Time of year again for the awesome two day martial arts tournament, Tiger Balm International. This year will feature nine sparring categories, including SKIL point fighting, SKIL & WKC continuous sparring, padded weapons sparring, San Shou fighting, Mixed Martial Arts, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Free Style Grappling & Modified Pankration. There will also be some great Demonstration forms that cant be missed.

Tiger Balm is one of the two largest martial arts tournaments in the greater Vancouver area along with the WCMAC held in October at BCIT. Tiger Balm fills the Capilano University Gym with participants from a large number of disciplines, with men and women participating at all ages.

San Shou Fight at Tiger Balm 2009

And moi, the Martial Arts Nomad, is going to be there fighting in my first tournament. Who wouldn’t want to beat up on guys half their age? Been training hard, cutting weight, so lets see how it goes! See you there!

Date: Saturday, & Sunday, March 27/28, 2010

Where: Capilano University Sportsplex 2055 Purcell Way, North Vancouver, B.C., Canada

More info http://www.mantiskungfu.com/TigerBalmInternationals.htm

Link to a few photos from last year

My congratulations goes out to Alex Cruz for his first Pro MMA fight victory at RFC in February 2010.

Alex Cruz and Elite Training Center Team Coaches - Roger Patrizzi (far Left) Sensei Phil Beatty (far Right)

Alex is a mixed martial artist I met when I was training at Elite Training Center, an mma school in St. Petersburg Florida in January. We talked MMA and fight techniques and sparred a little bit. Then I heard from Sensei Phil Beatty that Alex was on the card for RFC 20 MMA fight in Tampa. Alex just let me know that he won by TKO ground and pound after his opponent threw in the towel at the end of the second round.

Link to more mma fight photos.

Fight Cancelled

An hour ago I just got an email with a message that just floored me. Gionco International has announced at the last minute that the ISKA BC championship and 5 MMA bouts scheduled for tonight, Friday January 29, 2010, has been cancelled, a decision made by Mr. Gionco. It seems that there was a question related to the pro or amateur status of Victor Wang of Posener’s Pankration & Kickboxing. As such, there is an issue of contention from the City of Vancouver which cannot allow this fight, the main event. Cancel the main event, cancel the night. Gionco regrets having to take this action, and refunds are in the works for all ticket holders.

Update

The fight did go on after all. I hear that the hot fight of the night was Josh Jauncey, with a 1st round TKO.

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.

Cage Night at the Rock

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.

MMA Cage

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.

Iman Rahmim of Versus21

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.

Fighers on the ground

Fighters in Guard

Coaches shouting directions

Card Girls Are Lovely

Fighter Wendy Roy

Fighters Sarah McLeod and Wendy Roy

Emilio Ditrocchio and Bazooka Joe

Fighters in Guard

Right Cross

Ground Work

Fighter Ready To Enter

Link to full set on Flickr.com.

Fight results

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

Source: WestCoast Promotions, Press Release.

The Audience at River Rock

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.

Gionco International Presents

Championship Kickboxing & MMA Bouts

Featuring Dean Lirette vs Jerry Wang

for the ISKA BC Championship

Plus Five MMA fights

Friday January 29, 7 PM

Fraserview Hall, 8240 Fraser Street ( Marine Drive) Vancouver BC

MMA at the River Rock Casino, 23 January 2010.

West Coast Promotions is pleased to announce the first ever live amateur MMA event at the River Rock Show Theatre. With Vancouver City Council’s recent approval of professional MMA in the City of Vancouver this is a great opportunity to showcase amateur MMA in Richmond.

For the first time in Lower Mainland MMA history, the bouts will be contested in a CAGE… (the way it was meant to be!).

Tickets range from $29.99 to $99.99 and are available through www.ticketmaster.ca or at the River Rock Box office which can be reached at 604.247.8562

More info: West Coast Promotions

Here is some more MMA action from the Honour Combat fight night on November 27th at Edgewater Casino.

The first one is the Jonathan Agnew and Tak Sasaki filmed from the crowd by Sukhi Dhaliwal:

Here is the same fight shot by Stephen Hui of the Georgia Straight:

Stephen Hui also caught a round of a fight earlier in the evening between Jordan Knippleberg and Roland Wheeler.

Honour Combat Championships presented MMA exhibition fights at Edgewater Casino, Vancouver BC, Canada. Nov. 27 2009.
The event was a true first – an all-amateur MMA event in downtown Vancouver, with 8 fights on the card. The event was under the microscope as City of Vancouver and BC provincial authorities ponder how to sanction MMA events properly. With the support of the appropriate sports regulating body, Vancouver will be able to host professional MMA events like UFC.
Reports back from the local media indicate that the attending politicians were quite impressed with the conduct of the event, while those who continue to oppose sanctioning these events are becoming more and more isolated.

More photos from Honour Combat in my flickr pool

More photos from Honour combat.

more photos at my flickr pool

More photos from my shots at Honour Combat Championships

Link to more photos from my flickr.com pool