33 year old middleweight Bradley "The Hunter" Dixon (17-9) from from Norfolk County, Ontario, a wrestler who joins us for up to 6 matches on an exclusive basis.
-- 26 year old welterweight Junmal Skinner (6-3), from Houston, Texas, an MMA boxer, who joins us for up to 8 matches on a standard contract.
-- 27 year old welterweight Nik "The Minotaur" Minear (10-2), from Halimand County, Ontario, a grappler who joins us for up to 8 fights on a standard contract.
-- 26 year old lightweight Lucas Mueller (7-1), from Hamburg, Germany, a ground & pounder who will start in our welterweight division for up to 6 matches on a standard contract.

I'm not at all sure any of these guys are actually better than our current average roster member but overall they're better known at the moment so hopefully they'll quell some of the grumbling we've started hearing from the fans about "nobodies" and "no-names". They're a step in that direction at least but we're really discovering how demanding even a small fanbase can be.

Monthly Highlights from September 1999

ALPHA-1: Yamada vs Katou (6,052 in Chubu & 46,368 PPV buys)
Main: Tadamasa Yamada (23-1) beat Jin Katou (18-1) by submission at 9:30 of Round 1 to retain the ALPHA-1 Light Heavyweight Title (Decent)
Best other: Heavyweight Kunimichi Kikuchi (33-5) beat Palmer Lette (20-7) by submission at 9:00 of Round 1 (Fantastic)

GAMMA 48 (6,183 in Alabama & 69,595 PPV buys)
Main: James Foster (35-4-1) beat Fatuma Roy (21-9) by TKO at 1:51 of Round 1 to retain the GAMMA Heavyweight Title (Great)
Best other: Welterweight Josh Aldarisio (5-0) beat Joe Hinchcliffe (28-7) by TKO at 0:35 of Round 2 (Fantastic)

SIGMA: Soldo vs Lim (682 in Germany)
Main: Light heavyweight Hyun-Shik Lim (6-0) beat Niko Soldo (2-1) by TKO at 1:10 of Round 1 to retain the SIGMA Middleweight Title (Great)
Best other: Lightweight Lubos Placil (8-0) beat Jeremy Sproule (4-3) by TKO at 2:10 of Round 1 (Fantastic)

KDM FC 13 (614 in Eastern Asia)
Main: Featherweight Kei Maki (6-0) beat Sugimoto (10-7) by unanimous decision after 3 rounds (Good)
Best other: Women's Openweight Seka Matsu (10-4) beat Chiyo Yanagimoto (9-2) by TKO at 3:07 of Round 3 (Excellent)

WEFF 24 (417 in Quebec)
Main: Jenny DeNeuve (5-0) beat Janinha (8-1) by Knock Out at 1:43 of Round 2 to retain the WEFF Women's Lightweight Title (Excellent)
Best other: Kerry Silverman (9-6) beat Henrietta Stein (8-4) by TKO at 1:14 of Round 1 (Great)

BCF: Sithalayan vs Helio (623 in London)
Main: Helio (22-2) beat Vikram Sithalayan (14-3) by TKO at 2:22 of Round 2 to win the BCF Lightweight Title (Good)
Best other: Middleweight Gordon Idle (10-2) beat Steven Griffin (12-7) by TKO at 3:19 of round 1 (Great)

XCC: Sachs vs Curtis (621 in California)
Main: Samantha Sachs (8-0) beat Karen Curtis (7-3) by submission at 2:20 of Round 1 (Fantastic)
Best other: Featherweight Anthony Ray Shenkman (17-3) beat Sammy Gaffigan (15-3) by TKO at 3:39 of Round 2 (Fantastic)

-- Disappointing news from Sigma as light heavyweight Shane "The Butcher" Gilchrist (17-3) fails a drug test & will serve a one year suspension.

-- #9 welterweight Jim Carpenter leaves BCF to join Sigma full time.

[JonInMiddleGA]

We know what Blurcat thinks about the MMA world overall but what do they think about our roster?

Blurcat.com rankings CSA Roster as of October 1, 1999

Pound for Pound
1(x) Jaromir Grygera (19-5, 0-0); Middleweight
2(1) "Scorching" Shuler Eigenberg (12-2, 2-0); Lightweight
3(x) Vagner (14-5, 0-0); Middleweight
4(x) "Silent but Violent"Wilson Franklyn (4-0, 2-0); Heavyweight
5(7) "The Human Takedown Machine" Drew Jenks (8-1, 2-0); Middleweight
6(3) Joaquim Fontes (11-1, 0-0); Welterweight
7(4) Dominic "The Smash" Ash (7-0, 2-0); Lightweight
8(x) Junmal Skinner (6-3, 0-0); Welterweight
9(6) "The Muscle Mountain" Ernie Bruns (17-11, 0-1); Heavyweight
10(10) Woody "Buzz Saw" Fierstein (11-3, 1-1); Light Heavyweight
Dropped Out
x(2) "The Master" Greg Atteveld (37-16, 0-2); Middleweight; retired
x(5) Stan "The Man" Blackheath (20-9, 0-0); Heavyweight
x(8) "The Big Show" Sylvester Collins (4-0, 1-0); Heavyweight
x(9) "Major Damage" William Harrison (4-0, 1-0); Light Heavyweight

Heavyweights
1(4) Wilson Franklyn (4-0, 2-0);
2(2) Ernie Bruns (18-11, 1-1);
3(3) Sylvester Collins (4-0, 1-0);
4(7) Mason Archer (2-0, 2-0);
5(1) Stan Blackheath (20-10, 0-1);
6(6) Don Norman (22-15, 0-1);
7(5) Frank Analysis (36-21, 0-2);
8(8) Allen LeFleur (1-0, 1-0);
9(9) Murilo Satinho (1-0, 1-0);
10(10) Taye Burnett (0-1, 0-1);

Light Heavyweights
1(x) Jaromir Grygera (19-5, 0-0);
2(2) Woody Fierstein (11-3, 1-1);
3(4) Marlon John (3-0, 2-0);
4(1) William Harrison (4-0, 1-0);
5(7) Spencer Rubenstein (2-0, 2-0);
6(6) Joshua Hope (3-0, 2-0);
7(3) Petey Barnum (21-15, 0-2);
8(5) Adrian Pascal (3-1, 1-1);
9(8) Rupert Dreck (4-2, 0-2);
10(x) Wes Hersch (1-0, 1-0); was #9 middleweight
Dropped out
x(9) Titus Mostel (3-4, 0-1);
x(10) Jordan Flintstone (1-2, 0-2); dropped to middleweight

Middleweights
1(x) Vagner (14-5, 0-0)
2(2) Drew Jenks (8-1, 1-1);
3(x) Bradley "The Hunter" Dixon (17-9, 0-0);
4(3) Bill Brown (2-0, 1-0);
5(5) Heath Kaladaris (2-0, 2-0);
6(4) Kramer Mayweather (3-0, 2-0);
7(6) Francis O'Leary (26-19, 0-1);
8(7) Esteban Vega (2-1, 0-1);
9(9) Ed Burridge (2-2, 0-2);
10(x) Jordan Flintstone (1-2, 0-2); moved down from light heavyweight
un(x) Jakachu Abe (0-0, 0-0); hired in August
Dropped out
x(1) Greg Atteveld (37-16, 0-2); retired
x(8)Wes Hersch (1-0, 1-0); [i]moved up to light heavyweight
x(10) Billy Russell (1-1, 0-1); injured until February 2000

Welterweights
1(1) Joaquim Fontes (11-1, 0-0);
2(x) Junmal Skinner (6-3, 0-0); hired in September
3(4) Evan Pizzarro (3-0, 2-0);
4(x) Nik Minear (10-2, 0-0); hired in September
5(x) Lucas Mueller (7-1, 0-0); hired in September
6(3) Ray Eton (7-2, 0-1);
7(9) Nathan Chambers (2-0, 2-0);
8(2) Zachary Gilbert (11-9, 0-2);
9(5)5. Felix Mattherson, Jr (1-0, 1-0);
10(7) Gideon Navarro (1-0, 1-0);
un(x) Diego Arteta (1-0, 0-0); hired in August
Dropped out
x(6) Brock Youdale (2-1, 1-1);dropped to lightweight
x(8) Kyle Sagal (3-1, 0-1);
x(10) Garrison Grable (6-16, 0-2);
x(un) Randy Carsley (1-1, 1-1); dropped to lightweight

Lightweights
1(1) Shuler Eigenberg (12-2, 2-0);
2(2) Dominic Ash (7-0, 2-0);
3(5) Tim Oldacres (2-0, 2-0);
4(3) Ian Linderman (7-3, 0-2);
5(4) Doug Minnelli (1-0, 1-0);
6(6) Sinali Shomen (1-0, 1-0);
7(x) Brock Youdale (2-1, 1-1); was #6 welterweight
8(7) Sammy Newton (2-2, 0-1);
9(x) Randy Carsley (1-1, 1-1); was unranked welterweight
10(9) Rory McEnterry (1-1, 0-1);
Dropped out
x(8) Hinton Grey (1-2, 0-2); not resigned after contract expired
x(10) Gonazalo Ramos (1-3, 0-2);

[JonInMiddleGA]

Monday Oct 4, 1999

So we seem to be at some sort of turning point, with fans wanting more from us but we're not sure how much more we can give them with the current roster. We've been so careful, so methodical, about trying to tailor our fights & our cards in order to build a good foundation but there's a real concern that we may have plateaued. We've added a number of fighters with good reputations in the MMA world but the feedback we're getting from fans is that they aren't all that impressed by some of them. I guess our fans aren't quite the diehards for MMA we thought they were or something. But in the end, without them we're screwed so it's them we've got to please (at least until we can expand the fan base & convince others to get on board).

As the final quarter of our first calendar year approaches, we spent a lot of time going over the roster, trying to find fights that worked for us and for the fans. We avoided the temptation to take a month off during the holidays & decided to stay on our monthly schedule and hope for the best, so we've booked facilities for fights in October, November, and December already. Also, sooner than we anticipated, we're going to crown our first couple of champions.

At CSA 10 in November, Evan "The Carpenter" Pizzarro (3-0) will face "The Black Superman" Nathan Chambers (2-0) for the CSA Welterweight Title, sharing the main event with a non-title light heavyweight bout between Spencer "The Reaper" Rubenstein (2-0) and "Major Damage" William Harrison (4-0).

At CSA 11 in December, we'll close out the year with another championship fight, as "Scorchin' " Shuler Eigenberg (12-2) takes on Dominic "The Smash" Ash (7-0) with the winner becoming the first CSA Lightweight Champion.

Of course, we've just got to get through October first.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Combat Supercell presents CSA 9
Sunday October 31st, 1999 in Brunswick, GA

RESULTS

Middleweight
"The Flying V" Esteban Vega (2-1) vs "Lightning Hands" Francis O'Leary (26-19)
We're privately hoping that O'Leary ends his career with a loss
Blurcat says Vega is too talented for O'Leary
Vega wins by Knock Out (Muay Thai knee to the cheek) at 4:21 of Round 1
The match was rated as being Good
Several minutes of failed takedown attempts by each fighter, then lights out with a single ferocious knee

Middleweights
"The Unbreakable" Gideon Navarro (1-0) vs Wes "The Hurt" Hersch (1-0)
We're privately hoping that we don't regret moving Navarro up in weight
Blurcat says Hersch has the advantage if the fight goes to the mat, which he'll do to win
Hersch wins by unanimous decision after three rounds (29-28 x3)
The match was rated as being Poor
A heck of a first round, with Hersch unable to get past guard, Navarro trying to lock in a choke & Hersch ending that thread with a wicked powerbomb. Round 2 saw Hersch again controlling most of the round as Navarro looked for submission opportunities, while Round 3 had Navarro on the offensive but Hersch able to play enough defense to avoid serious trouble. Fans & critics crapped on the match, I thought it was quite good in its own way.

Heavyweights
"The Big Show" Sylvester Collins (4-0) vs "The Muscle Mountain" Ernie Bruns (17-11)
We're privately hoping that youth will be served
Blurcat says Collins is better in every area, no way Bruns has a chance
Collins wins by TKO at 1:44 of Round 1
The match was rated as being Great
Collins was too big & too aggressive for Bruns to have a chance, just manhandling from the outset

Main Event:Middleweights
Bill "The Marine" Brown (2-0) vs Bradley "The Hunter" Dixon (17-9)
We're privately hoping that we put this card together correctly & that Brown lives up to expectations here
Blurcat says Brown should win easily
Brown wins by sumbission(armbar) at 1:45 of Round 1
The match was rated as Great
Methodical win, takedown, past guard to side control, to mount, to tap out

Attendance: 627 for a gate of $12,540
Show Rating: Excellent

[JonInMiddleGA]

November 1, 1999

How about that, our smallest financial loss in a month to date. Hot damn, we're cooking now I guess. Only lost (-$5,280) in October versus our usual $11k per month loss.

Let's see here, revenue must have been way up somewhere. Gate receipts were better but only about $1,200 gained there. Must have sold some t-shirts, nope, only up $150 over the previous month. Sponsorships must have ... nah, actually down $15 from last month.

Okay, must have been cheaper fighters. Hmm, not really, so how in the heck did we ... oh, wait a minute. We only had four fights on the card this month instead of the usual five.

Sigh. That'll teach me to get excited I guess.

Almost as disheartening was the call from the hospital, as we discover Bradley "The Hunter" Dixon will be out for 6-7 months recovering from a stomach injury suffered in his loss to Bill Brown. Guess that helps explain why Brown had no trouble with him.

We had a mini version of last month's hiring spree again in October, adding four new fighters to the roster although some won't be available for a while as their existing contracts expire.

-- 28 year old welterweight "Mr Awesome" Carl Ratcliffe (16-7), is from right here in Athens, GA. He's a hybrid striker who is suffering through a three match losing streak at GAMMA. Those losses have been in good to great fights though, and we're hoping familiar scenery will help him get back on track. He's a lot better known both nationally & locally than anyone else in the division so we're happy to have him come on board losing streak or not.

-- 32 year old lightweight Anthony "The Black Dog" Shenkman (17-3) from Boston, MA is a wrestler best known for boring wins. But he is known, and is riding a winning streak highlighted by a TKO of Sammy Gaffigan at last month's XCC show. It's an exclusive deal for three fights which kicks in after his current deal expires in a couple of weeks. He won't be available for another couple of months though, as he's recovering from the Gaffigan fight.

-- 23 year old heavyweight Juozas "Anarchy" Skerla (6-0) is from Lithuania, a kickboxer who joins us for up to 8 bouts on an associate basis. He has no name value here yet but should be okay in the middle of the division and was willing to work fairly cheaply if we allowed him to work for other people as well.

-- 28 year old light heavyweight Aleksei "Fists of Death" Chekhov (20-5), from Moscow, Russia, is a kickboxer, who joins us for up to 8 matches on an exclusive basis after going 1-2 for Sigma. He'll need three months to recover from his fight in October, but should be extremely competitive in the division once he gets started here.

Monthly Highlights from October 1999

ALPHA-1: Endo vs Kuroki (9,629 in Tohoku & 76,909 PPV buys)
Main: Heiji Endo (16-1) beat Dokuohtei Kuroki (35-14) by submission at 8:02 of Round 1 to retain the ALPHA-1 Middleweight Title (Average)
Best other: Lightweight Atep of Indonesia (6-1) beat Bunrakuken Abe (11-5) by knock out at 8:22 of Round 1 (Great)

ALPHA-1: Battle (TV) (3,202 in Kinki)
Main: Heavyweight Jeff Carlton (34-7) beat Randall Donnelly (13-7) by TKO at 1:31 of Round 1 (Great)
Best other: Middleweight Petey Mack (15-2) beat Mario de Souza (25-6) by TKO at 3:13 of round 1 (Great)

GAMMA 49 (5,757 in California & 74,848 PPV buys)
Main: Light heavyweight Anthony LeToussier (15-3) beat Lawrence Herringbone (15-5) unanimous decision after three rounds (Good)
Best other: Light heavyweight Ken Peters (11-0) beat Jerry Bogdonovich (6-2) by submission at 2:27 of Round 1 (Fantastic)

SIGMA: Van Der Capellen vs Rossi (540 in Germany)
Main: Noach Van Der Capellen (11-3) beat Carmelo Rossi (8-3) by unanimous decision after five rounds to retain the SIGMA Welterweight Title (Decent)
Best other: Featherweight Phillip Ziskie (13-0) beat Pedro Alves (12-6) by TKO at 1:07 of Round 3 (Average)

KDM FC 14 (891 in Eastern Asia)
Main: Featherweight Tomohiro Takeuchi (17-4) beat Davi Carlos Ramos (34-9) by submission at 3:57 of Round 2 (Great)
Best other: Lightweight Korekiyo Anzai (8-1) beat Fujimaro Hidaka (5-2) by TKO at 3:28 of Round 1 (Fantastic)

XCC: Silva vs Speed (471 in California)
Main: Lightweight Manuel Silva (2-0) beat Marcus Speed (3-2) by TKO at 2:47 of Round 3 (Good)
Best other: Featherweight Azor Portela Nunes (23-5) beat Stefan Champion (6-2) by TKO at 2:04 of Round 1 (Fantastic)

--- Contract renewals in October included Josh Aldarisio by GAMMA, Karen Curtis by XCC, Alex Cole by BCF, Pedro Alves & Ari Peltonen by SIGMA

-- In addition to our own Francis O'Leary retiring after his last fight, 39 y/o Geoff "Die Hard" Cahill (47-26) ends his career with a loss to Callum Henson at 49, 36 y/o "Mr Saturday Night" Phil Verdigree (14-22-1) ends his career with a loss on an independent show, and 44 y/o "Gorgeous" Ralf Puce (23-19) ends his career after several months of inactivity.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Combat Supercell presents CSA 10
Saturday November 27th, 1999 in Dalton, GA

RESULTS
Preliminary Fight
Welterweights
Garrison Grable (6-16) vs Ray "The Enigma" Eton (7-2)
We're privately hoping that Eton breaks his losing streak
Blurcat says Eton is better in every area & should win easily
Eton wins by submission (armbar) at 2:56 of Round 2
The match was rated as being Decent
[i]First round was reversals against the cage by both fighters, second round action was mostly Eton who got past guard easily & sunk in the arm bar.

Heavyweights
Titus "The Titan" Mostel (3-4) vs "Grande Urso" Murilo Satinho (1-0)
We're privately hoping that Mostel doesn't get seriously injured
Blurcat says Satinho is much more talented & Mostel would do well to make this last long at all
Satinho wins by TKO at 0:42 of Round 1
The match was rated as being Great
A couple of cursory punches followed by an easy takedown & it was bombs away for Satinho

Light heavyweights
"The Chunky Monkey" Allen LeFleur (1-0) vs Vagner (14-5)
We're privately hoping that we get a strong competitive fight
Blurcat says LeFleur should be able to end this quickly
LeFleur wins by submission (Americana) at 3:26 of Round 2
The match was rated as being Good
Vagner avoided several takedowns in the first round, only going down just before the bell. His luck ran out in the second.

Heavyweights
Frank Analysis (36-21) vs Don "The Rumble King" Norman (22-15)
We're privately hoping that no one breaks a hip
Blurcat says Norman will win on the ground by preventing Analysis from keeping the fight standing where he has the edge
Norman wins by unanimous decision after three rounds (30-26x2 & 29-27)
The match was rated as being Decent
Norman dominated the first round, spending most of it on top of Analysis pounding away but other than a cut above the eye didn't seem to do much damage. The second round was similar but Norman seemed to be getting punched out & lost a lot of steam. The third had both fighters looking for either the bell or some oxygen.

Co-Main Event: For the CSA Welterweight Title
Evan "The Carpenter" Pizzarro (3-0) vs "Black Superman" Nathan Chambers (2-0)
We're privately hoping that our first ever title fight produces a bang rather than a bust
Blurcat says Pizzarro is much better in a couple of key areas & should win easily
Chambers wins by TKO at 3:23 of Round 4
The match was rated as Good
Chambers showed no offense at all under the latter part of round 3 and Pizzarro appeared to be headed to a relatively easy win. That was before he seemed to slow down in the fourth and Chambers exploded with a sudden barrage of punches after the ref moved the fighters to the middle of the ring from an inactive clinch against the cage. No choice but to save Pizzarro who was caught off guard & stunned badly.

Co-Main Event:Light heavyweights
Spencer "The Reaper" Rubenstein (2-0) vs "Major Damage" William Harrison (4-0)
We're privately hoping that this is a contender for our match of the year
Blurcat says Harrison is totally outgunned & has no chance
Rubenstein wins by unanimous decisionafter three rounds (30-27x3)
The match was rated as Decent
Strange fight & strange judging IMO. Harrison was the aggressor from start to finish, Rubenstein never made an aggressive move the entire fight. Harrison even managed to get a few takedowns on occasions when he fought threw counterpunches. And yet Rubenstein got the win, easily according to the judges. Strange.

Attendance: 604 for a gate of $12,080
Show Rating: Fantastic

[JonInMiddleGA]

December 1, 1999

Well our losses are back to normal I guess, down (-$9,025) for the month, which is actually better than usual since we our largest card of six fights in November.

Evan Pizzarro's loss led to a 3 months medical suspension by the state board.

One new hire during the month we're ready to announce, as well as one upcoming departure.

First the good news:

-- 26 year old welterweight Lloyd "The K.O. Kid" McAllister (13-6), a kickboxer from Newark, NJ. He's been working for GAMMA recently, going just 1-3 but is coming off a win in October. In spite of the losses (or because of them) he's actually one of our best known fighters in the U.S.

And then the bad news, as we learn that Jaromir Grygera won't be fighting for us in the coming year after all as he reaches an exclusive agreement with his current employer SIGMA. He'll be unavailable by the end of the months, weeks before he'll even be ready to fight again. Ah well, stuff happens.

In the weeks to come we'll have to make decisions about three fighters who have only one bout left on their current contracts: Evan Pizzarro, Frank Analysis, and Garrison Grable, all of whom lost in November.

Monthly Highlights from November 1999

ALPHA-1: Fezzik vs Boniek (6,130 in Kanto & 47,471 PPV buys)
Main: Hassan Fezzik (28-0) beat Grzegorz Boniek (35-5) by submission at 2:01 of Round 1 to retain the ALPHA-1 Heavyweight Title (Fantastic)
Best other: Heavyweight Gyokusho Fujimoto (5-0) beat Leon Banks (32-9) by TKO at 1:13 of Round 2 (Great)

GAMMA Warriors (TV) (2,479 in New Jersey)
Main: Neil Napier (17-0) beat Patrick Thomas (11-5) by knockout at 0:28 of round 3 to retain the GAMMA Middleweight Title (Good)
Best other: Light heavyweight John Rivero (17-2) beat Mark Cohen (34-9-2) by TKO at 1:35 of Round 1 (Great)

SIGMA: Rekdal vs Laurent (692 in Germany)
Main: Thorbjorn Rekdal (17-1) beat George Laurent (37-14) by unanimous decision after five rounds to retain the SIGMA Lightweight Title (Good)
Best other: Welterweight Jim Carpenter (52-9-2) beat Kenneth Toadspew (11-4) by TKO at 4:06 of Round 1 (Great)

KDM FC 15 (1,068 in Eastern Asia)
Main: Sukarno (6-0) beat Teeratep Nutnum (9-2) by knock out at 2:48 of Round 2 to retain the KDM FC Lightweight Title (Good)
Best other: Women's Bantamweight Yuya Shimizu (9-0) beat Maja Ukraden (9-5-1) by knock out at 1:32 of Round 2 (Great)

BCF: Rush vs Plumm (520 in London)
Main: Light heavyweight Andrew Rush (15-6) beat Tucker Plumm (15-8) by Knock Out at 1:19 of Round 1 (Great)
Best other: Welterweight Procopio Golias (14-4) beat Doug Hansen (15-5) by submission at 3:19 of Round 5 (Fantastic)

XCC: Bretton vs Cruz (417 in California)
Main: Nicholas Bretton (9-5) beat Hugo Cruz (2-2) by unanimous decision after 5 rounds to retain the XCC Lightweight Title (Good)
Best other: Featherweight Easton Frye (8-1) beat Harvey Ripa (9-5) by TKO at 2:48 of Round 1 (Fantastic)

--- Contract renewals in November included Petey Mack with Alpha-1, Lawrence Herringbone with GAMMA, and Azor Portela Nunes with XCC,

-- Retirements in November included 42 y/o heavyweight "Papa Bear" Solomon Austin (20-15) who won his last fight back in June, 46 y/o heavyweight "The Dark Knight" Theo Powers (16-13) who lost his final fight months ago to Solomon Austin, 42 y/o heavyweight Henrik Berg (19-17) whose active career ended with a loss in June, 40 y/o Koji Hashiranti (12-19) who lost a third straight fight at an indy show in November, and 40 y/o former football player Norbert Vinkus (13-9) who was knocked out in August at Gamma 47

[JonInMiddleGA]

Friday December 17th, 1999

We knew sooner or later somebody would leave & it would screw up our plans but boy is this one a pain in the ass.

Less than ten days before our scheduled Lightweight Title fight between Dominic Ash & Shuler Eigenberg at CSA 11: Season's Beatings, Eigenberg signs an exclusive contract with XCC. Since his remaining two fights with us were on an associate basis, he'll be unavailable to us after 28 days. Damned if I'm going to risk putting a title on him or even on him beating Ash who is still in line for a title fight of his own.

It wasn't for lack of trying either, we actually offered him as much as they paid, he just kept saying they had a better deal on the table. Fuck him then.

So we've had to do some rearranging of not only that card but also moving some fights around on our next couple of cards to accomodate the changes.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Combat Supercell presents CSA 11: Season's Beatings
Sunday December 26th, 1999 in Statesboro, GA

RESULTS
Preliminary Fights
Lightweights
Sinali "Sho Sho" Shomen (1-0) vs "Hollywood Player' Doug Minnelli" (1-0)
We're privately hoping that both youngster look good
Blurcat says if Shomen gets the takedowns he'll win, if he doesn't then he'll lose
Shomen wins by submission (armbar) at 1:16 of Round 2
The match was rated as being Good
After a very very close first round, Shomen shocked Minnelli with a flurry of punches & then pounced

Lightweights
"Sweet Sammy Silk" Sammy Newton (2-2) vs Rory "Maradonna" McEnterry (1-1)
We're privately hoping that one of these guys can find momentum
Blurcat says they have a feeling Newton will win in a contrast of styles
McEnterry wins by TKO at 3:53 of Round 1
The match was rated as being Great
A knockdown followed by another aggressive barrage of punches & it was all over

Main Show
Welterweights
Felix "The Daddy" Mattherson, Jr (1-0) vs Nik "The Minotaur" Minear (10-2
We're privately hoping that Mattherson looks like a contender
Blurcat says Mattherson should win comfortably
Mattherson wins by unanimous decision after 3 rounds (30-27 x3)
The match was rated as being Very Poor
Nearly 15 solid minutes of Mattherson smothering Minear who was stuck in guard, bored the crowd silly

Welterweights
Chad "Easy Z" Zoff (0-0) vs "Scorching" Shuler Eigenberg (12-2)
We're privately hoping that Eigenberg gets KTFO by the rookie
Blurcat says if it goes to the ground Zoff could win, if it stays upright then Eigenberg should win
Eigenberg wins by Knock Out at 0:32 of Round 3
The match was rated as being Excellent
A dominant first round of ground control by Zoff, an even second round, and then one punch & lights out

Co-Main Event: Middleweights
Joaquim Fontes (11-1) vs Kramer "The Predator" Mayweather (3-0)
We're privately hoping that this is a very entertaining war
Blurcat says if Fontes can get to the ground then he'll win easily
Mayweather wins by unanimous decision after three rounds (30-27 x3)
The match was rated as Good
Mayweather stayed right up in Fontes face throughout, luring him into counterstrike after counterstrike. Especially effective with kicks to the leg that hobbled Fontes by the latter stages of the match

Co-Main Event: For the CSA Lightweight Title
"The Black Dog" Anthony Ray Shenkman (17-3) vs Dominic "The Smash" Ash (7-0)
We're privately hoping that this impromptu matchup doesn't turn into a full blown schmoz or snoozefest. Even better if Ash can pull off the upset
Blurcat says Ash better have spent time working on his takedown defense or this could be over before it starts
Ash wins by TKO at 0:44 of Round 1
The match was rated as Great
Ash avoids a straight right and hits a barrage of big punches knocking Shenkman down. Ash dives in & gets ready to unload on Shenkman. Down come the punches! Shenkman has no answer, forcing the referee to end the fight!

Attendance: 608 for a gate of $12,160
Show Rating: Fantastic

[JonInMiddleGA]

December 31, 1999

Nothing like our largest loss in 4 months (-$13,309) to close out the year. Our finances are so shitty that I don't really want to talk about them anymore.

Not too shabby a final card of the year though, Zoff nearly pulled off the upset of the traitorous Eigenberg, Ash was smashing in his title win, Mayweather was superbly tactical in his win over Fontes. Minear on the other hand left us wondering if he had a pulse during the fight.

Last month I mentioned one new hire that we were ready to announce. I'm not sure how many people picked up on that choice of words but now it can be told that we've made a large number of additions to the roster as we began hiring for our new women's division back in November. So far 15 women are under contract with more negotiations still in progress.

-- 25 y/o Allison "Dirty Angel" Beattie (7-3), a kick boxer from Minneapolis, MN
-- 26 y/o "The Queen of Mean" Simone King (3-4), a kick boxer from Oakland, CA
-- 26 y/o "The Wicked Bitch of the West" Honey Due (3-0), an MMA kick boxer from Long Beach, CA
-- 28 y/o Layla "The Slayer" Holmes (4-0), a Brazilian JJ specialist from Sunnydale, CA
-- 25 y/o "Deadly T" Thea Higgins (3-0), a wrestler from Chicago, IL
-- 23 y/o Alyssa "The Viper" Taylor (1-1), a kick boxer from New York, NY
-- 25 y/o Nina "Liberty" Belle (0-0), an all-out striker from Los Angeles, CA
-- 24 y/o "The Flame-Haired Phenom" Tabitha Cameron (0-0), a Muay Thai fighter from New York, NY
-- 23 y/o "Lost Innocence" Leslie Myers (1-0), a kick boxer from Amos, Quebec
-- 23 y/o Daniella Sadorra (0-0), a kick boxer from Saltillo, Mexico
-- 27 y/o Temperance "Bang Bang" McCoy (1-0), a kick boxer from Norfolk Co. Ontario
-- 28 y/o "The Beast from the East" Veronika Sablikov (4-0), a G&P fighter from Prague, CZE
-- 27 y/o "Stunning" Steph Smith (1-0), a Brazilian JJ fighter from Iroquois Falls, Ontario
-- 20 y/o Saya Ikegami (0-0), a hybrdi fighter from Kobe, Japan
-- 20 y/o "Glamorous G" Gianna Russo (1-0), a Brazilian JJ fighter from La Malbaie, Quebec

We weren't inactive on the men's side either, adding 7 fighters
-- 19 y/o welterweight Chad "Easy Z" Zoff (0-1), a hybrid fighter from Minto, Ontario who debuted against Eigenberg & acquitted himself well for a rookie
-- 23 y/o lightweight Elvis "The King" Milssis (4-2), a Filipino Martial Artist from Clarksville, TN
-- 26 y/o middleweight Ashley "The Tiger" Ballard (11-2), a kick boxer from Houston, TX and the younger brother of Linfield Ballard.
-- 36 y/o middleweight "Knockout" Nigel Malley (19-14), a boxer from Baton Rouge,LA
-- 33 y/o welterweight Linton Berry (6-4), a Goju Ryu fighter from Louisville, KY
-- 23 y/o welterweight Rich "Hard Rain" Robinson (2-0), an MMA fighter from Wood Buffalo, Alberta
-- 19 y/o middleweight Julio "The Nightmare" Gutierrez(4-0), a Keysi Method fighter from Culiacan, Mexico

We also resigned Evan Pizzarro to a 7 fight max/4 guaranteed standard contract for 33 months.

Monthly Highlights from December 1999

ALPHA-1: da Guia vs Silva (10,698 in Hokkaido & 81,068 PPV buys)
Main: Carlos da Guia (16-0) beat Giovanni Silva (23-8) by knock out at 1:00 of Round 5 to retain the ALPHA-1 Welterweight Title (Great)
Best other: Light heavyweight Roberto Aldez (44-7) beat Sho Kitabatake (4-1) by knock out at 1:18 of Round 2 (Great)

GAMMA 50: Morrison vs Danare (6,857 in Ohio & 82,926 PPV buys)
Main: Sean Morrison (28-3) beat Benny Danare (9-2) by TKO at 3:51 of Round 1 to retain the GAMMA Lightweight Title (Good)
Best other: Middleweight Maarten De Vries (14-6) beat Ashley Ballard (11-2) by knock out at 2:21 of Round 3 (Excellent)

GAMMA 51: Foster vs Hughes II (6,637 in Texas & 82,320 PPV buys)
Main: Raul Hughes (15-2) beat James Foster (35-5-1) by TKO at 1:44 of round 1 to win the GAMMA Heavyweight Title (Great)
Best other: Light heavyweight Mike Watson (12-0) beat Jerry Bogdonovich (6-3) by TKO at 0:49 of Round 1 (Great)

SIGMA: Bohlin vs Norberto (635 in Germany)
Main: Lars Bohlin (50-6-1) beat Norberto (28-6) by submission at 7:27 of Round 1 to retain the SIGMA Featherweight Title (Good)
Best other: Heavyweight Stratos Papaioannou (27-6) beat Mugur Boc (7-2) by submission at 1:24 of Round 2 (Fantastic)

KDM FC 16: Ueda vs Yip II (690 in Eastern Asia)
Main: Featherweight Gu Ueda (19-10) beat So Yip (10-7) by unanimous decision after 3 rounds. (Average)
Best other: Women's Bantamweight Naora Kikuchi (7-1) beat Hanako Shimizu (9-3) by knock out at 4:58 of Round 3 (Fantastic)

BCF: Jankovic vs Dabrowski (517 in London)
Main: Welterweight Dominykas Jankovic (12-3) beat Piotr Dabrowski (19-7) by unanimous decision after 12 rounds (Poor)
Best other: Welterweight Gordon Idle (11-2) beat Shinji Oiwa (7-8) by TKO at 2:52 of Round 1 (Fantastic)

WEFF 25 (481 in Quebec)
Main: Women's Bantamweight Roz Wareing (8-2) beat Erica Page (10-5) by unanimous decision after 4 rounds (Good)
Best other: Women's Bantamweight Trish Biel (6-0) beat Rhonda Britton (9-6) by submission at 2:02 of Round 1 (Fantastic)

--- Contract renewals in November included featherweight Easton Frye with XCC, featherweight Li-Kong Ho with KDM FC, welterweight Vikram Sithalayan with BCF, and lightweight Bradon Rush joins SIGMA from KDM FC,

-- Retirements in November included 33 y/o heavyweight Nash Harbane (9-17) who last fought in a loss to Gareth Grundy at an indy show in September, 44 y/o Monty Oliver (26-30) who last fought in a loss to Kurt McDonald at an indy show in September, and 33 y/o Paxton Brinkal (4-8) who had lost three straight fights including a unanimous decision to Wayne McKellen at an indy show in December.

[JonInMiddleGA]

January 1, 2000

1999 Year-End Awards from Blurcat.com

Fighter of the Year
Gyokusho "Fujizilla" Fujimoto - ALPHA-1
Heavyweight was 4-0 for 1999 with two knockouts & two unanimous decisions, with wins over Gary Sampson (4/99), Carter Potter (6/99), Harry Milne (9/99), and Leon Banks (12/99)

Female Fighter of the Year
"The Electrifying" Jenny DeNeuve - WEFF
The WEFF Women's Lightweight Champion since April, she was 3-0 for the year with a knockout of Erica Page to win the title, a TKO win over Olivia Sweet in July, and a knockout of Janinha in September.

Rookie of the Year
Josh "TNT" Aldarisio - GAMMA
With a lifetime record of 5-0, the welterweight claimed four of his career wins in 1999 by beating Charles Stiles (3/99), Lloyd McAllister (5/99), Charles Stiles again (6/99), and Joe Hinchcliffe (9/99).

Rise of the Year
Sho Kitabatake - ALPHA-1
The light heavyweight recently had a four fight winning streak snapped at the hands of Roberto Aldez but the rookie still had a fine year as he transitioned from judoka to MMA.

Fall of the Year
Sammy "The Stealth Shark" Gaffigan - XCC
A year he would like to forget, with a TKO loss to Phillip Ziskie in February that started a spiral that included a knock out loss to James Busfield (7/99) and a TKO loss to Anthony Ray Shenkman (9/99).

Promotion of the Year
ALPHA-1
It's good to be the king.

Team of the Year
Strike Force
The brainchild of "Live Wire" Anthony LeToussier is the state of the art in MMA today. The 18 current members include 1999 Female Fighter of the Year Jenny DeNeuve, WEFF Heavyweight champion Alisha Wood, and a number of promising newcomers male & female.

Show of the Year
KDM FC 6: Ho vs Takeuchi (February 1999)
Highlighted by Li-Kong Ho's successful Featherweight Title defense by submission over Tomohiro Takeuchi, the card also featured Cong Dun over Greg Chiang by knockout in 21 seconds, a submission win by Rafael Tavares over Sri Aziz bin Zai, Tan Su's KO of Seigo Tsuda, and Brandon Sugar's submission victory over Anderson Desailly.

Fight of the Year
Tan Su vs Zhao Pau (KDM FC May 1999)
Su got the TKO victory over Pau at 1:15 of Round 2 in an action packed fight that had everyone talking.

Worst Fight of the Year
Kafu Bunya vs Yeijiro Yamamoto (ALPHA-1 February 1999)
Bunya won a unanimous decision after three rounds in this preliminary fight but his defensive style does not make for entertaining viewing to say the least.

Knock Out of the Year
Jin Katou vs Roberto Aldez (ALPHA-1 March 1999)
One big punch at 3:02 of Round 3 was all it took to turn out the lights on "The Sniper".

Submission of the Year
Tadamasa Yamada vs Jin Katou (ALPHA-1 September 1999)
"The Dragon" showed why he's still the Light Heavyweight champion when he forced Katou to tap at 9:30 of Round 1.

Main Event of the Year
Tan Su vs Zhao Pau (KDM FC May 1999)

Upset of the Year
Gyokusho Fujimoto defeats Gary Sampson (ALPHA-1 April 1999)
No one expected the rookie to make such a decisive statement against the veteran, but the win only showcased the great year ahead for Fujimoto.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Blurcat.com rankings as of January 1, 2000

Promotion Rankings (size, change since October 99, top PFP fighter)
1. Alpha-1 (High Level National, 0, HW Hassan Fezzik)
2. GAMMA (High Level National, 0, WW Julio Regueiro)
3. SIGMA (High Level Regional, 0, HW Armen Sarkisian)
4. KDM FC (High Level Regional, 0, FW Li-Kong Ho)
5. BCF (High Level Regional, +1, WW Helio)
6. WEFF (Mid Level Regional, -1, BW Jenny DeNeuve)
7. CSA (Mid Level Regional, +1, MW Ashley Ballard)
8. XCC (Mid Level Regional, -1, FW Phillip Ziskie)

Pound for Pound (Male)
1(1) Hassan Fezzik (28-0); Alpha-1 Heavyweight Champion since April 1996 beat Grzegorz Boniek by submission in November
2(2) Tadamasa Yamada (23-1); Alpha-1 LHW Champion since October 1996 last fought in September, next fight not scheduled
3(4) Julio Regueiro (16-0-1); Gamma Welterweight Champion since April 1998 last fought in August, next fight not scheduled
4(5) Jin Katou (18-1); Alpha-1; Light Heavyweight last fought in September, next fight not scheduled
5(6) Matthew Dean (33-5); Gamma; Middleweight last fought in July, next fight not scheduled
6(7) Neil Napier (17-0); Gamma Middleweight Champion since Nov 1998 beat Patrick Thomas by knockout in November
7(x) Raul Hughes (15-2); Gamma Heavyweight Champion since December 1999 beat James Foster by TKO for the title in December
8(8) Sean Morrison (28-3); Gamma Lightweight Champion since June 1996 beat Benny Danare by TKO in December
9(3) James Foster (35-5-1); former Gamma Heavyweight Champion lost to Raul Hughes by TKO December
10(10) Armen Sarkisian (15-0); SIGMA; Heavyweight beat Ari Peltonen by split decision in October
Dropped Out
x(9) Zvonimir Asanovic (16-1); Gamma LHW Champion since January 1998 last fought in May, next fight not scheduled

Heavyweights
1(1) Hassan Fezzik (28-0); Alpha-1 Heavyweight Champion since April 1996
2(6) Raul Hughes (15-2); Gamma Heavyweight Champion since Dec 1999
3(3) James Foster (35-5-1); Gamma Heavyweight Champion since June 1998
4(3) Armen Sarkisian (15-0); SIGMA
5(5) Kunimichi Kikuchi (33-5) Alpha-1;
6(7) Terron Cabal (14-0); Sigma Heavyweight Champion since October 1998
7(8) Rick Stanley (24-7-3); Gamma
8(9) Jeff Carlton (34-7); Alpha-1
9(4) Gregor Boniek (35-5); Alpha-1 lost to Fezzik in November
10(x) Tony McCall (35-10); Gamma beat Gunnar Nilsson in December
Dropped out
x(10) Curt Kitson (21-3); BCF last fought in August

Light Heavyweights
1(1) Tadamasa Yamada (23-1); Alpha-1 LHW Champion since October 1996
2(2) Jin Katou (18-1); Alpha-1; Light Heavyweight
3(3) Zvonimir Asanovic (16-1); Gamma LHW Champion since January 1998
4(4) Mike Watson (12-0); Gamma;
5(6) John Rivero (17-2); Gamma; beat Mark Cohen by TKO in Nov 99
6(5) Roberto Aldez (44-7); Alpha-1 beat Sho Kitabatake by KO in Dec 99
7(x) Thorbjorn Redkal (17-1);Sigma;beat George Laruent by UD in Nov 99
8(9) Anthony LeToussier (15-3); Gamma;beat L.Herringbone by UD in Nov 99
9(x) Elgar (27-8); Alpha-1; beat Robun Yamazaki by TKO in Nov 99
10(10) Alex Cole (12-0); BCF;
Dropped out
x(7) Nicolai Mickiewicz (21-5); Sigma; lost to Faas Smit by UD in Dec 99
x(8) Leandro Piquet (23-6); Alpha-1; lost to Sho Kitabatake by submission in October 99

Middleweight
1(2) Matthew Dean (33-5); Gamma
2(1) Neil Napier (17-0); Gamma Middleweight Champion since Nov 1998
3(4) JJ Reid (29-2); Gamma beat Mac Fuller in Oct 99
4(8) Stuart Strange (12-2); Gamma beat Buddy Garner in Dec 99
5(5) Heiji Endo (16-1); Alpha-1 Middleweight Champion since Nov 1998
6(5) Petey Mack (15-2); Alpha-1
7(6) Mac Fuller (30-7); Gamma lost to JJ Reid in Oct 99
8(x) Jaromir Grygera (20-5); Sigma beat Hans-Peter Schneider in Nov 99
9(10) Bambang Sriyanto (24-6-2); Sigma Middleweight Champion since Feb '99
10(7) Buddy Garner (16-0); Gamma;lost to Stuart Strange in Dec 99
Dropped out
x(9) Thorbjorn Redkal (16-1);Sigma Lt Heavyweight Champion since Dec 1997
moved back up to Light Heavyweight

Welterweight
1(1) Julio Rugueiro (16-0-1); Gamma Welterweight Champion since April 1998
2(2) Carlos da Guia (16-0); Alpha-1 Welterweight Champion since Nov 1997
3(3) Jack Humphreys (27-4); Gamma
4(5) Xie Ming (23-4); Alpha-1 beat Edison Edmilson in Oct 99
5(4) Ichisake Miyagi (30-9); Alpha-1
6(8) Gabriel Gallego (16-2); Alpha-1 beat Ricardo Fernandes in Dec 99
7(6) Josh Aldarisio (5-0); Gamma
8(7) Helio (22-2); BCF Lightweight Champion since Sept 1999 (was #5 LW)
9(9) Jim Carpenter (52-9-2); Sigma; beat Kenneth Toadspew in Nov 99
10(x) David Allen (18-2); Gamma; beat Simon Vine in Dec 99
Dropped Out
x(10) Giovani Silva (23-8); Alpha-1 lost to Carlos da Guia in Dec 99

Lightweight
1(1) Sean Morrison (28-3); Gamma Lightweight Champion since June 1996
2(2) Fiyero Lermontov (11-0); Sigma
3(3) Go Yamamoto (28-8-2); Alpha-1
4(7) Lubos Plasil (9-0); Sigma beat P.R. Bezerra in Nov 99
5(8) Datuk Ong Ka Ting (8-0); KDM FCbeat Naizen Hamacho in Dec 99
6(4) Bruce Steven (22-3); Gamma beat Beau Gorshin in Oct 99
7(5) Milenko Rudonja (19-4); Sigma
8(6) Luis Basora (23-3-2); Alpha-1 Lightweight Champion since Jan 1998
9(x) Luke Hilton (10-0); Gamma; beat Jackson Gray in Dec 99
10(x) Branco (11-0); Alpha-1; beat Mikio Inouye in Dec 99
Dropped out
x(9) Fumiaki Hayashi (18-5); Alpha-1 last fought & lost in Sept 99
x(10) Beau Gorshin (38-8); Gamma; lost to Bruce Steven in Oct 99

Featherweight
1(2) Li-Kong Ho (20-0); KDM FC Featherweight Champion since June 1998
2(1) Phillip Ziskie (13-0); XCC Featherweight Champion since June 1998 & Sigma
3(3) Lars Bohlin (50-6-1); Sigma Featherweight Champion since Oct 1997
4(4) Tomohiro Takeuchi (17-4); KDMFC
5(6) Norberto (28-6); Sigma lost to Lars Bohlin in Dec 99
6(x) Kei Maki (6-0); KDM FC
7(x) Colm Dee (14-3); Sigma; beat Francesco Marazzina in Nov 99
8(8) Manish Khan (10-2); Sigma & XCC
9(x) Luiz Machado (24-5-2); XCC beat Ivan Bokhour in Oct 99
10(x) Azor Portela Nunes (23-5); XCC beat Stefan Champion in Oct 99
Dropped out
x(7) Rafael Tavares (13-3); KDM FC lost to Ang Dong in Nov 99
x(9) Anthony Ray Shenkman (17-4); CSA (was XCC) lost to Dominic Ash in Dec 99
x(10) Francesco Marazzina (19-7); Sigmalost to Colm Dee in Nov 99

Pound for Pound (female)
1(1) Jenny DeNeuve (5-0); WEFF Lightweight Champion since Apr 1999
2(4) Haley Croft (13-2); WEFF beat Hope Lehane in Dec 99
3(2) Samantha Sachs (8-0); XCC
4(3) April Watson (7-0); XCC Women's Champion since March 1999
5(9) Sayoko Ebisawa (13-1); former KDM FC Women's Champion
6(5) Alisha Wood (6-0); WEFF Heavyweight Champion since Feb 1999
7(8) Yuya Shimizu (9-0); KDM FC beat Maza Ukraden in Nov 99
8(6) Mizuki Watanabe (8-0); KDM FC Women's Champion since April 1999
9(7) Vicki Summers (12-1-1); WEFF
10(10) Rachel McGuiness (8-0-1); WEFF
Dropped out
None

[JonInMiddleGA]

We know what Blurcat thinks about the MMA world overall but what do they think about our roster?

Blurcat.com rankings CSA Roster as of January 1, 2000

Pound for Pound
1(x) Ashley "The Tiger" Ballard (11-2, 0-0); Middleweight
2(7) Dominic "The Smash" Ash (8-0, 3-0); Lightweight Champion since Dec 99
3(x) Aleksei "Fists of Death" Chekov (20-5, 0-0) Light Heavyweight
4(2) "Scorching" Shuler Eigenberg (13-2, 3-0); Lightweight
5(x) "The Big Show" Sylvester Collins (5-0, 2-0); Heavyweight
6(x) "The Black Dog" Anthony Ray Shenkman (17-4, 0-1); Lightweight
7(4) "Silent but Violent"Wilson Franklyn (4-0, 2-0); Heavyweight
8(x) "The Marine" Bill Brown (3-0, 2-0); Middleweight
9(5) "The Human Takedown Machine" Drew Jenks (8-1, 2-0); Middleweight
10(x) "Mr. Awesome" Carl Ratcliffe (16-7, 0-0); Middleweight
Dropped Out
x(1) Jaromir Grygera (19-5, 0-0); Middleweight; left company
x(3) Vagner (14-6, 0-1); Middleweight lost to Allen LeFleur
x(6) Joaquim Fontes (11-2, 0-1); Welterweight lost to Kramer Mayweather
x(8) Junmal Skinner (6-3, 0-0); Welterweight; last fought in Sept
x(9) "The Muscle Mountain" Ernie Bruns (17-12, 0-2); Heavyweight lost to Sylvester Collins in Oct 99
x(10) Woody "Buzz Saw" Fierstein (11-3, 1-1); Light Heavyweight last fought in Sept 99

Heavyweights
1(3) Sylvester Collins (5-0, 2-0);
2(1) Wilson Franklyn (4-0, 2-0);
3(4) Mason Archer (2-0, 2-0);
4(x) Juozas Skerla (6-0, 0-0);
5(5) Stan Blackheath (20-10, 0-1);
6(6) Don Norman (23-15, 1-1);
7(2) Ernie Bruns (17-12, 0-2);
8(9) Murilo Satinho (2-0, 2-0);
9(7) Frank Analysis (36-22, 0-3);
10(x) Titus Mostel (3-5, 0-2);
Dropped out
x(8) Allen LeFleur (1-0, 1-0);moved to light heavyweight
x(10) Taye Burnett (0-1, 0-1); last fought & lost in June 99

Light Heavyweights
1(x) Alexsei Chekov (20-5, 0-0)
2(5) Spencer Rubenstein (3-0, 3-0);
3(x) Vagner (14-6, 0-1);
4(2) Woody Fierstein (11-3, 1-1);
5(x) Allen LeFleur (2-0, 2-0);
6(3) Marlon John (3-0, 2-0);
7(4) William Harrison (4-1, 1-1);
8(6) Joshua Hope (3-0, 2-0);
9(7) Petey Barnum (21-15, 0-2);
10(8) Adrian Pascal (3-1, 1-1);
Dropped out
x(1) Jaromir Grygera (19-5, 0-0); left company
x(9) Rupert Dreck (4-2, 0-2)
x(10) Wes Hersch (2-0, 2-0) moved back to middleweight

Middleweights
1(x) Ashley Ballard (11-2, 0-0)
2(4) Bill Brown (3-0, 2-0);
3(2) Drew Jenks (8-1, 1-1);
4(x) Carl Ratcliffe (16-7, 0-0);
5(6) Kramer Mayweather (4-0, 3-0);
6(x) Joaquim Fontes (11-2, 0-1);
7(x) Lloyd McAllister (13-6, 0-0)
8(3) Bradley "The Hunter" Dixon (17-10, 0-1);
9(5) Heath Kaladaris (2-0, 2-0);
10(x) Nigel Malley (19-14, 0-0);
Dropped out
x(1) Vagner (14-6, 0-1); moved to light heavyweight
x(7) Francis O'Leary (26-20, 0-2);retired
8(7) Esteban Vega (3-1, 1-1);
9(9) Ed Burridge (2-2, 0-2); [i]moved to light heavyweight
10(x) Jordan Flintstone (1-2, 0-2); moved back to light heavyweight

Welterweights
1(2) Junmal Skinner (6-3, 0-0);
2(7) Nathan Chambers (3-0, 3-0); Welterweight Champion since Nov 99
3(9) Felix Mattherson, Jr (2-0, 2-0);
4(5) Lucas Mueller (7-1, 0-0)
5(4) Nik Minear (10-3, 0-1);
6(3) Evan Pizzarro (3-1, 2-1);
7(6) Ray Eton (8-2, 1-1);
8(8) Zachary Gilbert (11-9, 0-2);
9(x) Linton Berry (6-4, 0-0);
10(x) Brock Youdale (2-1, 1-1);
Dropped out
x(1) Joaquim Fontes (11-1, 0-0); moved to middleweight
x(10) Gideon Navarro (1-1, 1-1) lost to Wes Hersch in Oct 99

Lightweights
1(2) Dominic Ash (8-0, 3-0); Lightweight Champion since Dec 99
2(1) Shuler Eigenberg (13-2, 3-0);
3(x) Anthony Ray Shenkman (17-4, 0-1);
4(6) Sinali Shomen (2-0, 2-0)
5(3) Tim Oldacres (2-0, 2-0);
6(4) Ian Linderman (7-3, 0-2);
7(10) Rory McEnterry (2-1, 1-1);
8(5) Doug Minnelli (1-1, 1-1);
9(9) Randy Carsley (1-1, 1-1);
10(8) Sammy Newton (2-3, 0-2);
Dropped out
x(7) Brock Youdale (2-1, 1-1); moved to welterweight

[JonInMiddleGA]

If nobody has any objections, I think I'm going to try to pick up the pace a little. I'm probably going to drop the monthly recaps of the other feds & just let the quarterly reports on the rankings cover any major highlights outside of CSA. Some of the recognizable names are interesting to see what happens but frankly, a lot of them are just a blur & it's a time consuming thing to sit type up the little details, get them formatted right, etc.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Combat Supercell presents CSA 12
Friday January 21st, 2000 in Valdosta, GA

RESULTS
Preliminary Fights
Middleweights
"Knock Out" Nigel Malley (19-14) vs Jakuchu "Sai" Abe (0-0)
We're privately hoping that Abe starts his pro career strong
Blurcat says Abe should win as long as his game plan is sound
Abe wins by TKO at 2:54 of Round 1
The match was rated as being Fantastic
A flurry of jabs, followed by a takedown and then a barrage of crashing elbows ended this one

Women's Openweight
Layla "The Slayer" Holmes (4-0) vs Saya Ikegami (0-0)
We're privately hoping that we get a competitive fight to debut our women's division
Blurcat says Holmes should have too much for the rookie
Holmes wins by submission(rear naked choke) at 4:54 of Round 1
The match was rated as being Great
Ikegami was game & fought back throughout but was eventually overpowered by Holmes

Main Show
Women's Openweight
Alyson "Alley Kat" Arroway (4-0) vs "Glamourous G" Gianna Russo
We're privately hoping that the crowd responds to the women
Blurcat says Arroway can win standing or grounded
Arroway wins by unanimous decision after 3 rounds (30-27 x3)
The match was rated as being Decent
A first round slam by Arroway was the early highlight. The next two rounds were mostly Arroway punching on Russo with the defender reduced to looking for submission attempts that were easily rebuffed

Welterweights
Brock "The Spark Plug" Youdale (2-1) vs Kyle "The Guillotine" Sagal (3-1)
We're privately hoping that both fighters look good after a layoff of six months or more each
Blurcat says they're even standing but Youdale should be able to win on the ground
Sagal wins by unanimous decision after three rounds (30-27 x3)
The match was rated as being Poor
Sagal controlled the first round on the ground, allowing Youdale very little. The rest of the fight was similar with Sagal content to sit on his lead although he did have a rear naked choke locked in as time expired

Welterweights
"Mr Awesome" Carl Ratcliffe (16-7) vs Gonzalo "The Gangsta" Ramos (1-3)
We're privately hoping that Ratcliffe snaps his losing streak in impressive fashion
Blurcat says Ratcliffe should be too much standing or on the ground
Ratcliffe wins by unanimous decision after three rounds (30-26 x3)
A dominant performance by Ratcliffe for most of the fight although Ramos did knock him off his feet with punches in the third round. But even that couldn't prevent an easy win on the scorecards although the inability to finish a clearly outclassed opponent has to be a little disturbing.

Co-Main Event: Light heavyweights
Marlon "The Punisher" John (3-0) vs "Glorious" Joshua Hope (3-0)
We're privately hoping that both fighters look like their unbeaten records
Blurcat says John's ground game will overtake Hope's standup
John wins by unanimous decision after three rounds (29-28 x3)
The match was rated as Average
An early lead on points was enough for John to hold on for a win although a desperate Hope clearly controlled the final five minutes.

Co-Main Event: For the CSA Middleweight Title
"The Marine" Bill Brown (3-0) vs "The Human Takedown Machine" Drew Jenks (8-1)
We're privately hoping that Brown wins in dominanting style
Blurcat says Brown simply looks too good for Jenks
Brown wins by TKO at 2:50 of Round 1
The match was rated as Fantastic
After a couple of minutes of submission attempts, Brown simplified things and open up with a series of punches from the top of half guard

Attendance: 595 for a gate of $11,900
Show Rating: Excellent[/quote]

[JonInMiddleGA]

January 31, 1999

Another year, another dismal financial performance. I think this is officially a trend.

Our worst month on the books in 5 months, losing (-$15,386) with revenue flat & prize money up considerably.

To add to our worries, the contracts of both Bill Brown & Drew Jenks have only one fight left and Brown is now officially the top name on our roster getting plenty of buzz coming off his title win. It may turn out to be a short reign as I don't have a lot of confidence that we'll even be close to able to afford to resign him.

The biggest move of the month was probably the resigning of Dominic Ash, although it cost more than we would have liked. A standard contract of up to 7 matches, 4 guaranteed within 24 months, at a starting rate of $2,750 per.

We beefed up our women's division a little more, adding three fighters, as well as two new lightweight men.

-- 26 y/o Kimie "LoKi" Igarashi (3-0), a bantamweight submission wrestler from Kobe, Japan.
-- 26 y/o Alyson "Alley Kat" Arroway (5-0), a bantamweight hybrid style fighter from French River, Ontario. She debuted in fine fashion at CSA 12.
-- 24 y/o "Hellhound" Mako Takagawa (7-1), a kick boxer from Nagoya, Japan.
-- 24 y/o Lazaro "Riptide" Campos (1-0), an hybrid striker from Recife, Brazil
-- 23 y/o Bosco "Bad Attitude" Curbeam (0-0), a freestyle wrestler from Akron, Ohio.

Around the rest of the business, the biggest news in personnel was the failed drug tests for WEFF star "Yellow Peril" Rachel McGuinness (9-0-1) following her win over Serena Hill at WEFF 26 and heavyweight Fletcher "The Drummer" Merman (8-5) after his win over Rick Stanley at GAMMA 52.

XCC certainly made a splash of their own with more conventional news, signing associate deals with BCF Lightweight Champion Helio (22-2) and SIGMA Featherweight Champion Lars Bohlin (50-6-1) .

[JonInMiddleGA]

Wednesday February 2, 2000

A new promotion has launched in Northern Mexico, OMEGA Fighting Championships.

They're expected to make waves as quickly as possible under owner Lance Decker and and President Dean Guest.

[ArlingtonColt]

Following along and enjoying the read. I used Daniella Sadorra a lot in my federation and she eventually became a star for me.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by ArlingtonColt

Following along and enjoying the read. I used Daniella Sadorra a lot in my federation and she eventually became a star for me.

Thanks, I appreciate the feedback. I wasn't really sure that anyone was able to follow this particularly well, one of the reasons I'm trying to pick up the pace a little, just trying to give this some flow instead of being done in fits & starts because of the drudgery of posting the long form. Hopefully I'll find a happy medium.

[JAG]

Good read Jon. I don't have the game, so this may be a weird Q, but how much farther can you go with these losses month after month?

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by JAG

Good read Jon. I don't have the game, so this may be a weird Q, but how much farther can you go with these losses month after month?

With the initial setting for the wealth of my owner (I can't remember what it's called exactly but that was the gist of it as I recall) ... about another 12 years.

Whatever setting I chose started me with a bankroll of $2.5 million, of which I've lost about $150k so far.

Cheesy? Maybe. But since this was my first ever dynasty with WMMA (I never bought the first one) I felt like I needed room to work if I was going to learn much. I've still played it as frugally as I thought was reasonable & still try to limit the losses as much as possible without handcuffing myself completely, so hopefully that minimizes the wimpiness of having a big cushion.

From what I've gathered from reading the relatively sparse accounts of dynasties on the official forum, once you get to PPV status money stops being much of an issue for anybody so that kind of relieved some of my worries about the finances too.

[JAG]

Makes sense. You don't know what a fair amount to start with is until you start playing and see how it goes.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Combat Supercell presents CSA 13
Saturday February 19th, 2000 in Valdosta, GA

RESULTS
Preliminary Fights
Light heavyweights
"Mr Fantastic" Ed Burridge (2-2) vs Jordan "Fred" Flintstone (1-2)
We're privately hoping that this doesn't suck
Blurcat says Flintstone simply looks too good for Burridge
Flintstone wins by unanimous decision after three rounds (30-27 x3)
The match was rated as being Poor
As bad as we feared, with Flintstone controlling the action throughout but never able to get past half guard to finish things

Women's Openweight
"The Beast From the East" Veronika Sablikova (4-0) vs Daniela Sadorra (0-0)
We're privately hoping that the Czech looks like a monster without killing Sadorra
Blurcat says Sablikova wins if she takes Sadorra to the mat
Sablikova wins by unanimous decisionafter three rounds (29-28 x2 and 30-27)
The match was rated as being Decent
Sablikova was just too big & strong, although Sadorra was certainly game enough.

Main Show
Women's Openweight
"The Wicked Bitch of the West" Honey Due (3-0) vs "Stunning" Steph Smith (1-0)
We're privately hoping that the marketable nickname wins
Blurcat says takedowns for Smith mean a win, a lack of takedowns will mean a loss
Due wins by knock out at 2:32 of Round 1
The match was rated as being Fantastic
Smith probably regrets her decision to press the action as she walked right into more than one punch including the single shot that finished her

Heavyweights
Adrian "The Power" Pascal (3-1) vs Taye Burnett (0-1)
We're privately hoping that Pascal looks at home in the heavier weight class
Blurcat says Pascal is better standing or on the ground & will win
Pascal wins by unanimous decision after three rounds (30-27 x3)
The match was rated as being Very Poor
Pascal spent a lot of time smothering Burnett, whose defense was adequate but his offense was sorely lacking

Lightweights
Randy "Super Snake" Carsley (1-1) vs "The Colorado Cobra" Ian Linderman (7-3)
We're privately hoping that Linderman looks good here
Blurcat says Linderman should pick him apart if he keeps the fight standing but that Carsley can & should win it on the ground
Carsley wins by submission (rear naked choke) at 3:14 of Round 2
The match was rated as being Great
Fairly even early until a slam put Linderman on the defensive. The finish came when Linderman tried to sweep from the bottom of the mount & gave up his back, an easy opening for Carsley to finish things.

Co-Main Event: Heavyweights
"The Merchant of Menace" Mason Archer (2-0) vs Juozas "Anarchy" Skerla (6-0)
We're privately hoping the winner looks like a legit contender for the title in a few months time
Blurcat says Archer will win fairly comfortably
Archer wins by knockout at 1:09 of Round 1
The match was rated as Great
One Muay Thai, one brutal knee to the body, and one knee to the face that turned out the lights completely

Co-Main Event: For the CSA Heavyweight Title
"The Big Show" Sylvester Collins (5-0) vs "Silent But Violent" Wilson Franklyn (4-0)
We're privately hoping that this turns out to be a war that sets up a rematch down the road sometime next year
Blurcat says Collins has an edge on the ground & that's where he should win it
Collins wins by submission(armbar) at 4:41 of Round 1
The match was rated as Fantastic
Franklyn may have had a slight edge after some early standup exchanges but Collins found an opening from side control & suddenly ended matters

Attendance: 704 for a gate of $14,080
Show Rating: Excellent

[JonInMiddleGA]

February 28, 2000

So our biggest crowd to date produces our best revenue month to date & nearly doubled our merchandise revenue. The main event was a good one, Archer did his part in setting up Collins' first title defense later this year, and we're very happy with Honey Due. We still lost (-$9,104) for the month with some serious admin cost increases but it could have been worse

And it just wouldn't be CSA if there wasn't enough bad news to overshadow anything good.

Middleweight champion Bill Brown is in negotiations with ALPHA-1 and we couldn't find any offer that would make him happy so it looks like he's going to be gone without even making a title defense. I'd probably try to put something together on short notice but frankly I don't think there's anybody on our roster who would have more than a 1-in-3 chance of beating him on their best day even if he had the flu. He's just that good and I don't see much reason to give him another win on my nickel while sticking a loss on someone who wants to be here.

During the month we resigned Drew Jenks to a standard contract for 5/2 over the next 20 months. We also picked up Pamela "The Truth" O'Neill (4-1-1) from WEFF, unspectacular but talented bantamweight from Birmingham, England. We took a chance and signed light heavyweight Terry "The Tornado" Catt (4-2) who was 1-2 with GAMMA over the past year, just a 2 match guaranteed contract for 12 months. We took an even bigger chance & picked up lightweight Sammy Gaffigan (15-4) as a reclamation project. He's lost three in a row at XCC but has been entertaining while losing to top guys like Anthony Ray Shenkman & Phillip Ziskie, hopefully we can take advantage of the name value he still has and get him headed back in the right direction.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Combat Supercell presents CSA 14
Sunday March 19th, 2000 in Newnan, GA

RESULTS
Preliminary Fights
Light heavyweights
"The Broadstreet Bully" Petey Barnum (21-15) vs "The Green Machine" Rupert Dreck (4-2)
We're privately hoping that Dreck can turn his fortunes around
Blurcat says Dreck will win since Barnum shouldn't be able to handle him on the ground or standing
Dreck wins by TKO at 3:03 of Round 1
The match was rated as being Great
Takedown to guard, pass to half guard, to mount, to "Oh God ref stop thsi before somebody gets hurt"

Women's Openweight
Pamela "The Truth" O'Neill (4-1-1) vs Temperance "Bang Bang" McCoy (1-0)
We're privately hoping that O'Neill looks as good in live action as she does on paper
Blurcat says O'Neill can overcome McCoy's slight striking edge
O'Neill wins by unanimous decisionafter three rounds (29-28 x3 )
The match was rated as being Good
Surprisingly effective kicks to the legs & body kept McCoy close although slightly behind through the first two rounds. A flurry of punches to open the final round sent O'Neill to the mat but she regained her feet before McCoy could follow up. A second knockdown followed as McCoy got the better of a punching flurry. O'Neill hit a near desperation diving punch leaping over a kick but McCoy recovered enough to pull guard and staved off several submission attempts in the final half of the round.

Main Show
Women's Openweight
Allison "Dirty Angel" Beattie (7-3) vs "The Queen of Mean" Simone King (3-4)
We're privately hoping that these veterans put on a good show
Blurcat says Beattie will win on the ground despite King's striking talent
Beattie wins by unanimous decision after three rounds (29-28 x3)
The match was rated as being Good
More Beattie than King in the first round. Much more King than Beattie in the second, including a high kick to the head that staggered Beattie. King got stunned with a high kick to open the final round & spent most of the rest of the fight hanging on for dear life on the mat.

Welterweights
"Mr. Awesome" Carl Ratcliffe (17-7) vs Kyle "The Guillotine" Sagal (4-1)
We're privately hoping that Ratcliffe makes himself a legit contender
Blurcat says Ratcliffe needs to keep Sagal off of him in order to win
Ratcliffe wins by unanimous decision after three rounds (30-27 x3)
The match was rated as being Average
Ratcliffe was basically a boxer for the entire match & denied Sagal's every effort to take the fight to the mat.

Light heavyweights
Woody "Buzz Saw" Fierstein (11-3) vs Alexsei "Fists of Death" Chekov (20-5)
We're privately hoping that Fierstein can make a fight out of this seeming mismatch
Blurcat says Chekov's striking should keep Fierstein's wrestling at bay
Chekov wins by submission (rear naked choke) at 4:50 of Round 3
The match was rated as being Good
Vicious kicks to the leg had Fierstein hobbling before the first round ended. A single big punch sent Fierstein crashing to the ground in the opening minute of round two. Another knockdown punch early in the third but again Chekov couldn't put him away. Finally with time winding down, Chekov switched tactics for the win.

Co-Main Event: For the CSA Middleweight Title
"The Marine" Bill Brown (4-0) vs "The Flying V" Esteban Vega (3-1)
We're privately hoping that Vega pulls the huge upset of course. He believes he can, nobody else seems to be nearly as confident.
Blurcat says Brown will win but Vega has a chance if he can keep it on the ground
Vega wins by TKO at 2:59 of Round 4
The match was rated as Decent
Vega tried to grapple with Brown but was overpowered in the first round. The second & third rounds saw Vega circling & Brown waiting, throwing the occasional punch to stay comfortably ahead on points. The decisive round saw Vega avoid a straight right and hit a huge counterpunch crumpling Brown to the canvas. Vega seized the moment & pounced on the champion, unloading with everything he had & leaving the referee no choice.

Co-Main Event: For the CSA Lightweight Title
Dominic "The Smash" Ash (8-0) vs "Mr. T" Tim Oldacres (2-0)
We're privately hoping that is the second of two strong title fights tonight
Blurcat says Oldacres advantage on the ground is bigger than Ash's advantage standing, so they expect a title change
Oldacres wins by TKO(armbar) at 0:29 of Round 5
The match was rated as Great
Oldacres leads with kicks, Ash answers with more effective punching. Ash administered a lot of punishment with his second & third round punching. The challenger gained momentum with a strong fourth round, finding some success grappling with the tiring champ. The final round saw Oldacres spring out of the corner with a flurry of punches that caught Ash off guard & eventually defenseless.

Attendance: 1,068 for a gate of $32,040
18,173 PPV Buys for revenue of $72,692
Show Rating: Fantastic

[JonInMiddleGA]

March 31st, 2000

Gee, do you think I'm happy I decided to gamble on a 4 PPV deal with Tiny provider Public Access Select, with coverage in the US and Canada? Finally, a decision that even I can't find a lot to bitch about afterwards.

The staggering part is that 90% of the revenue went to them, that $70k plus is just our 10% cut. Even more astonishing is that if you took away the PPV money, the extra attendance led to higher gate receipts & merchandise sales to such a degree that we would have still turned a profit of about $3700. Instead we finish the month $76, 392 in the black and wiped out the past 7 months worth of losses in one night.

After seeing the financials, it almost made Esteban Vega sticking it to Brown as a lovely parting gift somewhat of a consolation prize for me. But God how I loved it. Okay, it probably wasn't real cool of me to go down to the ring and celebrate with Vega afterwards but sometimes you just can't help but keep it real. And I guess the criticism I got from some quarters for the Degeneration X inspired crotch chop that clearly indicated what Brown could suck might be somewhat deserved. But y'know, I really don't care right now & probably won't care next week either, in the end it'll just be some free publicity.

Let's see here, what else happened this month?
-- We resigned Jordan Flintstone (standard contract, 30 months, $800 per, 8 matches / 3 guaranteed) and Adrian Pascal (std, 27 months, $1,400 per, 6/3).
-- We signed Emi Nagano (1-2) to bring our women's roster to 20 fighters.
-- Bill Brown left CSA to join ALPHA-1. Hope that door in the ass as you left didn't hurt too much.

Elsewhere
-- OMEGA has been signing deals with nearly everyone who could show a pulse, including associate contracts with our own Sylvester Collins & Ashley Ballard.
-- BCF lightweight Thiago Gomes (8-0) failed a drug test & will be suspended for one year
-- "The Italian Strongman" Silvio Scirea (9-12) retired at the age of 39 after losing to Brian Barnes at an indy show. 34 year old Tammy "Bam Bam" Westenra (9-5) also retired after avenging an earlier loss to Lisa Labone at an indy show.
-- A-1 stole 30 y/o HW "Stormin'" Norman Pike (18-5) & 25 y/o Benny "The Jet" Danare (10-2) from GAMMA.
-- WEFF took the best female fighter in the world today, 25 y/o April Watson (8-0) from SCC

[JonInMiddleGA]

Blurcat.com rankings as of January 1, 2000

Promotion Rankings (size, change since October 99, top PFP fighter)
1. Alpha-1 (up to Low Level International, 0, HW Hassan Fezzik)
2. GAMMA (High Level National, 0, LHW Mike Watson)
3. SIGMA (High Level Regional, 0, HW Armen Sarkisian)
4. CSA (up to High Level Regional, +3, MW Ashley Ballard)
5. BCF (High Level Regional, 0, LHW Alex Cole)
6. WEFF (up to High Level Regional, 0, BW April Watson)
7. KDM FC (High Level Regional, -3, LW Datuk Ong Ka Ting)
8. OMEGA (Mid Level Regional, new, LHW Alex Cole)
9. XCC (Mid Level Regional, -1, FW Phillip Ziskie)

Pound for Pound (Male)
1(1) Hassan Fezzik (28-0); Alpha-1 Heavyweight Champion since April 1996 beat Grzegorz Boniek by submission in November
2(x) Mike Watson (13-0); GAMMA LHW Champion since Mar 2000; beat Zvonmir Asonovic for the title at GAMMA 53 in March
3(2) Tadamasa Yamada (24-1); Alpha-1 LHW Champion since October 1996 beat Sharuku Kon in March 2000
4(3) Julio Regueiro (17-0-1); Gamma Welterweight Champion since April 1998 beat Jungo Futagawa at Gamma 52 in Jan 2000
5(4) Jin Katou (19-1); Alpha-1; Light Heavyweight beat Leandro Piquet in Jan 2000
6(5) Matthew Dean (34-5); Gamma; Middleweight beat Osmosis Benn on GAMMA Warriors TV in Jan 00
7(6) Neil Napier (17-0); Gamma Middleweight Champion since Nov 1998 last fought in Nov 99, faces Martin De Vries at Gamma 54 in Apr 00
8(7) Raul Hughes (15-2); Gamma Heavyweight Champion since December 1999 last fought in Dec 99, next opponent not scheduled
9(8) Sean Morrison (28-3); Gamma Lightweight Champion since June 1996 ast fought in Dec 99, next opponent not scheduled
10(9) James Foster (35-5-1); former Gamma Heavyweight Champion last fought in Dec 99, next opponent not scheduled
Dropped Out
x(10) Armen Sarkisian (15-0); SIGMA; Heavyweight last fought in October 99

Heavyweights
1(1) Hassan Fezzik (28-0); Alpha-1 Heavyweight Champion since April 1996
2(2) Raul Hughes (15-2); Gamma Heavyweight Champion since Dec 1999
3(3) James Foster (35-5-1); Gamma Heavyweight Champion since June 1998
4(5) Kunimichi Kikuchi (34-5) Alpha-1; beat Jeff Carlton in Jan 2000)
5(4) Armen Sarkisian (15-0); SIGMA
6(9) Gregor Boniek (36-5); Alpha-1
7(x) Curt Kitson (22-3); BCF beat Stafford Alois in Mar 2000
8(10) Tony McCall (35-10); Gamma
9(x) Lefter Oktay (16-1); SIGMA;
10(x) Gyokusho Fujimoto (6-0); Alpha-1
Dropped out
x(6) Terron Cabal (14-1); former Sigma Heavyweight Champion, lost to Aleksander Ivanovic in March 2000
x(7) Rick Stanley (24-8-3); Gamma [i]lost to Fletcher Merman in Jan 2000
x(8) Jeff Carlton (34-8); Alpha-1 lost to Kikuchi in Jan 2000

Light Heavyweights
1(4) Mike Watson (13-0); Gamma LHW Champion since Mar 2000, beat Zvonmir Asanovic for the title
2(1) Tadamasa Yamada (24-1); Alpha-1 LHW Champion since October 1996
3(2) Jin Katou (19-1); Alpha-1; Light Heavyweight
4(10) Alex Cole (13-0); BCF & OMEGA beat Davis Spyrou in Feb 2000
5(3) Zvonimir Asanovic (16-2); former Gamma LHW Champion lost title to Watson in Mar 2000
6(5) John Rivero (18-2); Gamma;
7(6) Roberto Aldez (44-7); Alpha-1
8(7) Thorbjorn Redkal (17-1);Sigma;
9(8) Anthony LeToussier (15-3); Gamma;
10(9) Elgar (27-8); Alpha-1;
Dropped out
None

Middleweight
1(1) Matthew Dean (34-5); Gamma
2(2) Neil Napier (17-0); Gamma Middleweight Champion since Nov 1998
3(7) Mac Fuller (31-7); Gamma beat to JJ Reid in Mar 00 rematch
4(4) Stuart Strange (13-2); Gamma
5(5) Heiji Endo (16-1); Alpha-1 Middleweight Champion since Nov 1998
6(6) Petey Mack (16-2); Alpha-1
7(3) JJ Reid (29-3); Gamma lost to Mac Fuller in Mar 00 rematch/i]
8(9) Bambang Sriyanto (25-6-2); Sigma Middleweight Champion since Feb '99
9(8) Jaromir Grygera (20-5); Sigma
10(10) Buddy Garner (16-1); Gamma
Dropped out
None

Welterweight
1(1) Julio Rugueiro (17-0-1); Gamma Welterweight Champion since April 1998
2(2) Carlos da Guia (16-0); Alpha-1 Welterweight Champion since Nov 1997
3(4) Xie Ming (24-4); Alpha-1
4(3) Jack Humphreys (27-4); Gamma
5(7) Josh Aldarisio (6-0); Gamma
6(6) Gabriel Gallego (17-2); Alpha-1
7(8) Helio (22-2); BCF Lightweight Champion since Sept 1999
8(x) Kafu Bunya (13-0); Alpha-1
9(x) Claudio Palacios (24-7); Alpha-1 beat Ichisake Miyagi in Jan 2000
10(5) Ichisake Miyagi (30-10); Alpha-1
Dropped Out
x(9) Jim Carpenter (52-10-2); Sigma; lost rematch to Kenneth Toadspew in March 2000
x(10) David Allen (18-2); Gamma;

Lightweight
1(1) Sean Morrison (28-3); Gamma Lightweight Champion since June 1996
2(2) Fiyero Lermontov (11-0); Sigma
3(5) Datuk Ong Ka Ting (9-0); KDM FCbeat Naizen Hamacho for the third time in Feb 2000
4(4) Lubos Plasil (9-0); Sigma
5(6) Bruce Steven (22-3); Gamma
6(x) Fumiaki Hayashi (19-5); Alpha-1 lbeat Go Yamamoto in Jan 2000
7(3) Go Yamamoto (28-9-2); Alpha-1 lost to Fumiaki Hayashi in Jan 00
8(9) Luke Hilton (10-0); Gamma;
9(8) Luis Basora (23-3-2); Alpha-1 Lightweight Champion since Jan 1998
10(10) Branco (11-0); Alpha-1; beat Mikio Inouye in Dec 99
Dropped out
7(5) Milenko Rudonja (19-5); Sigma lost to Jeremy Sproule in Jan 2000

Featherweight
1(21) Li-Kong Ho (21-0); KDM FC Featherweight Champion since June 1998
2(2) Phillip Ziskie (14-0); XCC Featherweight Champion since June 1998 & Sigma
3(3) Lars Bohlin (50-6-1); Sigma Featherweight Champion since Oct 1997 & XCC
4(4) Tomohiro Takeuchi (18-4); KDMFC
5(6) Norberto (28-6); Sigma
6(7) Colm Dee (14-3); Sigma;
7(8) Manish Khan (10-2); Sigma
8(6) Kei Maki (6-1); KDM FC lost to Li-Kong Ho in Jan 2000
9(x) Ryota Sugimoto (7-1); KDM FC beat Kenji Akita in March 2000
10(x) Cong Dun (34-9); KDM FC beat Gu Ueda in Feb 2000
Dropped out
9(x) Luiz Machado (25-6-2); XCC beat Reza Ashfar in Jan 2000 & lost to Phillip Ziskie in March 2000
10(x) Azor Portela Nunes (23-5); XCC

Pound for Pound (female)
1(4) April Watson (8-0); XCC Women's Champion since March 1999 & WEFF; beat Samantha Sachs in Feb 2000
2(1) Jenny DeNeuve (6-0); WEFF Lightweight Champion since Apr 1999
3(5) Sayoko Ebisawa (14-1); former KDM FC Women's Champion
4(7) Yuya Shimizu (10-0); KDM FC
5(6) Alisha Wood (6-0); WEFF Heavyweight Champion since Feb 1999
6(8) Mizuki Watanabe (8-0); KDM FC Women's Champion since April 1999 & XCC
7(x) Sarah Vaughn (13-3); WEFF; beat Vicki Summers in March 2000
8(3) Samantha Sachs (8-1); XCC lost to April Watson in Feb 2000
9(2) Haley Croft (13-3); WEFF lost to Serena Hill in March 2000
10(x) Janinha (10-1); WEFF
Dropped out
x(9) Vicki Summers (12-2-1); WEFF
x(10) Rachel McGuiness (8-1-1); WEFF

[BYU 14]

Good job on the PPV, were you getting close to bankruptcy before you pulled that out?

Bill Brown is always tough to deal with for me to, he always wants 3 - 4 fights deals and has little patience.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by BYU 14

Good job on the PPV, were you getting close to bankruptcy before you pulled that out?

In game reality no, not at all. As I told JAG up the thread a bit, whatever setting I chose at the beginning of the game, I started with $2.5m in the bank so I could have gone on with losses for quite a while but I tried to play as though that wasn't the case.

And I had the uncertainty of not really knowing whether the AI could possibly fire my butt if I kept losing money regardless of whether we were bankrupt or not (heck, I wasn't even sure what was going to happen when the owner's contract expired, I hoped I wouldn't crash or get replaced or whatever when that happened a few game months back).

[JonInMiddleGA]

We know what Blurcat thinks about the MMA world overall but what do they think about our roster?

Blurcat.com rankings CSA Roster as of April 1, 2000

Pound for Pound
1(1) Ashley "The Tiger" Ballard (11-2, 0-0); Middleweight
2(5) "The Big Show" Sylvester Collins (6-0, 3-0); Heavyweight Champ since Feb 00
3(3) Aleksei "Fists of Death" Chekov (21-5, 1-0); Light Heavyweight
4(2) Dominic "The Smash" Ash (8-1, 3-1); former CSA Lightweight Champ
5(x) "The Merchant of Menace" Mason Archer (3-0, 3-0); Heavyweight
6(6) "The Black Dog" Anthony Ray Shenkman (17-4, 0-1); Lightweight
7(10) "Mr. Awesome" Carl Ratcliffe (18-7, 2-0); Middleweight
8(x) Marlon "The Punisher" John (4-0, 3-0); Light Heavyweight
9(x) Sammy "The Stealth Shark" Gaffigan (15-4, 0-0); Lightweight
10(x) Junmal Skinner (6-3, 0-0); Welterweight
Dropped Out
x(4) "Scorching" Shuler Eigenberg (13-2, 3-0); left company
x(7) "Silent but Violent"Wilson Franklyn (4-0, 2-0);lost to Collins
x(8) "The Marine" Bill Brown (3-0, 2-0); left company
x(9) "The Human Takedown Machine" Drew Jenks (8-1, 2-0); lost to Brown

Heavyweights
1(3) Sylvester Collins (6-0, 3-0); CSA Heavyweight Champion since Feb 00
2(3) Mason Archer (3-0, 3-0);
3(2) Wilson Franklyn (4-1, 2-1);
4(5) Stan Blackheath (20-10, 0-1);
5(6) Don Norman (23-15, 1-1);
6(x) William Harrison (4-1, 1-1); was #7 Light HW
7(x) Terry Catt (4-2, 0-0)
8(4) Juozas Skerla (6-1, 0-1);
9(8) Murilo Satinho (2-0, 2-0);
10(x) Adrian Pascal (4-1, 2-1); was #10 Light HW
Dropped out
x(7) Ernie Bruns (17-12, 0-2); dropped to LHW
x(9) Frank Analysis (36-22, 0-3);
x(10) Titus Mostel (3-5, 0-2);dropped to LHW

Light Heavyweights
1(1) Alexsei Chekov (21-5, 1-0)
2(6) Marlon John (4-0, 3-0);
3(2) Spencer Rubenstein (3-0, 3-0);
4(3) Vagner (14-6, 0-1);
5(5) Allen LeFleur (2-0, 2-0);
6(4) Woody Fierstein (11-4, 1-2);
7(x) Ernie Bruns (17-12, 0-2); was #7 HW
8(8) Joshua Hope (3-1, 2-1);
9(x) Rupert Dreck (5-2, 1-2)
10(9) Petey Barnum (21-16, 0-3);
Dropped out
x(7) William Harrison (4-1, 1-1); moved to HW
x(10) Adrian Pascal (3-1, 1-1);moved to HW

Middleweights
1(1) Ashley Ballard (11-2, 0-0)
2(5) Kramer Mayweather (4-0, 3-0);
3(3) Drew Jenks (8-2, 2-1);
4(6) Joaquim Fontes (11-2, 0-1);
5(7) Lloyd McAllister (13-6, 0-0)
6(x) Esteban Vega (4-1, 2-1); CSA Middleweight Champion since Mar 00
7(9) Heath Kaladaris (2-0, 2-0);
8(8) Bradley "The Hunter" Dixon (17-10, 0-1);
9(x) Julio Gutierrez (4-0, 0-0)
10(x) Nik Minear (10-3, 0-1);moved up from WW
Dropped out
x(2) Bill Brown (3-1, 2-1); left company
x(4) Carl Ratcliffe (16-7, 0-0);moved down to WW
x(10) Nigel Malley (19-14, 0-0);

Welterweights
1(x) Carl Ratcliffe (18-7, 2-0); was #4 MW
2(1) Junmal Skinner (6-3, 0-0);
3(2) Nathan Chambers (3-0, 3-0); CSA Welterweight Champion since Nov 99
4(3) Felix Mattherson, Jr (2-0, 2-0);
5(4) Lucas Mueller (7-1, 0-0)
6(6) Evan Pizzarro (3-1, 2-1);
7(8) Zachary Gilbert (11-9, 0-2);
8(9) Linton Berry (6-4, 0-0);
9(x) Kyle Sagal (4-2, 1-2);
10(x) Elvis Milissis (4-2, 0-0)
Dropped out
x(5) Nik Minear (10-3, 0-1); moved up to MW
x(7) Ray Eton (8-2, 1-1);
x(10) Brock Youdale (2-2, 1-2);dropped down to LW

Lightweights
1(2) Dominic Ash (8-1, 3-1); former CSA Lightweight Champion
2(3) Anthony Ray Shenkman (17-4, 0-1);
3(x) Sammy Gaffigan (15-4, 0-0);
4(5) Tim Oldacres (3-0, 3-0); CSA Lightweight Champion since Mar 00
5(4) Sinali Shomen (2-0, 2-0)
6(9) Randy Carsley (2-1, 2-1);
7(5) Ian Linderman (7-4, 0-3);
8(7) Rory McEnterry (2-1, 1-1);
9(8) Doug Minnelli (1-1, 1-1);
10(x) Brock Youdale (2-2, 1-2);
Dropped out
x(2) Shuler Eigenberg (13-2, 3-0); left company
x(10) Sammy Newton (2-3, 0-2);

Women's Openweight
1(x) Allison Beattie (8-3, 1-0);
2(x) Mako Takagawa (7-1, 0-0);
3(x) Alyson Arroway (5-0, 1-0);
4(x) Layla Holmes (5-0, 1-0);
5(x) Honey Due (4-0, 1-0);
6(x) Veronika Sablikova (5-0, 1-0);
7(x) Pamela O'Neill (5-1, 1-0);
8(x) Thea Higgins (3-0, 0-0);
9(x) Kimie Igarashi (3-0, 1-0);
10(x) Alyssa Taylor (1-1, 0-0);

[JonInMiddleGA]

Combat Supercell presents CSA 15
Sunday April 16th, 2000 in Douglass, GA

RESULTS
Preliminary Fights
Women's Openweight
Alyssa "The Viper" Taylor (1-1) vs "The Flame-Haired Phenom" Tabitha Cameron (0-0)
We're privately hoping that Cameron starts her pro career with a win
Blurcat says Cameron will win easily
Cameron wins by Knock Out at 1:03 of Round 2
The match was rated as being Great
The first round was a preview of the finish, as Cameron's strikes were consistent both punching & kicking. The sudden end came with a head kick that turned out Taylor's lights.

Women's Openweight
"Deadly T" Thea Higgins (3-0) vs Emi "The Red Devil" Nagano (1-2)
We're privately hoping that Higgins remains unbeaten
Blurcat says Higgins will win fairly comfortably
Higgins wins by TKOat 2:29 of Round 2
The match was rated as being Good
Nagano frustrated Higgins with good grappling & defense in the first round. In the second, Higgins persisted, finally got past guard & started pounding away.

Main Show
Welterweights
Evan "The Carpenter" Pizzarro (3-1) vs Linton Berry (6-4)
We're privately hoping that Pizzarro dents this can
Blurcat says Pizzarro will dominate
Pizzarro wins by unanimous decision after three rounds (30-27 x3)
The match was rated as being Average
Pizzarro hammered Berry to the canvas as the first round ended. In control throughout, the heavy favorite never found a combination that would let him finish off the much weaker fighter.

Middleweights
Wes "The Hurt" Hersch (2-0) vs "The Total Package" Heath Kaladaris (2-0)
We're privately hoping that this is fight of the night
Blurcat says Kaladaris should have too much for Hersch
Kaladaris wins by submission (armbar) at 2:08 of Round 1
The match was rated as being Fantastic
Hersch got an early takedown but couldn't get past guard, and Kaladaris took advantage of a small opportunity for the sudden finish

Middleweights
Kramer "The Predator" Mayweather (4-0) vs Julio "The Nightmare" Gutierrez (4-0)
We're privately hoping that Mayweather looks like a future champion
Blurcat says Mayweather's strikes should keep Gutierrez at bay
Mayweather wins by unanimous decision after three rounds (29-28 x3)
The match was rated as being Decent
Caught in a triangle choke, Mayweather lifted Gutierrez up with a powerbomb that ended the threat. Gutierrez controlled the second round with better grappling skills. Mayweather managed to keep just enough distance between them in the last round to make the difference. Good tactical fight by both, especially by Gutierrez despite the loss.

Co-Main Event: For the CSA Welterweight Title
"Black Superman" Nathan Chambers (3-0) vs Junmal Skinner (6-3)
We're privately hoping that Chambers retains in strong fashion.
Blurcat says Chambers will need good takedown defense in order to retain
Chambers wins by TKO at 3:09 of Round 4
The match was rated as Great
A dominant first round by the champ who landed punches & kicks at will. A little more of the same in the second round, and a lot more of it in the third round, so much that it was surprising the fight wasn't stopped. Finally the challenger found himself pinned against the cage & defenseless against the rain of pain coming down

Co-Main Event: For the CSA Light Heavyweight Title
Spencer "The Reaper" Rubenstein (3-0) vs Marlon "The Punisher" John (4-0)
We're privately hoping that the last of our original belts we award will have one of the best fights
Blurcat says Rubenstein will win a very competitive fight
John wins by TKO at 4:48 of Round 3
The match was rated as Great
Rubenstein controlled R1 with a takedown that lasted most of the round. It took six tries for him to get a R2 takedown but that was the bulk of R2 offense. R3 was similar until John managed a sweep from the bottom of guard, taking full mount in one fluid motion and starting to pound away with considerable bad intent.

Attendance: 988 for a gate of $29,640
18,990 PPV Buys for revenue of $75,960
Show Rating: Excellent

[JonInMiddleGA]

April 30, 2000

$85k in profit for the month despite lower physical attendance, eliminates the rest of the debt from our first year and puts us in the black over our existence.
Nice feeling.

Good job by Chambers as he becomes our first champion to successfully defend a title, even better job by Marlon John as he surprised most observers by winning the LHW belt.

A busy month for our personnel department as we re-sign Woody Fierstein (Standard, $1600 per to start, 6 fights/4 guaranteed over 24 months) and Randy Carsley (Associate, $1200 per, up to 3 fights over fight 15 months). We also add a new announcer (after complaints following our first PPV), bringing in 31 y/o Terrance Grayson (61% Broadcasting skill) for $2000 per event over 24 months).

We also added five new fighters
-- 31 y/o featherweight (fights as LW for us) Zhao "Ka" Pau (10-6), one half of the 1999 Fight of the Year and 1999 Main Event of the Year for KDMFC when he faced Tan Su and lost by TKO. He's a Dumog fighter that should at least be a depth guy for us.
-- 29 y/o Tara "The Heat" O'Brien (7-2), a Muay Thai bantamweight from Los Angeles that was 1-2 for KDM FC last year.
-- 24 y/o Marco "The Bomb" Bernacci (4-4), a welterweight kickboxer from Rome, Italy who was 0-3 for SIGMA.
-- 26 y/o "The Russian Nightmare" Fjodor Kanchelskis (10-0), a Russian Combat Sambo practioner that can fight at MW or LHW. He was previously 1-0 for SIGMA.
-- 34 y/o "No Surrender" Glenn Pimm (29-14), a wrestling LHW from Napierville, IL who was 0-3 for GAMMA.

And we've reached an uncomfortable crossroads as we continue to climb in popularity, as our individual parts no longer equal the sum. In other words, I can't really find a co-main event on the whole roster that is going to satisfy the demanding fan base we're starting to accumulate. The main is solid enough for May, but we know we're going to take some grief & probably lose momentum & some popularity after the show no matter how well everyone might perform. It is what it is, it's not for lack of trying, I must have talked to the agent of every available name fighter in the friggin' universe (the long distance charges to Venus are a real bitch incidentally), but we couldn't get agreements with virtually any of them since we wouldn't blindly outbid GAMMA & SIGMA in particular.

That's something that was definitely on our minds given the rumors about the increasingly desperate financial condition of KDM FC, who is reportedly on the verge of filing bankruptcy, thanks in no small part to things like paying the phenomenal Li-Kong Ho over $117,000 per fight when you're drawing less than 1000 people per show.

Elsewhere, ALPHA-1 made a big move, signing the #5 HW in the world Armen Sarkisian away from SIGMA. And OMEGA continues to try to sign short contracts with virtually any fighter that has a pulse.

41 y/o Yoshinobu "Spirit Roar" Tanaka announced his retirement after going 1-3 in recent fights while working for both Alpha-1 and GAMMA.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Combat Supercell presents CSA 16
Saturday May 27th, 2000 in Rome, GA

RESULTS
Preliminary Fights
Welterweight
Zachary "Manitoba Misery" Gilbert (11-9) vs Garrison Grable (6-17)
We're privately hoping that even Gilbert can't lose to Grable
Blurcat says Gilbert should win easily, nothing to indicate that Grable even has a chance
Gilbert wins by TKO at 4:03 of Round 1
The match was rated as being Good
Grable appeared content to stay in guard, unfortunately even that didn't work out for him.

Lightweight
Sammy "The Stealth Shark" Gaffigan (15-4) vs Gonzalo "The Gangsta" Ramos (1-4)
We're privately hoping that this is the matchup that gets Gaffigan off the schneid
Blurcat says that Gaffigan should win by standing but will likely win by going to the mat instead
Ramos wins by TKOat 2:52 of Round 2
The match was rated as being Great
[i]Gaffigan didn't do much in the first round & did even less against a barrage of blows after he was trapped against the cage in the second round/i]

Main Show
Light heavyweight
"The Muscle Mountain" Ernie Bruns (17-12) vs "Knock Out" Nigel Malley (19-15)
We're privately hoping that Bruns makes a case for having his contract renewed
Blurcat says Malley could get the win by taking Bruns to the mat
Bruns wins by unanimous decision after three rounds (29-28 x3)
The match was rated as being Average
Bruns controlled the first two rounds, mostly by grappling then separating to throw combinations. Malley answered by flooring Bruns with a big punch that left the leader suddenly just trying to hang on.

Women's Openweight
Allyson "Alley Kat" Arroway (5-0) vs Pamela "The Truth" O'Neill (5-1-1)
We're privately hoping that this is an all out war
Blurcat says O'Neill's standup game is the one distinction that will determine the winner
Arroway wins by unanimous decision after 3 rounds (29-28 x3)
The match was rated as being Poor
Round 1 went to O'Neill's striking, Round 2 highlighted Arroway's ground game & submission skills, Round 3 was almost as close as the total of the first two. The crowd is crazy, anybody who didn't like that one probably just watches racing for the wrecks too.

Heavyweights
Don "The Rumble King" Norman (23-15) vs Adrian "The Power" Pascal (4-1)
We're privately hoping that Norman defies the odds & gets the mild upset since he might make a better guy for a title shot
Blurcat says Pascal is simply more talented & will win for that reason
Pascal wins by submission (armbar) at 2:57 of Round 2
The match was rated as being Great
Pascal spent most of Round 1 in mount trying to pound on Norman but to little effect. Round 2 started the same way until Pascal switched tactics for the win

Welterweight
Elvis "The King" Milissis (4-2) vs Diego "Apocalypse" Arteta (1-0)
We're privately hoping that a close matchup on paper looks good in the cage as well
Blurcat says Arteta could win here by keeping the match standing
Arteta wins by Knock Out at 1:13 of Round 1
The match was rated as being Great
Arteta opened with a quick flurry of strikes, Milissis tried to close on him ... BIG mistake as Arteta flattened him with one punch, pounced & knocked him out cold with one of the follow up punches

Co-Main Event: Women's Openweight
"The Beast from the East" Veronika Sablikova (5-0) vs Layla "The Slayer" Holmes (5-0)
We're privately hoping that we don't regret throwing these two to the wolves howling about our disappointing co-main event
Blurcat says if Holmes can get The Beast on the ground she can win
Holmes wins by submission (armbar) at 2:28 of Round 1
The match was rated as Fantastic
An exchange of strikes was followed by Sablikova countering Holmes takedown attempt and ending up on top with Holmes in guard ... right where she wanted to be apparently, as she quickly found an arm to lock onto

Co-Main Event: For the CSA Heavyweight Title
"The Big Show" Sylvester Collins (6-0) vs "The Merchant of Menace" Mason Archer (3-0)
We're privately hoping that Archer is ready for this sort of spotlight
Blurcat says Collins can & should take Archer down for the win
Archer wins by TKO at 3:10 of Round 2
The match was rated as Great
Collins controlled most of the first round with better grappling skills. The second round was fairly even until Archer stung the champ with counter punches & followed up with a barrage that stuck Collins against the cage & eventually found him defenseless.

Attendance: 1,054 for a gate of $31,620
19,980 PPV Buys for revenue of $79,920
Show Rating: Excellent

[JonInMiddleGA]

May 31, 2000

Hard not to be happy about the show, with Sablikova & Holmes shutting up the critics of the card with a standout performance. Seems the critics were loud but somewhat off base since we did our largest PPV audience to date, even before we knew how well the fights would turn out.

The show marked the final appearances for us from Garrison Grable (0-4), Nigel Malley (0-2 but was okay as the can he was meant to be), and Gonzalo Ramos (1-3, and he picked a lousy time to get his only win for us).

We added five new fighters during the month:
-- 27 y/o LW Francesco Marazzina (19-8), a judo specialist from Torino, Italy. It's an associate contract while he remains available to SIGMA where he's gone 1-2 with back to back losses.
-- 28 y/o LHW Christian "The Tiger" Mountfield (13-7), a G&P fighter from Ann Arbor, Michigan. He was 1-4 for GAMMA where his contract expires in a couple of weeks. We're hoping he'll be better here obviously.
-- 22 y/o LHW Affonso "The Cyborg" Villar (1-0), a Muay Thai fighter from Curitiba, Brazil. Could turn out to be pretty good.
-- 19 y/o MW Danny "Pretty Boy" Akabaro (3-0), who fights a style based on the Nigerian Police Training of his homeland. Big time puncher.
-- 29 y/o WW Pirmin Zubriggen (13-9), a kick boxer who has gone 1-2 for GAMMA and has about a month before his contract there is up.

Biggest news of the month from the rest of the fight world was the failed drug test & subsequent one year suspension for HW Leftar "The Beast" Oktay (17-1) which probably doesn't hurt SIGMA as much as you'd think losing the erstwhile protege of Hassan Fezzik would. He's only been so-so in three wins since losing to Armen Sarkisian in March 1999.

-- Speaking of Sarkisian, he's now full time with ALPHA-1 and will debut for them in June against Norman Pike.
-- GAMMA has added MW Mal Phe Roby (16-6) and LHW Andrew Rush (15-6) to their roster, coming from A-1 and BCF respectively.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Combat Supercell presents CSA 17
Sunday June 25th, 2000 in Macon, GA

RESULTS
Preliminary Fights
Light heavyweight
"The Tap Out Artist" Billy Russell (1-2) vs Vagner (14-6)
We're privately hoping that Russell looks good after a long injury layoff
Blurcat says Russell's ground game will be the edge over Vagner's striking
Vagner wins by unanimous decision after three rounds (30-27 x2 & 29-28)
The match was rated as being Average
Russell chose to stand & punch with Vagner in a very close R1. Vagner stuffed several takedown attempts in R2 & counterpunched well. Russell finally managed a takedown just as the final bell sounded.

Lightweight
Marco "The Bomb" Bernacci (4-4) vs "The Colorado Cobra" Ian Linderman (7-4)
We're privately hoping that Bernacci debuts strong for us
Blurcat says as long as Bernacci's gameplan is good he'll win
Bernacci wins by submission (rear naked choke) at 4:59 of Round 2
The match was rated as being Great
Bernacci controlled R1, lending credence to rumors that Linderman did not train well. R2 was more of the same, although Linderman staved off several submission attempts before the last one.

Main Show
Heavyweight
"The Chunky Monkey" Allen LeFleur (2-0) vs Petey "The Broadstreet Bully" Barnum (21-16)
We're privately hoping that LeFleur handles the higher weight against an opponent we're not renewing
Blurcat says LeFleur is better in every area, leaving Barnum no chance
LeFleur wins by TKO at 1:14 of Round 1
The match was rated as being Great
LeFleur shot in, got the takedown and proceeded to unload with everything he had.

Heavyweight
Stan "The Man" Blackheath (20-10) vs "Grande Urso" Murilo Satinho (2-0)
We're privately hoping that Satinho continues his slow march toward the title
Blurcat says Satinho will win fairly comfortably
Satinho wins by TKO at 1:25 of Round 1
The match was rated as being Great
Illness that disrupted Blackheath's training camp may have played a part, as he threw a couple of punches, got pushed against the cage & then got destroyed.

Heavyweights
"Silent But Violent" Wilson Franklyn (4-1) vs Frank Analysis (36-22)
We're privately hoping that Franklyn comes back strong after his recent loss
Blurcat says they're going with Franklyn
Franklyn wins by TKO at 1:16 of Round 1
The match was rated as being Great
Young hotness meets old & busted.

Women's Openweight
Allison "Dirty Angel" Beattie (8-3) vs "The Wicked Bitch of the West" Honey Due (4-0)
We're privately hoping that Beattie remains viable but due remains unbeaten
Blurcat says Due will take the victory
Due wins by unanimous decision after three rounds (30-27 x3)
The match was rated as being Good
Good exchanges of attacks & counterattacks in R1. Beattie gets cut under the eye in another set of exchanges in R2. Due finished relatively strong.

Co-Main Event: Welterweight
Evan "The Carpenter" Pizzarro (4-1) vs Lloyd "The K.O. Kid" McAllister (13-6)
We're privately hoping that we don't regret this last minute matchup born of McAllister's negotiations with Alpha-1
Blurcat says Pizzarro is more talented & will walk away victorious
Pizzarro wins by submission (rear naked choke) at 4:28 of Round 1
The match was rated as Great
An early slam left McAllister at a disadvantage that led to his undoing

Co-Main Event: For the CSA Middleweight Title
"The Flying V" Esteban Vega (4-1) vs Kramer "The Predator" Mayweather (5-0)
We're privately hoping that Mayweather didn't rush into this fight against the champion
Blurcat says Vega will retain his title
Mayweather wins by Knock Out at 2:57 of Round 2
The match was rated as Great
Close R1 with an aggressive Vega held mostly at bay by a countering challenger. Still the aggressor, Vega walked right into a punch that turned out the lights.

Attendance: 965 for a gate of $28,950
20,589 PPV Buys for revenue of $82,356
Show Rating: Excellent

[JonInMiddleGA]

June 30, 2000

Not bad. Not great but not bad.

-- CSA 17 marked the final appearances on the current contracts for three fighters: Ian Linderman who went 0-4 here, Petey Barnum who went 0-4 here, and Frank Analysis who also went 0-4 here. Sense a trend?

-- We resigned two fighters, Zachary Gilbert (Standard, $1600, 3/1, 18 months) and Don Norman (Associate, $1200, up to 2, 9 months).

-- We added one new fighter to the roster, veteran LHW Jasper Osmond (12-14), a 36 y/o G&P'er from Durham, NC who was actually 2-0 in fights for BCF earlier this year. We're not expecting him to do anything notable but he's a body.

-- We renewed our PPV contract with Public Access Select for four fights, only able to get the same 90-10 (in their favor) revenue split. Not optimal but sufficient for the time being.

The big news from the rest of the MMA world is the bankruptcy filing of KDM FC which will put a number of big names in the lower weight divisions on the market including #4 Lightweight Datuk Ong Ka Ting (9-0), #8 Lightweight Sukarno (7-0), #1 Featherweight Li-Kong Ho (21-0), #9 Featherweight Kei Maki (6-1), #10 Featherweight Tan Su (13-7), #4 Women's PFP Mizuki Watanabe (9-0), #6 Women's PFP Sayoko Ebisawa, and #7 Women's PFP Yuya Shimizu (10-0).

-- SIGMA signed our new HW Champion Mason Archer to an associate agreement, as well as top name Ashley Ballard and BCF/Omega LHW Alex Cole.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Blurcat.com rankings as of July 1, 2000

Promotion Rankings (size, change since January 2000, top PFP fighter)
1. Alpha-1 (down to High Level National, 0, HW Hassan Fezzik)
2. GAMMA (High Level National, 0, LHW Mike Watson)
3. SIGMA (up to Low Level National, 0, LW Fiyero Lermontov)
4. CSA (High Level Regional, 0, MW Fjodor Kanchelskis)
5. WEFF (High Level Regional, +1, BW April Watson)
6. BCF (High Level Regional, -1, LHW Alex Cole)
7. XCC (High Level Regional, +2, FW Phillip Ziskie)
8. OMEGA (Mid Level Regional, 0, LHW Alex Cole)
x. KDM FC (filed bankruptcy in July 2000 as a high level regional)

Pound for Pound (Male)
1(1) Hassan Fezzik (29-0); Alpha-1 Heavyweight Champion since April 1996 beat Khru Dunagjan by submission in June
2(2) Mike Watson (13-0); GAMMA LHW Champion since Mar 2000; last fought March 2000, next fight not yet scheduled
3(3) Tadamasa Yamada (24-1); Alpha-1 LHW Champion since October 1996 last fought March 2000, next fight not yet scheduled
4(4) Julio Regueiro (17-0-1); Gamma Welterweight Champion since April 1998 last fought January 2000, next fight not yet scheduled
5(8) Raul Hughes (16-2); Gamma Heavyweight Champion since December 1999 beat Tony McCall by UD in June 2000
6(5) Jin Katou (20-1); Alpha-1; Light Heavyweight beat Elgar in April 2000
7(6) Matthew Dean (35-5); Gamma; Middleweight beat Adam White by UD in May 00
8(7) Neil Napier (18-0); Gamma Middleweight Champion since Nov 1998 beat Martin De Vries by TKO in Apr 2000
9(9) Sean Morrison (28-3); Gamma Lightweight Champion since June 1996 ast fought in Dec 99, next opponent not scheduled
10(10) James Foster (36-5-1); former Gamma Heavyweight Champion beat Gunnar Nilsson by TKO in May 2000
Dropped Out
None

Heavyweights
1(1) Hassan Fezzik (29-0); Alpha-1 Heavyweight Champion since April 1996
2(2) Raul Hughes (16-2); Gamma Heavyweight Champion since Dec 1999
3(3) James Foster (36-5-1); Gamma Heavyweight Champion since June 1998
4(4) Kunimichi Kikuchi (34-5) Alpha-1; beat Jeff Carlton in Jan 2000)
5(5) Armen Sarkisian (16-0); Alpha-1 (was SIMGA)
6(6) Gregor Boniek (36-5); Alpha-1
7(7) Curt Kitson (22-3); BCF
8(8) Tony McCall (35-11); Gamma
9(10) Gyokusho Fujimoto (6-0); Alpha-1
10(x) Jeff Carlton (34-8); Alpha-1
Dropped out
7(9) Lefter Oktay (16-1); SIGMA; suspended 1 year for failed drug test

Light Heavyweights
1(1) Mike Watson (13-0); Gamma LHW Champion since Mar 2000,
2(2) Tadamasa Yamada (24-1); Alpha-1 LHW Champion since October 1996
3(2) Jin Katou (20-1); Alpha-1; Light Heavyweight
4(4) Alex Cole (14-0); BCF & OMEGA & SIGMA
5(6) John Rivero (18-2); Gamma;
6(5) Zvonimir Asanovic (16-2); former Gamma LHW Champion lost title to Watson in Mar 2000
7(7) Roberto Aldez (45-7); Alpha-1
8(9) Anthony LeToussier (15-3); Gamma;
9(x) Faas Smit (39-14); SIGMA beat Thorbjorn Redkal in June 2000
10(x) Linfield Ballard (24-9); GAMMA beat Lawrence Herringbone in April 2000
Dropped out
x(8) Thorbjorn Redkal (17-2);Sigma; lost to Faas Smit in June 200
x(10) Elgar (27-9); Alpha-1; lost to Jin Katou in April 2000


Middleweight
1(1) Matthew Dean (35-5); Gamma
2(2) Neil Napier (18-0); Gamma Middleweight Champion since Nov 1998
3(3) Mac Fuller (31-7); Gamma
4(4) Stuart Strange (13-2); Gamma
5(5) Heiji Endo (17-1); Alpha-1 Middleweight Champion since Nov 1998
6(6) Petey Mack (17-2); Alpha-1
7(7) JJ Reid (29-3); Gamma
8(10) Buddy Garner (17-1); Gamma beat Andrew Rush in June 2000
9(8) Bambang Sriyanto (25-6-2); Sigma Middleweight Champion since Feb '99
10(x) Fernando Amaro (44-9-4); former SIGMA MW Champion beat Jaromir Grygera in June 2000
Dropped out
x(9) Jaromir Grygera (20-5); Sigma lost to #10 Amaro in June 2000

Welterweight
1(1) Julio Rugueiro (17-0-1); Gamma Welterweight Champion since April 1998
2(2) Carlos da Guia (16-0); Alpha-1 Welterweight Champion since Nov 1997
3(8) Kafu Bunya (14-0); Alpha-1 beat Gabriel Gallego in June 2000
4(3) Xie Ming (24-4); Alpha-1
5(5) Josh Aldarisio (7-0); Gamma
6(4) Jack Humphreys (28-4); Gamma
7(9) Claudio Palacios (25-7); Alpha-1 beat Giovanni Silva in June 2000
8(7) Helio (23-2); BCF Lightweight Champion since Sept 1999
9(x) Darin Blood (15-3); GAMMA
10(x) David Allen (19-2); Gamma;
Dropped Out
x(6) Gabriel Gallego (17-2); Alpha-1 lost to #3 Bunya in June 2000
x(10) Ichisake Miyagi (30-10); Alpha-1


Lightweight
1(1) Sean Morrison (28-3); Gamma Lightweight Champion since June 1996
2(8) Luke Hilton (11-0); Gamma; beat Bruce Steven in April 2000
3(2) Fiyero Lermontov (12-0); Sigma
4(3) Datuk Ong Ka Ting (9-0); unemployed (was KDMFC)
5(4) Lubos Plasil (11-0); Sigma won twice since April
6(6) Fumiaki Hayashi (19-5); Alpha-1
7(x) Shizuya Nakae (29-10); Alpha-1 LW Champion beat Luis Basora for title in May 2000
8(x) Sukarno (7-0); unemployed (was KDMFC)
9(7) Go Yamamoto (28-9-2); Alpha-1
10(10) Branco (12-0); Alpha-1;
Dropped out
x(5) Bruce Steven (22-4); Gamma lost to Luke Hilton in April 2000
x(9) Luis Basora (23-3-2); former Alpha-1 Lightweight Champion lost to #7 Nakae in May 2000

Featherweight
1(1) Li-Kong Ho (21-0); unemployed (was KDMFC FW Champion)
2(2) Phillip Ziskie (14-0); XCC Featherweight Champion since June 1998 & Sigma
3(3) Lars Bohlin (50-6-1); Sigma Featherweight Champion since Oct 1997 & XCC
4(4) Tomohiro Takeuchi (18-4); unemployed (was KDMFC)
5(6) Colm Dee (15-3); Sigma; beat Pedro Alves in May 2000
6(7) Manish Khan (11-2); Sigma beat Francesco Marazzina in June 2000
7(5) Norberto (28-6); Sigma
8(x) Azor Portela Nunes (24-5); XCC beat Shuler Eigenberg in April 2000
9(8) Kei Maki (6-1); unemployed (was KDMFC)
10(x) Tan Su (13-7); unemployed (was KDMFC)
Dropped out
x(9) Ryota Sugimoto (7-1); unemployed (was KDMFC)
x(10) Cong Dun (34-10); unemployed (was KDMFC) lost to Tan Su in May 2000

Pound for Pound (female)
1(1) April Watson (8-0); XCC Women's Champion since March 1999 & WEFF;
2(2) Jenny DeNeuve (6-0); WEFF Lightweight Champion since Apr 1999
3(5) Alisha Wood (7-0); WEFF Heavyweight Champion since Feb 1999
4(6) Mizuki Watanabe (9-0); unemployed (was KDM FC Women's Champion since April 1999 & XCC)
5(3) Sayoko Ebisawa (14-1); unemployed (was KDMFC)
6(4) Yuya Shimizu (10-0); unemployed (was KDMFC)
7(8) Samantha Sachs (9-1); XCC
8(7) Sarah Vaughn (13-3); WEFF; beat Vicki Summers in March 2000
9(9) Haley Croft (13-3); WEFF lost to Serena Hill in March 2000
10(x) Rachel McGuinness (9-0-1); WEFF currently serving suspension for failed drug test
Dropped out
x(10) Janinha (10-1-1); WEFF drew vs Jessica Biel in May 2000

[JonInMiddleGA]

We know what Blurcat thinks about the MMA world overall but what do they think about our roster?

Blurcat.com rankings CSA Roster as of July 1, 2000

Pound for Pound
1(x) "The Russian Nightmare" Fjodor Kanchelskis (10-0, 0-0); Middleweight
2(1) Ashley "The Tiger" Ballard (11-2, 0-0); Middleweight
3(5) "The Merchant of Menace" Mason Archer (4-0, 4-0); CSA Heavyweight Champion since May 2000
4(3) Aleksei "Fists of Death" Chekov (21-5, 1-0); Light Heavyweight
5(x) Kramer "The Predator" Mayweather (6-0, 5-0); CSA Middleweight Champion since May 00
6(2) "The Big Show" Sylvester Collins (6-1, 3-1); former CSA Heavyweight Champ
7(8) Marlon "The Punisher" John (5-0, 4-0); CSA Light Heavyweight Champion since April 00
8(x) "Black Superman" Nathan Chambers (4-0, 4-0); CSA Welterweight Champion since Nov 99
9(4) Dominic "The Smash" Ash (8-1, 3-1); Lightweight
10(6) "The Black Dog" Anthony Ray Shenkman (17-4, 0-1); Lightweight
Dropped Out
x(7) "Mr. Awesome" Carl Ratcliffe (18-7, 2-0); Middleweight
x(9) Sammy "The Stealth Shark" Gaffigan (15-5, 0-1); Lightweight
x(10) Junmal Skinner (6-4, 0-1); Welterweight

Heavyweights
1(2) Mason Archer (4-0, 4-0); CSA Heavyweight Champion since May 2000
2(1) Sylvester Collins (6-1, 3-1); former CSA Heavyweight Champion
3(3) Wilson Franklyn (5-1, 3-1);
4(x) Allen LeFleur (3-0, 3-0); was #5 LHW
5(9) Murilo Satinho (3-0, 3-0);
6(6) William Harrison (4-1, 1-1);
7(7) Terry Catt (4-2, 0-0)
8(8) Juozas Skerla (6-1, 0-1);
9(10) Adrian Pascal (5-1, 3-1);
10(4) Stan Blackheath (20-11, 0-2);
Dropped out
x(5) Don Norman (23-16, 1-2);

Light Heavyweights
1(x) Fjodor Kanchelskis (10-0, 0-0)
2(1) Alexsei Chekov (21-5, 1-0)
3(2) Marlon John (5-0, 4-0); CSA Light Heavyweight Champion since April 00
4(x) Jasper Osmond (12-14; 0-0);
5(4) Vagner (15-6, 1-1);
6(3) Spencer Rubenstein (3-1, 3-1);
7(x) Christian Mountfield (13-7; 0-0)
8(7) Ernie Bruns (18-12, 1-2);
9(6) Woody Fierstein (11-4, 1-2);
10(x) Glenn Pimm (29-14, 0-0);
Dropped out
x(5) Allen LeFleur (2-0, 2-0); moved up to HW
x(8) Joshua Hope (3-1, 2-1);
x(9) Rupert Dreck (5-2, 1-2)
x(10) Petey Barnum (21-16, 0-3); left company, contract not renewed

Middleweights
1(1) Ashley Ballard (11-2, 0-0)
2(2) Kramer Mayweather (6-0, 5-0); CSA Middleweight Champion since June 00
3(7) Heath Kaladaris (3-0, 3-0);
4(3) Drew Jenks (8-2, 2-1);
5(4) Joaquim Fontes (11-2, 0-1);
6(8) Bradley "The Hunter" Dixon (17-10, 0-1);
7(10) Nik Minear (10-3, 0-1);
8(x) Ray Eton (8-2, 1-1); moved up from WW
9(6) Esteban Vega (4-2, 2-2);
10(9) Julio Gutierrez (4-1, 0-1)
Dropped out
x(5) Lloyd McAllister (13-7, 0-1) dropped to WW

Welterweights
1(3) Nathan Chambers (4-0, 4-0); CSA Welterweight Champion since Nov 99
2(1) Carl Ratcliffe (18-7, 2-0);
3(6) Evan Pizzarro (5-1, 4-1);
4(2) Junmal Skinner (6-4, 0-1);
5(4) Felix Mattherson, Jr (2-0, 2-0);
6(x) Pirmin Zubriggen (13-9, 0-0);
7(5) Lucas Mueller (7-1, 0-0)
8(x) Diego Arteta (2-0, 1-0);
9(x) Lloyd McAllister (13-7, 0-1) was #5 MW
10(7) Zachary Gilbert (12-9, 1-2);
Dropped out
x(8) Linton Berry (6-4, 0-0);
x(9) Kyle Sagal (4-2, 1-2);
x(10) Elvis Milissis (4-2, 0-0)

Lightweights
1(1) Dominic Ash (8-1, 3-1); former CSA Lightweight Champion
2(2) Anthony Ray Shenkman (17-4, 0-1);
3(4) Tim Oldacres (3-0, 3-0); CSA Lightweight Champion since Mar 00
4(3) Sammy Gaffigan (15-5, 0-1);
5(x) Francesco Marazzina (19-9, 0-0);
6(x) Marco Bernacci (5-4, 1-0);
7(5) Sinali Shomen (2-0, 2-0)
8(x) Zhao Pau (10-6, 0-0);
9(6) Randy Carsley (2-1, 2-1);
10(8) Rory McEnterry (2-1, 1-1);
Dropped out
x(7) Ian Linderman (7-4, 0-3); left company, contract not renewed
x(9) Doug Minnelli (1-1, 1-1);
x(10) Brock Youdale (2-2, 1-2);

Women's Openweight
1(5) Honey Due (5-0, 2-0);
2(4) Layla Holmes (6-0, 2-0);
3(x) Alyson Arroway (6-0, 2-0);
4(1) Allison Beattie (8-4, 1-1);
5(2) Mako Takagawa (7-1, 0-0);
6(x) Tara O'Brien (7-2, 0-0)
7(8) Thea Higgins (4-0, 1-0);
8(6) Veronika Sablikova (5-1, 1-1);
9(7) Pamela O'Neill (5-2, 1-1);
10(x) Tabitha Cameron (1-0, 1-0)
Dropped out
x(9) Kimie Igarashi (3-0, 1-0);
x(10) Alyssa Taylor (1-2, 0-1);

[JonInMiddleGA]

July 17, 2000

ALPHA-1 has announced the signing of Kramer Mayweather to an exclusive contract.

We're privately thinking that it's a real f'n shame that his contractual obligation to us will expire just two days before he'll be able to fight again, denying us the opportunity to job his ass out

[JonInMiddleGA]

Combat Supercell presents CSA 18
Saturday July 29th, 2000 in Brunswick, GA

RESULTS
Preliminary Fights
Lightweight
"Hollywood Player" Doug Minnelli (1-1) vs Bosco "Bad Attitude" Curbeam (0-0)
We're privately hoping that the recently signed Curbeam shows us something
Blurcat says Curbeam is simply too good for Minnelli
Curbeam wins by TKO at 4:01 of Round 2
The match was rated as being Good
Minnelli more than held his own with good counterstriking in R1, unfortunately he tried to press the attack in R2.

Light heavyweight
Affonso "The Cyborg" Villar (1-0) vs "Mr Fantastic" Ed Burridge (2-3)
We're privately hoping that Villar doesn't hurt his opponent permanently
Blurcat says Villar should end this one quickly
Villar wins by submission (armbar) at 0:34 of Round 3
The match was rated as being Good
Burridge absorbed several big shots and survived R1. Villar was sloppy in R2 but dodged a punch and blasted Burridge before securing the finisher early in R3.

Heavyweight
Titus "The Titan" Mostel (3-5) vs Taye Burnett (0-2)
We're privately hoping that this doesn't suck too much
Blurcat says Burnett should be able to keep Mostel at bay
Burnett wins by UD after three rounds (30-27 x3)
The match was rated as being Average
Burnett got a R1 takedown but could do little with it. Even less action in R2. More of the same in R3.

Main Show
Lightweight
Rory "Maradonna" McEnterry (2-1) vs Lazaro "Riptide" Campos (1-0)
We're privately hoping that Campos like we planned it
Blurcat says Campos ground game should overcome McEnterry's striking
Campos wins by submission (armbar) at 4:48 of Round 1
The match was rated as being Great
Lots of G&P from Campos, who switched up & secured the ending just before the round ended

Women's Openweight
"Deadly T." Thea Higgins (4-0) vs "The Flame-Haired Phenom" Tabitha Cameron (1-0)
We're privately hoping that might steal the show
Blurcat says Higgins is better in every area & can't see a chance for Cameron
Higgins wins by submission (armbar) at 4:00 of Round 1
The match was rated as being Great
It took three different submission moves before Higgins found one that worked but the experience difference here was clear

Lightweight
Rafael "Slick" Tavares (14-3) vs Zhao "Ka" Pau (10-6)
We're privately hoping that Pau regrets turning down the much easier fight we offered him originally
Blurcat says Tavares will win, just too much for Pau
Tavares wins by submission (armbar) at 3:02 of Round 2
The match was rated as being Great
Tavares clearly better in R1 and finished it in R2.

Middleweight
Nik "The Minotaur" Minear (10-3) vs "The Unbreakable" Gideon Navarro (1-1)
We're privately hoping that Navarro gets back on track after his disappointing loss to Wes Hersch
Blurcat says Navarro should win
Navarro wins by unanimous decision after three rounds (30-27 x3)
The match was rated as being Very Poor
Navarro in control of R1 but couldn't get past guard. Same song, second verse in R2. Navarro seemed to go into cruise control in R3 and actually found himself defending against Minear late

Co-Main Event: For the CSA Welterweight Title
"Black Superman" Nathan Chambers (4-0) vs Felix "The Daddy" Matterhson, Jr(2-0)
We're privately hoping that this turns out decent
Blurcat says if Mattherson gets the takedowns he'll win, if he doesn't then he won't
Mattherson wins by submission (americana) at 4:17 of Round 2
The match was rated as Great
The challenger was clearly the aggressor in R1 and had Chambers back on his heels. The champion responded in R2 pressing the attack with repeated strikes before Mattherson shot in for a takedown and worked to side control, landing the finishing hold from there

Co-Main Event: For the vacant CSA Middleweight Title
"Mr. Awesome" Carl Ratcliffe (18-7) vs "The Total Package" Heath Kaladaris (3-0)
We're privately hoping that this fight makes fans forget about Mayweather leaving less than a month after he won the title
Blurcat says it could be a long night for Ratcliffe
Kaladaris wins by TKO at 3:14 of Round 1
The match was rated as Fantastic
Explosive action as both fighters seemed to want to end it early, Kaladaris caught an attempted body kick & scored a takedown & quickly moved to side control where it was bombs away time.

Attendance: 960 for a gate of $28,800
21,237 PPV Buys for revenue of $84,948
Show Rating: Fantastic

[JonInMiddleGA]

July 31, 2000

Not bad, not bad at all really. We're still struggling to find fighters that are of the same profile level we've reached & that's only going to get tougher if Blurcat's designation of us as a true National promotion are accurate. We'll find out perhaps, as we take our next show down to the Sunshine State for our first show outside of Georgia.

During the month our roster moves included the re-signing of MW Billy Russell (1-3), in hopes that we'll get more out of him now that he's healthy (Standard, $600 per, 9 matches/4 guaranteed, 36 months).

The month also saw the end of contracts with 36 y/o HW Ernie Bruns (18-12) who was 1-2 for us but seemed to be getting further & further past his prime and 24 y/o LHW Ed Burridge (2-4) who went 0-4 during his stint here and never showed us much.

Five new additions to the roster, including FW Rafael Tavares (15-3) who debuted at CSA 18 with a win (STND, $2500 per, 9 mtc /4 guar, 36 months).
We also picked up
-- 30 y/o LW Jackson "The Pocket Rocket" Gray (20-10), a wrestler from Vallejo, California who went 1-3 in a run with GAMMA. (EXCL, $1600 per, 7 matches/3 guar, 29 months)
-- 26 y/o BW Mizuki "The She-Wolf" Watanabe (9-0), a judo specialist from Tokyo. She's the former KDM FC Women's Champion and should be a prime contender for an eventual title here as well.
-- 32 y/o BW "The Phenom" Sayoko Ebisawa (14-1), a Muay Thai pro from Kawasaki, Japan and a former KDM FC Women's Champion, the first true star of women's MMA whose only career loss is to Watanabe.
-- 30 y/o FW "The Miniature Killer" Jason Dalglish (16-9), a Jiu Jitsu style fighter from Edinburgh, Scotland. He was only 1-2 in a recent run with SIGMA but we think he can be better than that here in the right situation.

We also lost more bidding wars than I care to talk about, as talent seems to think we're rolling in money & want to relieve us of the burden of counting it.
Umm ... no.

The big news of the month came from ALPHA-1 but it wasn't what you might think. Yes, they did pick up some of the best fighters left out of work by the KDM FC closure but that wasn't their biggest news of all. After rising to Low Level International in late July, they slipped back to High Level National after a lackluster TV show on the final day of the month. Just hours later they fired President Meiji Nishimura, a long time friend & ally of company boss Ietsuna Hisamatsu, executive for NARUTO video game company that owns the promotion. Apparently Hisamatsu's ruthless reputation is well deserved.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Out of Character Post

I'm gonna step out of what little character I bother to play with this & bitch for a minute.

I think "annoyed" might be the right word to describe my feelings right now about the whole "the fans think this would be an XYZ main event" situation, the use of Name Value, Reputation, and Promotion Size.

I find it to be almost indecipherable, or maybe more accurately a pain in the ass to try to get a handle on, if you look at how the various elements of the game utilize the numbers.

Rankings are clearly based on strictly reputation, which are a function of your wins & losses regardless of where they are.

Fighters with the name value to headline shows (in the roster analysis screen) seems to be keyed to name value in your home location, something that is affected by wins & losses in areas where you're seen (i.e. I've been getting bumps in Canada because of the PPV deal). And that seems to be accurate except when it isn't.

Two fighters in that group but one of them has a recent loss or two? No dice sometimes. A fighter in that group & another fighter with a winning streak in the next name value level below it by a couple of points? No dice sometimes. But two fighters both in the group below (say mid regional while you're high regional as a promotion) who have a decent reputation? Suddenly that works sometimes.

And the worst combination (based on what you're told the crowd thinks of the card) that I've put together to date produces my highest ever attendance & no decline in PPV buys. So WTF does this advice really mean in the first place? Something? Nothing? Sometimes something?

You may wonder why I'm bringing this up now. Because I just watched the game fire the head of ALPHA-1, the most successful organization on the planet by a nice margin at this point, after they yo-yo'ed between High National & Low International a couple of times. Based on the relatively sparse comments on the official forum at GDS, that seems to be the trigger for getting fired - bouncing down in level twice, even if you're the guy who brought them to that level in the first place (i.e. they aren't worse off than when you started, they're better off). Assuming that the pre-booking reaction to my card means anything, I seem likely to drop back to High Regional, leaving me only one more slip up without being fired ... despite the fact that I've taken the company from dead zero to the #3 promotion in the world in less than 18 months and did most of it with fighters who were largely unknown when I signed them.

There's a thread at the forum that sort of explains how to use PPV & TV to game the popularity system & I guess I'll resort to trying that, but I'm frustrated that I have to.

edit to add: I think what really chaps me in particular with this is how fighter Reputation seems to represent their collective standing in the current MMA world overall but that apparently means nothing to fans in regions outside of the ones where they've watched them personally. Marketing a fight is merely abstracted so you have no opportunity to build up a guy without fighting him through a bunch of fights even if they're against junk. For an example take Armen Sarkisian, the #3 ranked HW in my world right now. He's 16-0 lifetime (pre-history & all), fought twice for SIGMA in game before signing with ALPHA-1, handed the heralded Leftar Oktay his only career defeat, by all accounts I can see he's a legit top guy for nearly anybody. But his name value in the U.S. (15.6 Low Regional) is worse than Titus Mostel (24.8 with 0 Reputation), my erstwhile can that bounces between HW & LHW. Sorry, but that defies logic to me, treating the name value system as though virtually everything occurs in a vacuum and the national/regional borders are virtually sealed for information. The relationship between Reputation & Name Value seems woefully inadequate and is really the biggest gripe I'd have at this point. Considering the improved but still too clicky interface that is Ryland's trademark, I guess it marks progress of sorts to have something else be the bigger glaring problem with the game but once again I'm left wondering "what might have been" if this had been handled better.

[JonInMiddleGA]

August 31, 2000

On the heels of our recent string of successes, we do something we haven't done since opening the doors: take a month off without presenting a card.

That wasn't how we planned it, actually had to pay a penalty to a building we had already booked in order to not run one in fact. But we wanted to take some time to regroup since we seem to be growing the promotion faster than we're growing our individual fighters.

And you know what they say about idle hands, so we turned our attention to some other matters ... and reached agreement with National Pride TV for "CSA Late Night", six episodes of four fights each, 90% of cost to us, 90% of revenue to them. Sucky deal but it's our first foray into TV so we'll see how it goes. And we'll see pretty quickly too, we debut in September.

During August we resigned Nathan Chambers (EXCL, $2750, 8/5, 33 months) and Rory McEnterry (EXCL, $800, 6/4, 27 months). We also added three new fighters:
-- Former BCF & SIGMA MW Davis Spyrou (21-6), a 29 y/o kick boxer from London, England who is riding a two match winning streak at the moment
-- Former GAMMA LHW Bryan Van Den Hauwe (15-8), a 31 y/o Greco-Roman Wrestler from Fort Collins, Colorado that's mired in a four match losing streak but recognizable in the U.S. since all of his losses came on their Warriors TV show.
-- Soon-to-be former SIGMA LHW Thorbjorn Rekdal (17-2), a 29 y/o kick boxer from Oslo, Norway who main evented three shows for them going 2-1 in the process, losing his title to Faas Smith back in July.

And, as we knew was coming, both Lloyd McAllister and Kramer Mayweather left for ALPHA-1 during the month.

Also during August, legendary MMA pioneer "The Perfectionist" Dan Halvorsen (37-14-2) called it quits after suffering three consecutive defeats for GAMMA. He'll turn his attention to running his highly acclaimed fight camp.

Back to back losses also surely played a role in the retirement of 39 y/o "The Pit Bull" Rick Stanley (24-9-3) who was also working for GAMMA. And women's pioneer Ayame "Komodo" Kondo (5-7) retired at the age of 34, never a star by any means but a trailblazer nevertheless.

And it's hard not to think XCC might be looking to recreate some magic down the road, with their signings of both participants in the 1999 Fight of the Year, Tan Su (13-7) and Cong Dun (34-10), as well as promising relative youngster Kei Maki (6-1) whose only loss came at the hands of Li-Kong Ho.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Combat Supercell presents "CSA Late Night" on National Pride TV
Friday September 15th, 2000 in West Palm Beach, FL

RESULTS
Preliminary Fights
Women's Openweight
Temperance "Bang Bang" McCoy (1-1) vs Daniela Sadorra (0-1)
We're privately hoping that we get a good fight from both
Blurcat says McCoy's edge standing will be the difference
Sadorra wins by Knock Out at 3:49 of Round 3
The match was rated as being Excellent
McCoy started finding the range with punches late in R1. Round 2 was mostly McCoy but Sadorra sent her sprawling with a big counterpunch to make the round very close. Good exchanges in R3 when Sadorra countered an attempted head kick with a fast & accurate punch that knocked McCoy out cold

Light heavyweight
Christian "The Tiger" Mountfield (13-7) vs "The Tap Out Artist" Billy Russell (1-3)
We're privately hoping that Mountfield snaps his losing streak & gets on a bit of a roll afterwards
Blurcat says a prolonged stand up battle will give Mountfield the win
Mountfield wins by unanimous decision after three rounds (29-28 x3)
The match was rated as being Poor
Mountfield was the aggressor in R1 but Russell seemed up to the challenge. With increased confidence perhaps, Russell was more aggressive in R2 and actually seemed to have the better of it. Both men were gassed by the end of the fight, which saw Mountfield pressing Russell against the cage for most of the round.

Women's Openweight
Tara "The Heat" O'Brien (7-2) vs Saya Ikegami (0-1)
We're privately hoping that this is our second good women's fight of the night
Blurcat says O'Brien's ground game beats Ikegami's stand up
O'Brien wins by split decision after three rounds (29-28 x2 & 28-29)
The match was rated as being Good
Good action both standing & grounded in a close R1. Ikegami got a takedown in R2 but O'Brien actually managed more offense. R3 was mostly Ikegami pushing O'Brien back but finding little offense otherwise

Main Show
Welterweight
Chad "Easy Z" Zoff (0-1) vs Kyle "The Guillotine" Sagal (4-2)
We're privately hoping that Zoff elevates his profile with a win
Blurcat says Zoff will not only win but dominate
Sagal wins by UD after three rounds (29-28 x3)
The match was rated as being Decent
Zoff got an immediate takedown but couldn't really threaten otherwise in R1. Sagal followed a similar pattern in R2. R3 saw virtually no offense from Zoff and Sagal did just enough

Light Heavyweight
"The Russian Nightmare" Fjodor Kanchelskis (10-0) vs "No Surrender" Glenn Pimm (29-14)
We're privately hoping that Pimm surrenders after all
Blurcat says Kanchelskis should win fairly easily
Kanchelskis wins by TKO at 3:33 of Round 2
The match was rated as being Great
Kanchelskis in complete control in R1 but couldn't finish. He solved the problem in the second round

Heavyweight
"Grande Urso" Murilo Satinho (3-0) vs "The Tornado" Terry Catt (4-2)
We're privately hoping that Satinho comes away still unbeaten & finally starts to attract some attention outside of our own office
Blurcat says Satinho will taste victory one way or another
Satinho wins by submission (rear naked choke) at 4:43 of Round 1
The match was rated as being Good
Satinho needed a couple of tries but finally locked in the submission

Main Event: For the CSA Lightweight Title
"Mr. T" Tim Oldacres (3-0) vs Dominic "The Smash" Ash (9-1)
We're privately hoping that the fans were right & that a rematch so soon was a good idea
Blurcat says Ash will win by keeping the fight standing
Ash wins by unanimous decision after five rounds (48-47 x3)
The match was rated as Great
Ash hurt Oldacres with several series of punches in R1 but the champ managed to survive. R2 was the same, with Oldacres trying to press the action & Ash making him pay the price each time. Ash pushing in for R3, still scoring readily. Dirty boxing & brute strength finally gave Oldacres the edge in R4. In the final round, Oldcares was looking for a big finish to save his title while Ash kept checking his corner for time. BAM, a big counter punch flattens Ash & Oldacres seized side control but Ash recovered with a tight clinch. Oldacres ended up with a mount & fired all the elbow strikes he could but time expired.

Attendance: 634 for a gate of $25,360
PPV Buys: N/A
Show Rating: Fantastic