Warriors in the (North) East (WMMA2)

[PilotMan]

We are on a roll, and our 9th show is good to go. All the fighters have made weight and it looks like it’s going to be a very good card.

Cage Warriors 9: Thomas v. Fiordirosa

The first fight of the night is in the middleweight division. Tony Ballout (2-0, Shoot Fighting) and Dan Cramer (3-1, BJJ) lead off our show tonight. Let’s get this going! Cramer was the BJJ guy, but he found himself scrambling from mistakes early on. He survived and made a fight of it in round 2, only to be submitted with a rear naked choke in round 3. Good start.

Next up is Scott McAfee (7-1, BJJ) and Sergio Gomez (8-2, Striker) fight in the lightweight division. McAfee makes a good showing for himself. He protected himself and worked the fight to the ground where he was able to get Gomez into an armbar for a win. Good fight.

The third prelim fight is between Matt Grice (9-2, Wrestling) and Ricardo Tirlone (8-2, BJJ) in the lightweight division. Tirlone took Grice down at will throughout the fight and controlled the action. Tirlone dominated position and eventually some punches found their way through Grice’s defense. Tirlone landed more shots to get the stoppage. Good fight.

The next prelim fight is between Neil Cooke (5-0, Boxing/Wrestling, 290lbs) and Mike Hayes (5-0, Freestyle, 255lbs). Hayes has an 8 inch reach advantage. Cooke took Hayes down then got his back just before time expired in round one, but Hayes survived. In round two, Cooke took Hayes down then lay on him because he was exhausted. Round 3 was Cooke biding his time then nailing some big shots, but somehow Cooke survived the onslaught, and survived the fight as the winner. Average.

The last prelim fight is between George Bush (6-1, Wrestling, 255lbs) and Mark Burch (9-2, Brawler, 285lbs) in the heavyweight division. Bush is coming off of a win in his CWFC debut. This fight stayed up with some leaning on the cage, but in the end it was the heavy hands of George Bush that were victorious. Heavy blows in the second round forced the stoppage. Decent fight.

The main show opens up with a fight in the welterweight division. Andy Kappas (2-1, Submission Fighting) and Ben Askren (3-0, Wrestling/BJJ) are going to mix it up. Kappas was bounced from the title tournament and Askren won in his debut. Kappas found himself on his back from almost the very beginning. Askren peppered him with shots, before slipping to mount and pounding out a win in the first round. Great fight.

From the light heavyweight division, Kevin Casey (3-1, BJJ) and Phil Davis (4-0, Wrestling) are set to make their debut’s on the main card. Both young fighters have something to prove. I should learn by now that sometimes grapplers don’t make good pairings. Neither man was in any trouble until the very end when Davis got Casey’s back just before the fight ended. Davis pulled out a 29-28 unanimous decision. Average fight.

Hideo Tokoro (22-17-1, Boxing/Wrestling) is fighting the much less experienced Issei Tamura (5-0, Shooto) in the featherweight division. Tokoro was the heavy favorite coming in here, but it was the younger Tamura that shined in this one. Tamura managed to stop the takedowns of Tokoro, then answered with his own, and managed to get Tokoro’s back where he submitted the experience Tokoro with a rear naked choke. Fantastic fight.

The co-main event is between Jordan Radev (17-4, Wrestling) and Fabio Silva (14-5, Muay Thai) in the middleweight . Radev in his first fight since his loss in the eliminator, has his hands full with Silva who is coming off of a fast win in his debut. This was an old fashioned ass-whipping. Radev was stunned by the power of Silva. Initially he was caught off guard with a big shot that stunned him, then later in the round he was tagged again, and Silva just went to town to get the stoppage. Fantastic fight.

Our main event is the semi-final eliminator fight in the featherweight division. First up is Din Thomas (25-8, BJJ/Boxing). Thomas is the top seed in the tournament. His opponent is Matt Fiordirosa (12-1, Wrestling). Fiordirosa is the #4 seed. The winner will face Cub Swanson or Joe Soto. Thomas is the favorite and showed why in the fight. He took Fiordirosa down right away and transitioned to side control early on. Fiordirosa defended well, but gave up his back on a defensive move. Thomas didn’t relent and opened up and forced the stoppage. Din Thomas moves on. Great fight.

We had 734 for this show, that received an excellent rating.

Fight of the Night goes to Hideki Tokoro and Issei Tamura.
Knockout of the Night goes to Fabio Silva
Submission of the Night goes to Issei Tamura.

Din Thomas is here to stay and will fight either Cub Swanson or Joe Soto for the CWFC Featherweight Title. Fabio Silva moves up fast, and could be the top contender for the middleweight title after the tournament. Ben Askren and Issei Tamura both continue to impress, as does George Bush. On the flip side, Dan Cramer, Jordan Radev and Andy Kappas have all lost in their first two fights.

[PilotMan]

Well this is crap! On my desk here, I have a letter from the New Jersey State Athletic Commission. Apparently one of my fighters tested positive for a banned substance. Fucking Ben Askren. Dude gets two really nice wins, and now is out of competition for a year. At least he is still young, and not a top contender, yet.

We have had our first official defection. It won’t make much difference though, as Tarec Saffiedine, who is a big name in Japan and a little name here, has left us for DREAM exclusively. Tarec hadn’t fought yet for us.

Bellator ran a house show as well as a TV show within two days of one another. The only fighter that we share that was fighting was Yosmany Cabezas. Cabezas won via submission in the second round. Cabezas runs his record to 9-3.

Ken Shamrock has called it quits at the age of 46. He hadn’t had a fight in the game.

[PilotMan]

Bellator ran a house show as well as a TV show within two days of one another. The only fighter that we share that was fighting was Yosmany Cabezas. Cabezas won via submission in the second round. Cabezas runs his record to 9-3.

Ken Shamrock has called it quits at the age of 46. He hadn’t had a fight in the game.

[PilotMan]

Our popularity has risen much faster than I would have thought possible. Our next card is an exciting one. Here is a little preview.

The main event, which is part of the eliminator tournament, is the young (Held) versus the old (McKee). McKee is much more well know in Canada, and he will have some fans on hand, while Held is one of the best from the Continent. This is an important fight. The co-main event is a lightweight eliminator between two guys making their Cage Warriors debut. Look for a slugfest between Seth Petruzelli, fighting for the first time since his victory over Kimbo Slice, and Lolohea Mahe. James Lee and Marcus Sursa fight in a light heavyweight eliminator. And the opening fight on the main card is between two jiu-jitsu practitioners, both of whom, are looking for their second win in Cage Warriors, JJ Ambrose and Danillo Villefort.

On the preliminary card, UC UK Middleweight Champ, Tom Watson, makes his US debut against Reggie Orr. Jason Reinhardt in his final fight against Yahir Reyes. Japanese star Yoshihiro Nakao could be on the main card, but finds himself in the prelims against Englishman, Roman Shipp. Those fights plus two more here in New Jersey. CWFC.

[PilotMan]

Cage Warriors 10: McKee v. Held
From New Jersey

The first fight on the card is in the welterweight division, and is between Rich Anderson (2-0, Submission Wrestling) and Jin-Kyu Lee (2-0, Striker). Anderson has 4 inches of height and 7 inches on reach on Lee. Lee won in his CWFC debut. Anderon makes his debut tonight. Lee worked hard early on, but found himself on his back early in the 2nd. Anderson took over from there and wins with a rear naked choke. Decent fight.

The second prelim fight is between Stephen Ledbetter (7-4, Boxing/Wrestling) and Zac George (17-3, Wrestling) in the lightweight division. Both fighters are making their CWFC debut. George is active early on and surprises Ledbetter with his pace. George uses his experience to put Ledbetter on his back, then skillfully punches him out to get the stoppage. Fantastic fight.

The third prelim fight is in the heavyweight division. Roman Shipp (2-0, Brawler, 260lbs) and Yoshihiro Nakao (9-2, Wrestling, 240) are set to make their CWFC debuts. Like the last fight it was the striker finding his way to the mat, where the more experienced fighter took over. Nakao wins with a rear naked choke. Great fight.

The next prelim is the final fight for Jason Reinhardt (20-2, Wrestling) before he retires. His opponent, Yahir Reyes (15-6, Boxing/Wrestling) is making his CWFC debut. Reinhardt was bounced from the featherweight tournament by Cub Swanson. Reinhardt wanted to take this to the ground right away, but Reyes was too fast and tagged him on the way in. Reyes was quick to attack, knocking him out cold with the follow-up punch. So much for the going away speech. Great fight.

The final prelim fight is between Tom Watson (9-3, Boxing) and Reggie Orr (9-7-1, Boxing/Wrestling) in the middlweight division. Both men make their CWFC debuts. Watson had all he could handle with Orr, who was supposed to be a fairly easy win. Orr fought hard winning the second round, and controlling a lot of the fight, with his aggressiveness. Watson was just a bit better and won a unanimous 29-28 judgement, but he didn’t look like the monster that he was billed as. Kind of like Akiyama’s debut in the UFC. Decent fight.

The opener on the main card is between JJ Ambrose (11-2, BJJ) and Danillo Villefort (10-2, BJJ) in the welterweight division. Both men won their first fights in CWFC. Ambrose was much more impressive however. Both men came out slow, and Villefort controlled much of the action up close, and against the cage. It wasn’t very exciting. In the third though, Ambrose his multiple big shots, actually knocking Villefort down toward the end. He went for the armbar, but Villefort fought it off, and survived…barely, and went on the win the fight 29-28 from all 3 judges. Decent fight.

We have a light heavyweight eliminator next between James Lee (13-3, Wrestling) and Marcus Sursa (6-4, Wrestling). Sursa came out quick and got an early takedown. He landed some very hard shots early on, and Lee was forced to cover up. The reft stopped it quickly thereafter. Sursa with the TKO in less than 1 minute. Great fight.

Another light heavyweight fight. This one between Lolohea Mahe (4-1, Brawler) and Seth Petruzelli (11-4, Brawler). Ugh, this was supposed to be a freewheeling slugfest, but all we got was an after school mixer. These two put on a stinker. Petruzelli was tired out early on, but neither fighter did much of anything. Mahe won the fight, but it was a poor showing.

The co-main event is a lightweight title eliminator. This fight pits Paul Sass (9-0, BJJ/Muay Thai) and Karen Darabedyan (9-1, Boxing/Judo) going against one another. Both men make their CWFC debut’s. Darabedyan’s striking was very precise early on, and it took it’s toll on Sass. Sass was crushed with a hook, and went down, but regained his composure and finished the round, but not before almost going down again. Skip round 2, and round 3 saw Sass get tagged again, and Darabedyan work from side mount. Sass gave up his back trying to escape, and took some heavy elbows from Darabedyan, who was able to force the stoppage. Darabedyan will now move on to face top seed, Jeff Curran. Decent fight.

Our main event between Antonio McKee (22-3-2, Vale Tudo) and Marcin Held (5-0, BJJ) in the lightweight title eliminator. Both men make their debut’s for CWFC. This fight lived up to it’s billing. Held and McKee put on a good show, but it was the younger man who was the better of the two. Held took McKee down 3 times in round 1 and 2 more in round 2. Each time McKee was able to escape, but he couldn’t keep the younger man from getting him back to the ground. The fight was finished in the second round, when Held was able to sink a guillotine, after another takedown, that left McKee seated against the cage. The 18-year old Marcin Held moves on in surprising fashion and will move on to face another experienced fighter in Rich Clementi. Fantastic fight.

Only 549 fans showed up for the fights tonight, and the show received an overall rating of poor.
That’s too bad, I thought that this card was just as good as some of the others that have been run.

[PilotMan]

After a lot of thinking I think that I found out why our show did so poorly. I booked that show a month in advance, and during that time our popularity jumped up. In the end, fans just weren’t that excited with a fight between a no name and an almost no name. It hurt us, but it didn’t damage us too badly.

Not to be deterred, another card is booked for the end of June. The main event of Cage Warriors 12 is between Bao Quach and Cub Swanson. Cub Swanson is still involved in the Featherweight eliminator, but with Joe Soto coming off of his fight, that fight won’t happen for some time. So in the meantime, Quach looks to be the top contender to the title after the winner is determined. So we like to look at this fight as a warm-up for some of the fights that we will be able to put together. A loss doesn’t affect Swanson, and a win for Quach keeps him firmly in place at the top of the rankings. Swanson makes this fight, and a win for him just sets the table for the Soto fight.

The co-main event is between undefeated wrestler Wesley Johnson (5-0) and Anthony Njokuani (11-2). Both men won in their CWFC debut’s. Johnson is a big name in the UK, and is just getting his feet wet in the US. Njokuani is a Muay Thai specialist, and his ground game is questionable.

Here is the full card:

Cage Warriors 12:  Quach v. Swanson

Bao Quach (16-9-1) v. Cub Swanson (15-2) FW
Anthony Njokuani (11-2) v. Wesley Johnson (5-0) LW
Jeremiah Billington (11-2) v. Ryan Jimmo (13-1) LHW
Henry Martinez (3-1) v. Taiki Tsuchiya (4-1) FW
#1 Trevor Prangley (21-6) v. #8 Dragan Tesanovic (5-0) MW

----Prelims----

Josh Curran (3-1) v. Hae Joo Young (2-0) HW
Jason High (10-2) v. Norman Paisley (5-2) WW
Thomas Longacre (4-1) v. David Baron (16-4) LW
Joe Scarola (4-1-1) v. Kyle Pimentel (7-1) WW
Nick Klein (3-1) v. Cristobal Verissimo (2-0) MW

The Prangley/Tesanovic fight is a title eliminator fight between the top seeded middleweight in Trevor Prangley and total unknown Dragan Tesanovic. The prelims feature a smattering of fighters who lost in the first round of their respective title eliminator fight, as well as some young up and comers.

[PilotMan]

An injury to Rawdon Lee has forced his removal from the light heavyweight tournanment. He had been waiting for his opponent Rafael Davis to be read to fight, but in the process has sustained a hip injury. He is going to be our half the year. Ryan Jimmo has taken his place in the tournament and will be taken out of his fight with Jeremiah Billionton at the end of Jume. Billington will now face veteran Mike Ciesnolevicz (17-5). Ciesnolevicz is in a bit of a slump, but is still a dangerous threat to Billington.

Strikeforce ran a show in California last night. The main event saw Josh Thompson retain his title with a win over Duane Ludwig. Chase Beebe won in his Strikeforce debut, besting Mark Hominick. Other winners on the main card were Andre Galvano over Jorge Masvidal, Chad Vance over Kevin Randleman, and Joe Riggs over Benji Radach.

Kaz Fujita lost his last fight to a young fighter over in WVR. After the fight we learned that they are not planning on extending his contract. Fujita is a tough guy, but at 39 how much does he have left in the tank? I don’t know, but I do know, that he could put some butts in the seats. I put out a call to his agent as well as Benji Radach’s, who is also coming to the end of his deal with Strikeforce.

World Extreme Cagefighting ran a show in my backyard of New Jersey. They managed an attendance of 1471 people. Both Miguel Torres, and Uriah Faber were on the card. Faber had an impressive victory over Jose Aldo. Other winners on the card were Donald Cerrone, James Krause, and Bart Palaszewski.

We have a need for some bigger name fighters, so I throw out some lines. I will not overpay for some name, but I would like to get some guys who are a little more established.

[PilotMan]

JUNE 2010

May was our worst month so far. Which is frustrating, since we have done so well to get to this point. Our fighter costs are up almost 40% from last month and our revenues were down for the first time since we opened. Overall, we posted a loss of 55k. We still have over 4.5 mil in the bank, so we aren’t worried about that anytime soon. The Donald should be happy for a while at least. What we really need is a TV deal, but in order to get that we need to bump our popularity up some.

Our popularity is at 48% which is up from last month but only by 2%. We expect to have another good month this month, we need to. Bellator has had a terrible run of late, their popularity has fallen off the charts and we are now more popular in the US. Bellator has dropped to #13 in the world. Speaking of the US, we are the #4 promotion, behind the UFC, WEC and Strikeforce. In the world we are the #8 promotion, with Shooto and World Victory Road just ahead of us.

Our roster has grown now to 216 fighters. A big roster is nice as we never run out of options, as well as, it gives us a chance to find out who is good and who isn’t so good, and develop and groom those guys who are worth grooming. The tournament continues to move along slowly. I can’t wait until we have our first champions.

Here are the top 5 fighters in each weight class right now:

Featherweight

1.  Joe Soto (10-0)
2.  Din Thomas (26-8)
3.  Cub Swanson (15-2) 
4.  Yahir Reyes (16-6)
5.  Bao Quach (16-9-1)

Lightweight 

1.  Jeff Curran (31-12-1)
2.  Marcin Held (6-0)
3.  Karen Darabedyan (10-1)
4.  Rich Clementi (34-15-1)
5.  Wesley Johnson (5-0)

Welterweight 

1.  Ryan Ford (12-2)
2.  Chris Wilson (15-6)
3.  Lyman Good (11-0)
4.  Jason Norwood (8-1)
5.  Yves Edwards (37-15-1)

Middleweight

1.  Tom Watson (10-3)
2.  Trevor Prangley (21-6)
3.  Jared Hess (10-1)
4.  Gerald Harris (14-3)
5.  Terry Martin (19-8)

Light Heavyweight

1.  Jimi Manuwa (5-0)
2.  Ralek Gracie (3-0)
3.  Raphael Davis (8-1)
4.  Marcus Sursa (7-4)
5.  Ryan Jimmo (13-1)

Heavyweight 

1.  Brenden Schaub (5-0)
2.  Darril Schoonover (11-0)
3.  Justin Wren (9-1)
4.  Brandon Cash (6-1)
5.  Blagoi Ivanov (3-1)

[PilotMan]

Maximum Fighting Championships ran a card yesterday, and the main event saw Jason McDonald (23-12) retain his light heavyweight title against Mychal Clark (7-7). Bobby Lashley ran his record to 4-0. Brendan Shaub our top ranked heavyweight, ran his record to a perfect 6-0 with a win in his MFC debut over Ulysses Castro (8-6).

We have arrived in one fashion or another. UFC has scheduled a UFC Fight Night that will run in New Jersey the same night as Cage Warriors 12: Quach v. Swanson. Their main card is a little better than ours.

Frank Mir (13-3) v. Stefan Struve (19-3)
Brandon Vera (11-3) v. Little Nog (16-3)
Dan Hardy (21-7) v. Carlos Condit (24-5)
Keith Jardine ( 15-6-1) v. Vlad Matyushenko (23-4)
Renzo Gracie (13-7-1) v. Tomasz Drwal (18-2)

The undercard also has Mike Swick v. Dustin Hazelett which is sure to be a good one.

Cage Warriors 11 is tomorrow night and I really like how this card looks on paper. It is certain to be much better than the last as we have a lot of big names fighting on the show. Additionally, we have a lot of guys who are looking to move up the roster, that will have an opportunity to just that. One thing that is for sure, is that it is going to be the most expensive card we have ever run too.

We pulled off a minor coup by outbidding Strikeforce for the services of Benji Radach. Radach, who hasn’t won much of anything since the IFL folded, brings exciting fights, and a good level of popularity. Both of which we will need to go to the next level. Radach steps in as our highest paid fighter, as he will start off making 3250 in each fight. That is still about half of what other guys want who are at his same level. His contract still isn’t exclusive, so he would be free to sign with someone else, but we know that he will likely to be loyal to us for a little while.

[PilotMan]

Cage Warriors 14: Whitson v. Stapleton is announced for the end of July. This is a rock solid card on the main show, and some good fights in the prelims. The main event is between Richie Whitson, the top ranked lightweight, not in the tournament, and English import Martin Stapleton. Whitson brings his unbeaten 8-0 record against the 6-1 Stapleton. Stapleton is coming off of a third round KO over Kevin Croke in CW 4.

Also on the card are two tourney title eliminator fights. The first is at middleweight between Terry Martin (19-8) and Gerald Harris (14-3). The winner moves on to the title fight. The second is at light heavyweight between Raphael Davis (8-1) and Ryan Jimmo (13-1). The Davis/Harris fight is the last of the first round fights, if you remember, it is Jimmo who stepped in for Rawdon Lee, who was injured in another MMA fight.

The other big fight on the card marks the debut for two of the newer CWFC fighters. Brock Larson (27-3) comes to us from a less than successful UFC run. He fights against Bellator prospect Jesse Juarez (12-5). Juarez is on a 4 fight win streak but Larson is vastly experienced, and a very tough customer. Here is a rundown of the full card:

Cage Warriors 14: Whitson v. Stapleton

Richie Whitson (8-0) v. Martin Stapleton (6-1) LW
#7 Terry Martin (19-8) v. #3 Gerald Harris (14-3) MW
Brock Larson (27-3) v. Jesse Juarez (12-5) WW
#2 Raphael Davis (8-1) v. #7 Ryan Jimmo (13-1) LHW
Yahir Reyes (16-6) v. Issei Tamura (6-0) FW

----Prelims----

Jussier da Silva (3-0) v. Sadhu Bott (4-0) FW
Carlos Quinton (6-1) v. Joe Duarte (5-2) LW
Bryan Baker (9-3) v. Koa Ramos (4-1) MW
Dong Yi Yang (8-1) v. Neil Wain (5-2) HW
Ben Holscher (5-1) v. Scott Norton (6-2) WW

Da Silva and Bott are both on the rise, and Joe Duarte is looking to recover from that KO he suffered at the hands of Whitson, in a fight he was winning.

[PilotMan]

Strikeforce ran a huge show in California last night. The main event saw Antonio Silva score a unanimous decision over the great Fedor. Gina Carano won in the co-headliner. There were two Cage Warriors in that show. The first was Nate Moore who lost by TKO in the first round to Tim Kennedy. The second on the card was heavyweight tournament title contender Brandon Cash who scored an early second round KO over Daniel Cormier.

Maximum Fighting Championships ran a card with Tim Sylvia and Kimbo Slice as the main event. Sylvia won by TKO in the first round. Other winners on the main card were Jason Day, Jason Kuchera, Ariel Sexton, and Jon Madsen.

On the same day DREAM ran a card on TV with Mario Miranda staying undefeated. Ryo Chonan also won.

[PilotMan]

Our first show of July is tonight. So far there have been no surprises. The main event is between Ralek Gracie and Marcus Sursa, with the winner moving on to the light heavyweight title fight. Today, Cage Warriors is also pleased to introduce Japanese fighter Katsunori Kikuno to the US. Kikuno is a total unknown here in the US, although he was submitted by Eddie Alvarez in a DREAM fight last year. Crafton Wallace also makes his CWFC debut.

Cage Warriors 13: Gracie v. Sursa

The first prelim fight is in the heavyweight division and between Demico Rogers (4-1, BJJ, 245lbs) and Orvil Palmer (4-1, Wrestling, 266). Both men lost in their debuts in Cage Warriors. Wow! What a terrifyingly bad fight. Rogers could not takedown or grapple with Palmer at all. Palmer leaned on the cage with Rogers pressed against it, for the entire fight. Both men were out of gas by the third round. No offense, no punching, no sub attempts, no takedowns. Bad! Palmer did win though. Poor fight. Thank God it wasn’t on the main card.

Next up is in the welterweight division. Alexander Trevino (5-2, Boxing/Wrestling) and Michael Pastou (5-0, Freestyle) are fighting. One poor fight to follow another, and I am thankful that these guys are not on the main show. Trevino showed better takedown skills, but couldn’t mount much offense from the top. Pastou failed to leave his mark on the fight, and was beaten because of it. Poor fight.

In the lightweight division, Bill Boland (4-1, Wrestling) takes on Joe Morales (4-1, Wrestling). Both men lost in their debut’s. Hopefully this is a little better. This is much better! Boland shoots early and controls Morales with a takedown, then mounts him. When he can’t pound him out, he locks an armbar on and finishes the fight. Great fight.

Our 4th prelim fight is between Brandon Foxworth (16-5, Submission Wrestling) and Henrique Bilcalho (10-3, BJJ/Muay Thai). This fighters are in the featherweight division. Foxworth seemed to have one strategy here and that was to get Bilcalho to the mat. He failed on almost all accounts and spend much of one round pinned against the cage eating knees and elbows. Foxworth ran out of gas, and Bilcalho tagged him and forced him against the cage again, where Bilcalho hit more big shots and the ref had to stop it. Good fight for Bilcalho, Average.

The last prelim fight is between Darren Uyenoyama (6-3 , JJ/Wrestling) and Russ Miura (5-2, BJJ) in the featherweight division. This is Uyenoyama’s debut. Another crap fight. Uyenoyama and Miura danced around, both fighters were very cautious, and wouldn’t let the other get close. Uyenoyama tried multiple takedown attempts but was stopped until round 3 when a tired Miura jumped guard. Uyenoyama did enough to pull out a close win, but neither fighter impressed. Poor fight.

The main card starts with the heavyweight division. Eddie Sanchez (9-3, Striker, 250lbs) takes on Rodrigo Munduruca (7-0, Muay Thai/BJJ, 285lbs). Munduruca chose to grapple early on and that was smart, as he scored a takedown in round one. Sanchez almost ended it in round 2 as he battered Munduruca on the ground, but somehow, he allowed him to get back up. Round three was very close. Munduruca got an early takedown, but laid on Sanchez and neither fighter did much. Munduruca wins a very close split decision. Decent fight.

In the middleweight division Crafton Wallace (18-3-1, Muay Thai/Vale Tudo) takes on Chris Price (15-2, Boxing/Wrestling). Price has a good record, but against some less than stellar competition. Wallace is good competition. Chris Price with 15 minutes of solid MMA action. Wallace could not keep Price from taking him down, and once there, he defended well, but couldn’t escape or get him off. Average fight.

Two welterweights are next. Hiromitsu Miura (9-7, Judo) and Justin Davis (10-7, Boxing/Wrestling) are next. Miura makes his debut and Davis is coming off of a win. Miura used good kicks over and over again to damage Davis. Davis tried to grapple but Miura was too slick. Davis finally pulled a good round out in the third with some good grappling, and strikes, but the damage had already been done. Good fight.

The co-main event is in the lightweight division and sees the debut of Katsunori Kikuno (13-2-2, Judo/Karate) as he fights Ran Weathers (14-5, Boxing/Wrestling). Weathers can crack the top 10 with a win here. It looked early that Kikuno was going to finish the fight early and dramatically, but slowly the tide turned and Weathers won the round. The second round was a little better for Weathers and the last was very good. Weathers showed good strikes and good ground control to get the decision win over the much heralded Japanese fighter. Decent fight.

The main event is here! From the light heavyweight division, Ralek Gracie (3-0, BJJ) takes on Marcus Sursa (7-4, Wrestling). The winner advances to the light heavyweight title fight. The best fight of the night is the last! Gracie took Sursa down in the first and controlled him, although it wasn’t very exciting he served notice that he was here to fight. Sursa came out fast in round two by knocking Gracie down with a solid shot. Gracie recovered fast as Sursa came in and fought him off well. Eventually sweeping Sursa and taking his back right before the end of the round. Sursa came out fast in the third with another barrage of hard punches that hurt Gracie. Sursa punished him against the cage until it was stopped. Marcus Sursa moves on to the title fight. Great fight.

We have a gate of 616 fans and the show was rated as being good.

Fight of the Night goes to Ralek Gracie and Marcus Sursa.
Knockout of the Night goes to Marcus Sursa.
Submission of the Night goes to Bill Boland.

[PilotMan]

We have to realize that with the popularity level of most of our fighters being relatively low now, and our popularity still increasing it is going to be harder to get those top-shelf shows. A good show will still move us upward. Marcus Sursa, who was a fill in, has gotten a title shot. Lots of mediocrity on the card though too. Ran Weathers and Chris Price were the best of the rest.

Bellator ran a show last night that had two of our fighters fighting. The first was the main event with Eric Reynolds (which I gotta tell you would be terrible for us.) getting a win over John Gunderson. And the other was Jared Hess, who is still in our title eliminator tournament, getting a win over Gary Padilla. I can’t say that I was impressed with that show either. Bellator is going to lose their TV show very soon, then they will be like every other regional promotion in the US.

I have finished the booking for our 15th show. The main event is a welterweight battle between established vet Yves Edwards and up-and-comer Gary Wright. Wright is undefeated but has never faced an opponent as dangerous as Yves Edwards. Edwards has a great ground game to go with a solid standing attack. The co-main event is a heavyweight title eliminator fight between Brendan Schaub and Justin Wren, with the winner moving on to the title fight. Our prelim card features MMA veteran Travis Wiuff.

Cage Warriors 15: Edwards v. Wright

Yves Edwards (37-15-1) v. Gary Wright (10-0) WW
#1 Brendan Schaub (6-0) v. #4 Justin Wren (9-1) HW
Danny Valimaki (4-0) v. Phil Davis (5-0) LHW
Fabio Nascimento (10-4) v. Fabio Silva (15-5) MW
Matt Fiordirosa (12-2) v. Hideo Tokoro (22-18-1) FW

----Prelims----

Victor Valimaki (17-6) v. Travis Wiuff (59-13) LHW
Keita Nakamura (16-5-2) v. Zac George (18-3) LW
Magomed Shikshabekov (6-0) v. Ryan Stonitsch (9-1) WW
Roman Ship (2-1) v. Mike Haynes (5-1) HW
Charles Diaz (3-1) v. Jung Hyun Cho (2-1) LW

I am really looking forward to the first two fights on the main card. Fiordirosa and Tokoro can light it up. It will be a big test for Fiordirosa, and the winner will be firmly planted in the top 10 in the featherweight division. The other fight between Fabio Nascimento and Fabio Silva will also leave one of those two planted near the top of that division, awaiting the winner of the title.

[PilotMan]

Strikeforce ran a card with Shonie Carter in the main event. Carter lost his fight when he was TKOed in the 3rd round by Jesse Taylor. On the same card Gegard Mousasi TKOed Mike Whitehead just prior to the end of the third round. This is Mousasi’s first fight since dropping his title to King Mo.

I received word that Terry Martin, who is in our middleweight title eliminator and fighting next week against Gerald Harris has signed an exclusive deal with Strikeforce. This deal will let him fight next week, a win would mean that I have a hole in my tournament. Here’s hoping that Gerald Harris can pull the win out! Martin was ranked #6 in our middleweight division and his popularity made him an asset. At least we will get one more fight out of him before he leaves. In positive news, we were able to sign Abel Cullum away from DREAM. We paid him a lot of cash, but he is a big name for us. And although we didn’t sign him to an exclusive deal, we know for sure that he is leaving the Japanese promotion. Our featherweight division is getting deep.

UFC ran a card with a returning Dan Henderson beating Wanderlei in a 3 round decision. The co-main was Gabe Gonzaga defeating Ben Rothwell by KO at the end of the third round. Other winners were Sergei Kharitonov winning in his UFC debut. Vitor and Thiago Alves were also winners.

[DeToxRox]

Love this dynasty. Keep up the good work.

[PilotMan]

Our 14th show it today. The main event is a lightweight battle between Richie Whitson and Martin Stapleton. From top to bottom on this card there are good fights to be had. I feel confident that this card is going to go off very well. Needless to say expectations are high.

Cage Warriors 14: Whitson v. Stapleton

We start off in the welterweight division. Ben Holscher (6-1, Wrestling) takes on Scott Norton (6-2, Submission Wrestling). Both men had losses in their first fights. Norton comes in with the better reputation. Holscher shoots in right away and takes Norton down, he passes into side control with ease and immediately hammers Norton. Norton fails to defend himself and the ref jumps in to stop the fight. Great fight.

The second fight is in the heavyweight division. Dong Yi Yang (8-1, Wrestling, 240lbs) gives away 45 pounds to the bigger Neil Wain (5-2, Brawler, 285). Yang lost his first fight his last time out. It was expected that Yang would try and get this fight to the mat, and that is what he tried to do, but it almost cost him the fight in round one, as Wain sprawled and hammered the Korean on the mat. Yang found that he was unable to get Wain to the ground, and that his size appeared to be a factor. Wain knocked Yang down in the 3rd, but Yang held on for the decision, although he knew he hadn’t done enough to get the win. Decent fight.

Two middleweight fighters go at it next. Bryan Baker (9-3, Judo/Wrestling) and Koa Ramos (4-1, Hybrid) lost their last time out, and Ramos comes in with the slightly higher reputation. Baker and Ramos took some time feeling each other out, and it was Baker who was pushing the action. Baker scored the takedown, and his ground game was superior, as he forced Ramos to tap from an arm triangle from the top. Average fight.

Carlos Quinlon (6-1, Muay Thai) and Joe Duarte (5-2, Muay Thai) face off in this battle of lightweight strikers. Both fighters tasted defeat in their last outing. Who gets the win here tonight? Duarte’s better use of leg kicks and his willingness to attack, and grapple saw him take this in a 3-round decision. Quinlon didn’t have much to show. Average fight.

The last prelim fight is in the featherweight division, and is between Jussier da Silva (3-0, BJJ) and Sadhu Bott (4-0, BJJ). Both men won impressive decisions in their debut’s. Bott is huge! He has an 8-inch height advantage and a 15-inch reach advantage over the natural flyweight fighter! These two should have put on a good show, da Silva pressed the action, and scored with multiple takedown’s but Bott’s striking and defense first mentality kept him from doing much damage. Da Silva’s aggressiveness and cage control, along with 3 takedowns, get him the decision over the bigger man. Very Poor fight.

Our main show opens with Yahir Reyes (16-6, Boxing/Wrestling) taking on Issei Tamura (6-0, Shooto) in the featherweight division. Tamura is giving away 7-inches of height and reach in this one. Tamura is coming off of a spectacular submission of Tokoro. No way! Tamura outworked Reyes in round one, but was knocked down in rounds two and three. He survived round two, and in round three he recovered and ended up in Reyes’ guard before the fight ended. My opinion was the Reyes should have won, but it was Tamura who won 29-28 on all three cards. Good fight.

Light heavyweight title eliminator fight with the winner moving on to face Jimi Manuwa. Raphael Davis (8-1, Wrestling/BJJ) is taking on Ryan Jimmo (13-1, Karate). Wow, Davis makes one hell of an impression with a good takedown, and some smooth ground work. Jimmo gave up his back and Davis just pounded him out from there. Jimmo never had a chance. Fantastic fight. Davis moves on.

Next up is a fight in the welterweight division. Brock Larson (27-3, Submission Wrestling) makes his Cage Warriors debut against Jesse Juarez (12-5, Boxing/Wrestling), who is also making his debut. Larson must have been watching Davis, because he took Juarez down without trouble, took his back and pounded him out in under two minutes. Great fight.

Terry Martin (19-8, Striker) shows up for his last CWFC fight against Gerald Harris (14-3, Wrestling). We in the front office are hoping that Harris can win and keep us from embarrassment in the light heavyweight tournament, should it be Martin that moves on. Harris pressed and kept coming forward on Martin, but Martin was equal to the task, avoiding the takedowns and using pinpoint strikes. Round one ended with a big punch that stunned Harris. In round 2, Martin found his timing better, and landed a head kick that knocked Harris out cold. Decent fight. Crap.

Our main event is next with Richie Whitson (8-0, Wrestling) taking on Martin Stapleton (6-1, Boxing/Wrestling). This fight is in the lightweight division. Stapleton used good grappling and ring control in the first round, overpowered Whitson early on. Round two started the same way, but at end of the round Whitson knocked Stapleton down with a big head kick. Stapleton survived and came out for the third, but ate another head kick while he was coming in, and went down. This time Whitson was good enough and finished the fight. Great fight.

772 fans in attendance for this one. The show got an excellent rating.

Fight of the Night goes to Richie Whitson and Martin Stapleton.
Knockout of the Night goes to Terry Martin.
Submission of the Night goes to Bryan Baker.

I thought that this was a solid card throughout, and I am thankful that I shuffled the Da Silva/Bott fight to the prelim card. Issei Tamura has now beaten two top ranked fighters in his climb up, both Reyes and Tokoro were favored to win, although I thought that Reyes should have won. Brock Larson wins in big fashion and Gerald Harris loses in a similar fashion. Terry Martin leaves us with a vacancy in our tournament, I’ll have more on that later.

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by DeToxRox

Love this dynasty. Keep up the good work.

Thanks Danny, and thanks to the other 4 guys reading too! I am having fun with it, and things are moving along well.

[PilotMan]

Well it isn’t glamorous, but I think that I have a decision in what to do with the hole that Terry Martin left us with. I can’t, in good conscience let Gerald Harris fight, especially with the poor show that he put on. And I don’t feel right about advancing someone straight to the final. So the only choice that I can see will be that the Trevor Prangley/Jared Hess fight will be for the CWFC Middleweight Title.

Another bit of bad news. Shonie Carter has turned in his notice, as he now plans to work exclusively for Strikeforce. That isn’t all that bad. Carter was going to get lost in that division, and especially after the loss to Edwards, wasn’t going to see the top for a while.

Jeff Curran went to Japan and won a fight against Ryota Uozomi (2-2), in what had to be considered a showcase fight. I can’t see how that was even challenging for the vastly experienced Curran. All it means for us is that it is that much longer until Curran will fight in our lightweight tournament.

[PilotMan]

Our pace of two fights every month continues into August with Cage Warriors 16: Held v. Clementi

Honestly, this card is a little weak considering some of the past cards that we have put on. And that we have another show that will raise us even higher makes it that much weaker. Our main event is between Marcin Held, who beat Antonio McKee, and another wily vet in Rich Clementi. The fact that Held is still a no-name means that Clementi’s name is the only thing really selling this show. And that is terrible. The co-main event is between a debuting Dave Herman and Yoshihiro Naako. Herman comes to Cage Warriors after a stint at Shark Fights, and he still does some work for WVR in Japan. His last fight was a win over Brian Humes, who also fights for us. Nakao would like to put a stamp on this fight, a win moves him one step closer to the top. Here is the full card:

Cage Warriors 16: Held v. Clementi

#7 Marcin Held (6-0) v. #3 Rich Clementi (34-15-1) LW
Dave Herman (17-3) v. Yoshihiro Nakao (10-2) HW
Andrew Buckland (9-7) v. Rudy Bears (10-4) WW
Drew Fickett (36-13) v. Jesse Sanders (20-6) WW
Jeong Hyeon Hwang (2-2) v. Taiki Tsuchiya (4-2) FW

----Prelims----

Kevin Casey (3-2) v. Priscus Fogagnolo (4-1) LHW
Christian Uflacker (2-1) v. Sergio Gomez (8-3) LW
Spencer Herns (2-0) v. Cristobal Verissimo (3-0) MW
Jeremy Williams (5-1) v. Karn Grigoryan (6-1) LHW
Jacob O’ Connell (5-0) v. Reggie Orr (9-8-1) MW

[PilotMan]

AUGUST 2010

The monthly P&L showed some improvement over last month’s. Our loss was 10k less than last month, but it was still a loss, a small one. The biggest improvement on the income side came from our merchandise, which was almost double last month’s. Our gate take also came in better. Our expenses continue to rise as well. Admin overhead is growing as is our marketing costs. Marketing will hopefully gain us a better gate and hopefully some sponsorship money, which is terrible right now.

Moving forward we don’t anticipate any dramatic increase in fighter costs. That might change depending on who we can get to come in and at what price they do. It would take a truly dynamic fighter to force us to spend that kind of money on one guy. We just aren’t at that point where we can spend that kind of money.

Popularity is outstanding. We have increased up to 68% , which is an increase from the 59% from last month. We are now in the high Regional level of popularity, and only a select few of our fighters are there with us. That is going to be difficult to maintain, but hopefully we can. If we can press on to national popularity we can start to expand a little, and run some smaller shows in other cities, as well as go looking for a TV deal. That would be nice. We still sit #7 internationally, and #4 in the US.

[PilotMan]

Wes Shivers won the Shark Fights Heavyweight Title in only his second pro fight. His win was over Justin McCully who had only won the title in April.

The next two days are insane in the MMA world. Today, DREAM and WVR are running cards opposite one another in Japan, and in the US, the UFC is running a card opposite them both. The next day we have our 15th show, and Strikeforce has decided to run against us. DEEP is also running a card in Japan on that day.

UFC 111: Silva v. Kangwas last night. Anderson Silva (25-5) and Denis Kang (34-11-1) put on a great fight. Kang had lost his UFC debut, but since had a win over Professor X, and Nate Marquardt. Kang took Silva to round 5 before submitting him and winning the UFC 185lb title. Rashad Evans (14-1-1) won a unanimous decision over Shogun Rua (18-6). Other winners on the card were Thiago Silva (15-2), Allistar Overeem (32-12) in his debut with UFC, and George Sotiropoulos (10-2).

Over in Japan, WVR put on a so-so card, with no title fights, and DREAM 20 also ran. At the DREAM show Ricardo Arona (16-5) retained his DREAM Light Heavyweight title with a late round TKO over Mamed Khalidov (24-4-1). JZ (17-3-1) submitted Kawajiri (26-6-2), and Cage Warriors fighter Ryan Ford (12-3) was submitted by Fabricio Nascimento (20-9). Ford is still in our title eliminator, he is scheduled to face off against Lyman Good, with the winner to face Jason Norwood for the title. Like that fight will ever happen at this pace.

[PilotMan]

Gary Wright takes a step up against Yves Edwards tonight. We’ll see if Edwards comes in with a plan like he had against Shonie Carter. We’ll see who will be fighting in the Heavyweight final in the fight between Schaub and Wren. Other top title contenders will also be going at it here at Cage Warriors 15.

Cage Warriors 15: Edwards v. Wright

The opening fight of the night is in the lightweight divison, and is between Charles Diaz (3-1, JJ) and Jung Hyun Cho (2-1, Kick Boxing). Not expecting much here, but it would be nice to see someone step up a little. Cho controlled early with his standup, but Diaz was quick to the takedown, and Cho eventually succumbed to the rear naked choke. Great fight.

Heavyweights Roman Shipp (2-1, Brawler, 260lbs) and Mike Hayes (5-1, Freestyle, 255). Again, not expecting much here, but hopefully a fighter will separate himself. Hayes wasn’t concerned with Shipp’s standup and went right in, took him down, and dominated him on the ground. Shipp was submitted within 2 minutes. Great fight.

Magomed Shikshabekov (6-0, Sambo) and Ryan Stonitsch (9-1, Muay Thai) are in the 3rd prelim fight. This is a welterweight fight. Round one held promise as Shikshabekov had taken Stonitsch’s back, but the the round ended there. That was the end of the excitement. Shikshabekov scored a couple more takedown’s but Stonitsch’s defense was good enough. Just ended up being a boring fight. Shikshabekov wins to stay undefeated, but it was a poor fight.

K-Taro Nakamura (16-5-2, Wrestling) and Zac George (18-3, Wrestling) are both fighting in the featherweight division. George is coming off of a win and K-Taro is making his debut. Both are just outside of the top contenders. George got into some trouble early, as K-Taro pinned him against the cage, but George reversed and took K-Taro down. George scored another takedown in round 2, and his ground skills were much better. Nakamura taps from yet another rear naked choke. Good fight.

The last prelim fight of the night is between Victor Valimaki (17-6, Karate) and Travis Wiuff (59-13, Wrestling). Wiuff is making his Cage Warriors debut. These two are light heavyweights. Lots of grappling here. Wiuff isn’t great, and spent most of the fight on his back, but his defense was good enough that he got the restart in each round. Wiuff had no offense standing even when Valimaki ran out of gas, and Valimaki stole the fight. Decent fight.

We open the main show with a great fight between Matt Fiordirosa (12-2, Wrestling) and Hideo Tokoro (22-18-1, Boxing/Wrestling). This is a featherweight fight, between two guys who are just outside the list of top contenders. Fiordirosa started strong and controlled the fight early on, but Tokoro reversed him and put him in danger. He stayed away in round 2, and Tokoro took it by being aggressive. Tokoro pressed his advantage in round 3 and just wore Fiordirosa out. Average fight.

The second show on the card is in the middleweight division beween Fabio Nascimento (10-4, BJJ) and Fabio Silva (15-5, Muay Thai). A win for either man in this fight puts him solidly in the top 5 in the division. Silva stunned Nascimento with a fast shot, and ended the fight with a quick, powerful flurry. Nascimento lasted all of :25. Great fight.

Our third fight is between two young, rising stars in the light heavyweight division. Danny Valimaki (4-0, Wrestling) and Phil Davis (5-0, Wrestling) are going to go, and someone is going to suffer their first loss. Davis took Valimaki down with ease, and transitioned quickly to side control. From there, Valimaki panicked and Davis took advantage as Valimaki gave up his back. Davis quickly transitioned to the rear naked choke and finished the fight with ease. Fantastic fight.

Our co-main event is a heavyweight title eliminator fight. Brenden Schaub (6-0, Boxing/BJJ, 260lbs) takes on Justin Wren (9-1, Wrestling, 285). Schaub failed to create space with his punches and Wren was allowed to get close enough to grapple. Schaub ended up on his back each round, and was at Wren’s mercy. Wren was superior on the ground, and took the solid victory to move on to the finals. Average fight.

The main event is in the welterweight division. Yves Edwards (37-15-1, Thugjitsu) and Gary Wright (10-0, Wrestling) are the main focus of tonight’s card. Both men are in the top 5 already, and well poised for a title fight. Wright came in with a plan and that plan was to go to the mat. Wright took Edwards down in both the first two rounds, but couldn’t advance beyond that. Edwards rebounded in the third as Wright tired, but it wasn’t enough as Wright was able to remain undefeated. Average fight.

We had a monster crowd of 1,023 for our show, and it received a fantastic rating.

Fight of the Night goes to Zac George and K-Taro.
Knockout of the Night goes to Fabio Silva.
Submission of the night goes to Phil Davis.

Well, our top two fights didn’t deliver but the card was a big success. Gary Wright firmly plants himself near the top of the welterweight division, as does Justin Wright in the heavyweight. There were a lot of submission’s and one dominating TKO. There will be an upcoming announcement concerning our various title tournaments. I am very happy with things here, we will be moving things along a little faster where we can.

[PilotMan]

Stikeforce ran a big show opposite our show. The main event saw Cung Le (8-0) taking Jake Shields (25-5-1) to 5 rounds, get the win, and regain his middleweight crown. Jacare Souza (11-3) beat Cyborg Santos (17-14). Frank Shamrock (23-11-2) was beaten by Luke Rockhold (8-1). Other winners were Babalu Sorbal (36-10) and Fabricio Werdum (15-4-1).

Sometimes the best laid plans are not good enough, and that is exactly what has happened with our various title tournaments. I floated an idea that I think is going to succeed. Our next show has the unpopular Held taking on Rich Clementi for a shot at the lightweight title and it just wasn’t going over. If we are going to continue to bring the people in we need a better fight. Cub Swanson is still taking a big chunk of time off, but both Joe Soto and Din Thomas are available, and both are available on short notice. I usually book my shows a month in advance, but this was a special situation. The main event for our next show will be for the Cage Warrior Featherweight Title. Held and Clementi have been bumped to the co-main which is where it should be and Din Thomas and Joe Soto battle it out for the title. Now, Cub Swanson has been promised the first challenge for the title, and considering he was taking that time off anyway agreed that this was the best choice. The last fight on that card has been pushed back to Cage Warriors 17, and the last on that will be booked at a later date. You can fully expect more moves like this in the near future, as now the divisions are starting to take shape.

[DeToxRox]

I think it's quite obvious you need some Krazy Horse.

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by DeToxRox

I think it's quite obvious you need some Krazy Horse.

Bennett is actually under an exclusive deal with the UFC, so sadly, no Krazy Horse in Cage Warriors.

[PilotMan]

Cage Warriors are pleased to announce the final booking for Cage Warriors 17. The main event is a feature fight between two of the top heavyweight fighters in Cage Warriors. Daniel Puder (8-0) will be taking on Neil Cooke (6-0). Puder has won his last two CW fights by TKO, his last, an impressive win over Ricco Rodriguez. Cooke is a big, big man, who usually tips the scales at 300lbs, and fits into our expanded heavyweight, where he would usually be at super heavy. Cooke has one win here in Cage Warriors but this fight with Puder will be the biggest of his career. The co-feature is between Brock Larson and Dan Hornbuckle at welterweight. Both fighters have 54 fights between them and only 5 losses. This figures to be a battle between Hornbuckle’s standup and Larson’s grappling. Cage Warriors are also pleased to introduce former UFC fighter Jim Miller, who is making his debut. Miller had won his last three fights in the UFC, before his contract expired, and he settled for our contract offer. Here is the full schedule for Cage Warriors 17:

Cage Warriors 17:  Puder v. Cooke

Daniel Puder (8-0) v. Neil Cooke (6-0) HW
Brock Larson (28-3) v. Dan Hornbuckle (21-2) WW
Jim Miller (16-2) v. Ricardo Tirlone (9-2) LW
Louis Taylor (5-1) v. Nate Moore (8-2) MW
James Lee (13-4) v. Jake O’Brien (12-4) LHW

----Prelims----

Jason Lambert (23-11) v. Jeremy Horn (81-20-5) MW
Don Frye (20-11-1) v. Mark Burch (9-3) HW
Brian Travers (11-2) v. Joe Heiland (6-1) WW
Cole Province (7-1) v. Darren Uyenoyama (7-3) FW
Jacob O’Connell  (5-0) v. Reggie Orr (9-8-1) MW

It’s hard to see names like Lambert, Horn and Frye on the undercard. All of these guys have good name value, but if any of them are going back up the card they are going to need to start winning. Besides, they just don’t put on a very good show.

[PilotMan]

Bellator 18 ran a show from Florida last night. We had two fighters on that card. The first was Wilson Reis (10-2) who won with a submission just before the end of the third, and the other was Stephen Ledbetter (8-5) who won in the main event with a TKO early in the fight.

X-1 ran a show and we had Lolohea Mahe (5-2) fought on it. Mahe was submitted in the second round. The main event saw Alvin Robinson (11-4) win the featherweight title over Eddie Yagin (13-4-1).

Same night Maximum Fighting Championships ran a card with Bobby Lashley winning his 5th in a row. Lashley has his third first round stoppage in a row. Thales Leites (16-3) won in the co-main event. Other winners were Ray Elbe (23-11), Ryan Heck (8-2) and Blake Fredrickson (14-5-1).

WEC 50 ran their show and in it, Jaime Varner (18-2) retained his lightweight title with a win over Zach Micklewright (7-1). Taursosevicius (11-3) gave Jens Pulver (22-15) another loss. Pulver has now lost 7 in a row, and 9 of his last 10. His last win was almost 3 years ago. Other winners were Mackens Semerzeir (8-0), Rani Yaha (17-4) and Fredson Paixao (10-4).

[PilotMan]

Well that didn’t go the way that I had envisioned! You know that I have been working to secure our first television deal, and for the most part all I have gotten is “Thanks, but no thanks.” That is, until this week. The folks at ESPN Deportes and spent the week going back and forth to try and hammer out a deal for our show. The problem was they wanted us on the graveyard schedule, and we could never work out the specifics of the arrangement. Here I spent the whole week envisioning what our first show would look like on TV. Instead what happened was the people from Deportes walked away, and likely won’t be back to talk to us for some time. I guess that makes me an idiot or something. Still, I can’t see us not being on TV the way that our promotion has grown over the past year. Hopefully we can secure that and I am still searching for a PPV deal too, but that is even further away. This missed opportunity will not deter us, and hopefully will allow us to snag an even better deal.

[PilotMan]

The first ever Cage Warriors featherweight champion is going to be crowned tonight. We are nearing our one year anniversary and it’s about time that we start to get some champions in here. I am greatly looking forward to this fight between Joe Soto, and Din Thomas. In the other big fight, can young Marcin Held knock off wisend vet Rich Clementi? We will soon find out! I finished booking for our late September show which will be announced in the days after tonight. All I can tell you about it now, is that there is another title fight scheduled for the main event.

The show starts off in the light heavyweight division. Jeremy Williams (5-1, Boxing) is taking on Karn Grigoryan (6-1, Freestyle). Both fighters are coming off of their first losses of their careers. Williams won the first round with some ground and pound, but was mounted in the second. Fortunately for him Karn ran out of gas while he was mounted, and neither fighter did much in round three. One judge saw it for Williams and the others had it even, as we get our first majority draw. Average fight.

The second prelim fight is in the middleweight division and is between Spencer Herns (2-0, Wrestling) and Cristobal Verissimo (3-0, Kick Boxing). Verissimo proved that he is not only a kick boxer in this one. Herns was taken down twice, and each time ate a fair amount of leather. Verissimo finished it in the second with more hard shots from side control. Decent fight.

A lightweight fight is next beween Christian Uflacker (2-1, BJJ) and Sergio Gomez (8-3, Striker). Stikers sometimes have a glaring weakness and that is takedown defense and ground defense. Uflacker got Gomez to the ground early on, but instead of using his submission skills on him, chose to show the world that he can hit too. Uflacker wins via TKO ground and pound. Great fight.

Another light heavyweight fight. This one between Kevin Casey (3-2, BJJ) and Priscus Fogagnolo (4-1, Submission Wrestling). Casey had to work for this one as Fogagnolo wouldn’t engage him. It was like chasing a chicken. In the third Casey finally secured a takedown and worked for a rear naked choke that ended the fight. Average fight.

We finish the preliminary card in the featherweight division. Jeong Hyeon Hwang (2-2, Kick Boxing) and Taiki Tsuchiya (4-2, Shooto). South Korea versus Japan here. Hwang tried to use his standup to keep Taiki at bay, and it saved him until he was finally taken down at the end of the third round. From there Taiki tried to end the fight, but Hwang was saved by the bell. A poor fight that saw Taiki Tsuchiya get the decision nod.

We open the main card with a fight at welterweight. Drew Fickett (36-13, Wrestling) fights his 40th professional fight against Jesse Sanders (20-6, Boxing/Wrestling). Both men are coming off of losses. Fickett went for and got the takedown right away. From there the fight was over, as the more experienced fighter moved swiftly to mount and finished the fight with some brutal strikes. Good fight.

Andrew Buckland (9-7, Boxing/Wrestling) and Rudy Bears (10-4, American JJ) are set to square off in another welterweight fight. If you like wrestling then you liked this fight. Lots of cage pushing, shoving, multiple takedown attempts. Bears was the only one to score a takedown, and Buckland had better strikes. The standup of Buckland proved to be enough as Bears was tired in the second round. Buckland won on a decision. Average fight.

Two heavyweights come in next. Dave Herman (17-3, Wrestling, 265) makes his Cage Warriors debut against highly ranked Yoshihiro Nakao (10-2, Wrestling, 240). About what you would expect. Herman pressed the fight and got 3 takedowns, even though Nakao wanted nothing to do with him. Nakao really had no offense to speak of and was beaten while he was on his back. Herman wins his debut and likely slides into the top 10. Average fight.

The co-main event is a lightweight title eliminator fight between Marcin Held (6-0, BJJ) and Rich Clementi (34-15-1, Boxing/Wrestling). Can the youngster pull off another upset of a wiley veteran? Clementi used his experience and kept Held from doing much by controlling the grapple and not getting taken down. Clementi tired out first, and was taken down early in the third, but his defense was good enough so that the younger Held couldn’t pass guard. The vet Clementi moves on to the lightweight title fight. Decent fight.

Our main event is next! The battle for the Cage Warriors Featherweight title! Din Thomas (26-8, Boxing/BJJ) takes on the current Bellator featherweight champ Joe Soto (10-0, Wrestling). The fighters come together and it’s Soto who presses the action even closer. Thomas joins him in a clinch and is pushed with his back to the cage. Soto is trying to bully Thomas, who is holding his own against the cage. Thomas capitalizes on a mistake by Soto and sinks in a standing guillotine, then jumps up and drags Soto to the ground. Soto is stunned, and tried but only succeeds in the choke getting deeper. Soto finally taps out, giving Din Thomas the title. Fantastic fight!

We had another big crowd of 1,032 on hand and the show received an excellent rating.

Fight of the Night goes to Din Thomas and Joe Soto.
Knockout of the Night goes to Drew Fickett.
Submission of the Night goes to Din Thomas.

Din Thomas will make his first title defense against Cub Swanson. Too many boring fights, but this was more of a shakeup card than a contender card. Meaning that most of the fighters on this card aren’t going to be challenging for title anytime soon, and that most are trying to decide if they are going up or going down within the organization. The next card is more of a contenders card.

[PilotMan]

Matt Lidland who had recently signed with Strikeforce, but lost his first fight to Cyborg Santos, has decided to retire. His final record stood at 21-7.

A couple of our fighters are starting to appear in the top rankings worldwide. Din Thomas is currently ranked as the #6 featherweight in the world, and Lyman Good is the #10 welterweight.

Cage Warriors 18 will crown a new welterweight champion. With Ryan Ford still recovering, he will get the first shot at the winner of the title. That leaves the two remaining combatants to quarrel for the title. Lyman Good is the welterweight champ for Bellator and randed as the #10 welterweight in the world. He will be favored going against Jason Norwood, another former Bellator fighter who has made a good run beating two to get to this point. Good is a local boy, so the crowd will be with him. The co-main event is a heavyweight battle between two top ranked fighters in Blagoi Ivanov and Brad Imes. Imes has all the experience, and will tower over Ivanov by 8 inches, and have a 9 inch reach advantage. Ivanov is still getting his MMA legs under him after his Sambo victory over Fedor. The show also marks the debut for Benji Radach in Cage Warriors. Also debuting is former UFC fighter Kyle Bradley.

Lyman Good (12-0) v. Jason Norwood (9-1) for the Cage Warriors Welterweight Title
Blagoi Ivanov (3-1) v. Brad Imes (14-6)
Benji Radach (19-7) v. Jordan Radev (17-5)
Eric Reynolds (14-4) v. Mark Oshiro (11-3)
Ville Manninen (5-1) v. Kyle Bradley (13-6)

----Prelims----

Seth Petruzelli (11-5) v. Valentino Petrescu (7-1) 
Micah Miller (13-6) v. Roberto Vargas (7-3) 
Jason Black (23-5-1) v. Matt Grice (9-3)
Hidenori Nishino (3-4-2) v. Ikuo Usuda (6-2)
Jean Francois Bedard (1-1) v. Kim My (1-1)

A number of fighters here on the undercard were much more highly touted coming in but have failed to impress. These fighters are getting a second chance. Guys like Petruzelli, Miller, Vargas, and Black. Too many more losses for these guys and they won’t be needed for our organization

[PilotMan]

SEPTEMBER 2010

We have made big progress over the last year, and this marks the best month that we have ever had. A big increase in the number of fans at shows, shows on our P&L. This month we lost only 31k, the best month ever for Cage Warriors. This was buoyed by the gate receipts being more than twice what we had for the previous month. We also saw a slight uptick in sponsor money, while merchandise remained stable. On the expense side, we handed out more prize money than any other month, and we are still seeing the sharp increase in marketing and production. We still remain on the right path, but at this time it doesn’t look like we will be solvent this year. We are still sitting on a lot of cash, but I am not too keen to burn through it all at once. Instead I want to keep costs low and have things moving in the right direction before we start spending significantly more money on fighters. That is inevitable now, we will need to pay the guys we have as well as bring in some more popular faces, but I won’t drive up costs to do so.

From a popularity standpoint we are the #7 promotion in the world as we have now passed Shooto in Japan for that spot. Maximum Fighting Championships and DREAM are the promotions directly ahead of us. Popularity is at 79% up from 68% last month. We are still the #4 promotion in the US, with Strikeforce just ahead of us there. Pretty soon ,the bigger organizations are going to come cherry picking our talent, and we need to be popular enough to pay them, and to be able to offer exclusive deals. That’s not something I am going to do until we reach some level of national popularity.

With Din Thomas being crowned the top featherweight in the company, here is a look at how the rest of the featherweights are ranked at this time in Cage Warriors:

1.  Din Thomas (CHAMP) (27-8)
2.  Cub Swanson (16-2)
3.  Issei Tamura (7-0)
4.  Abel Cullum (18-2) 
5.  Joe Soto (10-1) 
6.  Isao Hirose (8-0)
7.  Yahir Reyes (16-7)
8.  Henry Martinez (4-1)
9.  Bao Quach (16-10-1)
10.  Hideo Tokoro (23-18-1)

Swanson get’s the first shot at Thomas, a fight between Tamura/Cullum/Soto/Hirose or some mix might determine who will get the next shot at the title. Depending on who comes out on top. Tamura is the real unknown of that group. He has pulled out wins where he should have been beaten.

[PilotMan]

We saw a title change in the UFC last night on Ultimate Fight Night. Lyoto Machida (15-1) lost his light heavyweight title to Ryan Bader (12-0) when Bader submitted him in the 5th round. Other winners on the night were Demian Maia (13-1) over Nate Marquardt (29-10-2), Forrest Griffin (17-6), Diego Sanchez (24-2), and Todd Duffee (7-0) over Cheick Kongo (13-6-1).

Rob Broughton (12-6-1) won the UC UK heavyweight title last night with a TKO over Hirotaka Yokoi (11-7). Andrei Arlovski (17-6) beat Pedro Rizzo (18-10) in the co-main, and should be in line for a title shot soon.

[PilotMan]

Cage Warriors 17: Puder v. Cooke is our next event, and it looks like it will be a very solid card from the top to the bottom. The main event between Daniel Puder, and KOTC Super Heavyweight Champion Neil Cooke. Both fighters are undefeated, and highly ranked.

The first fight on the night is in the middleweight division, and feature undefeated Jacob O’Connell (5-0, BJJ) going against Reggie Orr (9-8-1, Boxing/Wrestling). O’Connell gets the win, but it wasn’t great. Better grappling and striking and he scored the only takedown. Average fight.

The second fight is in the featherweight and is between Cole Province (7-1, Wrestling) and Darren Uyenoyama (7-3, Wrestling/BJJ). Province is finally making his debut. A nice little fight, Province knew he wanted to get this to the ground. That made for a boring fight, before Province finally got the takedown in the third. Uyenoyama couldn’t stop him, as he was mounted and pounded out in the 3rd. Good fight.

Next up is a welterweight dual between Bryan Travers (11-2, Wrestling) and Joe Heiland (6-1, Striker). Both fighters are coming off of losses. Heiland apparently decided it was in his best interest to avoid striking altogether and wrestle with Travers. Travers reversed him early and defended the rest. With the first two rounds in the bag, Heiland finally decided to throw, and landed some big shot all through the round, but despite winning the round, he lost the fight. Decent fight.

A couple of heavyweights are doing battle next. Don Frye (20-11-1, Wrestling, 230) gives away 55lbs to Mark Burch (9-3, Brawler, 285). Frye is an old duffer, who hasn’t won in a while. Burch was beaten his last time out. Frye took Burch down right away, and looked dangerous, but ran out of gas at the end of round one, when he couldn’t capitalize. Burch nailed Frye to start round 2, and with Frye tired, he had no defense, and Burch forced the stoppage with more shots. Average fight.

The last of the prelims is between two middleweight vets. Jason Lambert (23-11, Wrestling) and Jeremy Horn (81-20-5, Freestyle JJ) will go at it, both coming off of losses. Lambert controlled the early part of the round as he grappled with and controlled Horn against the cage. Lambert make an error and left his head in the wrong place, and Horn slapped the choke on and took him to the mat. Lambert could only tap to end the fight. Great fight.

The main show opens with light heavyweight’s James Lee (13-4, Wrestling) and Jake O’Brien (12-4, Wrestling). Both men were knocked out in the opening round of the title eliminator. Wow! What happened here? O’Brien shot in and took Lee down right away. Lee looked lost as O’Brien pounded him completely out. Great fight.

Louis Taylor (5-1, Striker) and Nate Moore (8-2, Wrestling) are both middleweights. Taylor is just coming off of a lengthy injury as is Moore. Moore scored two important takedowns, one at the end of the first and one in the second. Each time his dominance was clear. Moore finished the fight with an armbar in the second round. Great fight.

Jim Miller (16-2, Wrestling) and Ricardo Tirlone (9-2, BJJ) are two lightweights. Miller is making his Cage Warriors debut after signing with us. Miller comes and is expected to get the win, as his reputation is much better. Miller is also a hometown boy so the crowd is on his side. What did you really expect here? Lots of cage leaning, with Tirlone controlling most of the action, but unable to get a takedown. Tirlone did get two takedowns, the first almost got him submitted, as Miller got his head, and the second lead to some offense. It ended up being a very close fight, but Miller pulled out the 29-28 decision. I thought Tirlone won. Average fight.

The co-main event between Brock Larson (28-3, Submission Wrestling) and Dan Hornbuckle (21-3, Muay Thai/BJJ) in the welterweight division. Both men are in the top 10 of the division. This should be exciting. Larson moved to take down Hornbuckle right away, as he didn’t want any part of his stand up. Larson moved to mount quickly and took Hornbuckle’s back with ease. Hornbuckle was caught in a rear naked choke and forced to tap. Good fight.

The main event is between Daniel Puder (8-0, Wrestling, 255) and Neil Cooke (6-0, Boxing/Wresting, 290). Puder is giving away 35 pounds here. Puder looked to have no answer to the grappling of the bigger Cooke. Cooke pinned him to the cage and held, and punished him there for more than 6 minutes over the first two rounds. Puder hadn’t done anything. As round 2 was winding down, Puder nailed Cooke with a hard combo, that knocked Cooke out on his feet. The ref saved him from any more damage. Good fight.

We had a gate of 1,066 on hand and our show was rated as excellent.

Fight of the Night goes to Jeremy Horn and Jason Lambert.
Knockout of the night goes to Jake O’Brien
Submission of the Night goes to Jeremy Horn.

A solid, if unspectacular show. No real stinkers, and no real barnburners. Puder and Larson continue their runs, while Don Frye looks as if his career, is over.

[PilotMan]

Cage Warriors 19 has been booked and the big fight here will be between Able Cullum, making his Cage Warriors debut, and Wilson Reis. Cullum is no longer working for DREAM, and is considered one of the best flyweights in the world, but here in Cage Warriors our lowest class is featherweight so that is where he will fight. Reis is a rising star with only two losses, both to Joe Soto. This will be a very tough fight, but it should be very exciting as well. Our co-main event also features some rising stars. Brian Mclaughlin, a local boy, has been on the rise with two victories, takes on David Douglas, who has impressed with a KO and TKO wins here in Cage Warriors. I could see this fight going either way. This show also marks the debut of Japanese fighter Isao Hirose. Hirose is a natural flyweight, but like Cullum, is fighting at the much heavier featherweight. Hirose is top 10 in the world at flyweight. He debuts against Henrique Bilcalho. Bilcalho was submitted by Din Thomas, but is coming off of a TKO win over Brandon Foxworth. Bilcalho fights again as the underdog, but is still very dangerous. Antonio McKee makes his return to the cage and former UFC fighter Chris Wilson takes on former WEC fighter Noah Thomas in his CWFC debut.

Cage Warriors 19: Cullum v. Reis

Abel Cullum (18-2) v. Wilson Reis (10-2) FW
Brian McLaughlin (7-0) v. David Douglas (6-1) LW
Isao Hirose (8-0) v. Henrique Bilcalho (11-3) FW
Antonio McKee (22-4-2) v. Kwang Hee Lee (7-2) LW
Chris Wilson (15-7) v. Noah Thomas (14-6) WW

----Prelims----

Mark Lajhner (6-0) v. Andre Gusmao (7-1) HW
Kirill Sidelnikov (5-3) v. Bryan Humes (6-2) HW
Jeff Lawson (12-3) v. Keita Nakamura (16-6-2) LW
Jesse Juarez (12-6) v. Yosmanny Cabezas (9-3) WW
Kevin Croke (4-1) v. Paul Sass (9-1) LW

Lot’s of lighter weight class fights on this card. And that just shows that is where our strength is right now. We are still having some success siphoning off fighters from DREAM and WEC, and soon will be in direct competition with them. We have to be very close to bringing in some bigger money, and that will allow us to bring in some bigger named fighters

[PilotMan]

DREAM has signed Kaz Fujita, the almost 40 year old gets 4 fights with the promotion.

Bellator, who has fallen off the face of the MMA planet ran their best show yet last night. Eddie Alvarez (20-4) defended his lightweight title with a win over Roger Huerta (21-4-1).

Jimi Manuwa (6-0) headlined a DREAM TV show in Japan where he won a three round decision over Alexandre Ferreira (16-9). Funny thing about that show though. The gate was 274 folks, and it was the only fight on the card. Imagine that! DREAM’s contract with HDNet has expired and was not renewed right away.

UFC 112 ran last night. BJ Penn (16-5-1) retained his lightweight title with a win over Frankie Edgar (9-3). Bones Jones (10-0) won in a decision over Rich Franklin (25-7). Other winners on the card were Paulo Thiago (13-1) over Paul Daley (23-9-2), Big Nog (33-6-1) and Cain Velasquez (9-0) who beat Cro-Cop (26-8-2) by knocking him out in the second round.

Kimbo Slice (5-2) headlined another MFC card, and won with a TKO in the second round over Chul Hyun Jung (5-3). On the same card Bryan Baker (11-3) who is also a Cage Warrior won by TKO in the third.

Strikeforce also ran their big monthly card. In the main event, Shane Del Rosario (10-1) beat Roger Gracie (3-1) to win the Strikeforce Heavyweight title. The co-main event was Gilbert Melendez (17-3) over Victor Ribeiro (21-4). Other winners on the show were Tim Kennedy (14-2), and Andre Galvao (5-2).

X-1 ran a show where Darril Schoonover (12-0) was on the card. He had a very unimpressive win over Jacob Faagai (1-3).

[PilotMan]

The Cage Warriors Welterweight title is up for grabs tonight, as Lyman Good takes on Jason Norwood. Norwood comes off of his surprising win over Chris Wilson, and Good, remains undefeated and comes in as the decided favorite. The winner of the title will make his first defense against Ryan Ford. The co-feature is between heavyweight contenders Blagoi Ivaonov and Brad Imes. Our first fight is ready to begin.

Starting us off is a welterweight battle between Jean-Francois Bedard (1-1, Kick Boxing) and Kim My (1-1, Wrestling). Both
fighters lost their first fights with Cage Warriors. Bedard used his strikes to great effect in round one, but My caught him in round two, and took him down. Once My was in control on the ground, he was able to work for the Americana submission and Bedard was forced to tap. Great fight.

The next fight is in the lightweight division between Hidenori Nishino (3-4-2, Shooto) and Ikuo Usuda (6-2, Wrestling). Great fight here. Nishino tied them up, but Usuda maneuvered well enough to pick up Nishino and slam him down. Nishino defended well, and locked a triangle choke from the guard and Usuda had to tap out.

Jason Black (23-5-1, Wrestling) and Matt Grice (9-3, Wrestling) are both lightweights looking to turn their latest fortunes around. Wow, another great fight. Black scored both takedowns here, but Grice defended well, sweeping Black in the first round, and pounding away from side control. A scramble in the second after a big Black slam saw Grice again with the advantage. Grice moved well and submitted Black with just 2 seconds left in the round.

Featherweights Micah Miller (13-6, Wrestling) and Roberto Vargas (7-3, BJJ). Both men are looking to stop losing streaks and aren’t close to contention. Roberto Vargas showed that he was clearly the better fighter in this contest. He had Miller in a standing guillotine twice, and it was the second one that ended the fight. Miller was simply outgunned. Average fight.

Light heavyweights finish off our preliminary show. Seth Petruzelli (11-5, Brawler) and Valentino Petrescu (7-1, Vale Tudo) square off with both looking to start a winning streak. How did this guy beat Slice? Petrescu scored a huge slam once he finally got Petruzelli, and from there moved to side mount. Petruzelli was helpless on his back and was pounded out in short order. Great fight.

Our main show opens in the lightweight division. UFC vet Kyle Bradley (13-6, Boxing) welcomes Finnish grappler Ville Manninen (5-1, Grappler) to the US. Bradley’s strikes were off target and Manninen closed well. Bradley was pressed against the cage, and taken down, and from there Manninen sealed his fate with a guillotine choke. Great fight.

Another lightweight battle here, this one between Eric Reynolds (14-4, Muay Thai/Kick Boxing) takes on Mark Oshiro (11-3, Freestyle). Our first fight to go the distance. Reynolds showed good standup and even though he was shaken from a deadly position, kept the pressure on enough to secure the win. Decent fight.

Middleweights Benji Radach (19-7, Facesmashing Fu) makes his CW debut against Jordan Radev (17-5, Wrestling). Radev has lost his last 2 fights. Both men put on a good show, and Radev, had the advantage by taking Radach down twice, only to give it up. Radach landed a brutal hook against the cage that knocked Radev down, and he finished him with an armbar to win on his debut. Good fight.

Our co-main event is next. Blagoi Ivanov (3-1, Sambo, 265) is giving away lots of size to Brad Imes (14-6, Wrestling, 285). Can the smaller man grapple effectively with the much taller Imes? Imes dominated round one, picking up the big Bulgarian and slamming him down hard. He couldn’t finish though as time ran out just as he took Ivanov’s back. Round two was over fast. Imes was caught coming in and took a hard shot that put him down, and from there Ivanov locked in a kimura and forced the big man to tap out. Excellent fight.

Our main event is next. Lyman Good (12-0, Kick Boxing) will face off against Jason Norwood (9-1, Boxing/Wrestling) for the Cage Warriors Welterweight Title. Jason Norwood had a good strategy coming in. He took Good down early in round one, and kept him there for the whole round. The ref apparently likes to see guys rolling around on the ground. Norwood did the same in round two, and managed to steal both rounds early. Round three looked to be the same until Good hit Norwood with a straight right, knocking him out cold. Good fight. Lyman Good is the first Cage Warriors Welterweight Champion.

1,007 fans in attendance for a show that was rated as Excellent.

Fight of the Night has to go to Blagoi Ivanov and Brad Imes
Knockout of the Night goes to Lyman Good
Submission of the Night goes to Hidenori Nishino for his triangle choke from his back.

A good show for us. Our popularity keeps moving up too. Lyman Good is really turning into a solid fighter. This is the 3rd show in a row, that we have broken 1000 in attendance. Ville Manninen makes a great US debut, by knocking off a known fighter. Jason Black, Seth Petruzelli and Jordan Radev lose again. Benji Radah makes a good debut for us. The Lyman Good/ Ryan Ford fight should be a good one, whenever it happens. We had 7 fights end by submission and 2 end with TKO or KO. That is a very nice boost to the show.

[PilotMan]

We have had to make some adjustments to both of our upcoming shows in October. First off, the main even that was to be Abel Cullum and Wilson Reis, has been dropped to the co-main event. Our new headliner is former UFC badboy, and Strikeforce fighter Jesse Taylor (15-5). Taylor was to make his debut two weeks later, and fight Jason High, will move up and headline the show against Danillo Villefort (11-2). This will be quite a step up for Villefort but the show holds more potential to help the company grow. In order to rebalance the fight, Chris Wilson, who was supposed to fight Noah Thomas will now move back and fight High in two weeks. Thomas’ opponent will be Yosmany Cabezas who was already training to fight Jesse Juarez on the prelim card. Cabezas steps up to the main card for the fight.

Taylor was supposed to co-headline the later fight in October, but now the Henry Martinez/Jussier Da Silva fight moves up on the card to replace it, while Wilson/High moves down a slot. Confused yet? I think it’s a solid move all the way around, especially when it became clear that the Cullum/Reis fight just wasn’t going to get it done. Villefort has won a couple fights and another against Taylor would be very big. For Chris Wilson, he needs a quality opponent after his loss to Norwood in the tournament. Thomas still gets a good fighter in Cabezas although not as good as Wilson, but still an intriguing fight. Jesse Juarez is the only loser, but his time will come soon enough.

[PilotMan]

Now that we have changed the lineup for Cage Warriors 20, let’s officially announce the card. We have an excellent show once again. The main event is particularly good, and my only regret is that it isn’t a title fight. However, barring an interim title, it isn’t going to happen. Wesley Johnson and Ritchie Whitson are going to put their perfect records on the line against one another. Both men have impressive wins in Cage Warriors. This is the classic grappler/striker showdown. Exciting featherweights Henry Martinez and Jussier da Silva, two up-and-coming fighters will put on a show in the co-main event. Other fighters on the card include the battle between Chris Wilson and Jason High, Ricco Rodriguez, and Japanese fighter Katsunori Kikuno. Here is the full card:

Cage Warriors 20: Johnson v. Whitson

Wesley Johnson (6-0) v. Ritchie Whitson (9-0)
Henry Martinez (4-1) v. Jussier da Silva (4-0)
Jason High (11-2) v. Chris Wilson (15-7)
Ricco Rodriguez (37-12) v. Eddie Sanchez (9-4)
Katsunori Kikuno (13-3-2) v. Stephen Ledbetter (8-5)

----Prelims----

Tony Ballout (4-0) v. Dragan Tesanovic (5-1)
Shoji Maruyama (7-6-1) v. Brandon Foxworth (16-6) 
Lolohea Mahe (5-2) v. Danny Valimaki (4-1)
Neil Joslin (5-0) v. Demico Rogers (4-2)
Derrick Gumble (6-0) v. Rich Anderson (3-0)

[PilotMan]

UFC and MMA legent Dan Severn has finally decided to retire at the age of 52. His final record was 87-18-7. He hadn’t won a fight in a very long time.

WEC 51 was run yesterday, and aside from the regular schedule, there were a couple of Cage Warriors who were fighting in the prelims. The main event saw Brian Bowles (11-0) remain undefeated and retain his Bantamweight Title with a first round TKO of Danny Martinez (13-4). Other winners on the card were Mark Hominick (17-10), James Krause (13-1), Uriah Faber (25-2), and Will Kerr (8-3). As for our fighters, Anthony Njkoumai (11-4) lost via unanimous decision, and Karen Darabedyan (11-1) won by decision.

Maximo Blanco (7-2-1) retained his WVR Lightweight title with a 5-round win in yesterday’s World Victory Road show. Also on the card, Akihiro Gono (31-16-7) won a great fight with Mach Sakurai (36-11-2). It was only the second win for Gono in the last 2 years. He came into the fight as an underdog in the battle of Japanese MMA legends.

Both Shark Fights and Bellator ran shows in the US. The Shark Fights show was highlighted by Nissen Osterneck (8-3) getting a win and retaining his Middleweight title. Osterneck’s contract is coming to an end so I think that a call to his agent would be in order. We are going to call a couple of other guys as well, and see what comes of it. Our popularity is so much higher, hopefully that will some distance when it comes to negotiations with these other fighters. A Cage Warrior was headlining the Bellator show. The ever popular Peter Dominguez (1-3) drops his third fight in a row, but he is still pretty green. We are going to talk to a couple of Bellator guys who are ending their runs as well. Scooping up talent where we can is a skill you need in this business.

Our featherweight Champ Din Thomas gave us a little scare by talking to Japanese promotion Cage Force about a contract deal. Thomas did end up signing with the small promotion, but luckily for us it wasn’t an exclusive deal. Thomas is fairly popular in Japan and this is a very good signing for them.

[PilotMan]

OCTOBER 2010

So here it is, our meeting, one year down the road from when this company was first formed. And I gotta tell you, didn’t really know if I would still be here to talk about it. But I am. And things have never been better for Cage Warriors. We have had a super successful year, not necessarily in the P&L side of things, but more so in the name brand than anything else. Our income this month was almost identical to last month, and looking back over the trend from the last six months, our gate receipts have gone up 70%, sponsorship money has almost tripled, and merchandise sales have nearly doubled. All of that is outstanding.

On the flipside, and this is where the meeting took an unexpected turn. You see I figured that since I was here still, and we were where we are in the world that all would be right. Well, not so fast Mr. Tex. You see, Mr. D isn’t so impressed that we have lost 600k in the last year, and even though at this rate we can operate for another 7 years before going bankrupt he wanted me to know that it needs to improve. I tried to state my case that putting on large shows was a direct reason for our rapid rise in popularity, and a good way to build out product, and he understood that, but he just doesn’t want it to escalate from here. Our prize money was the highest ever topping 73k, and that’s a rise of 80% from 6 months ago. Production costs have more than tripled, marketing doubled, and yes, we paid more in new signing bonuses for contracts last month than any of the previous 6. That isn’t going down anytime soon. We need the talent, and talent can’t be had cheaply. Net for the month was a loss of 52k, or right about average for the past 6 months.

Our popularity has continued to soar, thanks to quality shows and fantastic management (HA!) Seriously, we are now mentioned in the second tier of major MMA promotions behind the likes of the UFC and WEC. At that level live, WVR, Strikeforce, Cage Warriors, MFC, and DREAM. Yes, we have pushed ahead of DREAM and Maximum, despite our much smaller salaries, and lesser known fighters. At this point, we are the #5 promotion in the world, and #4 in the US. We are closing in on Strikeforce too. Let it be known, that until our fighters start to get better known, we are either going to need to start spending more money, or be satisfied at this level. And, after the early part of the meeting, I have a feeling I know where that is going to end up. But if we could just get another TV show, or PPV, or just break into that national spotlight, it could open up worlds for us.

We have grown to the point that we are now looking at possible promotions to swallow up, so that our lesser known fighters can continue to improve, and that we can add to the fighters at the top of our list. We are looking at every promotion from Shooto, to Pancrase, to Shark Fights, to Kings of the Cage. We just need to find the right one. We are currently at 91%, that is up from 79% last month. Two good shows this month, and we will break into national status.

Last month we looked at the featherweights, this month the lightweights. Our tournament is still going strong there, but look for possibly a Jeff Curran v. Rich Clementi fight for the title sometime in the next few months.

Cage Warriors Lightweights

1. Jeff Curran (32-12-1) Currently the #7 Bantamweight in the world, but fights for us at lightweight.
2. Takeya Mizugaki (13-5-2) Hasn’t debuted yet, new signing. Currently the #9 Bantamweight fighter in the world.
3. Wesley Johnson (6-0)
4. Richie Whitson (9-0)
5. Karen Darabedyan (11-1) Still in title tournament. Will fight for the title at some point, next year.
6. Rich Clementi (35-15-1) See Darabedyan
7. Per Eklund (18-4-1) Former UFC fighter hasn’t debuted yet, but has been winning in Europe.
8. Jim Miller (17-2)
9. Marcin Held (6-1)
10. Antonio McKee (22-4-2) My how one year changes things. Once the top now almost an afterthought.

Lightweight is almost our best division. Top talent up and down that list. There are many good fights to come from that over the next couple of years.

[PilotMan]

The Kings of the Cage Lightweight title changed hands last night as Clay French (18-7) lost to Cameron Dollar (5-2) when Dollar submitted him in round 5. French had been breezing through all-comers.

DREAM has lost a step, and will continue to lose a step as long as they run shows like the one they just ran. The main event featured Joachim Hansen (22-7-1) successfully defend his title against Katsuhiko Nagata (5-7-1). Now how is that an exciting fight? US Greco-Roman wrestling star Joe Warren (5-3) won again as he continues to be a big name in Japan. If there was only some way to get him back to the states?

Randy Couture has finally decided to retire. His final record was 16-12. He lost his last 4 fights with the last being against Tito Ortiz at UFC 108.

At Strikeforce’s most recent card, which I will add, had a terrible main event, Cage Warriors was represented by two fighters. And we were happy to see both of them win. A win in a rival promotion means a popularity boost that we didn’t need to pay for. In the prelims, Alexsander Trevino won and in the co-main event Bobby Stack grabbed a win against better known Ryan Healy. Both fighters have been good for us, and a win certainly helps our cause.

[PilotMan]

I have a surprise for our show tonight in Jersey. Two of our newly signed fighters will be in attendance, and I plan to introduce them to the crowd, as they will have cage side seats for our show. I am always on the lookout for new talent that is on the rise, and I can guarantee you with everything that I am that these two are on the rise. Both are from the WEC, and have let their contracts expire there, now that doesn’t mean that we own them exclusively, just that we out bid the WEC, and that they didn’t tender a contract. So having said that. The first is Jose Aldo (15-2), who is 2-1 this year, with his only loss coming to Uriah Faber. Aldo also has a TKO win over Cub Swanson, who is scheduled to fight Din Thomas for the featherweight title sometime next year. Aldo is a stud. The other is Donald Cerrone (11-2). Cerrone is also 2-1 this year with his loss coming against Karen Darabedyan. Darabedyan is still in out title tournament and will get a shot next year sometime. Cerrone comes in as the more popular of the two. These two were a big reason that our signing bonues were so high last month. Aldo will make his debut in November, while Cerrone’s date hasn’t been set yet.

Our show features the debut of former UFC, DREAM and current Stikeforce fighter Jesse Taylor. As he takes on Danillo Villefort, who is looking for the upset but has only been beaten twice, and is also a UFC and WEC vet. Able Cullum makes his Cage Warriors debut against a difficult Wilson Reis.

[PilotMan]

The show starts with a battle of lightweights. Paul Sass (9-1, Muay Thai/BJJ) takes on Kevin Croke (4-1, Freestyle). Both men tasted the first defeats of their careers last time out. A little bit of grappling and striking in this one. Neither fighter really impressed with dominant superiority though. Pau Sass grabbed the win with a 3rd round takedown and control but that was it. Poor fight.

Jeff Lawson (12-3, Judo) takes on K-Taro Nakamura (16-6-2, Wrestling) in the lightweight division. Both fighters are struggling in CW right now. K-Taro failed to really dominate with his wrestling, in fact, he was out wrestled a few times. On his back he was helpless, Lawson was able to secure a rear naked choke late in the third round. We might need to talk to K-Taro about moving down a weight class. Lightweight just seems a little out of his league. Average fight.

A battle of heavyweights next. We have the Cage Warriors and US debut of Kirill Sidelnikov (5-3, Sambo, 242) as he takes on Brian Humes (6-2, Boxing/Wrestling, 285). Humes is the much bigger fighter, but Sidelnikov is the protégé of Fedor. Will that help here? Humes strategy was to use his big size advantage and he did. He leaned and leaned and leaned. Humes knocked Sidelnkov down in the second but let him get back up and he defended himself fast. Then more leaning. Sidelnkov was helpless with the bigger man pressing him. Down two, Sidelnkov came out fast in the third letting go with some solid strikes, and hurting the exhausted big man. Sidelnkov pressed his advantage until the ref had to stop it. Good fight.

The next prelim fight is between light heavyweights Mark Lajhner (6-0, Judo) and Andre Gusmao (7-1, BJJ). Both men have looked good in their fights. Gusmao really took the fight to Lajhner getting him down multiple times, and generally controlling the cage. Gusmao finished it with a guillotine choke in the third. Good fight.

The last of the prelim fights sees Japanese flyweight Isao Hirose (8-0, Boxing/Wrestling) make his debut in the US, as well as in the heavier featherweight division. His opponent is Henrique Bilcalho (11-3, BJJ/Muay Thai) who is tough and well rounded, and of similar size. Bilcalho wasn’t exciting, and he wasn’t dominating, but he came in with a good plan. He used his Muay Thai, and won the fight from the clinch. He avoided being taken down and got lucky when Hirose finally found a dominant position and was improving his position when time ran out. Bilcalho wouldn’t have lasted much longer, but instead he wins an average fight handing Hirose his first loss in the process.

Our main card opens up at welterweight between Yosmany Cabezas (9-3, Judo) and Noah Thomas (14-6, Wrestling). Thomas came in 10 pounds lighter than Cabezas who is clearly the bigger fighter. Thomas seemed to be affected by the size difference as Cabezas was able to defend his takedowns and use good clean strikes to slow Thomas down. Cabezas finally got through the defense and landed a flurry that hurt Thomas, and finish him for good. Poor fight.

A lightweight dual is next between 40-year old Antonio McKee (22-4-2, Vale Tudo) and Kwang Hee Lee (7-2, Kick Boxing). Lee’s dangerous strikes weren’t so dangerous here. McKee shot for and got the takedown fast. From there it was academic. He moved to side control easily and took advantage of Lee when he tried to escape. McKee pounded away with Lee turtled up and forced the stoppage. Fantastic fight.

Hometown boy, lightweight, Brian McLaughlin (7-0, BJJ) looks to improve with a win over David Douglas (6-1, Kick Boxing/BJJ). The hometown boy looked good early on and controlled the first round with his ground game. Douglas is dangerous and proved it in the second when he timed a punch and knocked McLaughlin down early. Douglas then took his time, and moved McLaughlin’s legs away, and dropped a bomb on his chin as he came in, knocking him completely out. Great fight.

The co-main event is next. Featherweights Abel Cullum (18-2, Freestyle) and Wilson Reis (10-2, BJJ) go at it! Reis just looks bigger than Cullum. There was very little striking as both men wanted to grapple. Cullum was slippery and showed superior technique throughout. Reis was in the dominant position a couple of times, but couldn’t do anything with it, and Cullum successfully wins in his Cage Warriors debut. Poor fight, not a crowd pleaser.

The main event is last between Jesse Taylor (15-5, Wrestling) and Danillo Villefort (11-2, BJJ) at welterweight. Both men showed quality ground games as both attempted takedowns and multiple subs. Taylor seemed to be one step ahead of Villefort the whole time though. The fight ended after Villefort got a takedown , but was caught in a guillotine. He escaped but Taylor used the guillotine to sweep, where he took Villefort’s back quickly and smartly applied the rear naked choke for the win. Great fight.

We had 1,068 fans in attendance and the show was rated as fantastic.

Fight of the Night goes to Jesse Taylor and Danillo Villefort
Knockout of the Night goes to David Douglas
Submission of the Night goes to Jesse Taylor

Antonio McKee shows that he isn’t done yet. David Douglas lives up to his nickname “Dangerous”. Abel Cullum and Jesse Thomas have good debut’s while Isao Hirose does not. Andre Gusmao has now put himself into a spot where he could be a future contender for the title. Brian Humes and K-Taro both look like they need to reboot. Both had much higher expectations than this.

[PilotMan]

The next day, in typical fashion we announce the card for Cage Warriors 21. This, I must say is the first card that I know isn’t up to snuff. As much as I want it to be, we have finally grown bigger than our talent base will allow. So we deal with it, as our fighters gain and move on. Having said that, we have two, count’em two, title fights on the line, and the funny part is that neither one is in the main event. In fact, the main event is between two heavies, and the heavyweight title is on the line…..on the undercard. I can justify that by saying that the tournament has taken a long time, and our roster has grown and improved since then.

Our main event features a fight between Dave Herman (18-3) the established prospect with a lot of fights, and older, and less experienced fighter George Bush (7-1). Both men have similar fighting backgrounds, and come from similar areas of the country. Neither fighter is in the top 10 in his weight class, but a high profile win could do that. The title fights that are scheduled are in the heavyweight and middleweight divisions. At heavyweight Justin Wren (10-1) takes on Brandon Cash (7-1). At middleweight, Jared Hess (11-1-1) takes on Trevor Prangley (22-6). The first mandatory defense at heavyweight will be against Darril Schoonover, while middleweight is wide open. Here is the whole card:

Cage Warriors 21: Herman v. Bush

Dave Herman (18-3) v. George Bush (7-1) HW
Justin Wren (10-1) v. Brandon Cash (7-1) for the Cage Warriors Heavyweight Title
Jared Hess (11-1-1) v. Trevor Prangley (22-6) for the Cage Warriors Middleweight Title
Jose Aldo (15-2) v. Joe Soto (10-1) FW
David Heath (12-5) v. Ryan Jimmo (13-2) LHW

----Prelims----

Tom Watson (10-3) v. Fabio Nascimento (10-5) MW
Bao Quach (16-10-1) v. Darren Uyenoyama (7-4) FW
Christian Uflacker (3-1) v. Thomas Longacre (5-1) LW
Koetsu Okazaki (7-1-1) v. Scott McAfee (8-1) LW
Jesse Juarez (12-6) v. Norman Paraisy (5-3) WW

When I first looked at this card I thought that Soto and Aldo should have made the main event, but they just don’t have the popularity yet. This show also marks the debuts for David Heath, who has been fighting in Canada for MFC. Heath and Jimmo should be a good fight. Once again top ranked middleweight contender Tom Watson finds himself fighting in the prelims. He needs to put on a good show if he wants a fight against the winner of the Hess/Prangley fight. But when you look at that division he is at least behind Fabio Silva. Koetsu Okazaki also makes his Cage Warriors debut. Oazaki had been a top Shooto fighter, but signed for us and then signed for Japan promotion DEEP. Okazaki was won two fights this year.

[PilotMan]

The UFC ran UFC 113 yesterday with the main event featuring a Heavyweight title defense for Brock Lesnar. Lesnar (6-1) defended his title with a 5-round decision over Junior Dos Santos in an unspectacular fight. Takanori Gomi (32-6) won in the co-main against Joe Lauzon (18-5). Other winners on the card were Chael Sonnen (25-11-1) who defeated Renzo Gracie (14-8-1), Alexandre Ribeiro (4-0), and Aoki (24-4). All this however has been overshadowed by the fact that Lesnar has tested positive for a PED. That means that Lesnar is out of action for one year. Not sure how the UFC will handle this news, as it relates to their titles. Lesnar has held the title for 23 months.

It has been a crazy week. I have been all over negotiating all kinds of deals with fighters, and so far, have only been unsuccessful in one ordeal. Too bad to, because he would have been nice, but oh well. Suffice to say that more money has been spent, but again, we are bringing in more popular fighters. There will be more news about these signings as the year goes on.

WEC has cancelled their latest episode of WrekCage. According to the news they couldn’t get enough fights on the card to fill it.

Strikeforce ran a show last night with Antonio Carvalho (13-4) picking up a win in the main event. Jason Miller ( 24-8) won over Joe Riggs (32-11). Other winners were Roxanne Modifier (17-5), Cage Warriors fighter Ben Holscher (7-1), and Duane Ludwig (20-10).

[PilotMan]

Bobby Lashley (5-1) got his first MMA title shot in Canada fighting against Steve Bosse (8-1), who was the defending champ. Bosse submitted Lashley quickly in round one, for the win. Tim Sylvia (27-7) won In the co-main event over Jae Young Kim (13-9). Other winners in the show were Seth Kleinbeck (11-4), Mike Sorensen (5-2), and Dave Mewborn (8-2-1).

Another major promotion delays a TV show as WVR has cancelled the next episode of Sengoku G! Bellator also announces a delay before their next event.

Cage Warrior lightweight Bill Boland (6-1) won on an X-1 card that ran in Hawaii last night. It was Boland’s X-1 debut. Strikeforce announces a rematch between Fedor and Brett Rogers. Both men are coming off of losses, as Rogers was beaten by Werdum and Fedor by Silva.

UFC has stripped Brock Lesnar of his title. No word on when the fight will be for the new champion.

[PilotMan]

Cage Warriors 20 is a great show. Richie Whitson and Wesley Johnson are set to go in the main event in a fight between two rough and tumble lightweights. Henry Martinez and Jussier da Silva, two young featherweights will go in the co-main. Ricco Rodriguez, Jason High, and Chris Wilson too.

The first prelim fight pits two welterweights with perfect records. Derrick Gumble (6-0, MMA Influenced JJ) takes on Rich Anderson (3-0, Submission Wrestling). Gumble is making his CW debut. This was Gumble’s first step on on a much larger stage, and it didn’t go so well. Anderson controlled the action in the cage and showed that his ground game was superior as he locked a rear naked choke on for a first round submission win. Good fight.

19-year old Neil Joslin (5-0, Freestyle Wrestling, 273) makes his CW debut against Demico Rogers (4-2, BJJ, 245) Rogers has had a tough year. Youth was served as Joslin took down the smaller man, and used some really good wrestling moves to control Rogers. Rogers struggled and gave up his back and the bigger man tapped him out. Good fight.

Battle of light heavyweights next as Lolohea Mahe (5-2, Brawler) takes on Danny Valimaki (4-1, Wrestling). Both men are coming off of losses. Ugh, another terrible fight that Mahe was involved in. I don’t know how many more of these I can stand. The fight stayed standing, but Mahe still wouldn’t do anything. Valimaki used solid leg kicks mixed with weak strikes to win the fight. Very poor fight.

A featherweight battle is next between Shoji Maruyama (7-6-1, Muay Thai) and Brandon Foxworth (16-6, Submission Wrestling). Both men are coming off of losses. Shoji comfortably won the first round then hit Foxworth hard knocking him down. He jumped in for the finish, landing several clean shots and hard knees from side control, but Foxworth defended him well enough from his back. Foxworth struggled to escape and escaped enough that in the scramble, he was able to grab Shoji’s ankle and lock in a heel hook for the finish. Shoji went for dominating win to shock loss. Great fight.

Our last prelim fight is from the middleweight division. Undefeated Tony Ballout (4-0, Shoot Fighting) takes on Dragan Tesanovic (5-1, Submission Wrestling). Tesanovic was killed by Trevor Prangley in his last fight, in the title tournament. Ballout struggled being unable to stop Dragan’s takedown’s. Dragan showed good ground work by slipping to mount and pounding out a win over the undefeated fighter. Good fight.

The main show starts off in the lightweight division between Katsunori Kikuno (13-3-2, Judo/Karate) and Stephen Ledbetter (8-5, Boxing/Wrestling). Can the powerful Japanese fighter finally get his first US win? Kikuno used some sharp kicks in the first round, and won easily, but got away from it in round two as Ledbetter held him against the cage, but couldn’t do anything with him. In the third round, Kikuno went back to the kicks, and landed a huge head kick that knocked Ledbetter out cold. Decent fight.

Ricco Rodriguez (37-12, BJJ/Wrestling, 262) comes in to face Eddie Sanchez (9-4, Striker, 250). Both men suffered defeats in their last fight. There were some rumors that Rodriguez was dealing with an illness in camp, but he aggressively chase Sanchez, and shot in multiple times. Sanchez was timing him though, and after a few escapes landed a knockout blow as Ricco came in. Good fight.

At welterweight, Jason High (11-2, Wrestling) takes on Chris Wilson (15-7, Kick Boxing). Both men are in the top 10 in the welterweight division. Fast end to the fight. Both fighters came close, and High looked to grapple. Wilson had no problem with it and went for the takedown, but apparently was too high on High. High was able to secure a guillotine from the bottom and Wilson had to tap fast or go out. Nice win for High, Wilson is a tough cookie. Great fight.

The co-main is next between Henry Martinez (4-1, Boxing/Wrestling) and Jussier da Silva (4-0, BJJ). Martinez has an 11-inch reach advantage on the natural flyweight. Today they are at featherweight. Holy shit what a fight! Unbelievable! A striking fight initially where Martinez has a huge advantage. Jussier gets him close enough and the two fight on the cage for a while. Jussier locks a guillotine on a drags him down, only to have Martinez escape right into a triangle. Martinez is saved by the bell though. Jussier wins round two, as we move to the third. They go back and forth, as Jussier tries to get Martinez down and finish the fight. Jussier takes a big punch, but instead of finishing, because Jussier had ended up in a good defensive position, Martinez motions for him to get back up! Da Silva does, and Martinez promptly lands another hard shot sending Jussier to the foor again. This time though, Martinez charges in and finishes the fight. Fantasitc fight.

The main event is a rough lightweight battle between Wesley Johnson (6-0, Wrestling) and Richie Whitson (9-0, Boxing). Will Whitson be able to stop the takedowns of Johnson? That has to be the biggest question going into this fight. These two guys are in the top 10 pound for pound rankings. Johnson immediately moves close and pins Whitson against the cage. But Whitson is strong and maintains his position and showed better grappling skills than I think Johnson expected. Rounds one and two were very close. Whitson was taken down in the second, but used a guillotine to sweep, and finished the round in control. Whitson used very underrated ground skills. In the last round Johnson kept looking for the takedown. Whitson was able to counter a jab, that was probably a set up to a takedown, with a brutal head kick that knocked Johnson clean out. Good fight. Whitson proves he isn’t as one sided as he appears. Good fight.

We had a crowd of 1,022 on hand for the show which was rated as fantastic.

Fight of the Night easily goes to Henry Martinez and Jussier da Silva
Knockout of the Night goes to Richie Whitson
Submission of the Night goes to Brandon Foxworth.

Brandon Foxworth basically kept his Cage Warriors life in tact by winning that fight. Even though he was losing before he got the submission. I wasn’t all that high on the co-main, but after the fight, both men could have a bright future.

[PilotMan]

On the heels of that show we are ready to debut some of the bigger names in the company, as well as to announce Cage Warriors 22. Our main event, set for the end of November of 2010 will be the Cage Warriors debut of two former WEC fighters. The fight will also be a rematch between these two from almost one year ago. Ben Henderson (11-2) makes his debut fighting against Donald Cerrone (11-2) who is also making his debut in Cage Warriors. Both men are fighting in our very packed lightweight division. The co-main also features a pair of lightweights. Alberto Crane (15-3) will take on Ran Weathers (15-5). The other fighter on the main show that is making his debut is Buck Bisbey (10-1). Bisbey has been fighting in Shark Fights and had just won the featherweight title there, before making his move to Cage Warriors. He is basically a no-name fighter and will be making his debut going against the tough, Hideo Tokoro (23-18-1) who is coming off of his victory over Matt Fiordirosa. Tokoro will be the toughest test for Bisbey in his young career. Here is a rundown of the entire show.

Cage Warriors 22: Henderson v. Cerrone II

Ben Henderson (11-2) v. Donald Cerrone (11-2) LW
Alberto Crane (15-3) v. Ran Weathers (15-5) LW
Drew Fickett (37-13) v. Hiromitsu Miura (10-7) WW
Jake O’Brien (13-4) v.  Victor Valimaki (18-6) LHW
Buck Bisbey (10-1) v. Hideo Tokoro (23-18-1) FW

----Prelims----

Hae Joon Yang (3-0) v. Mike Hayes (6-1) HW
Alexander Trevino (7-2) v. Andrew Buckland (10-7) WW
Travis Wiuff (59-14) v. James Lee (13-5) LHW
Bryan Baker (11-3) v. Jeremy Horn (82-20-5) MW
Jae Hee Chun (2-1) v. Taiki Tsuchiya (5-2) FW

The feature prelim between Yang and Hayes should be a good fight between two young prospects. We will find out if Wiuff has anything left in the tank or if Lee has anything at all. The rest of the prelims will be just for show, and maybe one of them can break out and move back to the main card, while hopefully everyone continues to gain popularity.

[PilotMan]

Shark Fights ran a card where Vinicius Magalhes (6-4) successfully defended his SF Light Heavyweight title against Estevan Payan (9-4). Normally, I wouldn’t bother with a low level title like this, but Payan typically fights at lightweight. That’s 155 pounds. Light heavyweight is at 205 lbs. Payan has been moving up to 170 recently, but why would he give away 5 inches, and bulk up that far to take a fight at 205? He was submitted at the end of round one, but it is still on one of those things that make you go hmmmmmm.

We had some talks with Strikeforce, and DREAM fighter Jason Miller. Miller demanded twice what our next highest fighter wanted and I just couldn’t justify that money yet. We have some other meetings with higher profile fighters coming up, but I am not ready to sell the farm just to get some bigger names in here. I like the names that we have now, and as long as we can keep building them up, we can be set for the long haul.

Big, Big, Big News for Cage Warriors! We have signed our first PPV contract with a small carrier that broadcast’s in both the US and Canada. Shaw PPV will carry our fights for the next 6 shows, and we will get 20% of the revenue of the broadcast. That will bring in some revenue, and hopefully put us not only on better financial footing, but help our popularity to ride high.

[PilotMan]

In Pancrase, Kotani (20-8-6) retained his lightweight title with a 3rd round win over Hanazawa (13-11-5). On the same card, Jin Suk Jung (5-2) won the featherweight title with a win over Koji Yoshimoto (5-2-2).

Elsewhere in Japan, Akiyo Nishiura (12-4-1) won the Cage Force featherweight title with a 3rd round TKO over Emerson Azuma (7-3-1). On that same show, former UFC fighter, Chris Lytle (27-17-5) won in his debut with a TKO in the second round. It was Lytle’s first fight since June of ‘09.

A couple of MMA’s founding fathers retired this month. First off, Pat Smith (22-15) who fought in UFC 1 and 2, and the second is Murilo Bustamante (14-9-1), who at one time held the UFC Middleweight Title.

WVR ran their latest show in Japan and saw Satoshi Ishii (3-2) defeat Marcio Cruz (5-3) for the WVR Heavyweight title. This fight was a rematch from January where Cruz beat Ishii to win the title. Also on that card, Cage Warrior Middleweight fighter, Fabio Silva (17-5) who has been on a tear, continues his streak with another first round TKO.

It has been a busy week around the office, not only have I been to negotiation meetings with multiple fighters, signing some, and leaving others at the table. I have worked a deal with a PPV with Shaw PPV, that will hopefully bring in some more cash into our pockets. And this week, I have put the final deal together for our first ever TV show. Cage Warriors FIGHT! TV will premier on The Fight Network, which has a presence in the US, Canada, and the UK. This will be our first exposure in the UK. My biggest concern will be the cost of production. I know that there probably won’t be much revenue brought in, but hopefully the exposure will help our weaker cards that we put together. I will take a look at the calendar and see where we can put that first show. One other note, each TV special will be a 4-fight card.