Martial Arts Nomad

Fight fans and fight bloggers alike enjoyed a truncated fight card for MMA at the Rock 2 at River Rock Casino on July 9 2010.

Cam Delorme of RDC Jiu Jitsu Kelowna went against Cole Tilbury of Independent in Richmond for an MMA featherweight fight. Delorme won by rear naked choke and tapout at 1:22 of the 1^st round. Delorme dominated, had Tilbury early with a body slam. To his credit, Tilbury put up a good resistance but was in the weaker position. Delorme got the choke in tight after a couple tries and got the tap.

The second fight was a middleweight Muay Thai fight in the MMA cage, with Bronson Petterson of Comox Valley Boxing Club against Shawn Hunt of Team Havok in Kelowna. Petterson was hot from beginning to end and showed as a hard hitting, accurate fighter. Shawn Hunt did not recover from second knock down at the end of round 2 and was beaten by Petersen’s accurate, hard strikes. Talking with Bronson after the fight, he told me he was mostly a wrestler and took the fight only a couple of days prior to the fight.

Tricky Nick Marinos from Team Denarius of North Van won his fight against James Lepage of Tong Moo Doo in Richmond with an imperfect but harsh arm crank at about 1:30 of the 1st round. Marinos was first to shoot, kept control of Lepage despite slipping in and out of guard and half guard, kept passing and pushed back until the pass stuck.

Lindsay Ball of Peteric’s in Victoria ran the pace of the first round against Heidi Otterbein of Revolution in Port Moody in their featherweight Muay Thai fight, getting an initial knockdown by leg trap. Otterbein must have listened to something her coach said to her in the corner after round 1, because she came out aggressive and focused and was a far better opponent in round 2. Otterbein went on to get two leg trap knockdowns, laid in knees, and faced down Lindsay Ball through the round. Otterbein got two more knockdowns in round three and clinched the judges decision in her favor.

Jason Keller of Karma Fight Team in Surrey got the upper position after the standup clinch struggle in the first round of the welterweight MMA match against Chad Gerow. Gerow defended well from guard. Round 2 was looser and a stand up striking game until Keller could clinch and use knees, Keller again clinched and took Gerow down but Gerow defended even better against Keller than he did in the first round. Despite being on top, Keller looked gassed. The referee would eventually stand them up to keep the action going. The second round ended with Gerow in guard as it did in the first. In the third round, Chad Gerow dealt with Keller’s takedowns, slipping out of an arm triangle attempt, and managed to reverse his ground position and pounded him out with a mount triangle until referee stoppage. A considerable win since Jason Keller had dominated the first two rounds decisively.

For the main event of the evening, Cheryl Chan of Mendoza Martial Arts in Surrey looked like serious competition for Sarah Mcleod of Team Denarius. Chan displayed wicked spinning back kicks and hook kicks in standup game and used that to her advantage in the fight. Sarah Mcleod managed to reverse Chan’s takedown attempt to be on top at the end of the first. After more boxing and kicking in round 2, Chan delivered a side kick in that put Sarah down for a moment and forced another ground match. More standup action and kicks by Chan in the third was followed by ground fighting and defending from guard by Chan who took a beating and after several valiant attempts fought her way back up from the ground the hard way. The match was called by the referee when Cheryl Chan was able to reverse the struggle on the ground to her favor and then held Marshall in a fully extended arm bar from which she didnt want to tap. Frustrated with the loss, team Denarius did not stay in the cage for the final decision.

Full photo set on Flickr.com: http://www.flickr.com/photos/superwebdeveloper/sets/72157624337464419/

In the first fight of the night in the ballroom at the Pinnacle Hotel in North Vancouver, Leemar Halim of Total Kombat Academy went against Vik Johal from the Lion’s Den for a full 3 rounds of kickboxing. The first found was fast paced and the next were more paced. In a fight with flying mouthguards and high kicks, the judges scored it close enough (28-28, 28-28, 29-27) to be declared a draw. Halim was the more composed fighter of the two 135 pounders it seemed.

A very impressive mma match featured lightweight Daniel Waterfall of Team Aikki in Chilliwack who is coached by Sean O’Halleran, a very good Jiu-Jitsu coach. He was against Mason Fehr from FAIRN Ultimate Fighting in Burnaby. Waterfall won convincingly by ref stoppage 1^st round TKO at 2:29.  Waterfall went for shoot right away, dominated, pushed into the corner, was still kicking after fighters were brought up, kept pressure on until the end where he could mount and pummel.

Joe Halfar from Posener’s and Houtan Ali Koshani KB-ONE were in a 155lb Muay Thai match in the third fight. This evenly matched fight went the distance but Joe showed he was winning it mentally with a front kick knock down in the dying seconds of round 2. The judges, however, had trouble with their decision and finally settled on a split decision for Joe.

Aaron Shin of Revolution Fight Team Langley, was set against Sparky Makrenko Wuji Systems for a lightweight MMA fight. Shin would win by TKO in the first round by way of a solid knee strike, having already delivered several strikes that way, lots of boxing and scrambles to the ground and back to their feet.

Brandon Babet of TeamHavok from Kelowna, BC was paired up wi th Brian Rudd of ITK in North Van for a 165lb  Kickboxing match. By end of round 2 you could see that Rudd was gassed and from then on, Babet struck at will and achieved a knock down in round 3 with a combination spinning back kick. Soon after, the ref called the fight.

Carlson Gracie MMA would dominate the next two fights. In the lightweight class, Olivier Vajda took on Adam Saad of Team Aikki wth a quick superior attack that enabled a end by guillotine at 58 seconds of the first round.

Bryce Gougeon of the same team was up against Rami Kadi of Wolf’s den for a welterweight MMA match. Kadi looked disappointed with his loss by TKO in the first round. Gougeon took control, was agressive, and had several flurries of striking on the ground to cause the referee to intervene and call and end to the fight.

190 pounders Nygel Yargeau of Pure Self Defence in Campbell River and Mathew Vogleri of Total Kombat Academy in New Westminster squared off for a kickboxing fight. Yargeau was a totally solid and fluid fighter and delivered some stunning blows body shots in a mostly boxing fight. Volgeri turned his back too often and knew he was outclassed in the ring and wisely threw in the towel after round 2.

A first round ground and pound TKO was how the middleweight MMA fight between Dave Ferguson from Revolution Fight Team and Jacob Tournour would end up. Ferguson was persistent, kept attempting takedowns off the top. Tournour was able to get back to his feet, but eventually something worked and Ferguson put a quick end to the fight by referee stoppage.

Two heavyweight guys weighing in at around 260 lbs would face off for a kickboxing match. Clay Berg of Comox Valley MMA would win by unanimous judges decision against Curtis Baker of Wolf’s Den. Despite Baker rallying in the third, it would not be enough to even out the judges score at the end.

Chase Ingalls of Pure Self Defence in Campbell River, BC was matched against an impressively trim and fit Karim Pahalloo Lion’s Den for a 165 lb Muay Thai match. The judges handed Chase Ingalls a unanimous decision in well matched fight Ingalls was very effective at pre-empting Pahaloo’s attacks, and appeared better at fighting at multiple levels.

The main event put up Adam Santos of Morganti Ju-Jitsu (Team Narita) from Richmond against Team Denarius fighter Neil Menard for a heavyweight MMA fight. Menard was a late substitution for Clayton Smith from Edmonton who could not make the fight. Menard went down early and was in trouble on the ground. But what happened next depended on one’s point of view. At about the first minute of the first round, Referee Jason Williamson had to make the call about stopping the fight. Menard was on the ground while Santos was in the process of passing guard and mounting to finish. But Neil Menard, the figher on the ground, wasnt ready to give in. When Williamson jumped in between the fighters to stop the match, Menard then tried to push the referee off to continue defending. But by that moment the fight had been called. Marcus Hicks, the coach in Menard’s corner was furious and indeed most people in the room were howling with disbelief. Reviews of the fight night by the Vancouver Sun, MMARingReport.com and others described the end a little differently, saying that Santos was still striking after the referee intervened. Apparently, both fighters didnt think the fight was over just yet. The media reports already published focused harshly on this unhappy ending to an otherwise decent amateur fight night. While there was a great ‘verbal tirade’ by Marcus Hicks and others, he did not immediately ‘storm the ring’ as was implied in reports, even though he did eventually step in. Hicks, team Narita, and everybody else calmed down afterwards outside the ballroom. Hicks submitted an apology for rushing the ring, his tirade, with other comments about the quality of the event later to the media.

However, that is how the fight got called and after a great deal of dissatisfaction between all the parties, the referee raised Santos’ hand in victory.

In the referee Williamson’s defence, stepping in between fighters to call a fight is probably the most difficult decision a MMA referee has to make. Williamson chose as any referee must, to intervene when a fighter is on the ground, is taking hits, is unable to return hits, and is unable to improve his position. But you dont have to be an MMA fan for very long to have seen a match preempted by the referee just a touch early, acting on legitimate concerns for safety. From the fighter’s point of view, it is probably the worst possible outcome when a referee calls it prematurely. But MMA has its quirks and everybody knows that. One of the things that could improve MMA the most is greater support for the referees in the ring. More referees could be added to the night to alternate between fights and more instruction could be provided to fighters and coaches beforehand to establish a solid understanding about how and why a fight is going to be called the way it is. What went down after the fight just proves again that the stuff that goes on outside the ring is tougher than what goes on in the fight.

June 07, 2010

Westcoast Promotions is pleased to announce that MMA at the Rock #1 is airing on The Fight Network Thursday June 10th 5pm (PST) 8pm (EST). Channel 125 (Telus) 149 (Shaw).

Our upcoming event, MMA at the Rock #2 at the River Rock Casino Show Theatre July 9th is sure to bring as much action and fireworks as its original aired event.

Please see www.fightnetwork.com for all details.

More info from this fight night on my blog post.:

http://martialartsnomad.com/2010/01/29/first-ever-mma-fight-night-river-rock/

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: MAY, 29, 2010

At the beautiful new Pinnacle Hotel in North Vancouver, Top Rank Martial Arts, the very same promotion that provided you with the Elite Fighting Championships, the National Fighting Championships 1-7, The North American Challenge 1-26, All Martial Arts Championships 1-4, and brought bodogFIGHT to Vancouver, recently teamed up with the promoter Marc Crimeni to bring you the new version of the NFC, called the International Fighting Challenge. This show features a beautiful buffet prepared by the excellent chefs at the Pinnacle or general seating without dinner is also available.

The hotel is placed directly on the waterfront and offers stunning views of the water, the City of Vancouver, and on Saturday June 26th, it will also offer spectacular views of MMA and Kickboxing fights in their West Ballroom.

As liquor will be served, we recommend you plan a stay in one of Pinnacle’s extravagant rooms with a view after enjoying the event.

As always, this will be an amazing card that is stacked with edge-of-your-seat exciting fights!

Book early by calling 604-318-1902 as limited tickets are available.

In collaboration with West Coast Promotions, the River Rock Casino Resort is proud to announce a triumphant return of live MMA at the fabulous River Rock Show Theatre on Friday, July 9th. After an explosive night of MMA action earlier this year at the Rock, this 12 fight card will feature even greater fireworks!

In the Main Event, coming off of an impressive win in his last fight, the ever exciting Tak Sasaki, fighting out the Wolfes Den in North Vancouver, takes on tough American opponent, Jason Rivera. Rivera fights out of the ‘Wand Team’ in Las Vegas, Nevada, which is owned and operated by PRIDE & UFC legend Wanderlei Silva. Expect some high flying action in this one as Sasaki looks to impress.

The Semi-Main Event will feature MMA at the Rock #1 Fight of the Night participant Sarah Mcleod. Fighting out of Team Denarius in North Vancouver, undefeated Mcleod looks to put on yet another impressive performance against Amy Caldwell out of Chaelies Combat Club in Everett, Washington.

The Main and Semi Main Event’s are Canada vs. USA affairs, so expect some fierce combat between the two neighboring nations. The remainder of the card will feature other outstanding BC MMA fighters including: Kelowna’s Chris Day, Campbell River’s Oren Hanscom, Comox Valley’s Nathan Swayze, and Vernon’s Tyson Fitch.

Tickets are now on sale and range from $39.99 to $139.99. They are available through www.ticketmaster.ca or at the River Rock Box office which can be reached at 604.247.8562

For all media requests please contact:

Manny Sobral

Westcoast Promotions Tel: 604.377.2607

Honour Combat hosted one of the first MMA event in Vancouver with the fight night at Edgewater Casino in November of 2009 and returned on Friday May 21st with the second instalment in their fight series, Circus Maximus outdoors at the Plaza of Nations, a big fight night to kick off the long weekend in May. Circus Maximus promised and delivered ‘…16 of the most explosive and exciting fighters that the lower mainland has to offer…’, plus ex Big Wrecker and Juno nominee Thornely to keep everyone entertained. Awesome locals Southern Death Threat kicked off the fight night.

The amateur fights were sanctioned under MMABC, the association in place to group together the best judges, referees, and regulators as MMA emerges as a truly sanctioned support in BC. Fight rules are defined by the association as ‘A’ class rules, with bouts scheduled for 3 rounds of 3 minutes. Being an amateur MMA fight night, it’s an MMA fight, excepting elbow strikes, knees to the head, suplexing and of course groin shots.

The event would be graced with the special appearance by Bibiano Fabricio Fernandes, BJJ Champion 5 time winner of Japans Dream Fight series in the featherweight division. Bibiano now calls the Vancouver area his home and trains with Revolution Martial Arts in Langley.

The Fight Card

The first fight was for 185 lbs between Brendon Leong and Colton Miller. Leong looked like a tough and stacked fighter in the ring but they were well matched after the first round. There was a lot of trading in the second round, ground, knee strikes, good boxing, and ground battles did not last. Leong dominated on the ground at the end and won by judges unanimous, but it was clear also that Miller fought a good fight nonetheless.

Ryan Ince battled James Pratt in a 150 catchweight fight. Both demonstrated they were explosive, light fighters in the standup and at one point, Ince crawled Pratt across the mat in guard but they were back to the feet by the time they got close to the cage, no giving up and both were good strikers. Ince dominated by end of the match and won by unanimous judges decision.

Jeremy Fitzkennedy won by a quick TKO against Kurtis Waterstone in the first round of at 1:20, by mounting and passing the guard and then pounding until the referee intervened.

Roman Wheeler went up against Timothy Parker for a 150 lbs catchweight fight where they would trade knees, body shots, and neither fighter wanted to stay on the ground. Wheeler almost had Parker in an armbar at the end of the first round, and potential setups for submissions were seen at least a couple of times. Parker also laid in some punishment on Wheeler as seen by a cut to Wheeler’s head, body slams, and pressure against the cage. The judges however would award the fight to Roman Wheeler by a split decision, who did not give into any tactics and fought back well throughout.

Andrew Small of Revolution went against Andrew Chevrie from Franco’s for a 160 lb bout. Small sensed a vulnerability in his opponent and chased him down across the cage and got him down with a head shot. The fight was over with a knockout in about 40 seconds of the first.

Two big guys were in fight number 6 of the night, at 190 lbs, Nathan Swayze and Jer Kornelson, both from clubs on Vancouver Island. Kornelson defended well against Swayze, who was strong, throughout. Swayze however was strong enough to pull through the fight with a unanimous win from the judges at the end.

The next fight was  at 155 lbs between AJ Foulds from Sniper, and Abe Monte de Ramos from Franco. The fight was slow on ground after the first. Foulds had a chance at a rear naked victory in the first but it did not happen so easily. Foulds would dominate and pound and win by TKO in the second round when the referee stopped the fight.

The main event of the evening was a 185 lb matchup between Rysom McIvor and Eric Ramsey. McIvor proved he was a hard striker, and both fighters exchanged strikes kicks, and control. The tapout came during the second round as a result of ground pressure against the cage. A rear naked choke was what was announced as how McIvor won the fight but it was hard to see with the fighters up against the fence.

There are 288 photos I snapped for my fight blog around the cage at Honour Combat Circus Maximus. If you got this far, you should go hit my flickr.com photo pool for this event:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/superwebdeveloper/sets/72157624111575058/

New material for the martial arts nomad fight blog came with the presentation of The Canadian Extreme MMA Championships for 2010, The Red Robinson Theatre in Coquitlam BC on Friday night, April 23. Fighters from BC, Alberta, Yukon, and Ontario were on the card to determine in 19 fights who would be the national champions in Amateur MMA In Canada across six weight divisions. This championship series was presented by the Canadian Amateur Combat Sports Council, that designed the series to provide important experience and recognition for young and upcoming fighters, just as Canadian jurisdictions are beginning to sanction pro mixed martial arts events.

The fight series took the name of ‘Extreme’ for two reasons: first being that a fighter may have to fight up to three times in the same night to claim the division title, and second that the series made use of a ’30 second ground rule’, where fight that has gone to the ground for 30 seconds is stopped by the referee, the fighters are stood up and the fight continues. Use of a 30 second rule has been discussed in other MMA fight series since it has been proposed as a solution to help keep the action alive and fights decisive; MMA fight organizers want rules to make better fighters with better fights. The Extreme series could be called a testing ground for the rule and it was seen to work well in this context. The 30 second rule enabled fighters, many who are from a standup striking background, to have a chance for a better ground game. The fighters would either take the chance more often to shoot in for a takedown, or work hard to defend knowing that they would not get tied up for too long on the mat. What the fight fans got as a result was more variety between stand-up and ground action, and they would cheer in sequence with the changes in action.

Following long-standing fight night traditions, card girls were on hand to keep the event running like clockwork. But someone hired card girls so sexy they needed a military escort. That job was filled by three men who could truly be said to be among the toughest guys in Canada, represented by the honour guard of the Royal Westminster Regiment. The gentlemen soldiers were otherwise in agreement by the end of the night that bearing our national flag and escorting the card girls carefully through the ropes beat overseas deployment.

Some very fast fights happened on the mat and few lasted the duration of 2 minutes for one or two rounds for the later matches. Some of that could be attributed either to good craft of choking the guy out or by getting outclassed, plain and simple. Once that got sorted there were lots more fights lined up for the event.


The largest division for the night was Welterweight, from 156 to 170 lbs. In the first round, the better fighters won by TKOs from rear naked chokes, quick and decisive strikes and ground submissions. The exception of Danny Doing and Rob Woodcock in the first fight of the evening which turned out to be an evenly matched pair of fighters and came to a unanimous decision for Doig. Johnny Kozlowski and Eli Wyse got to the belt round with Doctor’s stoppage and TKO, and Kozlowski took the division with a referee declared TKO at the end of a 30 second ground rule whistle.


The Featherweight category(135-145 lbs) first round would see Oren Hanscomb and Shane Jung advance to face off against each other with 30 second wins by anaconda and guillotine tap-out respectively. Their championship round fight quickly became anti-climactic with 5 minutes of stoppage due a serious groin injury due to an unintentional strike, and Hanscomb walked away with the belt.


The Lightweight division (146-155 lbs) first round featured a well matched battle between Andrew Stainthorpe and Mark Shean, in a fight demonstrating good striking and escape skills from clinches and mounts. There would be some debate between the judges decision after the fight, at first mistakenly given to Shean, and after, properly awarded to Stainthorpe. As a result of neither of the other two fighters in this division being able to come back for the belt round, the division title was awarded to Andrew Stainthorpe.


The Middleweight division (175-185 lbs) advanced Michael Guermoudi by judges decision in a fight with two ground stoppages, who would go against Brian Ernst who won by a rear naked choke tap-out in 42 seconds. While Brian Ernst defended well, restablishing guard several times against Guermoudi while on the ground, Guermoudi’s superior ground fights in the guard, his sweeps, strikes, throwdowns, and slams enabled him to take the fight with a final beatdown.


The Light-heavyweight division, for 186-205 lbs had only three fighters. The division introduced Brad Robinson to the local fight scene in a well matched, hard standup win against Kyle Warman. Robinson would then go to the belt round against Tyler Warman (bro of Kyle?). Robinson would take the fight of the night in an INSANE FIGHT, going through big ordeals as he was almost choked out with a front guillotine, with a beet red face, escaping only to get rocked hard several times by strikes from Tyler Warman, crumpling to the mat only to get right up again, bouncing off the ropes like a drunken sailor, to surprise everyone with getting Warman with a strike and takedown. He then mounted and pounded Warman with massive, vengeful headshots alternated with knees to the torso. The crowd went absolutely nuts, he was almost out of it… for a moment everybody was counting Robinson out, and then he bounded back brilliantly with an righteously inspiring victory after almost losing it. The doctor and paramedic were brought in to the ring for Warman after the referee stopped the fight by knockout. Robinson was on CBC Radio One on Monday April 26 to share his personal story, which is just as inspiring and a little surprising. He is a recent arrival to BC from back east, arriving less than a year ago in Vancouver on a Greyhound with less than 40 bucks in his pocket, sleeping at shelters for the first couple of months, volunteering at The Gathering Place Community Centre, doing what he could until he could get on his feet. Robinson is not attached to any local martial arts gym and used a borrowed heavy bag to supplement his training. He has some experience bouncing at bars, but he has to have some raw talent in there and amazing drive to face challenges outside the ring like he does inside of it. Surely some gyms around town are going to look at this guy as a real prospect.

Craig Garriot would take Herbert Moon in the 3 man Heavyweight division (206-265 lbs) in the battle of the big guys. Reece Doherty from Fort St. John who did not advance in the judges split decision held up the event with a special announcement. He called his girlfriend to the ring, got down on one knee, and proposed to her. She accepted, and there was a general sense of relief in the crowd, as no-one wanted to see a mma battle between couples. The referee pronounced love victorious and they posed for kisses with a rock on his new fiancee’s finger.

Full Photo set on Flickr.com: http://www.flickr.com/photos/superwebdeveloper/sets/72157623940552622/


Link for fans of the lovely card girls: http://www.flickr.com/photos/superwebdeveloper/sets/72157623279493008/

Honor Combat Presents Circus Maximus, Honor Combat’s next MMA fight event, to be held on May 21st at the Plaza of Nations. Also appearing at the event is Thornley with special guests Southern Death Threat. Hard driving rock for hard driving fights. The Martial Arts Nomad will be there to report for his fight blog.

I’d like to share a little bit more of this fight night with you on my fight blog. I have 497 photos in my photo set for Fight at the View III and I would like to post a selection of my best shots from the night.

Link to full set on Flickr.com: http://www.flickr.com/photos/superwebdeveloper/sets/72157623748559699/detail/

Link to full set on Flickr.com: http://www.flickr.com/photos/superwebdeveloper/sets/72157623748559699/detail/

A new fight series is coming to Vancouver, Battlefield fight league. The fight league is kicking off things on May 15 2010 with a dynamite line up of hot young MMA fighters on their card. For tickets and seating info call 778.996.5555 or 1.877.837.3555.

The battlefield site has previews of the fighters on the card to show you how you dont have to miss out on MMA in Vancouver just because you missed the 15 minutes that UFC tickets were available. Be sure you get your tickets to this hot fight night in May. For tickets and seating info call 778.996.5555 or 1.877.837.3555.