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A great fight night

River Rock Theater, inside River Rock Casino in Richmond on Saturday, January, 23 was host to the first ever MMA fight night inside the cage since the City of Vancouver agreed to sanction Pro Mixed Martial Arts Fight events on a two year trial basis. West Coast Promotions, together with River Rock Casino Resort put on this amateur fight night with all the preparations that a pro event would have.

FightNews.com has awarded the team of Manny Sobral, Neil Pope, and Alister Brodie all of West Coast Promotions as the Promoter of the year. In recognition of their work putting on top level fight nights at The Rock and Red Robinson, calling them ‘… a real class act’. They are of course also the guys who run the North Burnaby Boxing Club.

Manny Sobral talked about the transition to MMA in an interview with boxingcinema.com: “It was an evolutionary decision on behalf of West Coast Promotions as we are in the combative sports promotion business.  There is a lot of cross over between the fastest growing sport in N. America, MMA, and boxing so we felt it important to be promoting yet another very exciting avenue of sport.

There are people still wondering about the safety factor of Mixed Martial Arts. Fighters attended pre-fight medicals, and as pointed out ahead of the event in their press release, “…all the officials for the event have been trained and certified by either IPRO (International Professional Ring Officials) or C.O.M.M.A.N.D. (Certification of Officials for Mixed Martial Arts Development) training programs and have many years of experience in their respective fields.” Paramedics are also on hand for the duration of the event.

The first cage fight in greater Vancouver was a very well organised event. The River Rock Theatre had an enthusiastic full house.

And like any event I have seen, trainers and fighters from gyms from various cities around BC and as far away as Alberta came together to make a great night. Fight of the night was awarded to the women’s MMA match between Wendy Roy and Sarah McLeod, which ended in a draw based on identical scores by all three judges. These two fighters fought a determined match until the end and demonstrated skill, strategy and surprises. MMA is all about the surprises, that is what the crowd has come to see.

An award was also handed out to Versus21 (disclaimer, where I train), by F.I.L.E.S News, for the best new martial arts gym in Vancouver.

MMA in a cage had a great debut in Vancouver’s Lower Mainland. UFC 115 is slated for June at GM place, and there are going to be more great fight nights to come in this town.

Photos

Link to full set on Flickr.com.

Link to full set on Flickr.com.

Fight results

Fight Decisions published from West Coast Promotions, January 26, 2010.

Decision	Winning Fighter	def.	Fighter
TKO Rear Naked Choke	Kurtis Waterston	def.	Jacques Lizardo
Tap Out Rear Naked Choke	Chris Anderson	def.	Abraham monte be Ramos
Draw ‘Fight of the Night’	Wendy Roy	def.	Sarah McLeod
Tap Out Arm Bar	Emilio Ditrocchio	def.	Bazooka Joe
Tap Out Rear Naked Choke	Dia Grant	def.	Andrew Cheverie
TKO Round 1	Nick Austin	def.	Rami Kadi
Unanimous Decision	Brendan Kornberger	def.	Nathan Swayze
Tap Out Rear Naked Choke	Dia Grant	def.	Andrew Cheverie
Walkover Due to injury	Heidi Otterbein	def.	Tyme Hennenfent
Walkover Due to injury	Hugh Rogers	def.	Byron Toutant
TKO Round 1	Bastien Huveneers	def.	Kiarash Moghaddam

Source: WestCoast Promotions, Press Release.

Other Sources of news for this event online:

Photos: MMA at the River Rock, Vancouver Sun.

MMA rolls into River Rock, Vancouver Sun.

Ground and Pound: Swinging Sisters Highlight MMA Event, Vancouver Sun.

Saturday Night Nearly Sold Out, Vancouver Sun.