Ladies and Gentlemen this is my first blog as well as my first public review of a BFC event. The opinions herein are my own and have not and will not be influenced by any promoter, venue, or fighter! As you know none of this may be used without my consent!
Photo Courtesy of BarbarianFightClub.com
Last night Amelia High School in Amelia, Va hosted the Barbarian Fight Club's Detention event. The event went off without a hitch and seating was awesome! There were concessions provided by the school including the classics hamburgers, cheeseburgers, hot dogs, fries, candy, a variety of soft drinks and bottles of water. A few teams as well as the BFC set up booths or stalls to sell t-shirts and hats and to give the general public a little knowledge about the sport of MMA. The most noticeable team at the event was Team No Limit MMA out of South Hill, Virginia and as the night went on the teams' presence was felt especially during the Main Event which pitted Team No Limit MMA's Brian "CHOO-CHOO' Daniel vs Will "Silencer" Smith for the BFC 205 lb Title. The National Anthem was sung very well by Amelia Counties own Brenna Maples. Ticket prices I felt were a little steep being that it was held in a high school gymnasium, upon arriving and actually seeing the seating arrangements this blogger was quick to eat his own words! Even the "cheap seats" were close enough to feel as if you were in on the action especially when the gorgeous BFC Barbettes were wowing the crowd.
The first match of the evening was a lightweight bout; Steven Forrester (0-0) Team No Limit MMA vs Chris Howard (0-0) Independent. Chris Howard was forced to tap do to a tightly cinched arm triangle choke at only 1:02 in the very first round.
Next up was a Bantamweight Bout, Travis "The Lunatic" Tisdale (0-0) Team No Limit MMA vs Dale Stewart (0-1) Team KAFN. At first glance Tisdale at only 5 feet tall looked to be at a big disadvantage to the 5'7 Stewart but as soon as the ref dropped his arms that perception was quickly dashed by the amazing strength Tisdale used to slam Stewart to the mat. Travis earned Team No Limit it's second win near the end of the second round due to ref stoppage due to strikes. A few people in the crowd were overheard stating that "the Lunatic" must have been picked on a lot in school and decide to stand up for himself, but as I found out later Travis and his brother have a pact with a fallen friend to do their best in a sport that they all dreamed about and started in together. I will not mention the friends name out of respect for those affected by his loss.
The third fight of the night a Catch Weight 150lb bout; putting Christopher Read (0-1) Team No Limit vs DJ Disney (0-0) Independent. DJ Disney was able to wrench on the neck of Read using a guillotine choke the ref stopped the match at 1:13 in the first round due to the submission.
Match 4 a Welterweight fight, had Team No Limit MMA's Joe Karpinski (0-0) earning his first win against Ashton "The California Kid" (so unoriginal) McGinniss (0-1) from The Cave MMA via unanimous decision. To tell you the truth I had wished that Karpenski would have knocked this guy out. The nickname stealing kid sauntered to the the ring with what appeared to me to be an extremely cocky persona for someone who lost his first match. Hopefully he changes his nickname and attitude to come back strong for his third fight or he might want to look into another way to vent his frustrations!
The fifth match had, Soloman "Solo The Savage" Quiamboa (0-0) Independent fighting all the way out of San Diego, CA vs a local Midlothian Heath Rivers (0-0) Team KAFN. After a slow start Heath was determined not to let the judges determine the winner of the fight. Punches in bunches is my best way of describing the action as the ref stopped the fight. Rivers wins via TKO due to strikes at 2:28 in round number 3.
Match up number 6 had the cowboy hat wearing Jack "Lobo Driftwood" Burks(0-0) Team No Limit MMA making his debut against The Cave MMA's Josh "The Ballistic" Browne(0-0) also debuting. This fight was a very short and lopsided fight with Browne looking to have been training harder and for much longer than his opponent. Josh won at 0:17 seconds into the very first round after he caught Burks with a nice combination that appeared to be an over hand right followed by a stiff jab and finally a punishing uppercut that sent Burks to the mat very hard. After the fight Jack commented " Man that dude hits hard" and " I lost this fight because I froze when I got into the octagon and the doors shut everything was going so fast" as well as "Congratulations to Josh, he saw the opening I gave him and made me eat some punches he fought as he was trained". Jack's eyebrow was split open pretty good and he had a laceration on the side of his nose. The only advise I could offer was keep your head up and keep training at least you stepped into the cage and fought.
After a 15 minute intermission where most everyone ran to the bathroom, concessions stand, or outside for a quick smoke break, the fights continued.
Fight 7 saw William Doyle (0-1) Team No Limit MMA defeat Sean Echols (0-1) Independent via a strike fest at 1:25 in the second round
Bout 8 had two guys from out of town Raul "True Freak" Bacchus (1-1) Garage Muscle (Toms River , NJ) vs Tyler "Little Weapon" Rogers (0-0) The Barracks (Baltimore, MD). These guys put on a great show for 2 rounds but ultimately "Little Weapon" made "True Freak" tap out due to a well timed triangle choke at 1:15 of round number 2
Now match 9 was for the BFC Middleweight Title. Rich “Braveheart” Ferguson (2-2) Team No Limit MMA took on Brandon "The Creature" Smithson also (2-2) The Cave MMA. This fight was awesome from entrance till the moment the Barbettes came into the ring to hand the winner his belt. Punches and elbows flew as "The Creature" pounded out a knockout win at 2:38 of round 2. I was very impressed with both fighters in this match. Smithson looked to have what few fighters this night lacked and that is killer instinct, once his opponent was in trouble he pounced on him like a pack of rabid hyenas to finish this fight.
Match number 10 was scratched which disappointed the crowd who wanted to see the only heavyweight big boys of the night slug it out for three 3 minute rounds.
Contest 11 won my Submission of the Night. It was a Catch Weight fight, with Chris "The Black Ninja" Hendrick (1-2) Team No Limit MMA vs Dustin "No Love" Lanning (2-3) The Barracks. The "Black Ninja" made quick work showing "No Love" to Lanning making him tap out in just 1:05 of round number 1 via arm bar submission.
Match 12 had some big boys in a Catch Weight 210 lb match up! Ishmael "ISH" Romero (1-0) Infinity Martial Arts vs Cody Megginson (0-0) Independent. When I say big boys I mean they weighed in at 210 pounds but clearly gained some weight before the fight. This fight was exciting throughout all 3 rounds even for the fighters size gassing did not seem to be an issue. "ISH" slammed Cody to the mat on numerous occasions tossing him around like dirty close into a hamper. Don't take this as a one way fight though Cody connected with some awesome punches during the match as well. In the end the ground game of Romero impressed the judges as much as me as he earned a unanimous decision.
Now on to the Main Event of the night a BFC Light Heavyweight Title Fight. Defending champ Brian "Choo-Choo" Daniel (2-1)Team No Limit MMA vs Will "Silencer" Smith (2-1) Team Scorpion. Now folks this fight won Snoozer of the night. Both of these fighters either had way to much respect for the others abilities or they both were just plain scared. These guys were fighting for the title and instead looked as if they were on Dancing with the Stars! Don't get me wrong I know it takes a lot to get in the ring with these athletes and they would probably knockout the average man with ease but when the "WHOLE" crowd is cheering for the champ with calls of "CHOO-CHOO" erupting every few seconds you would think that he was super human instead, these guys circled the ring in what seemed as a starring contest. There were a few punches but they were few and far between and with multiple take down attempts foiled by the challenger this fight was long and drawn out. Brian "CHOO-CHOO' Daniels won this fight by split decision even though in my opinion a draw was the only way to end this fight!
After all was said and done I had a great time and look forward to the next event on June 25th, 2011 at the Fredericksburg Fairgrounds.
Go to www.barbarianfightclub.com for more information on events,tickets, and your chance to get into the cage!
Sounds like a fun time for everyone... I can almost see the fight, but wondering what was on the menu at the concession, and how clean the restrooms were, lol. I like that you got to talk to the one of the fighters too! You should try to get more one on one time with as many as you can. :)
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