GAMMA - Year 2

WCW Mark · January 26, 2011

This is a continuation of my GAMMA Dynasty. It's a new year so I've started it in a new thread as the presentation and style evolved quite a lot over the course of the first year. If you want to read about what happened in the first year the thread can be found here http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showthread.php?t=269694

For the new comers there are a few things I should explain so that you know what to expect and also so that things make sense.

1. I'm using the default database and will always be using the latest patch. I started my game well before 1.1 came out though so I don't think any of the fighters added then will be debuting in my game.

2. I write about this very much as though it is a game rather than reporting on real life events. I will therefore be explaining why I make certain decisions or matches and it will hopefully give you an insight into my thought process.

3. This is my first (and so far only game) of WMMA 3, I am therefore likely to make some odd decisions or mistakes.

4. I started the numbering for GAMMA shows from 1 at the start of my diary. In game terms this can be explained as dating from their first PPV. In real life I did it as it makes keeping notes etc less confusing for me.

5. Predictions, comments and criticism are welcomed and encouraged.

Seeing as it is a new year I thought the best way to kick it off would be with letting you all see the latest in terms of rankings. These ranking aren't actually from the 1st January 1999 but are from about halfway through Jan '99 and ALPHA-1 have already run an event. This is my fault as I was keen to zip through and check some contract renewals before sitting down to write this and I just didn't think about the fact the rankings would change slightly after ALPHA-1's event.

WCW Mark · January 26, 2011

January 1999 - Rankings Update

These are the combined rankings for all companies, last years ranking is in brackets and champions are in bold. I'll show the top 25 Pound for Pound but only the top 15 for each weight class and only the top 10 for women as there just aren't enough quality competitors to warrant any more than that.

Pound 4 Pound - World

Rank Fighter Record Org

1. (1) Hassan Fezzik 26-0 ALPHA-1

2. (4) Li-Kong Ho 19-0 Unemployed

3. (NE) Nathan Chambers 19-1 ALPHA-1

4. (9) Sukarno 25-0 GAMMA

5. (NE) Carlos da Guia 16-0 ALPHA-1

6. (5) Zvonmir Asanovic 29-2 ALPHA-1

7. (NE) Buddy Garner 15-0 GAMMA

8. (NE) Sho Kitabatake 16-0 ALPHA-1

9. (NE) Jeff Carlton 34-7 GAMMA

10. (NE) Manuel Silva 15-0 FLB

11. (NE) Spencer Rubenstein 15-4 GAMMA

12. (NE) Josh Aldarisio 17-1 GAMMA

13. (15) Ichisake Miyagi 23-3 ALPHA-1

14. (NE) Osmosis Benn 17-0 GAMMA

15. (13) Noach Van Der Capellen 23-3 SIGMA

16. (NE) Aleksei Chekhov 21-3 GAMMA

17. (NE) Heji Endo 16-1 ALPHA-1

18. (14) Affonso Villar 22-2 FLB

19. (NE) Helio 18-1 FLB

20. (NE) Neil Napier 16-0 GAMMA

21. (22) Joaquim Fontes 22-3 FLB

22. (NE) Tony McCall 34-10 GAMMA

23. (16) Luis Basora 19-3 SIGMA

24. (8) Sean Morrison 28-4 GAMMA

25. (NE) Masahiro Maeno 19-3 Unemployed

Well it seems the more things change the more they stay the same, despite massive changes in the pound for pound rankings over the last 12 months, with 15 of the 25 fighters not being here this time last year, one thing remains constant; Hassan Fezzik is the worlds greatest fighter. His closest rival Li-Kong Ho has been hit by the closure of KDM FC and as such isn't likely to catch him anytime soon. Fezzik will however have to fight more than once this year to continue to be worthy of the top spot. ALPHA-1 demonstrate why they are world #1 with 5 out of the top ten and crucially 3 out of the top 5. FLB impress with 4 fighters in the top 25, more than any other company outside of the big 2.

Heavyweight - World

1. (1) Hazzan Fezzik 26-0 ALPHA-1

2. (10) Jeff Carlton 34-7 GAMMA

3. (17) Tony McCall 34-10 GAMMA

4. (13) Hiro Arai 16-4 ALPHA-1

5. (6) Raul Hughes 16-3 GAMMA

6. (3) Kunimichi Kikuchi 26-4 ALPHA-1

7. (NE) Rav Kapur 9-0 BCF

8. (22) Fatuma Roy 22-8 GAMMA

9. (14) Palmer Lette 20-5-2-2 ALPHA-1

10. (11) Grzegorz Boniek 33-4 ALPHA-1

11. (12) Harry Milne 42-7 BCF

12. (23) Terron Cabal 12-0 SIGMA

13. (NE) Gary Sampson 19-5 GAMMA

14. (8) Mason Archer 18-4 ALPHA-1

15. (NE) Dave Lennon 15-4 BCF

The big story of the year is the fact that James Foster has vanished from the rankings. Last years #2 ranked Heavyweight doesn't even make the top 25, let alone the top 15. The forthcoming title match between Jeff Carlton and Tony McCall features the world #2 and #3. BCF put up a strong showing with 3 out of the top 15, including champion Rav Kapur.

Light Heavyweight - World

1. (2) Zvonmir Asanovic 29-2 ALPHA-1

2. (15) Sho Kitabatake 16-0 ALPHA-1

3. (8) Spencer Rubenstein 15-4 GAMMA

4. (NE) Osmosis Benn 17-0 GAMMA

5. (6) Aleksei Chekhov 21-3 GAMMA

6. (4) Affonso Villar 22-2 FLB

7. (1) Tadamasa Yamada 22-2 ALPHA-1

8. (13) Pedro Sousa 21-3 FLB

9. (NE) Mike Watson 11-0 GAMMA

10. (9) Roberto Aldez 42-11 FLB

11. (12) Junior Patinkin 15-2 GAMMA

12. (20) Carlos dos Santos 14-3 FLB

13. (22) Leandro Piquet 21-7 FLB

14. (18) Hyun-Shik - Lim 14-1 ALPHA-1

15. (NE) Curt Kitson 10-0 BCF

ALPHA-1 have the two top Light Heavyweights in the world and they must surely clash for the title soon, especially as contender Asanovic is ranked higher than their champion. Again FLB impress with 5 fighters in the top 15, equalling GAMMA and surpassing ALPHA-1. Shock of the year is Niko Soldo who despite only fighting once last year (a loss to Aleksei Chekhov) finds himself outside the top 25.

Middleweight - World

1. (14) Buddy Garner 15-0 GAMMA

2. (12) Heiji Endo 16-1 ALPHA-1

3. (5) Neil Napier 16-0 GAMMA

4. (4) Joaquim Fontes 22-3 FLB

5. (8) Stuart Strange 17-2 GAMMA

6. (15) Zaco 44-14 FLB

7. (NE) Sutton Ripley 15-2 GAMMA

8. (13) Thais Antonio Taffarel 18-2 FLB

9. (23) Jaromir Grygera 20-5 SIGMA

10. (1) Mathew Dean 32-6 GAMMA

11. (11) JJ Reid 25-6 GAMMA

12. (NE) Rob Baines 29-10 BCF

13. (NE) Andrew Rush 16-6 BCF

14. (NE) Fjodor Kanchelskis 11-0 SIGMA

15. (20) Tora Mizwar 19-6 Unemployed

My first #1, Buddy Garner had a great year, not only did he win both his fights and the Middleweight Title but he also picked up submission of the year. He goes up against Stuart Strange in his next fight.

ALPHA-1 need to strengthen their Middleweights, they only have 1 in the top 15 and are outshone by all three of the 2nd tier companies. Those companies may find that ALPHA-1 come knocking on their doors for those fighters in the near future.

Welterweight - World

1. (6) Nathan Chambers 19-1 ALPHA-1

2. (4) Carlos Da Guia 16-0 ALPHA-1

3. (5) Mauel Silva 15-0 FLB

4. (14) Josh Aldarisio 17-1 GAMMA

5. (3) Ichisake Miyagi 23-3 ALPHA-1

6. (2) Noach Van Der Capellen 23-3 SIGMA

7. (18) Alan Kendall 14-3 GAMMA

8. (NE) Ikku Funaki 17-4 ALPHA-1

9. (7) Vikram Sithalayan 17-2 BCF

10. (20) Chew Chua 20-4 ALPHA-1

11. (13) David Webb 16-3 BCF

12. (22) Charles Stiles 16-2 FLB

13. (10) Templeton Crumb 20-3 SIGMA

14. (16) Syed Tan 15-2-1 ALPHA-1

15. (23) Jim Carpenter 51-9-2 GAMMA

This could have been my second #1 if only I hadn't blown it in my negotiations with Nathan Chambers on his contract renewal, as you can tell I'm still bitter. Chambers vs current ALPHA-1 Champ Carlos Da Guia has to happen soon and will determine who is the best Welterweight in the world. ALPHA-1 dominate these rankings and I need to look to recruit in the near future.

Lightweight - World

1. (2) Sukarno 25-0 GAMMA

2. (10) Helio 18-1 FLB

3. (3) Luis Basora 19-3 SIGMA

4. (1) Sean Morrison 28-4 GAMMA

5. (16) Seth O’Breen 14-0 BCF

6. (14) Fiyero Lermontov 12-0 SIGMA

7. (NE) Naizen Hamacho 10-0 ALPHA-1

8. (NE) Paulo Roberto Bezerra 12-5 FLB

9. (19) Bruce Steven 17-7 GAMMA

10. (12) Lukas Mellberg 17-3 SIGMA

11. (9) Fumiaki Hayashi 17-5 ALPHA-1

12. (21) Georges Nouri 10-1 ALPHA-1

13. (6) Motoki Hojo 17-4 ALPHA-1

14. (20) Shizuya Nakae 26-12 ALPHA-1

15. (7) Truck Gleeson 22-5-1 NC GAMMA

My second #1 although Sukarno has never fought for me as he is a recent aquisition. That will be remedied in the near future when he makes his stateside debut against former #1 contender Truck Gleeson. Meanwhile Morrison has every reason to feel that he has unjustly be denied the top slot for the second year running. Whilst he did lose this year it was in a shot at the Welterweight Title. If he can Bruce Steven, which he should do, he will face Sukarno to determine the best Lightweight on the planet.

Meanwhile SIGMA impress with 3 in the top 15, along with their Featherweight Division this makes them the ones to watch for action in the lower weight classes amongst the tier 2 companies.

Featherweight - World

1. (1) Li-Kong Ho 19-0 Unemployed

2. (5) Masahiro Maeno 19-3 Unemployed

3. (3) Tomohiro Takeuchi 17-3 Unemployed

4. (10) Easton Frye 14-4 XCC

5. (11) Manish Khan 9-1 SIGMA

6. (8) Luiz Machado 23-4 XCC

7. (21) Yoshiro Makamori 12-0 GAMMA

8. (9) Norberto 28-5 Unemployed

9. (14) Kenji Akita 11-1 Unemployed

10. (2) Philip Ziskie 19-2-1 XCC

11. (22) Jason Dalglish 20-5 SIGMA

12. (18) Colm Dee 13-2 SIGMA

13. (4) Lars Bohlin 48-7 SIGMA

14. (12) Sammy Gaffigan 11-2 XCC

15. (17) Alvaro Negredo 19-8 SIGMA

The effects of the closure of KDM FC are all to clear when you look at the number of unemployed featherweights. With only SIGMA and XCC currently recognising this division their is an urgent need for another company to open up at this level. Otherwise we may see a generation of fighters go to waste.

Female Pound for Pound - World

1. (4) Hanako Shimizu 9-0 WEFF

2. (8) Samantha Sachs 7-0 WEFF

3. (3) Sarah Vaughan 11-0 WEFF

4. (11) Karen Curtis 7-0 WEFF

5. (NE) Layla Holmes 5-0 XCC

6. (NE) Sandy Oliver 7-1 WEFF

7. (6) Yutsuko Sasaki 6-0 WEFF

8. (2) Chiyo Yanagimoto 8-1 Unemployed

9. (19) Veronika Sablikova 5-0 Unemployed

10. (NE) Hazel McClay 5-1 WEFF

Former world #1 Mizuki Watanabe drops to 25th in the world as a result of 1 loss. Unfortunately due to the fledging nature of the women's game such volatility in the rankings is to be expected. The effects of the closure of KDM FC are also felt here although not to the same extent as in the Men's Featherweight Division and WEFF dominate here, as is to be expected. Hanako Shimizu v Samantha Sachs will surely be the big fight for them in the forthcoming few months.

That took me a little longer to write than I expected and I want to do something similar for the GAMMA rankings before putting up my first card of 1999 so I'm afraid that will have to wait a while. In the meantime please feel free to comment on these rankings, anything surprise you compared to your games? Oh and if anyone knows how to put things like this into a nice looking table in HTML please let me know.

WCW Mark · January 30, 2011

GAMMA RANKINGS - JANUARY 1999

Here are the GAMMA Rankings heading into 1999, the divisions have all seen considerable change since this time last year with fighters coming through others falling away and a host of new signings. This will let you all see the state of the divisions heading into the new year.

Again last years position is in brackets with NE denoting a new entry at that weight class. The P4P rankings also include the division the fighter is in whilst the divisional rankings include the fighters popularity in the USA.

Pound 4 Pound

1. (NE) Sukarno 25-0 Lightweight

2. (23) Buddy Garner 15-0 Middleweight

3. (20) Josh Aldarisio 17-1 Welterweight

4. (13) Spencer Rubenstein 15-4 Light Heavyweight

5. (14) Jeff Carlton 34-7 Heavyweight

6. (NE) Osmosis Benn 17-0 Light Heavyweight

7. (NE) Aleksei Chekhov 21-3 Light Heavyweight

8. (10) Neil Napier 16-0 Middleweight

9. (NE) Tony McCall 34-10 Heavyweight

10. (3) Sean Morrison 28-4 Lightweight

11. (25) Alan Kendall 14-3 Welterweight

12. (8) Raul Hughes 16-3 Heavyweight

13. (16) Stuart Strange 17-2 Midddleweight

14. (NE) Jim Carpenter 51-9-2 Welterweight

15. (NE) Sutton Ripley 15-2 Middleweight

16. (NE) Bud Brockett 9-0 Welterweight

17. (NE) Fatuma Roy 22-8 Heavyweight

18. (NE) Yoshiro Makamori 12-0 Lightweight

19. (NE) Mike Watson 11-0 Light Heavyweight

20. (1) Julio Regueiro 21-1 Welterweight

21. (NE) Gary Sampson 19-5 Heavyweight

22. (NE) David Allen 16-3 Welterweight

23. (NE) Bruce Steven 17-7 Lightweight

24. (NE) Junior Patinkin 15-2 Light Heavyweight

25. (4) Mathew Dean 32-6 Middleweight

Oh how the mighty have fallen. Last years number 1 Julio Regueiro is now ranked at 20 while last years number 2, James Foster, doesn’t even make the top 25. In fact with the remainder of last years top 5 being made up of Morrison, Dean and Darling it seems like it is all change at the top with only Morrison retaining a place in the top 10. The volatility of these rankings should give hope to every fighter, if you can string a couple of wins together you could find yourself ranked amongst the elite.

Heavyweight

1. (4) Jeff Carlton 34-7 High National

2. (5) Tony McCall 34-10 Low National

3. (3) Raul Hughes 16-3 High National

4. (7) Fatuma Roy 22-8 High Regional

5. (12) Gary Sampson 19-5 Low National

6. (2) Tim Boyer 25-4-2 Low National

7. (NE) Chuck Dooley 6-0 High National

8. (NE) Christopher Sharp 36-13 Low National

9. (NE) Norman Pike 18-5 High Regional

10. (15) Norbert Vinkus 4-0 Low International

Without wanting to go on about it the big story of the year has to be James Fosters collapse in the rankings, from #1 he drops down to 18. Carlton v McCall has been delayed due to injury but the world is waiting to see my #1 and 2 ranked heavyweights go at it. Hughes recovered from an early loss to Carloton with wins over Christopher Sharp and Khru Duangjan and is pushing for a title shot. Fatuma Roy and Gary Sampson both find themselves in the top 5 without really facing top class opponents. Both will need to prove themselves at the top level before getting a title shot. Breakout star of the year is Chuck Dooley who is the highest new entry after 3 solid wins.

Light Heavyweight

1. (2) Spencer Rubenstein 15-4 Low National

2. (NE) Osmosis Benn 17-0 Low National

3. (NE) Aleksei Chekhov 21-3 None

4. (13) Mike Watson 11-0 Low National

5. (3) Junior Patinkin 15-2 Low National

6. (NE) Mathew Dean 32-6 Low National

7. (NE) Jerry Bogdonovich 7-0 High Regional

8. (10) Lawrence Herringbone 13-1 High Regional

9. (NE) Patrick Thomas 17-4 Low National

10. (4) Marlon John 12-1 High Regional

Again the Light Heavyweight Division is all about a fallen hero, last years top ranked fighter, Linfield Ballard, tumbled all the way down to 22 after a shocker of a year. Spencer Rubenstein started and finished the year as champion with wins over Ballard and Le Toussier. He faces the winner of Heringbone v Benn next. Despite being ranked #3 Chekhov has a way to go before he gets a title shot as at the moment the fans have no idea who he is.

Middleweight

1. (9) Buddy Garner 15-0 Low National

2. (3) Neil Napier 16-0 Low National

3. (5) Stuart Strange 17-2 High Regional

4. (14) Sutton Ripley 15-2 High Regional

5. (8) JJ Reid 25-6 High Regional

6. (16) Adam White 9-0 Low National

7. (NE) Carl Ratcliffe 17-4 Mid Regional

8. (2) Dexter Darling 18-4-1 Low National

9. (10) Ashley Ballard 11-1 High Regional

10. (12) Thomas Smith 12-2 High Regional

Former Champion and #1 in the division Mathew Dean stepped up to Light Heavyweight following his loss to Buddy Garner. Garner now sits top of the rankings but faces several tough challenges in the year ahead. He faces off against Stuart Strange at GAMMA 13 and if he can hold onto his title there he'll come up against the winner of Ripley v Napier. Ripley and White can both lay claims to being the breakout star of the division but Ripley's greater experience gets him the nod as far as being in the top fights goes while White will have to bide his time.

Welterweight

1. (4) Josh Aldarisio 17-1 Low National

2. (7) Alan Kendall 14-3 Low National

3. (8) Jim Carpenter 51-9-2 Low National

4. (NE) Bud Brockett 9-0 High Regional

5. (1) Julio Regueiro 21-1 Mid National

6. (9) David Allen 16-3 Low National

7. (3) Rufus Stephens 17-2 Low National

8. (11) Yevgeni Sipatov 29-8 High Regional

9. (6) Jack Humphreys 23-8 Low National

10. (NE) Callum Henson 19-8 High Regional

Story of the year at Welterweight has to be Jim Carpenter, giving hope to veteran fighters everywhere Carpenter over came David Allen and Bobby Brubaker to claim the #3 spot. He now finds himself one fight away from a title shot. However this is against the unbeaten Bud Brockett. Brockett found himself moved to Welterweight after failing to make weight twice. He is unproven at this level though and Carpenter will be a tough test. The winner of this belt will face either Aldarisio or Alan Kendall who has first crack at the champion at GAMMA 18.

Lightweight

1. (NE) Sukarno 25-0 High National

2. (1) Sean Morrison 28-4 Mid National

3. (NE) Yoshiro Makamori 12-0 Low Regional

4. (5) Bruce Steven 17-7 High Regional

5. (3) Truck Gleeson 22-5-1 NC High Regional

6. (4) Beau Gorshin 37-9 High Regional

7. (14) Moss Gilbert 8-0 High Regional

8. (NE) Duane Weatherly 17-8 Mid Regional

9. (NE) Tarcisio Dantas 4-0 None

10. (NE) Atep of Indoneisa 8-1 None

Reigning Champion Sean Morrison finds himself displaced at the top by a man yet to fight for GAMMA, Sukarno. Expect them to clash in the near future, provided Morrison can overcome current #1 contender Bruce Steven. Sukarno in the meantime will have awarm up fight to introduce him to the casual audience who may not follow international MMA. Whilst I expect him to win it is a big chance for anyone who fights him. A win over Sukarno would instanly make you #1 contender.

Elsewhere in the division the colllapse of KDM FC has seen Atep of Indonesia and Yoshiro Makamori move to GAMMA, whilst they are both talented fighters they need to pick up some name value in the USA before they can be considered for a title shot.

Overall, going into 1999, the divisions look strong and I have several months worth of main events planned out. So without further delay lets reveal the first one of the year.

WCW Mark · January 30, 2011

GAMMA 13 - Garner v Strange Announced

GAMMA 13 will see unbeaten Middleweight Champion Buddy Garner (13-0) face off against Stuart Strange (17-2). Strange earnt his title shot with a win over Petey Mack at GAMMA 7. Stange has great wrestling but will need to be careful on the ground against Garner who is a BJJ master. Unfortunately I suspect this may turn out to be a rather dull fight but the winner will be a deserving champion.

GAMMA 13 sees the first event held under my new format of 6 PPV fights and 6 pre-lims. This change was made necessary by the increasing popularity of GAMMA and the need to prepare more fighters on the undercard before they can become a PPV draw. Obviously hardcore fans at home may feel short changed by the number of fights they are paying to see dropping from 8 to 6 but I think this will better suit the casual fan who would probably prefer to see 6 fights of higher popularity than 8 with a few featuring people they've not heard of. The hardcore fans can always come to the event where they will get real value for money with 12 fights.

New Year, New Format and New Prodiction Values. To further draw in the fans I've upped the production values to Very High (they were previously normal) and the Marketing budget also goes up to very high (again from normal). This might cost me a little more but I've been amking a healthy profit each month and have almost $14 million in the bank. Finally in an effort to encourage exciting fights I up the bonus pay for "...of the night" to $10,000 from $1,500. I've got no idea if this makes a difference but it's nice to give a little back to the guys who put the effort in.

The Co-Main event sees Lawrence Herringbone (13-1) v Osmosis Benn (17-0) , this bout will determine the #1 contender for Rubenstein's Light Heavyweight Title. This bout sees wrestler v wrestler and again as such may not be the most exciting fight out there. However it should be a real test for Benn against someone who can actually match him in the wrestling department. Is Benn just a flat track bully or is he the real deal?

Adam White (9-0) v JJ Reid (25-6) at Middleweight is bout 3. White has built up a decent unbeaten streak and now it's time to put it to the test. Reid is a BJJ specialist whose only in game loss came to current champion Buddy Garner. Whilst White is a dangerous wrestler he may be best off looking to keep this one standing.

Jerry Bogdonovich (7-0) v Guillermo Morales (9-0-1) sees two unbeaten fighters face off at Light Heavyweight. They've both had flying starts in GAMMA after being signed at the start of last year with two wins a piece. One of them will come crashing down to earth here though. This is a classic striker v wrestler match up.

Yoshiro Makamori (12-0) makes his GAMMA debut agaisnt Duane Weatherly (17-8) at Lightweight in the next bout. Whilst Makamori is unknown in the States he is a dangerous submission fighter who is hoping to make the step up from Featherweight. I'm going to hype him for this match as I want his popularity to catch up with his skills and reputation. Weatherly is a respecatble opening opponent having beaten Brandon Sugar in his last fight and he will no doubt be looking to prove a point after being lined up to be the sacrificial lamb for Makamori's debut.

The opening PPV bout sees Yevgeni Sipatov (29-8) v Geoff Cahill (48-24) at Welterweight. Cahill has already announced his retirement and will be hoping to go out with a win. He faces fellow veteran Yevgeni Sipatov who will be looking to get his career back on track after a loss to Nathan Chambers.

Prelims

The pre-lims see a mix of fighters on the rise looking to make the breakthorough and others who are drinking in the last chance saloon.

Tyson Rechslatter (4-1) v Tarcisio Dantes (4-0) - Two fighters making their GAMMA debuts. Dantas was poached from GAMMA while Rechslatter has been fighting on the local circuit in the States. Hopefully Danata should get a comfortable win with a view to appearing on the main show next time around.

Dana Delaney (9-3) v Tyler Lass (5-1) - Both fighters are coming off a loss, whilst another loss probably won't be the end of their GAMMA careers it will almost certainly put them on dangrous ground.

Fletcher Merman (7-4) v Stan Blackheath (20-11) - Both fighters are on losing streaks and Blackheath has already announced he will retire after this fight. A loss for Merman means he'll be following Blackheath out he door while a win means he gets to stick around a while longer.

Ethan Sutton (6-0) v Woody Fierstein (10-3) - Sutton makes his GAMMA debut after picking up a couple of wins on the Local Canadian circuit. Fierstein needs a win after losing to Osmosis Benn but will get another chance even if he loses here.

Keith Place (12-6) v Drew Jenks (6-1) - Jenks is anothher fighter making his debut after impressing on the local circuit. Plaice's career is hanging by a thread after two losses and he badly needs a win here. I don't think he'll get it though.

Marcos Maciel (6-0) v Petey Barnum (22-14) - Maciel demolished Pimm in 36 seconds in his GAMMA debut and he gets the chance to impress again against Petey Barnum. Barnum is resiliant and should last a bit longer than Pimm but I don't think he has the skills to trouble Maciel.

Overall this is a show I have some concerns about. The main event and co-main event both have the potential to be pretty dull. This really is a card for the future with a lot of debuts and people looking to make a name for them selves. There are a lot of bouts of the pre-lims which are designed to build popularity and it would probably be wise to use hype here. However it doens't feel right to hype a prelim match and as such I don't.

Prediction card:

Buddy Garner v Stuart Strange

Lawrence Herringbone v Osmosis Benn

Adam White v JJ Reid

Jerry Bogdonovich v Guillermo Morales

Yoshiro Makamori v Duane Weatherly

Yevgeni Sipatov v Geoff Cahill

Tyson Rechslatter v Tarcision Dantas

Dana Delaney v Tyler Lass

Fletcher Merman v Stan Blackheath

Ethan Sutton v Woody Fierstein

Keith Place v Drew Jenks

Marcos Maciel v Petey Barnum

My predicitions are:

Buddy Garner v Stuart Strange

Lawrence Herringbone v Osmosis Benn

Adam White v JJ Reid

Jerry Bogdonovich v Guillermo Morales

Yoshiro Makamori v Duane Weatherly

Yevgeni Sipatov v Geoff Cahill

Tyson Rechslatter v Tarcision Dantas

Dana Delaney v Tyler Lass

Fletcher Merman v Stan Blackheath

Ethan Sutton v Woody Fierstein

Keith Place v Drew Jenks

Marcos Maciel v Petey Barnum

As always predictions and comments welcome

EARLOBE · January 30, 2011

Garner and Strange have a great rivalry going in my game. Against other opponents they don't put on terribly exciting matches, but somehow the three matches they've had so far they've have been great, fantastic and great with Buddy being 2-1.

Herringbone is just awful in my game, I moved him up to heavyweight because he's apparently so big for LHW but he weighed in at 206 for all three fights and got destroyed. I moved him back down and he's 0-2 at LHW against fairly average competition.

Buddy Garner v Stuart Strange

Lawrence Herringbone v Osmosis Benn

Adam White v JJ Reid

Jerry Bogdonovich v Guillermo Morales

Yoshiro Makamori v Duane Weatherly

Yevgeni Sipatov v Geoff Cahill

Tyson Rechslatter v Tarcision Dantas

Dana Delaney v Tyler Lass

Fletcher Merman v Stan Blackheath

Ethan Sutton v Woody Fierstein

Keith Place v Drew Jenks

Marcos Maciel v Petey Barnum

batsnumbereleven · February 1, 2011

Buddy Garner v Stuart Strange

Strange is a decent fighter who on his best day should be a decent match for Garner, but he really will need to be at his best, and I think he may fall short here.

Lawrence Herringbone v Osmosis Benn

Benn is a class act when fighting at Middleweight, but even there he is likely to come up short against the very best. Fighting at the same sort of level in the Light Heavyweight division isn’t completely beyond him, but he shouldn’t be anything more than an interim challenger as far as the title is concerned. Herringbone is vastly underrated at his best, but also rather inconsistent. It would be a huge shame to see him take Benn’s undefeated streak here, so I’m picking Benn on that basis alone.

Adam White v JJ Reid

Another good match up at Middleweight. Reid is a gatekeeper of sorts for this division, and White will need a win here if he is to be considered a serious contender. A decent test of White’s undefeated streak, but one I think he can pull off and go on to pick up a title bout down the road as a result.

Jerry Bogdonovich v Guillermo Morales

Never been much of a fan of Bogdonovich, despite his unbeaten record, and “T-bone” Morales looks like a beast. However, Morales is another who has problems with his consistency, and I’d hate to rely on him in a pinch, whereas Jerry is more trustworthy,

Yoshiro Makamori v Duane Weatherly

Purely a warm-up for Makamori, who can be one of the top Featherweights given the right priming. The step up to Lightweight shouldn’t be too difficult, especially against this sort of opposition, but he might struggle against the likes of Sean Morrison and Brandon Sugar.

Yevgeni Sipatov v Geoff Cahill

Sipatov’s loss to Chambers shouldn’t be considered anything more than the natural order, since Chambers is something of a machine at this weight. Yevgeni must bounce back here though if he is to have a future. Cahill might be in his last fight and be looking to go out on a high, but I’d expect him to be going out on his back, unfortunately, despite any fan sentiment otherwise.

Tyson Rechslatter v Tarcision Dantas

Dantas should take this comfortably. Rechslatter isn’t a fool, but he’s not got enough to trouble most.

Dana Delaney v Tyler Lass

Both of these men have the potential to fight on the main card, but a loss here will see that a long way off. Lass has the greater strength in the longer term.

Fletcher Merman v Stan Blackheath

Merman should win this, but I doubt his tenacity, and this is one where the retiring fighter might well go out with the cheers ringing in his ears.

Ethan Sutton v Woody Fierstein

Another bout that could be on the main card down the road. Fierstein to take something of a surprise here, though Sutton is the better prospect.

Keith Place v Drew Jenks

Tough one to call, with neither man having much in the way of a future, to my mind. Place is on the way down though, while Jenks is on the rise.

Marcos Maciel v Petey Barnum

Maciel is the one with the class here, and he is another good long-term prospect if you can keep him away from the very top guys.

WCW Mark · February 1, 2011

GAMMA 13 - Garner v Strange

Welcome to the first GAMMA show of 1999 and the first featuring the new 6 and 6 format. The big fight of the night sees Buddy Garner defend his Middleweight Title against Stuart Strange.

There was controversy at the weigh in as Tyson Rechslatter showed up weighing 167 lbs for his Lightweight fight with Tarcisio Dantas. Dantas is a pro and agreed to take the fight anyway. Everyone else came in at the correct weight.

Prelims

Petey Barnum (22-14) v Marco Maciel (6-0) - Light Heavyweight

A couple of early exchanges lead nowhere, two minutes in and Maciel decides to up the tempo, he steps in and knocks Barnum down before pounding him out.

Result: Marcos Maciel beats Petey Barnum by TKO at 2:19 or round 1 in a poor fight

Keith Place (12-6) v Drew Jenks (6-1) - Middleweight

Jenks is able to take Plaice down at will through out the fight, he doesn’t however seem either willing or able to do anything once he gets him there. A convincing win for Jenks but I expected more.

Result: Drew Jenks beats Keith Place by unanimous decision in an average fight

Ethan Sutton (6-0) v Woody Fierstein (10-3) - Middleweight

Again Sutton is able to take Fierstein down at will and he at least tries hard once he has him there to get the win, Fierstein is too good though and defends all his submission attempts and most of his strikes, The most exciting point of the fight is when Fierstein gets cut by an elbow in round 2.

Result: Ethan Sutton beats Woody Fierstein by unanimous decision in a poor fight.

Fletcher Merman (7-4) v Stan Blackheath (20-11) - Heavyweight

This is Blackheath's last ever fight, he recently made his way back to GAMMA after scrapping on the indie circuit and would love to go out with a win. Merman is desperate for a win as well though as he knows his job is under threat and as such he is aggressive from the off, he rocks Blackheath a couple of times before putting him down. He dives on top and unloads and the ref is forced to call it. Post fight Blackheath says that he had a virus coming in to the fight but that could just be an excuse to hide his disapointment with such a poor showing.

Result: Fetcher Merman beats Stan Blackheath by TKO at 2:34 of round 1 in a great fight.

Dana Delaney (9-3) v Tyler Lass (5-1) - Welterweight

Round 1 goes to Delaney as he stuffs Lass’ takedowns and easily out strikes him. Round 2 goes to Lass as he gets the early takedown but despite going for the submission on 4 occasions he can’t get it. Nicely poised going into round 3 and it looks like it is going Delaney’s way as he stuffs a couple of takedowns. However Lass finally gets it with a great slam. He can’t get the sub but it was probably just enough to take the round.

Result: Tyler Lass beats Dana Delaney by split decision in an average fight.

Tyson Rechslatter (4-1) v Tarcisio Dantas (4-0) - Lightweight

No wonder Dantas wasn't concerned by Rechslatter weighing in at 167 lbs. By fight time the advantage is gone as Dantas has bulked up to 172 lbs and actually outweighs his opponent by 2 lbs. Dantas gets an early takedown and goes for the arm triangle. It’s all over.

Result: Tarcisio Dantas beats Tyson Rechslatter by submission at 2:06 of round 1 in a great fight.

Main Card

Yevgeni Sipatov (29-8) v Geoff Cahill (48-24) - Welterweight

The crowd are on their feet as Cahill makes his way to the cage for his last ever fight. Can he go out with a win?

Round 1

Cahill is the aggressor here constantly looking to keep Sipatov on the back foot with flurries of punches. Cahill absorbs some decent counter jabs and keeps the pressure on and it eventually pays off as he lands a big right hand putting Sipatov down with 28 seconds to go. Cahill starts to unload and Sipatov rolls onto his side in an attempt to cover up. The bell goes and Sipatov survives.

Round 2

Sipatov knows he couldn't survive another round like that and immediately goes for the clinch, he forces Cahill up against the cage and keeps him there scoring points with some good blows to the body. After softening him up Sipatov goes for the takedown and trips Cahill landing in side control. He continues to work Cahill’s body, this time with knees before going for an arm triangle. Cahill is too much of a veteran to fall for that though and easily defends it as the round comes to a close.

Round 3

One round each and all to play for, Sipatov goes for an early takedown but Cahill avoids it and steps in throwing plenty of punches. Sipatov covers up well though and as soon as Cahill takes his foot off the gas he shoots in. It’s late in the round though and he doesn’t really have time to do very much. That last round could have gone either way.

Result: Yeveni Sipatov beats Geoff Cahill by split decision in a decent match.

Close contest and the Cahill is unlucky to go out on a loss, the crowd give him a standing ovation as he waves good bye for the last time.

Yoshiro Makamori (12-0) v Duane Weatherly (17-8) - Lightweight

Makamori weighs in at only 145lbs, he must be hoping his speed advantage can give him the edge here.

Round 1

Weatherly looks to spoil Makamori’s debut early on landing a couple of big strikes, Makamori shows good resilience though and shrugs them off. Makamori spends the next couple of minutes frustrating Weatherly by darting in and out and landing quick blows before Weatherly can answer them. Weatherly however changes tack and starts throwing leg kicks looking to slow Makamori down. He lands several hard ones and by the end of the round Makamori is visibly limping. With 27 seconds left one of those leg kicks goes astray and Makamori goes down from a hard low blow. He takes his full minute to recover.

Round 2

Weatherly continues to go for the leg kicks but Makamori catches one and takes Weatherly down, Makamori lands in Weatherly’s guard but easily passes to side control. He goes for the arm bar and Weatherly can’t do anything to stop him. Great back and forth fight with an ideal ending from my point of view as Makamori justifes the hype.

Result: Yoshiro Makamori beats Duane Weatherly by submission at 2:14 of round 2 in a fantastic fight.

Jerry Bogdonovich (7-0) v Guillermo Morales (9-0-1) - Light Heavyweight

Round 1

Bogdonovich comes out swinging but leaves himself open and Morales gets the takedown, he easily shifts to side control and then to mount, with 3 and a half minutes left it’s looking bad for J-Bog. Morales goes for the arm bar but Bogdonovic shows unexpected skills rolling with it and ending up on top in side control. Bogdonovich tries to land some punches but Morales covers up well before pushing him off him. He scrambles and gets behind Bogdonovich before rolling him over into side control. He quickly gains mount again just as the bell goes.

Round 2

Again Bogdonovich comes out swinging and leaves himself open to the takedown, Morales is more patient this time and softens Bogdonovich up with short strikes before transitioning into side control. He switches to mount as the round is coming to a close and again goes for the armbar. Good defence by Bogdonovich and the round ends.

Round 3

Bogdonovich knows he needs a KO to win this one and comes out all guns blazing. Again though it just means he leaves himself open for the takedown on the counter and he finds himself on his back. Morales goes for a different approach and tries to roll his opponent. He manages it and takes his back before unloading with strike after strike. Bogdonovich isn’t fighting back and the ref is left with no choice other than to step in.

Result: Guillermo Morales beats Jerry Bogdonovich by TKO at 3:55 of round 3 in a decent fight.

Adam White (9-0) v JJ Reid (25-6) - Middleweight

Despite both fighters weighing in at exactly 185 lbs by fight time White has a massive 11 lbs advantage over his opponent coming in at 199 lbs. Let’s see if he can make the weight difference count.

Round 1

White knows Reid is dangerous on the ground and decides to try and use his weight advantage to wear him down. He goes in for the clinch and pushes Reid up against the cage. White works him over but leaves an opening and Reid slips out. Reid goes for the takedown but White shrugs him off and they return to the centre of the cage. White throws some ineffective punches and Reid again shoots in looking for the takedown. White stuffs it and hauls Reid to his feet and pushes him back against the cage, he keeps him pinned there as the final seconds tick away.

Round 2

Again White looks clinch against the cage and he keeps Reid there for a good minute, he isn’t doing much damage though and Reid eventually slips round and takes him down. White tries to scamble away but Reid is on him and secures side control. He goes for the arm triangle and sinks it in. White has no choice but to tap.

Result: JJ Reid beats Adam White by submission at 3:54 of round 2 in a decent fight.

Lawrence Herringbone (13-1) v Osmosis Benn (17-0) - Light Heavyweight - Number 1 contender bout

Round 1

Wasting no time at all Benn shoots in for the takedown, instead of trying to fight it off Herringbone goes with it and tries to grab a guillotine on the way down. He doesn’t get it though and he ends up sat against the cage with his legs trapped under Benn. Ben pushes him down and climbs on top for the mount. He starts hammering away and Herringbone has no answer, it’s all over.

Result: Osmosis Benn beats Lawrence Herringbone by TKO at 2:06 of round 1 in a great match

Buddy Garner (15-0) v Stuart Strange (17-2) - Middleweight Title

Strange is much the bigger man coming into the fight at 206lbs to Garners 189lbs. Strange also has a significant height and reach advantage. Will Garner’s skills be enough to overcome the physical disadvantage.

Round 1

Strange uses his size advantage to push Garner up against the cage, he lands some knees too Garners thighs but basically he smothers him. Garner is tricky though and ducks under and out and ends up in the dominant position. He goes for the takedown from the clinch but Strange shrugs him off and Garner backs away. Strange comes forward and they clinch again, this time in the middle of the cage, Garner tries to pull guard but Strange not only stops him but scoops him up for a slam. Probably enough to win the round.

Round 2

Garner doesn’t want another round spent in the clinch and goes for an early takedown. Strange stuffs it and grabs a front face lock pulling Garner down. He rolls him over and gains side control. Garner grabs an arm and Strange realises that the ground is not a good place to be, he shakes free and quickly stands up. Strange comes in looking to clinch again but Garner uses his striking to keep Strange away, Garner’s striking is very underrated and he easily keeps Strange at a distance for the rest of the round.

Round 3

Garner keeps up with the jab and move strategy, Strange wants to come forwards aggressively but needs to be wary of the takedown and so can’t fully commit. Eventually he catches Garner when he comes in for a takedown attempt and forces him up against he cage. He’s sloppy though and Garner escapes and goes for another takedown. Strange stuffs it and Garner looks very tired as the round draws to a close. Probably Garner’s round.

Round 4

Both fighters look tired and it is leading to some sloppy striking, eventually Strange gets close enough to clinch and pushes Garner up against the cage. He keeps him there grabbing a quick breather until the ref brings them back to the middle. As they start again Strange takes Garner by surprise and shoots in and gets the takedown. Garner tries to grab a guillotine and fails but the round ends before Strange can try to take advantage of his position.

Round 5

I make it 2 rounds each so this one will be decisive. Garner goes for an early takedown and ends up turtled up with Strange over him. Strange lands several hard shots before rolling Garner over into side control. Garner grabs an arm but Strange fends it off and tries to move to mount, instead he gets caught in a guillotine. It’s on but not tight enough and Strange doesn’t tap. Eventually Garner has to release it as his arms start to tire. Strange moves to side control and grabs a kimura, it’s in deep but Garner manages to wriggle free as the round draws to a close.

The judges score it 50-45, 40-45 and 49-46. The winner and new GAMMA World Middleweight Champion is Stuart Strange.

Result: Stuart Strange beats Buddy Garner by unanimous decision in a decent fight.

PPV Summary

Prelims

Marcos Maciel beats Petey Barnum by TKO at 2:19 of round 1 (poor)

Drew Jenks beats Keith Plaice by unanimous decision (average)

Ethan Sutton beats Woody Fierstein by unanimous decision (poor)

Fletcher Merman beats Stan Blackheath by TKO at 2:34 of round 1 (great)

Tyler Lass beats Dana Delaney by split decision (average)

Tarcisio Dantas beats Tyson Rechslatter by submission at 2:06 of round 1 (great)

Main Card

Yeveni Sipatov beats Geoff Cahill by split decision (decent)

Yoshiro Makamori beats Duane Weatherly by submission at 2:14 of round 2 (fantastic)

Guillermo Morales beats Jerry Bogdonovich by TKO at 3:55 of round 3 (decent)

JJ Reid beats Adam White by submission at 3:54 of round 2 (decent)

Osmosis Benn beats Lawrence Herringbone by TKO at 2:06 of round 1 (great)

Stuart Strange beats Buddy Garner by unanimous decision to win the Middleweight title (decent)

Attendance: 11,414 for $1,141,400

PPV: 344,393 buys for $2,066,358

Critical: Great

Commercial: Good

Fight of the night: Yoshiro Makamori vs. Duane Weatherly

KO of the night: Osmosis Benn

Submission of the night: Yoshiro Makamori

Aftermath

Overall a good PPV. My second best selling PPV of all time after Vinkus v Foster. A lot of that is due to the increased marketing rather than the star power of the main event but it shows that GAMMA continue to head in the right direction.

As far as the result went. Well the prelims all went how I would have wanted them to and hopefully a few of those fighters will be ready to step up to the main show. Whilst sentiment was looking for Cahill to win in terms of what's best for the promotion it's good to have Sipatov back to winning ways.

The decision to hype Makamori paid off big time as he put in a great performance with GAMMA's 4th best fight of all time (Delroy Rhodes v Dan Halvorsen, Patrick Thomas v Maarten De Vries and Lawrence Herringbone v Linfield Ballard make up 1,2 and 3 respectively seeing as you ask). He went straight up to Mid Regional Popularity.

Someones unbeaten streak was always going to go in Morales v Bogdonovich and Morales is probably the better rounded fighter, it's a shame that Adam White's streak went but the loss doesn't damage him as much as it would have hurt Reid so there is a silver lining and Benn retained his streak in style.

Strange is a decent champion although it's a shame that Garner didn't manage to defend his title at all. I think too many changes damages your titles credibility and the Middleweight title has changed hands twice in the last 12 months. Here's hoping Strange can hang onto it for a while.

Predictions wise a big congratulations to, well erm me who scored 10 out of 12 just beating new comer Earlobe's 9 succesful calls, welcome on board. Batseleven picked up 8 so all in all pretty close.

WCW Mark · February 2, 2011

January 1999 - Global Summary

The big news this month is the opening of a new MMA Company. The Universal Cage Fighting Federation are based in Africa and feature Middleweight through to Heavyweight divisions. The fights appear to be held in a ring which doesn't seem to match their name so I change that in the editor. Rules wise they appear to be pretty much no hods barred. This is good news for all the unemployed fighters out there and I hope they find success.

ALPHA-1

It's fairly quiet month round the world with ALPHA-1 being the only other company holding an event. It's got a great card however with the main event seeing two unbeaten fighters clash for the Light Heavyweight Title. Sho Kitabatake (15-0) faces off against Hyun-Shik Lim (14-0) and defeats him by submission in round 2 of a good fight. Elsewhere on the card Japanese Heavyweight legend Kunimichi Kikuchi goes 26-4 and picks up submission of the night against Armen Sarkisian. The event as a whole is rated as a good critical success and a great commercial success. It attracts 232,116 buys. A new record for ALPHA-1 and the 3rd best selling PPV of all time.

Nate MacReary picks up his second win on the prelims, this time against Sam Hoynes, and his contract is now up for grabs. He is now 6-0 (his other two in game wins coming at local shows in Canada) and I decide to put in a bid and manage to pick him up. Hoynes’ contract is also up and at 1-2 ALPHA-1 let him go. He is only 22 and as such is still a prospect but he needs to rebuild his career, probably on the local circuit, before having another crack at the big time.

Looking to replace MacReary ALPHA-1 snap up Sylvester Collins, he is 3-0 and hasn't fought in game. It's probably a little early in his career to be signing for such a big company.

One thing I forgot when writing my end of year review was that SIGMA’s Georges Nouri had already signed a contract with ALPHA-1. His notice period expires this month and he moves over there. At 10-1 Nouri has an impressive record and he has the ability to back it up. However he is 30 years old and completely unknown in Japan and as such he’ll need to get some quick wins under his belt to build his name value with the fans as time isn’t on his side.

SIGMA

SIGMA sign Pentti Rovanpera (4-1) to their lightweight ranks, whilst he isn’t going to fill the hole left by Nouri he will help fill out the ranks a bit. And he may pick up a win by dazzling the opposition with the reflections from his pasty skin.

GAMMA

As well as Nate Macreary I also snap up Dwayne Alleyne (5-0) and Pete Shilton (7-2). Alleyne is a good Middleweight wrestler with great physical skills and an in game win on the American Local Circuit while Shilton is a tough Light Heavyweight Brawler with a great chin but little in the way of skill. He is on a winning streak however and will make a good fighter for my pre-lims.

Economic News

The boom experienced by America is coming to an end. I make enough money and have enough in the bank not to worry too much but it could spell trouble for XCC

Debuts

Two fighters debut this month. Hyobe Kamioka is a Japanese Featherweight with promising all round skills, especially in wrestling and jiu jitsu while Greg Levesque has the honour of being the games first regen. The 20 year old American comes from a Jiu Jitsu background and has Average all round skills. There are already rumours that he is the illegitimate son of Tobias Goulet who he bears a striking physical resemblance to.

Retirements

As well as Geoff Cahill and Stan Blackheath who you already know about there are two other fighters who decide to hand up their gloves. Vincent Chapin (22-14) and Marek Warzycha (7-4) both finish their careers with wins on Local Shows.

WCW Mark · February 4, 2011

GAMMA 14: Sukarno v Gleeson Announced

GAMMA 14 sees the most hotly anticipated debut in GAMMA history as Sukarno (25-0) steps into the cage for the firs time. I signed him on a massive £750k per fight contract and it's time for him to start paying some of it off. He is High National Popularity in the USA and as such is easily capable of headlining even if his opponent is only High Regional Popularity and is coming off a loss like Gleeson is. Gleeson is a good opponent and ex #1 contender and has great boxing, strength and a good chin. A win here would put him back into title contention although I think Sukarno will be too much for him.

The Co-main event sees Mike Watson (11-0) take on ex Middleweight Champion Mathew Dean (32-6) at Light Heavyweight. Watson is coming off the back of two good wins over ex Heavyweight Champ Mark Cohen and Derek South and a win here will really push him into the upper echelons of the division. Dean moved up to Light Heavyweight following his loss to Buddy Garner and he will be looking to prove he can cut it at this weight. Osmosis Benn has already claimed the next shot at the title but the winner here will do a lot to prove they should get the one after that. A classic wrestler vs striker bout I'm hoping this will see some goood action.

The rest of the main card sees:

Christian Mountfield (13-4) v Patrick Thomas (17-4) - Light Heavyweight

Thomas lost last time out to Junior Patinkin, that was his first outing at Light Heavyweight, another loss here will cause him real problems as he is too big to go back to Middleweight but if he can't beat Mountfield questions will be asked as to whether he can compete at Light Heavy. Mountfield is also coming off a loss and needs a win to avoid tumbling down the rankings.

Brandon Sugar (24-6) v Luke Hilton (8-1) - Lightweight

Sugar is a BJJ specialist who is badly in need of a win. A loss to Truck Gleeson (in a #1 contenders bout) followed by another to Duane Weatherly has badly damaged his standing in the Lightweight Division. With this being the last guaranteed fight on his contract a loss to Hilton may well see him leaving. Hilton also tasted defeat in his last fight losing by submission to Bruce Steven (again in a #1 contender bout). He is still young though and time is on his side. A loss here wouldn't mean the end of his GAMMA career but it would see him needing to pick up several wins to get anywhere near contention again. Especially with all the new talent coming into this division.

Tank Manu'a (18-6) v Jack Cobblepot (38-11-3)- Heavyweight

To be honest I suspect this will be a pretty bad fight, however some people will always be facinated by seeing the big men fight and these are two of the biggest. Cobblepot has good name value but it is mostly based on his past exploits and recent losses to Tim Boyer and Norbert Vinkus have shown just how vulnerable he is. A further loss here will see him reduced to jobber status. Manu'a at 30 is just hitting his prime and needs to be beating opponents like Cobblepot if he is to be considered any more than a mid card stepping stone. A loss to Roy last time out hurt him but given that Roy has so far beaten everyone put in front of him it isn't too serious. With the ageing stars at the top of the division on the wane Manu'a will be keen to get a win to put him back in the reckoning.

Ken Peters (9-2) v Toby Sorkin (5-0) - Light Heavyweight

Sorkin is someone I have high hopes for, he is charasmatic (in a heel way) and due to his judo background has good ground skills. He has two wins in GAMMA so far against pretty low level opponents and Ken Peters will be a much stiffer challlenge. Whilst Peters lost his last bout to Osmosis Benn there is no shame in that and he has good wrestling ability. A tough maincard debut for Sorkin.

While the prelims see

Carl Ratcliffe (17-4) v Bernard Blue (8-3) - Middleweight

Carl Ratcliffe makes his GAMMA debut, a decent MT fighter he has good kicks but a poor ground game. Blue beat Keith Place last time out and with a good chin and decent takedowns he could get Ratcliffe off to a losing start.

Henry Baldwin (7-4) v H M Menzel (10-5) - Lightweight

Let's face it, neither of these fighters are going to be setting the world on fire. However with two losses each under their belts they both need a win badly.

Bill Cumming (27-15) v Glenn Pimm (30-13) - Light Heavyweight

Another two fighters on losing streaks, these two veterans are both past their best and can't really hang with the new wave of fighters coming through. Let's face it though the money is a lot better in GAMMA than in the minor leagues and they will both be looking for a career extending win.

Atep of Indonesia (8-1) v Aaron McBroom (9-4) - Lightweight

Atep is a potential star in the making, he has the skills but isn't yet known in the USA. As such he needs some wins under his belt. McBroom has been picked to be his first opponent. McBroom is a little unlucky to get this fight as he has good kicks and could probably be a credible mid carder if I gave himt he right opponents. I'll give him an easier fight next time out

Rupert Dreck (6-0) v Bryan Van Den Hauwe (16-5)

Dreck is only 24 and has good wrestling and submissions, however he lacks name value and experience and needs a good win before being put on the main card. Van Den Hauwe is no push over and has good wrestling and great durability. His biggest problem is his lack of finishing ability which probably means Dreck can afford to take a few chances.

Dwayne Alleyne (5-0) v Bradley Dixon (19-9) - Middleweight

A GAMMA debut for both fighters. Alleyne is a dangerous wrestler with good physical skills while Dixon is no slouch and is coming off two wins on the local circuit.

A show which I think is a bit of a gamble. One of the headliners hasn't fought in America before while the other is coming off a loss. In addition Sukarno has massive wage demands and this could prove an expensive gamble. The Co-main event is good seeing the ex-middleweight champ go against one of the Light Heavyweight divisions fastest rising stars. There is a match for those that love seeing the big men although I think this will be a dull one and a fair number of debuts. Fingers crossed.

Prediction Card

Sukarno v Truck Gleeson

Mike Watson v Mathew Dean

Christian Mountfield v Patrick Thomas

Brandon Sugar v Luke Hilton

Tank Manu'a v Jack Cobblepot

Ken Peters v Toby Sorkin

Prelims

Carl Ratcliffe v Bernard Blue

H M Menzel v Henry Baldwin

Bill Cumming v Glenn Pimm

Atep of Indonesia v Aaron McBroom

Rupert Dreck v Bryan Van Den Hauwe

Dwayne Alleyne v Bradley Dixon

And for what it's worth my predictions are;

Sukarno v Truck Gleeson

Mike Watson v Mathew Dean

Christian Mountfield v Patrick Thomas

Brandon Sugar v Luke Hilton

Tank Manu'a v Jack Cobblepot

Ken Peters v Toby Sorkin

Prelims

Carl Ratcliffe v Bernard Blue

H M Menzel v Henry Baldwin

Bill Cumming v Glenn Pimm

Atep of Indonesia v Aaron McBroom

Rupert Dreck v Bryan Van Den Hauwe

Dwayne Alleyne v Bradley Dixon

EARLOBE · February 5, 2011

The only unusual pick I've gone with is Peters over Sorkin. With only five matches under his belt, I don't think Toby has the experience yet to deal with someone like Peters, who has only lost to fighters who have gone on to be champ in my LHW div.

Sukarno v Truck Gleeson

Mike Watson v Mathew Dean

Christian Mountfield v Patrick Thomas

Brandon Sugar v Luke Hilton

Tank Manu'a v Jack Cobblepot

Ken Peters v Toby Sorkin

Prelims

Carl Ratcliffe v Bernard Blue

H M Menzel v Henry Baldwin

Bill Cumming v Glenn Pimm

Atep of Indonesia v Aaron McBroom

Rupert Dreck v Bryan Van Den Hauwe

Dwayne Alleyne v Bradley Dixon

BYU 14 · February 5, 2011

Sukarno v Truck Gleeson

Mike Watson v Mathew Dean

Christian Mountfield v Patrick Thomas

Brandon Sugar v Luke Hilton

Tank Manu'a v Jack Cobblepot

Ken Peters v Toby Sorkin

Prelims

Carl Ratcliffe v Bernard Blue

H M Menzel v Henry Baldwin

Bill Cumming v Glenn Pimm

Atep of Indonesia v Aaron McBroom

Rupert Dreck v Bryan Van Den Hauwe

Dwayne Alleyne v Bradley Dixon

WCW Mark · February 6, 2011

GAMMA 14: Sukarno v Gleeson

Well it's here, Sukarno's GAMMA debut. There are no problems at the weigh ins so lets get on with the show.

Prelims

Dwayne Alleyne (5-0) v Bradley Dixon (19-9) - Middleweight

Alleyne takes down Dixon with ease in the first round but despite several attempts he can’t get the submission. Round 2 he just knocks him down with a big punch before mounting him and making him tap with an arm bar.

Result: Dwayne Alleyne beats Bradley Dixon by submission at 1:33 of round 2 in a good match.

Rupert Dreck (6-0) v Bryan Van Den Hauwe (16-5) - Light Heavyweight

Dreck takes down Van Den Hauwe easily and shift to mount without any resistance from him. He grabs an arm and seconds later it is all over. Impressive stuff from Dreck

Result: Rupert Dreck beats Bryan Van Den Hauwe by submission at 2:57 of round 1 in a great fight.

Aaron McBroom (9-4) v Atep of Indonesia (8-1) - Lightweight

Atep comes flying forward and knocks McBroom down with a barrage of punches. Atep climbs on top and start pounding. McBroom rolls to his front to try and cover up but eventually he is forced to tap.

Result: Atep of Indonesia beats Aaron McBroom by submission at 1:51 of round 1 in a good fight.

Glenn Pimm (30-13) v Bill Cumming (27-15) - Light Heavyweight

Pimm is the aggressor in the first two rounds but Cumming probably takes them as he stuffs all of Pimms takedown attempts and lands some good counter jabs. Cumming is obviously tiring towards the end of the 2nnd round though as he changes tack and goes for the clinch up against the cage. Pimm goes for it knowing he needs a good final round and eats several big strikes as he looks for the takedown. He finally gets the takedown about halfway through the last round and immediately goes for the arm triangle. Cumming manages to break free and manages to fight Pimm off for the rest of the round.

Cumming takes the fight on points which is a shame for Pimm as he was by far the more aggressive fighter throughout.

Result: Bill Cumming beats Glenn Pimm by unanimous decision in an average fight.

H M Menzel (10-5) v Henry Baldwin (7-4) - Lightweight

2 rounds of messy clinching against the cage leave both fighters panting. Baldwin finally gets the takedown in the 3rd round and after some scrambling leaves Menzel on top Baldwin gets the win by guillotine submission.

Result: Henry Baldwin beats H M Menzel by submission at 3:45 of round 3 in a decent fight.

Bernard Blue (8-3) v Carl Ratcliffe (17-4) - Middleweight

Ratcliffe’s game plan is to pick Blue apart with leg kicks, it seems to be working well and Blue is limping badly by the start of the second round. Knowing he can’t take much more of this he swings with a big punch which stuns Ratcliffe. He follows up with a good combination putting Ratcliffe down but Ratcliffe scrambles away before Blue can get on him. By the third round even the crowd are sympathising with Blue as they groan every time another of those vicious leg kicks land. By the end of the fight Blue’s name is very appropriate as his legs are black and blue. He couldn’t get near Ratcliffe in that last round and Ratcliffe takes it 10-8.

Result: Carl Ratcliffe beats Bernard Blue by unanimous decision in a great match

Main Card

The prelims went pretty well, all of the fighters I put into career building fights picked up wins and I've hopefully built some fighters who can appear on the main card in the future. Hopefully the main card will go as well.

Toby Sorkin (5-0) v Ken Peters (9-2) - Light Heavyweight

Round 1

Sorkin shows good stand up this round as he keeps pressure on Peters with a good jab. However it’s when he goes for the takedown that it goes wrong as he tries it twice and twice gets caught with a big counter. That’s probably enough to undo all his hard work and give Peter’s the round.

Round 2

Round 2 sees Sorkin keeping the pressure on Peters as he goes for several takedown attempts, Peters either avoids or stuffs them all and again lands a couple of good counter strikes. Sorkin finally gets the takedown with seconds to go but it’s probably not enough to win the round.

Round 3

Sorkin needs to finish Peters this round, he was telling everyone who would listen before the show what he was going to do to Peters but so far it looks like his mouth has been writing cheques his body can’t cash. He goes all out this round though and puts Peters down early on with a hard right hand. He quickly climbs on Peters and goes for the armbar but Peters manages to fight it off and regain his feet. Missed opportunity for Sorkin there. Sorkin is desperate to get Peters back on the deck and goes for another takedown which leads to Peters clinching with him up against the cage. If Peters can keep him there it’s all over for Sorkin. He can’t though and Sorkin flips him round and goes for a standing guillotine choke. He gets it and Peters taps with just over a minute to go.

Result: Toby Sorkin beats Ken Peters by submission at 3:43 of round 3 in a good match

Tank Manu’a (18-6) v Jack Cobble pot (38-11-3) - Heavyweight

Round 1

These two behemoths both lumber forwards and rapidly fall into a clinch. Cobblepot tries to drive Manu’a back but can’t shift him. Manu’a tries to counter with a slam but Cobblepot breaks away, shame that would have been an impressive sight. Manu’a comes forwards and absorbs a couple of jabs before clinching with Cobblepot again. Cobblepot again plants his feet and tries to budge his opponent but can’t get any where and then finds himself tripped. Manu’a comes crashing down on top of him but the round ends before he can do anything.

Round 2

Cobblepot throws some jabs before shooting in for a takedown, Manu’a is equal to it however and grabs Cobblepot wrestling him to the floor. Manu’a takes his time and manages to transition to side control and then full mount. He starts throwing some big strikes but Cobblepot covers up well and the round comes to a close.

Round 3

Both fighters look tired but Manu’a is definitely breathing the harder of the two, could Cobblepot actually have superior cardio to someone? Taking advantage of Manu’a tired state Cobblepot goes for an early takedown and this time he won’t be denied. However once he has him down he doesn’t really seem to know what to do with him. He tries for mount on three occasions but can’t get anywhere and eventually settles for side control. He throws some knees but he isn’t going to finish Manu’a like that and the round comes to a close.

Result: Tank Manu’a beats Jack Cobblepot by unanimous decision in a poor fight

Well one good fight and one poor one so far, to be fair though I expected Manu'a v Cobblepot to be the pits so it actually exceeded my expectations. Hopefully the next fight will get things back on track.

Brandon Sugar (24-6) v Luke Hilton (8-1) - Lightweight

Round 1

Hilton is the more aggressive fighter at the start of the round but Sugar proves elusive and Hilton can’t really land anything. He steps back to rethink his game plan and Sugar comes forward stepping into the pocket. Sugar throw a variety of strikes but this time it’s Hilton’s turn to show off his defensive skills blocking or dodging most of them. The eventually fall into a clinch and Sugar pulls Hilton down into his guard. He goes for a triangle choke off his back but Hilton pulls back and doesn’t let him grab it. Hilton stands back up and the round ends. Given that nether fighter could land in that round the takedown probably gives it to Sugar.

Round 2

Hilton comes out the gate very aggressive but again Sugar manages to avoid most of his strikes, as Hilton slows Sugar shoots in for a takedown but Hilton dances out of the way. Sugar presses the pace but again Hilton’s defence is good, eventually they fall back into the clinch and Sugar gets a takedown. Hilton’s guard is good though and he prevents Sugar from improving his position or inflicting any real damage.

Round 3

Again Hilton comes out all guns blazing, he gets caught with some hard counter jabs though and is forced to step back. Sugar tries to step up, looking for the clinch that has proved so successful for him but this time Hilton is ready and he puts him down with a hard punch. Sugar recovers quickly though and scrambles back to his feet. Sugar spends the rest of the round back-pedalling and Hilton looks frustrated as the bell goes.

Result: Brandon Sugar beats Luke Hilton by unanimous decision in a poor fight.

Patrick Thomas (17-4) v Christian Mountfield (13-4) - Light Heavyweight

Round 1

Mountfield appears wary and keeps his distance from Thomas early on, eventually though he thinks he sees an opening and shoots in for the takedown. Thomas counters with a hard right and steps forward looking to get within striking range. Both fighters seem happy to stay at close range and trade strikes. They are both defending well but Thomas is definitely landing more. The round comes to a close and I would definitely give that to Thomas

Round 2

The fighters trade takedown attempts but neither is successful. They move into the pocket and trade strikes but again neither is really able to do much damage. Thomas is able to land one big strike as the round draws to a close and it’s probably enough to win the round.

Round 3

Round 3 is more of the same but as the round goes on Thomas starts to increase the pressure and he eventually puts Mountfield down. He climbs on top but apart from one attempt at an Americana he seems happy to let the clock expire.

Result: Patrick Thomas beats Christian Mountfield by unanimous decision in an average fight

Mathew Dean (32-6) v Mike Watson (11-0) - Light Heavyweight

Well it’s not been a great PPV so far and all those long fights might mean that we don’t get a chance to replay the highlights from the much more exciting prelims. However this should be a good fight, Watson is a lethal striker while Dean is fantastic on the ground. A real clash of style.

Round 1

Watson seems nervous of Dean’s takedowns and starts very tentatively, this leads to a very dull round where Dean is coming forwards looking for an opening and Watson continually backs away. He avoids both of Dean’s takedown attempts but the fans are booing by the end. How on earth do you score a round like that. I’d have to give it to Dean as at least he showed some positive intent.

Round 2

Again Watson start tentative but it doesn’t do him any good as Dean shoots in and takes him down early on. Dean moves to mount with ease and starts throwing punches, the ref gives Watson time to respond but eventually has to step in. An awful performance by Watson to lose his unbeaten streak.

Result: Mathew Dean beats Mike Watson by TKO at 2:16 of round 2 in a decent fight.

Truck Gleeson (22-5-1 NC) v Sukarno (25-0) - Lightweight

It’s the fight that everyone bought the PPV for, the GAMMA debut of Sukarno. Gleeson is no slouch though and he’ll be looking to make a name for himself by being the first man to score a win over the Indonesian legend.

Round 1

Gleeson tries to draw Sukarno in with a couple of feints, no need to encourage Sukarno though as he comes forward with several big rights. Gleeson tries to throw a couple of punches but every time he does he is taking two back. Gleeson backs away and Sukarno can’t get close enough to do any real damage for the rest of the round.

Round 2

Sukarno is throwing a lot of punches but not many are landing, this sets the pattern for the round with Sukarno coming forwards throwing punches, kicks, spinning back fist, the kitchen sink and Gleeson dancing elusively out of range. The round has to go to Sukarno but he must be getting frustrated.

Round 3

Gleeson’s corner are telling him to go for it this round, has he tired Sukarno enough in the first two rounds to put him away? The answer is no. Glesson steps forwards for probably the first time in the match and promptly gets put down. Sukarno leaps on him and unleashes 2 rounds worth of frustration. The ref steps in and it’s all over.

Result: Sukarno beats Truck Gleeson by TKO at 1:51 of round 3 in a decent fight.

Well that was a pretty bad PPV, it started well enough on the pre-lims but once we got to the actual show a lot of fighters didn’t perform. I expected Manu’a v Cobblepot to be pretty bad but Sugar v Hilton was a disappointment. However it was Mike Watson and Truck Gleeson who really spoiled the show with some gutless performances.

Luckily the show is still deemed to be an Average critical and good commercial success and scores an attendance of 12,560 for a gate of $1,256,000. PPV’s come in at 348,074 buys for a revenue of $2,088,444. My highes ever ratings so hopefully I’ll have still made a profit even with Sukarno’s outrageous wages.

Rupert Dreck v Bryan Van Den Hauwe picked up fight of the night while Toby Sorkin got sub of the night, quite an achievement on a card filled with submissions. Sukarno got KO of the night although Mathew Dean was his only competitor.

WCW Mark · February 12, 2011

February 1999 - Global Summary

GAMMA

Increasing the number of fights on each card seems to need a lot more fighters than I had anticipated, also some of the fighters at the bottom of the rankings are coming to the end of their careers with GAMMA and as such I need a sizeable injection of new blood. I go on a large scale signing spree and snap up;

Lightweight

Sebastian Fernandez (6-1) a Mexican brawler who has an impressive 3 first round KO’s on the independent circuit

Teeratep Nutnum (8-5) - He may not have the best record but he won his final fight in KDM FC and has been unemployed since, for a fighter as exciting as him that’s a real shame and I decide to snap him up for my Lightweight Division.

Wyatt Asher (5-3) - Although he is a natural Welterweight he'll be dubuting for me at Lightweight as I've signed him to go up against Nutnum on hos debut. He is only low regional popularity but is on a winning streak and has a decent performance rating without having great skills. Hopefully the ideal opponent to get Nutnum off to a win.

Welterweight

Linton Berry (6-4), at 33 at low regional popularity this limited striker should hopefully be ideal to debut some of my future prospects against.

Joe Hinchcliffe (21-12) an American Kick Boxer with high regional popularity who is coming off a win on a local show.

Augustin Gonzalez (10-3) a Mexican wrestler, whilst he is unknown in the states he has racked up two wins on the local circuit in Mexico and will likely debut against Linto Berry on the prelims.

Slade Cregg (9-4) a low regional popularity Judoka who recently got a win by submission on the local circuit

Middleweight

Esteban Vega (5-0) a Mexican with good wrestling and boxing skills and 3 wins on the local circuit. At 20 he has plenty of time to develop and could be a future star.

Chaz Babish (8-2) an American wrestler with Low Regional popularity and a win on the local circuit.

Jonathan Huang (4-0). A top level Jiu Jitsu specialist from Thailand. He is already mid national popularity in the USA. He can debut on the main show and has the ability to make anyone tap. Possible future star.

Tora Mizwar (19-6) an experienced Indonesian wrestler who is unknown in the states. He has good skills but at 27 needs to establish himself quickly.

Isaiah Monroe (4-0) - I’m competing against ALPHA-1 for this promising wrestler. I pick him up on a 6 fight contract contract at only $2,000 per fight. If he impresses this could turn out to be a bargain.

Light Heavyweight

Jethro Munter (11-6) a mid regional popularity wrestler who recently broke his losing streak on the local circuit

Heavyweight

Steve Mason (5-0), a decent kick boxer with mid regional popularity. He has yet to have an in game fight.

Brady Crawford (6-5) a poor wrestler with low regional popularity who can hopefully be used to debut more promising prospects.

Iancu Trailescu (5-0) a giant Romanian kickboxer, standing 6 ft 10 he is unknown in the states

Don Norman (23-14) an experienced Canadian Boxer with mid regional popularity in the states and a recent win on a local show.

Harvey Loeb (7-3) a low regional American wrestler who is coming off a win on the Local circuit

Marvin Stevens (22-10) - Man Mountain Marvin Stevens has High Regional popularity and is coming off the back of a KO win on the local circuit.

Gareth Grundy (7-3) - Freestyle American wrestler with Low Regional popularity, he is currently on a winning streak.

I'll look to debut all of these fighters over the enxt few months, most will be on the prelims and hopefully at least a few will make the step up to the main show.

ALPHA-1

ALPHA-1 sign Taye Burnett, at 22 years old and 1-0 in his pro career Heavyweight Taye Burnett seems like an odd choice for ALPHA-1. He is unknown in Japan and his stats don’t seem that good. I’ll be interested to see what they do with him.

They kick off the month with Warriors of the ring. A TV show headlined by Kafu Bunya (12-0) against Eiji Masuko (2-0), despite Masuko’s inexperience in MMA his Judo background makes him a tough opponent for striker Bunya. Bunya suffers an eye injury during the fight but toughs it out to pick up a Unanimous Decision victory in a Fantastic fight. The Co-main event sees Lightweight Korekiyo Anzai (7-1) get back to winning ways against Eijiro Yanagita (27-11-2) with a first round submission. Opening the card is Nilton Fantoni, with 5 in game fights (4 in ALPHA-1 and 1 on a local show in Brazil) he must be one of the busiest fighters in the game. Fighting this often clearly agrees with him however as he goes 9-0 beating respected veteran Naoki Itoh (23-15) in the first round of a great fight. Fantoni picks up sub of the night for his efforts. The show is held in front of an audience of 3,770 and scores a good critical and decent commercial rating.

They end the month with a PPV headlined by Heiji Endo (16-1) v Kadonomaro Deguchi (4-0) for the Middleweight Title. Deguchi is one of Japan’s fastest rising talents but this title shot came far to early for him. He impressed however lasting 6 rounds before finally falling to an armbar in a good match.

Co-main event saw Tetsuji Myojin extend his unbeaten run to 6-0 with a first round TKO of Haranabu Oshiro. Fight of the night took place of the prelims where Inejiro Chiba (16-7) beat Eisaku Nozaki (6-3) by KO in a fantastic fight. Chiba also picked up KO of the night for his troubles.

The event pulled in 7,955 for a gate of $795,500 and scored 147,160 buys for a revenue of $882,960. This was disappointing and the event scored a very poor commercial rating, no doubt hurt by the lack of name value in the main event. Those who did buy it however were in for a treat as the event was rated as good by the critics.

SIGMA

Held Kanchelskis v Grygera , this event saw 7 fights in front of a crowd of 509 in Germany. The show was rated as an average critical success and a great commercial success. The main event saw Jaromir Grygera (20-5) go up against the unbeaten Middleweight Champion Fjodor Kanchelskis. Grygera triumphs by TKO in the 5th round of an average bout.

Elsewhere on the card Russian Lightweight Fiyero Lermontov extends his winning streak to 13-0 with a first round submission win over Nshan Ramazyan. He also picks up fight of the night and sub of the night. In the co-main event Spiridon Domazos (4-1) goes up against Fernando Amaro (52-13-4-2 NC). Despite the gulf in experience and ability Amaro isn’t able to finish his opponent and has to settle for a unanimous decision. Finally ex-Lightweight Champion Lars Bohlin loses by KO to Colm Dee in a very poor fight. Bohlin has lost both his fights since the game began and it may be that time is catching up with the veteran fighter.

FLB

FLB strengthen their Light Heavyweight Division by picking up Ranieri Fernanda (5-0). Fernanda has two wins on the local circuit in Brazil and has good wrestling and a lot of potential. He needs to work on his finishing however.

They hold FLB 13 on Saturday in the last week of February, the same date as my show. Whilst we don’t cross over in terms of audience just yet I’ll need to keep an eye on them. The card sees Affonso Villar (22-2) v Pedro Sousa (21-3) for the Light Heavyweight Title. Affonso Villar won by KO (knee) at 1:47 of round 1 to retain the title. Good win for Villar’s first in game fight. Elsewhere the card struggled with 3 poor fights and a very poor fight in the co-main event as Carlos dos Santos (14-3) beat Euclydes Filho (19-7) by unanimous decision. The only ray of light apart from the main event was Vito de Melo going 9-1 with a KO win over Josimar Martins. De Melo shows a lot of promise and is one to watch.

The show was rated as average by the critics but was a good commercial success and attracted a crowd of 372 people.

BCF

BCF hold Rush v Baines in front of a crowd of 850 in London, England. Andrew Rush (16-6) recently won the BCF Middleweight Title from Davis Spyrou and is looking to make his first defence against veteran submission specialist Rob Baines (29-10). Rush can’t keep this one standing though and succumbs to an armbar in the first round. Lets see if Baines can hang onto the title for longer than Rush.

Adrian Majoram (7-0) faces off against Michael Bannon (8-3) in the Light Heavyweight division in the co-main event. Majoram continues to impress and picks up his 3rd in game win to go 8-0.

Elsewhere on the card the man with possibly the longest name in MMA, Edgar van den Hoogenband, continues his unbeaten streak to go 4-0 against ex middleweight champ Davis Spyrou in a very poor match. While Geore Astaire (10-5) submits Roy Lynch (7-5) in the fight of the night.

The show is deemed a decent critical success and a great commercial success.

WEFF

WEFF hold WEFF 10, headlined by Grace Hughes (2-0) v Samantha Sachs (7-0) this attracts a crowd of 454 people. Hughes beats Gracie by unanimous decision to cause an upset and win the WEFF Heavyweight Title. The show is deemed an Average critical success and a Decent commercial success.

UCFF

UCFF start to assemble their roster. They pick up:

Oscar Gomez (12-5) - A big tough Mexican Brawler currently coming off the back of two wins on the Local Circuit in Mexico.

Jesse Singh (15-4) - A big tough street fighter from England, Singh is coming off the back of two wins on the local circuit.

Mal Phe Roby (16-6) - Roby’s contract with ALPHA-1 had just expired and he looks like a good signing for UCFF

Jon Silvers (7-0) - A tall Light Heavyweight boxer Silvers has one in game fight on the American local circuit. At 27 he still has potential but needed to get picked up soon if he was going to make a career for himself. This could be a good bit of business for both Silvers and UCFF

Nestor Morozov (22-11-1) - A respected Russian Light Heavyweight veteran, Morozov looks menacing and possesses dangerous ground and pound.

Kevin Portman (10-5) - English Heavyweight Portman has great menace and good marketability. His skills don’t really match up to it though but given the right opponents he could pick up some wins and be made to look like a monster.

Leonardo da Costa (13-6) - Brazillian Jiu Jitsu specialist da Costa has good skills and an exciting style. A good addition to UCFF’s middleweight roster.

Trevor Murray (21-11) - Murray has yet to fight in game and is coming off a loss, a wrestler with no way to finish his opponent Murray isn’t the most exciting of fighters. He could prove useful for UCFF though in sorting the men from the boys in the Light Heavyweight division.

Sherman Shields (19-10) - Big and strong Shields fit’s the UCFF mould of signing Heavyweights who look intimidating and are marketable off the bat. However I suspect his lack of striking ability and submission defence will prevent him from being anything other than a stepping stone for other fighters.

Waly da Cunha (12-5) - Brazilian Heavyweight possess decent strikes but a shocking chin and poor takedown defence. Again though at 6 ft 4 he is imposing and fits UCFF well.

Zenko Hatekeyama (12-6) - Journeyman striker Hatakeyama will help round out UCFF’s middleweight division.

William Harrision (3-0) - Former US army soldier Harrison has good all round skills and great conditioning and at 25 he has plenty of time to improve. He could prove to be the cream of the crop in UCFF’s Light Heavyweight Division.

Terry Catt (4-0) - Prospect Terry Catt could have been the one to watch in UCFF’s light heavyweight division, if only it wasn’t for William Harrison. Still Catt has decent all round game and could do well if given time to develop.

Economic news

Central America enters a terrible economic slump.

Debuts

The game gets two more regens. The first is 21 year old Russell Savage. A Canadian Heavyweight with a karate background. He has good striking but little else. He is the spitting image of Grant Shodwart.

Kikunojo Hatoyama is the other, he is a Japanese Featherweight Muay Thai Specialist and has very good striking. At 19 he has plenty of time to perfect the other areas of his game and is a promising prospect. He may be held back however by a lack of oppurtunity as only SIGMA and XCC currently run a Featherweight Division. With that slight frame and mustache he reminds a lot of people of Seigo Tsuda.

Jerome Atkins is a English Muay Thai specialist who won the UK Muay Thai championships in '98. A possible signing for BCF.

Retirements

Bence Bodor retires at the age of 43, he finishes his career with a record of 34-18.

Cong Dun retires at only 36 after a win on the local circuit, obviously frustratd by the lack of oppurtunity for Asian Featherweights since the closure of KDM FC he has decided to explore other avenues. He finishes with a record of 29-10.

Noah Musch retires at 42 he hasn't fought since the game began and finishes with a record of 28-17.

Lee Bould, whilst only 36, is another fighter who hasn't fought since the game began. He ends his career with a record of 16-9.

WCW Mark · February 12, 2011

GAMMA 15 - Ripley v Napier announced

GAMMA 15 sees Sutton Ripley (15-2) face off against Neil Napier (16-0) to determine the number 1 contender for the Middleweight Title. Ripley is a sprawl and brawler and has beaten Thomas Smith and Ashley Ballard to earn this shot. He has excellent takedown defence and a very hard right hand. Napier is an all round fighter who is slightly better on the deck than on his feet. He submitted Maarten De Vries back in October but hasn't been tested too much so far. The winner will face off against Stuart Strange for the title later in the year.

The co-main event sees Sean Morrison (28-4) v Bruce Steven (17-7) for the Lightweight Title. I'm not really happy about putting a title fight lower down the card than a non-title fight but the feedback only rated this at co-main event level. Morrison's marketability is obviously still suffering from that loss to Regueiro at the start of last year. Bruce Steven has racked up wins against Henry Baldwin and Luke Hilton to earn this shot. Morrison has to be the favourite here and I'm hoping Steven will serve as a tune up fight before a big clash with Sukarno.

The rest of the main card sees:

Jonathan Huang (4-0) v Maarten De Vries (15-8) - Middleweight

Huang is one of the worlds best practitioners of Jiu Jitsu and I'm hoping he can convert those skills into MMA. His main weaknesses are a lack of a stand up game and inexperience. He is already Mid National Popularity in the States and as such makes his debut straight on the main card. His opponent, Maarten De Vries, is his polar opposite possessing both experience and a stand up game. The ex-champion however appears to be on the wane as he has suffered losses to both Patrick Thomas and Neil Napier in his last two fights. A win against Huang would go some way towards rehabilitation whereas a loss would see him edging towards the bottom of the card with only his name value and his reputation for putting on exciting fights keeping him off the pre-lims.

Brian Claremonet (6-2) v Nicholas Bretton (12-4) - Lightweight

Claremont is an all action striker while Bretton prefers the ground game, both fighters have an in game record of 2-1 and a win here would put them on a winning streak and solidify their position in the rankings. Neither can really afford a loss, especially with all the new talent coming into the division.

Lloyd McAllister (13-3) v Dan Halvorsen (36-13-2) - Welterweight

McAllister is another fighter making his GAMMA debut, he is a kick boxer with decent punches and kicks and an ok takedown defence. He is not likely to ever be a world beater but he could become a solid part of the mid card. Especially if he can pick up a debut win. His opponent is a certifiable legend who unfortunately appears to be on the wane. Whilst he picked up a win against Tyler Lass he has losses to Yevgeni Sipatov and Delroy Rhodes and another loss here would seem to suggest retirement is approaching. This would be a big win for McAllister in terms of name value if he can pull it off.

Ashley Ballard (11-1) v Alex Cole (9-1) - Middleweight

Both fighters are coming off a loss and this will see one of them get back to winning ways. The winner could be the one who has the mental toughness to deal with the loss of their unbeaten streak best.

Prelims

Darin Blood (13-7) v Slade Cregg (9-4) - Welterweight

Slade Cregg makes his GAMMA debut against a fighter who is low on confidence and on a losing streak. Blood has lost to Aldarisio, Kendall and Humphreys so far and a loss to the new comer will surely see him cut from the roster. It's a no loose situation for me, Blood either rehabilitates himself at the expense on a new comer or Cregg shows he has good potential with a win.

Esteban Vega (5-0) v Chaz Babish (8-2) - Middleweight

Two fighters making their debuts and looking to get off to a wwin, this fight could be anybodies and won't be make or break for either fighter. A winning start though is always helpful and both men get a chance to impress.

Agustin Gonzalez (10-3) v Linton Berry - (6-4) - Welterweight

Two more debuting fighters, Gonzalez has a good record and is a decent wrestler, he just needs some name value in America as so far all his fights have been on the Mexican Local circuit. Berry shouldn't trouble him too badly and I expect a good performance.

Sly Twinge (4-1) v Brady Crawford (6-5) - Heavyweight

Twinge lost his last outing to Rick Stanley in the last second of round 1 by TKO. He will be looking to bounce back with a win and he should manage it fairly easily against Crawford whose entire role with the company is that of jobber.

Sebastian Fernadez (6-1) v Ian Linderman (8-3) - Lightweight

Fernandez makes up the last of my three Mexican debuts. He has great physical skills and comes to GAMMA with a record of 3 wins by first round KO on the Mexican local circuit. Linderman is a below average stand up fighter whose only in game win came against Nicky Shapiro. Hopefully Fernadez will breeze through his for an impressive win.

Linfield Ballard (20-10) v Ernie Bruns (17-13) - Light Heavyweight

Ballard had an awful 1998 dropping from potential #1 contender (he lost in a fight with Spencer Rubenstein) to one of the lowest ranked fighters in the Light Heavyweight Division after losses to Lawrence Herringbone and Derek South. Ernie Bruns' wasn't any better as he lost to Jerry Bogdonovich, Toby Sorkin and Rupert Dreck. The loser here will be gone. Bruns is 37 and the pits while Ballard is 32, exciting, has a lot to offer and has a brother working for me. Can you guess who I hope wins?

All in all I'm hoping for a good PPV, there are several fighters who are known for putting on a good show and a decent main and co-main event. There are a lot of fighters making their debuts and this card could be looked back on as the start of the GAMMA career of a future legend.

My predictions

Sutton Ripley (15-2) v Neil Napier (16-0) - Middleweight #1 contender

Sean Morrison (28-4) v Bruce Steven (17-7) - Lightweight Title

Jonathan Huang (4-0) v Maarten De Vries (15-8) - Middleweight

Brian Claremonet (6-2) v Nicholas Bretton (12-4) - Lightweight

Lloyd McAllister (13-3) v Dan Halvorsen (36-13-2) - Welterweight

Ashley Ballard (11-1) v Alex Cole (9-1) - (Middleweight)

Prelims

Darin Blood (13-7) v Slade Cregg (9-4) - Welterweight

Esteban Vega (5-0) v Chaz Babish (8-2) - Middleweight

Agustin Gonzalez (10-3) v Linton Berry - (6-4) - Welterweight

Sly Twinge (4-1) v Brady Crawford (6-5) - Heavyweight

Sebastian Fernadez (6-1) v Ian Linderman (8-3) - Lightweight

Linfield Ballard (20-10) v Ernie Bruns (17-13) - Light Heavyweight

Hmm looking at that it seems pretty obvious to me that when I'm making the matches I have a habit of picking the fighter I want to win first and then looking for a suitable opponent. Oh well it's as good a system as any.

Predictions and comments welcome and appreciated, the prediction card just here:

Sutton Ripley (15-2) v Neil Napier (16-0) - Middleweight #1 contender

Sean Morrison (28-4) v Bruce Steven (17-7) - Lightweight Title

Jonathan Huang (4-0) v Maarten De Vries (15-8) - Middleweight

Brian Claremonet (6-2) v Nicholas Bretton (12-4) - Lightweight

Lloyd McAllister (13-3) v Dan Halvorsen (36-13-2) - Welterweight

Ashley Ballard (11-1) v Alex Cole (9-1) - (Middleweight)

Prelims

Darin Blood (13-7) v Slade Cregg (9-4) - Welterweight

Esteban Vega (5-0) v Chaz Babish (8-2) - Middleweight

Agustin Gonzalez (10-3) v Linton Berry - (6-4) - Welterweight

Sly Twinge (4-1) v Brady Crawford (6-5) - Heavyweight

Sebastian Fernadez (6-1) v Ian Linderman (8-3) - Lightweight

Linfield Ballard (20-10) v Ernie Bruns (17-13) - Light Heavyweight

batsnumbereleven · February 14, 2011

Sutton Ripley (15-2) v Neil Napier (16-0) - Middleweight #1 contender

It's still early in the game, and Napier still has the skills to go over anyone in the division when things go right for him, so I'm expecting him to win his title shot here against The Talented Sutton Ripley. Ripley's moniker is perhaps less apt than it might be, and a win here would be a shock to me. He's good but he shouldn't be challenging for titles.

Sean Morrison (28-4) v Bruce Steven (17-7) - Lightweight Title

In a fight like this, Morrison's a man to put your house on. Bruce Steve might flit around the top of the Lightweight rankings at this stage of the game whilst the division os faiely weak, but it would be a huge shock if he were to take the title from The Man with No Nickname.

Jonathan Huang (4-0) v Maarten De Vries (15-8) - Middleweight

Huang needs this much more than De Vries does. He has an opportunity to lead the division, but has to put opponents like this away convincingly if he is to get to that level. The Executioner has had his moments, but it he takes this one it might put a large dampner on the competitive prospects at Middleweight in the longer term for GAMMA.

Brian Claremont (6-2) v Nicholas Bretton (12-4) - Lightweight

"Barrage" is a huge hit or miss prospect, with an attitude of hitting the other man before he gets hit I suspect that you've set this up so that Claremont can win, but I think that Bretton might pull out a surprise here if he can avoid the flying fists.

Lloyd McAllister (13-3) v Dan Halvorsen (36-13-2) - Welterweight

This one looks like it will be a close call, but the experience of Halvorsen might be enough for him to walk away the victor. McAllister can be a bit unpredictable, and he only needs to turn up and have a slilghtly off-par day for the veteran too take full advantage.

Ashley Ballard (11-1) v Alex Cole (9-1) - (Middleweight)

Two men with a lot on the line here, as they look to make an impact at Middleweight. Neither can really be considered in the top echelon, but they are much more than making up the numbers. I take Ballard to win here, but it could easily go the other way.

Prelims

Darin Blood (13-7) v Slade Cregg (9-4) - Welterweight

Blood has more class than his record shows, and should be too good for Cregg.

Esteban Vega (5-0) v Chaz Babish (8-2) - Middleweight

Not expecting the 0 to go here. Babish's 8 wins have come against inferior opponents and Vega has more about him.

Agustin Gonzalez (10-3) v Linton Berry - (6-4) - Welterweight

Gonzalez might look a little bit flaky, but Linton Berry isn't up to the standard of GAMMA, and shouldn't trouble the judges.

Sly Twinge (4-1) v Brady Crawford (6-5) - Heavyweight

Twinge is a potential Heavyweight title prospect, but needs feeding more cans like Crawford to build him up.

Sebastian Fernadez (6-1) v Ian Linderman (8-3) - Lightweight

Possibly a surprise, but I think that Linderman might just pull this one out. He needs to pick up wins against less experienced opponents to remain even vaguely relevant.

Linfield Ballard (20-10) v Ernie Bruns (17-13) - Light Heavyweight

I'd hate to rely on either of these guys, as the double-digit losses for both of them indicate. Ballard really ought not to be tested by Bruns though, otherwise he might as well call it a day.

WCW Mark · February 20, 2011

GAMMA 15: Ripley v Napier

Prelims

Linfield Ballard (20-10) v Ernie Bruns (17-13) - Light Heavyweight

Ballard knocks Bruns down with a series of very quick blows, he jumps on him and unloads. Very quick fight and Ballard has saved his career.

Result: Linfield Ballard beats Ernie Bruns by TKO at 0:26 of round 1 in a good fight.

Ian Linderman (8-3) v Sebastian Fernandez (6-1) - Lightweight

Although he weighed in bang on the money at 155 lbs by fight time Fernandez is 173 lbs to Lindermans 158. That’s a massive advantage.

Fernandez may be stronger but Linderman show more skill through out the fight, dodging a lot of Fernandez’s blows and hitting him on the counter. None of Linderman’s shots hurt him but they are picking up points. When Fernandez does hit it hurts but he can’t catch the elusive Linderman. The commentator gives it 2 rounds to 1 to Linderman but the judges disagree and award Fernandez the win by split decision. Not a great debut though.

Result: Sebastian Fernadez beats Ian Linderman by split decision in a good fight

Sly Twinge (4-1) v Brady Crawford (6-5) - Heavyweight

Twinge takes Crawford down with ease, there is a slight concern as Crawford goes for the guillotine but he can’t get it and Twinge goes to work. He softens Crawford up with some elbows before moving to mount to finish the job.

Result: Sly Twinge beats Brady Crawford at 3:12 of round 1 in a decent fight

Agustin Gonzalez (10-3) v Linton Berry (6-4) - Welterweight

Agustin weighs in at 158 lbs which seems a bit unnecessary, especially as he is back to 174 by fight time. Will this unnecessary weight cutting effect his performance.

Berry takes the first round keeping his distance and landing some good counters of Gonzalez. Gonzalez secures the takedown in the second and although he doesn’t do much once he is down there he keeps busy enough to avoid the stand up. 1 round a piece. Gonzalez pursues the takedown with a vengeance in the 3rd but can’t get it. His aggression gives him the round however.

Result: Agustin Gonzalez beats Linton Berry by unanimous decision in an average fight

Chaz Babish (8-2) v Esteban Vega (5-0) - Middleweight

Vega dominates the stand up in the first round landing several hard shots as Babish comes forwards looking for the takedown. Vega eventually knocks him down and he jumps on him and starts throwing shot after shot. Babish to his credit takes them and manages to grab Vega to see out the round. Great start to the fight. Sadly the next two rounds don’t follow suit, Vega seems happy to do just enough to take the rounds and Babish isn’t able to take advantage of Vega’s lackadaisical attitude.

Result: Esteban Vega beats Chaz Babish by unanimous decision in a very poor fight.

Slade Cregg (9-4) v Darin Blood (13-7) - Welterweight

Cregg tries hard going for 7 takedowns through out the course of the fight, he fails with everyone though. Not only that but he fails to land a punch all fight. Blood unsurprisingly takes it on point.

Result: Darin Blood beats Slade Cregg by unanimous decision in a very poor fight

Main Card

Well two real snoozers on there, that’s not exactly going to get the crowd pumped up before the main show. On the other hand any action they see now will surely look good by comparison.

Ashley Ballard (11-1) v Alex Cole (9-1) - Middleweight

Can Ashley copy his big brother and pick up the win tonight?

Round 1:

It doesn’t get off to a great start for Ballard, he throws a weak kick which gets caught and he is taken down. Cole shifts to side control and then to mount with ease but then blows it by going for an armbar and getting rolled. Ballard now has side control and he throws several big hands which rock Cole. Cole however shows great guts to tough it out and then manages to roll Ballard, he ends up behind him but with only 4 seconds left he can’t do anything.

Round 2:

Again Cole catches a body kick and takes Ballard down early on, Ballard really needs to be more careful. Cole moves to side control and again to mount, this time instead of the submission he decides to work the ground and pound and with Ballard unable to defend himself the ref calls it.

Alex Cole beats Ashley Ballard by TKO at 4:16 of round 2 in a great fight

Dan Halverson (36-13-2) v Lloyd McAllister (13-3) - Welterweight

Round 1:

Both fighters throw strikes but neither does any real damage, Halvorsen shoots in from distance and gets the single leg into guard. Halvorsen moves to side control and then goes for an arm triangle, it’s all over. Halvorsen proves there is life in the old dog yet. Disappointing debut for McAllister.

Dan Halverson beats Lloyd McAllister by submission at 2:07 of round 1 in a great fight.

Nicholas Bretton (12-4) v Brian Claremont (6-2) - Lightweight

Round 1:

Claremont fights the only way he knows how, on the front foot. Bretton is dealing with it well though and is avoiding most of the blows and landing a few shots of his own. Claremont keeps pressing though and eventually lands a clean shot. Bretton goes down, he’s out cold!

Result: Brian Claremont beats Nicholas Bretton by KO at 3:29 of round 1 in a decent fight

Jonathan Huang (4-0) v Maarten De Vries (15-8) - Middleweight

The second debut on the main card, Huang will be hoping he has a better time of it than McAllister. De Vries on the other hand will be desperate to stop the losses.

Round 1:

De Vries gets the best of the early going landing some hard body shots, Huang goes for the takedown but De Vries dodges it and comes back with a right cross and a spinning back kick. After a great start the rest of the round ticks away without much incident. Shame.

Round 2:

De Vries lands a couple of decent leg kicks as Huang looks to close the distance, Huang goes for the takedown but De Vries dances away, back to square one for Huang. De Vries goes into clinch with Huang which seems an odd choice. Huang goes for the takedown but fails. De Vries realises his mistake and tries to break free of the clinch but Huang won’t let him. Huang goes for the takedown again and this time he gets it. Huang smothers De Vries but doesn’t work any offence and the round ends.

Round 3:

De Vries seems to have realised he needs to keep his distance and does so landing several hard leg kicks in the process. Hunag keeps coming forwards and walks right into a barrage of rights, he looks wobbly. De Vries presses his advantage but Huang recovers and clinches. He keeps De Vries there but doesn’t really do anything and the round ends.

Result: Maarten De Vries beats Jonathan Huang by unanimous decision in a poor fight

Sean Morrison (28-4) v Bruce Steven (17-7) - Lightweight Title

Everyone is talking about a possible Morrison v Sukarno fight for the title, however Morrison needs to focus on his current opponent who is looking to spoil the party.

Round 1:

Morrison goes for an early takedown, rather than fight it Steven goes with it, looking to grab a guillotine on the way down. Morrison lands in guard and throws some elbows, Steven reaches up and grabs an arm looking for a triangle choke. He can’t get it though and Morrison moves to side control. Morrison pauses to catch his breath and Steven takes the opportunity to try and grab an arm, Morrison fights him off and lands several hard knees to the ribs. After softening Steven up Morrison starts to throw the big bombs, shot after shot lands and the ref steps in. Good effort by Steven who always looked dangerous but it looks like Morrison v Sukarno is on.

Result: Sean Morrison beats Bruce Steven by TKO to retain the Lightweight Title at 3:26 of round 1 in a great fight.

Sutton Ripley (15-2) v Neil Napier (16-0) - Middleweight # 1 contenders bout.

Round 1:

Ripley start aggressively throwing a lot of strikes but he can’t seem to land any of them. Napier takes advantage of an opening to clinch with Ripley. Napier starts to show off his Muay Thai and lands a big knee to the face which busts Ripley open. Ripley manages to out wrestle Napier and takes the dominant position in the clinch but can’t stop himself being pushed up against the cage. Napier goes for a trip and gets it landing in Ripley’s guard. He drops back and grabs a leg, looking for the heel hook. He gets it and Ripley has no choice but to tap.

Result: Neil Napier beats Sutton Ripley by submission at 4:33 of round 1 in a great fight.

Attendance: 11,584 for a gate of $1,158,400

PPV: 346,741 buys for a revenue of $2,080,446

Critical Rating: Good

Commercial Rating: Good

Fight of the Night: Napier v Ripley

KO of the Night: Brian Claremont

Submission of the Night: Neil Napier

Aftermath

The show itself has done well, it's my second most bought PPV of all time and with no Sukarno fighting I make a great profit of £1,654880 in March. Results wise I'm pleased that Morrison avoided a potential bannana skin and Napier is the better number 1 contender than Ripley and should put on a good fight. Huang's debut is the bigest disapointment, not only did he lose but he managed to have a dull fight against Maarten De Vries. It is good however to see De Vries get back to winning ways.

Ernie Bruns finally gets cut, with a record of 17-14 and 4 in game losses out of 4 this was pretty inevitable. At 37 years old I don't think he'll be making a comeback and will probably have to spend the rest of his career on the local circuit.

Congrats to Batsnumbereleven who called 9 fights correctly, the same as me, and given that I'm the one making the fights and can see the stats that is pretty impressive.

WCW Mark · February 20, 2011

March 1999 - Global Summary

FLB

FLB sign Flavio Alberto (4-0). This 23 year old Light Heavyweight has good hands as can be shown by his 3 first round TKOs on the local circuit. It will be interesting to see how he fares against better opponents.

UCFF

UCFF continue there signing spree and sign:

John Fitz Wallace (9-2) an American Heavyweight wrestler, he looks like he has good takedowns and knows how to control an opponent once he is down there but doesn’t have a lot else to offer. He could end up winning a lot of long dull fights

Marcelo Oberto (24-15) is an Argentinian middleweight with reasonable hands and a good chin. He is coming off two wins on the local circuit.

Frank Analysis (36-19) a big, tough street fighter. Analysis doesn’t really have the skills to compete in modern MMA, he might however find some success in UCFF where the standard of competition is lower.

Gustavo Spagnol (3-0) is a fantastic addition to UCFF’s Light Heavyweight roster. He is a ground and pound specialist and at 24 he has plenty of time to work on other areas of his game.

Linton Renn (6-1) is an English Heavyweight with heavy fists and good grappling. He could do well in UCFF’s heavyweight division.

Robun Yamazaki (38-14) leaves ALPHA-1 to try his luck in Africa. The veteran is on a 2 fight losing streak and ALPHA-1 decided not to renew his contract. He still has skills though and even more importantly he has name value in Africa. Ok so it is only low regional but that is more than most fighters UCFF have been able to hire.

Collins Lundy (9-3) is a former boxer turned MMA fighter. Looking at his stats I can’t imagine he had much success in the boxing ring but at 9-3 and coming off a win he is a good signing for UCFF.

Zane Wybock (4-1) is a reasonable Light Heavyweight fighter, however with the strength that UCFF have in this division I think he will struggle to make an impression.

Michael Klaughnschue (5-0) is an unbeaten German Light Heavyweight, with decent grappling skills and a low centre of gravity he is a hard one to shift.

Otto Cascudo (25-10) is a veteran Brazilian fighter with above average wrestling and submissions. He is never going to set the world on fire though and I suspect UCFF is his last stop before retirement.

Eugene Clough (40-34-2) is a bear of a heavyweight. All he really has going for him is his size, strength and a good chin. That may be enough to pick up a few wins on the local circuit but I suspect he will quickly get found out at UCFF.

Pepe (7-1) is a solid all round middleweight who, if matched against the right opponents, could go on a wining streak.

Giovanni de Matos (4-0) is a dangerous Brazilian Heavyweight with lethal leg kicks. His ground game is suspect but at 23 he can improve in this area. The question is whether he’ll need to in a division mostly comprising of lumbering veterans.

WEFF

Rain Richards (5-0) signs for WEFF, she is a very good striker, her two fights on the local circuit last year went less than a minute between them. She could make some waves in their Lightweight division.

XCC

XCC hold their first event of the year and headline with Kyle Sagal (4-0) v Jackson Gray (18-9) for the Lightweight Title. Sagal wins the title and submission of the night in the third round with a rear naked choke in a good bout. The co-main event sees Darren Southall (4-0) vs Coltrane Aaronson (5-0) in an undefeated streak vs. undefeated streak match up. Southall wins by submission in the first round in a great match and he must surely be one of the top challengers for Sagal‘s title. The match everyone is talking about after the show though is Marcus Speed v Rory McEnterry. Speed wins by 2nd round KO with a monster head kick in a fantastic fight. He picks up KO of the night and fight of the night. 262 people witness this event which scores a good critical and commercial rating.

GAMMA

Bill Cumming announces he will retire after his next bout, this is a little disappointing as while he had been on a bad losing streak he recently turned it around against Glenn Pimm and at High Regional popularity I was hoping to get a few more fights out of him. He is a legend in the sport and I’ll have to try and give him an appropriate fight.

Mark Cohen returns after a long lay off to heal several niggling injuries. He is currently on a losing streak but still has name value as GAMMA’s first ever Heavyweight Champion. His timing is perfect as I think he will be the ideal opponent for Bill Cumming in his retirement match. A win would kick start his career after his layoff while one more loss will lead to him being released regardless of who the opponent is. It’s a no lose situation for me.

ALPHA-1

Alpha-1 don't hold an event in March and instead go on a signing spree, while no where near the scale of mine in February they do make a few acquisitions.

Sharaku Kon (2-0) is a Japanese Light Heavyweight with good wrestling and excellent ground and pound. Havig said that his one win in game came via submission so he is clearly no slouch in that department either.

Takesi Yanagimoto (4-0) is another Japanese Light Heavyweight. He has two in game wins and has reasonable grappling skills.

Ramon da Silva Ramos (5-0) is a Brazilian middleweight kick boxer with fantastic kicks, particularly his head kick. With two in game wins it was only a matter of time before someone picked him up. FLB have missed out on a potential star here.

Mily Golovanov is a Russian Middleweight, again he is an excellent grappler and won both his fights on the local circuit by submission .

Ryuji Ganaha (1-0) may be inexperienced but he shows great potential and ALPHA-1 clearly feel he has a better chance of reaching that potential with them than left on the indie circuit. He is a good all rounder with no real weaknesses.

Suketsune Okuma (2-0) is a powerful Middleweight with good wrestling. His cardio however is dubious and needs work.

Joshua Hope (4-0) is a Canadian Light Heavyweight with a fantastic amateur wrestling background. He is a great addition to the division.

Joey Valdez (5-0) is a Mexican Middleweight. He has fantastic hands and a good sprawl and could go far.

Debuts

Conrad Bueller turns pro, the 6 ft 4 German somehow manages to slim down to Middleweight where his reach means he looks like he could be dangerous. A possible future star for SIGMA?

We also get our second regen in Telfor David. David is a French Heavyweight Wrestler who already looks to have some impressive skills. With his beard and fearsome expression he reminds many people of a young Claude Lerond.

Retirements

Welsh grappler Graham Goodbody (20-9) calls it a day. With two wins on the local circuit it seems a shame to give up just when BCF might have come calling, however at 38 his best days are probably behind him so perhaps it is a wise choice.

36 year old welterweight Bokkai Lida (18-11) also calls it a day after strugling to a decision win on a local show in Japan.

Takahiro Nakamura (23-6) also calls it a day, he has a good record but after losing his job when KDM FC went down he has struggled to find fights at Featherweight having only 1 on the local circuit. He is probably going back to pro wrestling.

Thiago Ceni (19-12) has two wins on the local circuit in Brazil but FLB didn't seem interested and as such he decides to quit.

WCW Mark · February 20, 2011

GAMMA 16: Dooley v Vinkus announced

GAMMA 16 will see ex NFL player Norbert Vinkus (4-0) take on the man who many believe could be the future of the GAMMA Heavyweight Division, Chuck Dooley (6-0). Vinkus has proved to be more than a flash in the pan looking to cash in on his name by beating Mr GAMMA James Foster while Dooley has clocked up three wins in the last year. They are both big names with Vinkus being Low International and Dooley High National so even though there are no titles on the line I expect this one to draw a big audience.

The Co-main event sees Junior Patinkin (15-2) v Derek South (15-4) in the light heavyweight division. At 6th and 10th in the rankings respectively a win here will do a lot for whoever picks it up and they will likely find themselves facing Mathew Dean for a title shot in the near future.

The rest of the card is:

Jim Carpenter (51-9-2) v Bud Brockett (9-0) - Welterweight

Veteran Jim Carpenter has been on a tear recently with wins over David Allen and Bobby Brubaker and he'll be hoping to continue the streak here as he looks to earn one last chance at the title. He faces his his toughest challenge since the game started though in the form of the unbeaten Bud Brockett. Brockett also has two in game wins but both came at Lightweight against opponents he outweighed, can he make the step up or will the will the veteran's experience make the difference?

Aleksei Chekhov (21-3) v Kendall Tracey (10-1) - Light Heavyweight

Aleksei Checkhov makes his GAMMA debut after surrendering the SIGMA Light Heavyweight Title to cross the Atlantic. Tracey is no slouch with wins over Mountfield and Pimm. Chekhov has the skills and is 3rd in my Light Heavyweight rankings but has no name value in America. I expect him to win here and I'm going to hype him accordingly.

Benny Danare (10-1) v Beau Gorshin (37-9) - Lightweight

Both these fighters have suffered one on game loss, however both can feel aggrieved about it as they both lost to Bud Brockett who failed to make weight and had a significant size advantage. A win here will help wipe the memory of that loss from the mind of whoever gets it.

David Allen (16-3) v Delroy Rhodes (8-1) - Welterweight

Both fighters are on a winning streak and are looking to move up the rankings. Rhodes is a kickboxer while Allen is a ground based fighter. Rhodes is the lesser fighter in terms of ranking, popularity and experience but a win here would catapult him up the rankings. Allen is ranked 6th and is looking to crack the top 5.

Prelims

Iancu Trailescu (5-0) v Gareth Grundy (7-3) - Heavyweight

Both fighters make their GAMMA debuts, Trailescu is a giant kick boxer standing 6ft 10 and he will be looking to keep Grundy at range. Grundy is a wrestler with decent takedowns but I expect Trailescu to start his American adventure with a win.

Eli Harris (5-2) v Sawyer Hines (5-1) - Lightweight

Both these fighters debuted with an unexpected (to me anyway) win. Their reward? A fight against each other. They are both low regional popularity but I'm hoping the winner will make it to mid regional and will be able to appear on the main show. The loser will get moved up to his natural weight at Welterweight.

Nate MacReary (6-0) v Harvey Loeb (7-3) - Heavyweight

Another two fighters making their debuts, MacReary has wins on the Canadian Local circuit and in ALPHA-1 but has no name value in the US which prevents him appearing on the main show. Loeb is low regional and is a decent wrestler, I don't think he'll have enough to trouble MacReary though.

Jay Dorridge (5-1) v Solomn Salas (5-1) - Lightweight

Both fighters were given fights I expected them to win on their debuts and both lost. Another loss here will almost certainly see the loser cut.

Randall Donnellly (12-8) v Barry Strachan (24-17) - Heavyweight

Both fighters are on losing streaks and the loser here will get cut. The winner will hopefully get a popularity and momentum boost and will be able to put someone else over.

Teeratep Nutnum (8-5) v Wyatt Ashur (5-3) - Lightweight

Nutnum is an incredibly exciting fighter and I hope to push him with a few easy wins to turn him into a valuable part of the Lightweight Division. The first of these wins will hopefully come against Wyatt Ashur who despite being on a winning streak is a striker with no real skills.

This is somewhat of a developmental card in that many of the fights are there to set up something bigger down the line. Despite this the main event has good name value and there are hopefully a few others on the card which will deliver exciting bouts. With the massive expansion I've undergone unfortunately I'll probably have a few of these although things will hopefully improve as my fighters popularity starts to pick up.

As always predictions and comments welcomed.

Fight Card

Prelims

Teeratep Nutnum v Wyatt Ashur

Randall Donnelly v Barry Strachan

Jay Dorridge v Solomn Salas

Nate MacReary v Harvey Loeb

Eli Harris v Sawyer Hines

Iancu Trailescu v Gareth Grundy

Main Card

David Allen v Delroy Rhodes

Benny Danare v Beau Gorshin

Aleksei Chekhov v Kendall Tracey

Jim Carpenter v Bud Brockett

Junior Patinkin v Derek South

Chuck Dooley v Norbert Vinkus

I think there are a few hard to call matches on this card, although luckily for me I don't mind who wins them, my predicitions are:

Teeratep Nutnum v Wyatt Ashur

Randall Donnelly v Barry Strachan

Jay Dorridge v Solomn Salas

Nate MacReary v Harvey Loeb

Eli Harris v Sawyer Hines

Iancu Trailescu v Gareth Grundy

Main Card

David Allen v Delroy Rhodes

Benny Danare v Beau Gorshin

Aleksei Chekhov v Kendall Tracey

Jim Carpenter v Bud Brockett

Junior Patinkin v Derek South

Chuck Dooley v Norbert Vinkus

batsnumbereleven · February 21, 2011

Prelims

Teeratep Nutnum v Wyatt Ashur

Nutnum is something of an unknown commodity to me, whilst Ashur has a more prominent backgropund despite being less experienced.

Randall Donnelly v Barry Strachan

Neither guy here is likely to trouble GAMMA for much longer, but Strachan's pedigree is limited to the UK, and he will be outgunned here, even by Donnelly.

Jay Dorridge v Solomn Salas

Something of a pick 'em, with their undefeated streaks wasted. Both are essentially talented cans in the longer term though. Dorridge to take the W here for no other reason that I go past a place of that name on the train ocasionally.

Nate MacReary v Harvey Loeb

MacReary's another who flatters to deceive when given an opportunity on the big GAMMA stage. Loeb's really no match for him though.

Eli Harris v Sawyer Hines

Another close one, but Harris has a bit more potential than Hines and should avoid an upset here.

Iancu Trailescu v Gareth Grundy

Trailescu must win this if he has any hopes of making a go at it in GAMMA. He has the reach and striking skills, but if he can't use them against a wrestler like Grundy, he won't succeed against more skilled opponents.

Main Card

David Allen v Delroy Rhodes

A tester for the "Fight Night Delight", and a must-win for him. Allen is about as strong an opponent as I can see Rhodes beating, so this is make-or-break, and I'm backing him to light up another main card down the road.

Benny Danare v Beau Gorshin

Danare is the better long-term prospect here, and although Gorshin might still be fresh enopugh to make this a difficult decision, I'm going with "The Jet" to start making a mark here.

Aleksei Chekhov v Kendall Tracey

Chekhov is solid enough and ought to pick up a win here. Tracey is good on occasion but far too inconsistent to build anything around. He could surprise us, but if he does, the hard-striking Chekhov might have to check-out back to Europe!

Jim Carpenter v Bud Brockett

Weight issues or not, Brockett is one of the top fighters at Lightweight, but can he transition to Welterweight? Carpenter has a ton of experience and will be a real test, but if "The Rocket" is going to have a career at this level he needs to take this one. If this was a Lightweight battle I'd pick Brockett all the way, but at Welterweight, it's a much closer thing. The flip of a coin says the younger man to pull it off.

Junior Patinkin v Derek South

South is one of the gatekeepers at this weight for GAMMA, so if Patinkin wants a title shot - ever - he needs to be able to beat "Smash Mouth" fairly handily. Not the most eye-catching of match-ups at Light-Heavyweight, either, but it provides an important test of the strength in depth of the roster, which will need to be shored up if South wins this.

Chuck Dooley v Norbert Vinkus

Vinkus looks the part. He has the record. He has the physique and the popularity. But when it comes down to putting it on the line against a quality opponent, Vinkus has no heart. He might be nicknamed "The Rock", but his value to GAMMA is going to be in losing some very high profile fights against some very good Heavyweights, rather than as a solid force against which his opponents drive themselves to their own destruction. Dooley is the first of those who'll find that the nickname applies only to Vinkus' abs, not to his ring-ability, but he won't be the last and despite his relative youth "the Laughing Man" will still be laughing at the end of GAMMA 16.

WCW Mark · February 28, 2011

GAMMA 16: Dooley v Vinkus

This show is taking place the same day as ALPHA-1: da Guia v Bunya so hopefully it will be a good one, while our audiences don’t overlap yet this is a sure sign that the conflict between us is hotting up. There are no problems at the weigh in so on with the show.

Prelims

Teeratep Nutnum (8-5) v Wyatt Ashur (5-3) - Lightweight

Ashur takes the first round with some controlled counter striking. Second round however is a different story as Nutnum starts to land, he eventually staggers Ashur before grabbing a guillotine choke for the takedown and the win.

Result: Teeratep Nutnum beats Wyatt Ashur by Submission at 4:42 of round 2 in a good match.

Randall Donnelly (12-8) v Barry Strachan (24-17) - Heavyweight

Not a lot of skill on display as both fighters miss with most of their strikes, with such poor skills on display it’s not surpising that this goes to the judges and Strachan takes a split decision.

Result: Barry Strachan beats Randall Donnelly by split decision in an awful fight.

Jay Dorridge (5-1) v Solomon Salas (5-1) - Lightweight

Dorridge absorbs some blows as he goes after the takedown, he shrugs them off and gets it on the third attempt. Salas is helpless on the ground and Dorridge takes the win with an arm triangle.

Result: Jay Dorridge beats Solomon Salas by submission at 4:48 f round 1 in a great match.

Nate Macready (6-0) v Harvey Loeb (7-3) - Heavyweight

Macreary takes Loeb down at will but doesn’t seem to be able to do much once he has him on the ground, the result is a dull points win. MacReary never looked like losing but he needs to work on his finishing.

Result: Nate MacReary beats Harvey Loeb by unanimous decision in a poor match

Eli Harris (5-2) v Sawyer Hines (5-1) - Lightweight

Harris pursues Hines throughout the fight looking for the takedown and landing some reasonable strikes. Hines is too quick on his feet to get caught in the grapple but Harris takes it due to being the more aggressive fighter.

Result: Eli Harris beats Sawyer Hines by unanimous decision in a poor fight

Iancu Trailescu (5-0) v Gareth Grundy (7-3) - Heavyweight

Grundy shows great heart and a good chin as he comes forward looking for the takedown, he is consistently stuffed however and takes an awful lot of shots in the process, he weathers the storm and manages to last out the fight, however 0 out of 7 takedowns for Grundy and 29 out of 37 ground strikes for Trailescu (all after stuffed takedown attempts) tell you all you need to know about who won this won.

Result: Iancu Trailescu beat Gareth Grundy by unanimous decision in a decent fight

Main Card

David Allen (16-3) v Delroy Rhodes (8-1) - Welterweight

Round 1:

The fighters exchange tentative strikes early on before they step into the pocket, they exchange further strikes but neither are able to land anything clean. They fall into a clinch and Allen picks Rhodes up and slams him down. He quickly advances to mount and goes for the submission. Rhodes is able to reverse it and quickly climbs to his feet. Wasted opportunity for Allen but he probably took the round.

Round 2:

Both fighters keep the pace high and exchange strikes flurry after flurry of strikes, no one is able to land that killer blow but Rhodes is definitely getting the best of it as he avoids the majority of what Allen throws. Allen gets the takedown with 14 seconds remaining but it is too late to do any damage and Rhodes takes the round.

Round 3:

Rhodes steps up and throws a left right combo, Allen ducks under it and hit’s a straight right. Rhodes is out before he even hit’s the mat.

Result: David Allen beats Delroy Rhodes by KO at 0:27 of round 3 in a great match.

Benny Danare (10-1) v Beau Gorshin (37-9) - Lightweight

Round 1:

Gorshin lands a couple of punches before going for a big roundhouse kick, Danare grabs the leg and goes for a knee bar, he doesn’t get it but he does manage to trip Gorshin and takes him down. He lands in guard and is immediately fighting off Gorshin’s attempt at a triangle choke. He fights it off and moves to side control before going for an arm triangle. He gets it fully applied but somehow Gorshin manages to wriggle free. Danare spends the next minute trying to gain mount but Gorshin uses all his experience to stop him. Danare gives up and goes for an Americana as the round draws to a close, he can’t get it though and there are some boos from the crowd who weren’t impressed with the action. Were they watching the same fight I was?

Round 2:

Danare dives in for a knee bar but Gorshin shakes him off and Danare lands flat on his back, Gorshin steps back though and waves him to his feet. Danare gets up and immediately steps forwards with a series of jabs before shooting for the legs. Gorshin sprawls though and forces him to his knees and then rolls him over. Gorshin is in side control and throws some big punches, Danare defends well though and Gorshin changes tack and goes for an arm triangle but this too is unsuccessful. Gorshin decides to get back up and take this fight back to his feet. Again Danare attacks the legs but can’t get anywhere. This round ends and this time the crowd seem more into it.

Round 3:

Danare closes the distance quickly and clinches with Gorshin, he ducks down and gets the takedown. He seems content to smother Gorshin and rides out the round in this position.

Result: Benny Danare beats Beau Gorshin by unanimous decision in a decent fight

Aleksei Chekhov (21-3) v Kendall Tracey (10-1) - Light Heavyweight

I’ve hyped Chekhov before this fight and hope he can match the fight with a decent performance. Tracey is no mug however and this is a tough debut for Chekhov.

Round 1

Tracey throws a jab which misses and Chekhov lands several big rights forcing Tracey to back up against the cage. Chekhov continues to throw bombs and Tracey falls to the floor. Chekhov quickly follows him and the ref is forced to end it. He certainly justified the hype there.

Result: Aleksei Chekhov beats Kendall Tracey by TKO at 0:35 of round 1 in a good match.

Jim Carpenter (51-9-2) v Bud Brockett (9-0) - Welterweight

Round 1:

Brocket comes forwards looking to clinch with Carpenter, Carpenter is more than happy to oblige and they end up grappling against the cage. Brocket uses his superior strength to gain the dominant position and he roughs Carpenter up with knees, elbows and a foot stomp. The ref brings them back to the middle but the fighters fall into the clinch again and end up against the cage. Again Brockett is in te superior position and works Carpenter over as the round draws to a close.

Round 2:

The fighters exchange failed strike attempts before Carpenter shoots in for the double leg. Danare resists but finds himself pushed up against the cage, Brockett manages to fight Carpenter off and breaks free. The rest of the round is fairly uneventful with both fighters seemingly happy to leave it for the third.

Round 3:

Carpenter chases Brockett round the cage as he goes for takedown after takedown, Brockett either avoids of stuffs them all and the round passes without much incident.

Result: Bud Brockett beats Jim Carpenter by unanimous decision in a very poor fight

Junior Patinkin (15-2) v Derek South (15-4) - Light Heavyweight

Round 1:

The fighters exchange jabs before Patinkin shoots in for the takedown, South sees it coming a mile off though and side steps it. Patinkin will have to try and set them up better than that. The fighters circle and Patinkin dives in with a low kick, South sees it coming and lands a big right hand which puts Patinkin down. South mounts him and starts landing several big elbows, Patinkin can’t resist and South takes the win.

Result: Derek South beats Junior Patinkin by TKO at 3:09 of round 1 in a great fight

Chuck Dooley (6-0) v Norbert Vinkus (4-0) - Heavyweight

Dooley the aggressor early on testing Vinkus with a series of feints, Vinkus refuses to be drawn in and bides his time before hitting with a series of jabs. Dooley is on the back foot now but as Vinkus steps in he goes for a takedown and lands it. Dooley goes for a crucifix and he manages to trap both of Vinkus’ arms. He starts throwing elbows and Vinkus can’t do anything about it, the ref steps in and it’s all over.

Result: Chuck Dooley beats Norbert Vinkus by TKO at 3:37 of round 1 in a great match

Attendance: 12,697 for a gate of $1,269,700

PPV: 368,604 buys for a revenue of $2,211,624

Fight of the night: David Allen v Delroy Rhodes

KO of the Night: David Allen

Submission of the Night: Jay Dorridge

Critical Success: Good

Commercial Success: Great

Aftermath

Overall a good PPV, a couple of dodgy matches (though thankfully most were on the prelims) but the main event and co-main event made up for it. I'm pleased Dooley won as I think he has more longterm value than Vinkus and he is now rated as Low International popularity making him 1 of only 3 fighters I have under contract (the others are Foster and Vinkus).

I'm also pleased with Chekhov's debut and David Allen also had a great night picking up the win, fight of the night and KO of the night. He will face Bud Brockett in the near future in a number 1 contender bout.

Sawyer Hines and Wyatt Ashur are both moved back to their natural weights of Welterweight following their losses and Randall Donnelly is released following his loss.

Well done bats calling 8 fights correctly, I love the comments you make rather than just picking the winners so please keep it up. Hopefully the next card will be online tomorrow or Wednesday.

WCW Mark · March 3, 2011

April 1999 - Global Summary

UCFF

Yet more signings for UCFF, they are building up a pretty large roster, at least it is giving people plenty of jobs but I'm not sure how often they'll use all these fighters, their latest signings are:

Jacco Landeweerd (4-0) a Dutch Kickboxer Heavyweight

Reinhardt Rhett (5-1) a German Heavyweight

Allen LeFleur (5-0) a Canadian Light Heavyweight with 4 first round wins on the local circuit and excellent wrestling skills

Trevion Chymes (14-10) a Canadian Light Heavyweight with poor skills, he has however scraped together 3 wins on the local circuit

Todd D’Abruzzo (8-1) a Middleweight Boxer

Justin Brannagh (3-0) a decent wrestler, at 30 years old he appears to be a late starter and it’s good news that UCFF have come calling now.

Reynolds Baer (6-0) an English Heavyweight with decent hands and reasonable grappling and two wins on the local circuit. At 22 he has plenty of time to improve and could be a good signing.

Haranobu Oshiro (16-7) the ex Alpha-1 Middleweight is coming off a loss to Tetsuji Myojin and will be hoping to revitalise his career in UCFF.

Washi Shiganori (5-0) a Japanese Light Heavyweight with decent striking skills and two wins on the local circuit.

ALPHA-1

ALPHA-1 hold two events this month, the first sees Palmer Lette face Hassan Fezzik. Lette fails to make weight and as a result the title isn’t on the line, the extra weight doesn’t do him any good as he is submitted at 1:48 of round 1. The match is rated as good. Ex Sumo wrestler Jutaro Honma goes 4-1 beating Taye Burnett (1-1) in the co-main event. On the prelims Armen Sarkisian gets back to winning ways after his loss to Kunimichi Kikuchi by beatingDaigo Kitaguchi (6-4). Fight of the night is also on the prelims as Xie Ming goes 22-6 with a KO win over Chew Chua (20-5), He surely deserves a slot on the main card next time.

The events rates as both a good commercial and critical success and is watched by a PPV audience of 226,030.

Their second event is the same day as my PPV and sees a clash of unbeaten fighters as Carlos da Guia (16-0) takes on Kafu Bunya (13-0) for the Welterweight Title. Da Guia retains his title with a second round KO but the fight only scores an average rating. The co-main event also fails to sparkle as new signing Georges Nouri makes an instant impression beating Go Yamamoto by submission at 7:55 of round 1 in another average fight. Kanezane Fuji (3-0) continues to prove he could be one to watch with a win over veteran Ari Peltonen (25-9). Overall the event draws 227,396 buys making it a good commercial success and is rated as average by the critics.

GAMMA

I sign Fiyero Lermontov (13-0) to join my every growing Lightweight Division. He has two in game wins for Sigma and I feel a little sorry for them poaching the fighter they were no doubt grooming to be champion. He is just too good to pass up though. He is unknown in the States but won’t stay that way for long.

I also pick up Armen Sarkisian when his contract comes up at ALPHA-1, I’m competing with ALPHA-1 and UCFF so I’m pleased to get him for a pretty reasonable $7,500 per fight. At 24-3 and coming off a win he has the skills and reputation to be a credible contender, he just needs the name value.

I’ve picked up two good fighters and when Terron Cabal becomes available I decide to leave him at SIGMA for now, I can’t however turn down the chance to sign current FLB Light Heavyweight Champion Affonso Villar. At 23-2 the time is right for him to move on from FLB and I think he can be a monster in my Light Heavyweight Division. He immediately jumps to #1 in my rankings but he’ll have to gain a bit of popularity before getting a title shot.

Joaquim Fontes (22-3) is my final signing for the month. The Brazillian Middleweight has only fought once for FLB and I think I could make better use of him. He has great takedowns and submissions and at 28 he is in his prime.

WEFF

WEFF 11 sees Jennie Gill go 6-1 to win the Heavyweight Title from Grace Hughes in her first defence. Gill has a good in game record of 4-1. Gill has great physical skills and reasonable striking and could be tough to beat. Elsewhere on the card Sandy Oliver (8-1) beats Vanessa Phillips (3-2) by submission in the fight of the night. Ex Champ Oliver must be one of the top contenders looking to get a shot against the new champion.

The event pulls a crowd of 435 and scores a decent critical rating and a good commercial rating.

SIGMA

SIGMA hold Van Der Capellen vs. Crumb this month, the headline bout is naturally Noach Van Der Capellen v Templeton Crumb for the Welterweight Title. Van Der Capellen wins by KO by at 0:26 of round 3 in a decent fight. Other notable fights on the card see Dominykas Jankovic beat Viacheslav Chalipan (6-3) by submission in the co-main event. Whilst Chalipan is an odd choice to co-main event the fight serves its purpose boosting Jankovic to 3rd in SIGMA’s Welterweight Rankings. Also dangerous ground and pounder Matti Kurri (8-0-1) picks up a win over Dmytro Dargomyzhsky (20-8), this is Kurri’s first in game fight and Dargomyzhsky‘s last as he retires straight after, I‘m glad I won‘t be typing that name again. The event attracts a crowd of 511 and is rated as good by the critics and is a great commercial success.

FLB

FLB14: Heavy Duty sees Charles Stiles (16-2) challenge Manuel Silva (15-0) for his Welterweight Title, Stiles wins via submission in the 4th round to take the title and end Silva’s unbeaten streak. Elsewhere on the card Vitor de Melo goes 10-1 with a TKO win over Helton Ancient (17-8) in a fantastic fight and with 3 fights rated great (including the co-main event of Elgar (27-8) v Robert Aldez (42-12) this is one of the best shows FLB have put on. The critics agree rating it great and it is also a great commercial success.

Economy

Great new for UCFF as the African Economy shows signs of a surprise turn around.

Retirements

Wade LeCavalier (27-13) retires, he has 3 in win games all at local shows and at 40 he has probably decided that he won’t get another shot at the big time

Sue Eccleston (5-0) retires at 32 after 3 wins on the Canadian circuit. It’s a shame she didn’t stick around as there was a good chance WEFF may have come calling if she had carried on racking up those wins

Viv Yoman (5-2) retires at 36 after 1 win on the local circuit

Indriyanto Styo Nuhroho (23-19-5) retires, the bendiest man in MMA he hasn't found a job since KDM FC went bust and he calls it a day with a win on the Asian local circuit.

Yee Ysuji (23-17-3) is another fighter who lost his ob when KDM FC went bust and again he hasn't been able to find a job since, he also calls it a day after a win on the same show as Nuhroho.

Dmytro Dargomyzhsky (20-8) the SIGMA fighter calls it a day after a loss to Matti Kurri.

Dokuohtei Kuroki (35-14) retires at 43, he goes out with his head held high with a win against Heath Kaladaris.

Debuts

Iku Miyazaki is a Japanse female competitor with a Karate background

Craig Hulme is a male model turned pro fighter he will be fighting at Welterweight

WCW Mark · March 3, 2011

GAMMA 17: Sampson v Hughes Announced

My next event is GAMMA 17 and it sees Gary Sampson (19-5) face Raul Hughes (16-3) to determine who gets the next shot at the Heavyweight Title. I certainly never meant for for Sampson to be in this position but with he just kept on winning. So far he has beaten Duke Aiona, Wilson Franklyn and John Rivero to earn this shot. This is his toughest fight yet as he faces expert boxer Raul Hughes. Hughes has bounced back from a loss against current champion Jeff Carlton with wins against Christopher Sharp and Khru Duangjan.

The Co-Main event sees Yevgeni Sipatov (30-8) face Jack Humphreys (23-8) in the Welterweight Division. Both are low national popularity and both are coming off wins. Ex-Champ Sipatov picked up fall of the year in 1997 but at 32 he still has time to make a comeback while Humphreys is currently better known for his mouth than his achievements. While the winner here will still be some distance from the title it will be a good step towards success.

Yoshiro Makamori (13-0) v Moss Gilbert (8-0) - Lightweight

Two unbeaten fighters clash in the Lightweight Division. Makamori impressed in his GAMMA debut with a win over Duane Weatherly which was rated as fantastic. Gilbert is the more popular fighter in the states and with 3 in game wins he is on a roll, this however is his toughest fight to date.

Bobby Brubakker (11-4) v Joe Hinchcliffe (21-12) - Welterweight

Hinchcliffe makes his GAMMA debut against Bobby Brubaker, this fight will see Kick Boxing v Taekwondo and I expect an exciting stand up contest.

Thomas Smith (12-2) v Mac Fuller (33-10) - Middleweight

Both fighters are coming off a win, veteran Fuller is rated as Low National popularity and a win here for Smith would really be a boost for Smith. Smith will be looking for the takedown but will have to watch for Fuller's fists as he closes in.

Leon Banks (32-11) v Khru Duanjan (13-2) - Heavyweight

Two stand up strikers should hopefully make for an exciting start to the show. Whoever wins here will see their Heavyweight career reinvigorated while the loser will likely drop to Light Heavyweight.

Prelims

Ethan Sutton (7-0) v Drew Jenks (7-1) - Middleweight

Both fighters are on winning streaks after winning their debut fights on the prelims last time out and at mid regional popularity this could actually have featured on the undercard. The winner will defintiely feature on the main card next time round.

Tyson Rechslater (4-2) v Dana Delaney (9-4) - Welterweight

Rechslater moves back to his preffered weight after losing his debut fight against Tarsico Dantas. Delaney is coming off two losses so both fighters really need a win here or they may be looking at the unemployment line.

Iasiah Monroe (4-0) v Keith Place (12-7) - Middleweight

Monroe makes his debut and given that Place has yet to win in 3 fights I fully expect Monroe to win this to boost his popularity and Place will be shown the door if he loses.

Ricky Heath (13-7) v Petey Barnum (22-15) - Light Heavyweight

Both fighters are on losing streaks, Barnum has at least managed to pick up a win at some point and that might save him if he loses. If Heath loses he is definitely gone and that should be all the incentive he needs.

Tora Mizwar (19-6) v Woody Fierstein (10-4) - Middleweight

Mizwar makes his GAMMA debut, he is unknown in the states and faces Woody Fierstein who already has two losses. He is mid regional popularity which might save him if he picks up a third but probably only so I can job him out to someone else.

Marcos Maciel (7-0) v Pete Shilton (7-2) - Light Heavyweight

This is Maciel's third fight in GAMMA but he still hasn't risen above low regional popularity, Shilton is making his debut and whilst he has a good chin I don't expect him to stand up to the offence of Maciel. Another win should boost his popularity a bit and may see him make the main card next time out.

Another card slightly lacking in name fights but another one which sees several debuts and a few other fights which should build for the future. I'm pinning a lot on the main event as the co-main event might not be the most exciting fight ever. I also think that in terms of winners and losers this card may prove to be predictable as quite a few of the matches are one sided, I could be completely wrong of course, my predictions so you can judge how well I know my fighters are:

Gary Sampson v Raul Hughes

Yevgeni Sipatov v Jack Humphreys

Yoshiro Makamori v Moss Gilbert

Bobby Brubaker v Joe Hinchcliffe

Thomas Smith v Mac Fuller

Leon Banks v Khru Duangjan

Pre-lims

Ethan Sutton v Drew Jenks

Tyson Rechslater v Dana Delaney

Isaiah Monroe v Keith Plaice

Ricky Heath v Petey Barnum

Tora Mizwar v Woody Fierstein

Marcos Maciel v Pete Shilton

As always predictions and comments welcome, the prediction card is below.

Gary Sampson v Raul Hughes

Yevgeni Sipatov v Jack Humphreys

Yoshiro Makamori v Moss Gilbert

Bobby Brubaker v Joe Hinchcliffe

Thomas Smith v Mac Fuller

Leon Banks v Khru Duangjan

Pre-lims

Ethan Sutton v Drew Jenks

Tyson Rechslater v Dana Delaney

Isaiah Monroe v Keith Plaice

Ricky Heath v Petey Barnum

Tora Mizwar v Woody Fierstein

Marcos Maciel v Pete Shilton

batsnumbereleven · March 4, 2011

Main Card

Gary Sampson v Raul Hughes

It's pretty unbelievable that Sampson has made it as far as a Title Eliminator, but with Hughes as his opponent this is as far as he is getting. I can't see Hughes being troubled at all here.

Yevgeni Sipatov v Jack Humphreys

This is a difficult one to pick, as both men are past their prime and both are just that slight bit below the Championship level, yet on their day both can be great performers and could be a good off-month challenger. I'm going with Humphreys here as although Sipatov has more still to give, I just don't think he quite has Humphreys' class.

Yoshiro Makamori v Moss Gilbert

Another difficult fight to call. Makamori's debut win doesn't inspire huge confidence, as the "Cleveland Stormer" is a much stiffer test. Gilbert lacks the skills to beat the best though, and I'm guessing that after three straight wins, he'll struggle against the Japanese import.

Bobby Brubaker v Joe Hinchcliffe

Brubaker has some decent potential and this is a tough fight for Hinchcliffe on his debut. I would not expect the latter to have a significant impact on the division, and his stay in GAMMA might be limited after he loses here.

Thomas Smith v Mac Fuller

While Fuller can be a decent test on his day, he ought not to cause Smith too much trouble here. Smith can progress well up the Middleweight ranks even if he never becomes champion, and that should start with a god win over a well-regarded opponent here.

Leon Banks v Khru Duangjan

Banks is very much a makeweight in this division, and if Duangjan is going to make waves he needs to get a decisive victory here. He should do so because he has the tools to get Banks knocked out.

Pre-lims

Ethan Sutton v Drew Jenks

Sutton should win handily despite Jenks' streak. He's due an appearance on the main card against a more difficult opponent. Jenks should hang around to see if he's got anything worth keeping.

Tyson Rechslater v Dana Delaney

Rechslatter has been underwhelming so far, and Delaney is as inconsistent as they come, making this one a difficult call. I'll say that Delaney pulls this one out, as he is a better fighter when he bothers to turn up.

Isaiah Monroe v Keith Plaice

Monroe has the potential for great things, so this is little more than a warm-up bout for him to get acclimatised to the cage and the audience acclimatised to him. It would be a huge shock for "Thump" to lose here.

Ricky Heath v Petey Barnum

Neither of these guys are likely to feature on the radar for GAMMA at anything more than preliminary level. Heath has shown flashes of talent, but that may not be enought to save his job.

Tora Mizwar v Woody Fierstein

Tricky bout first up for Mizwar, despite Fierstein being on a bad run. Would be a shame to seethe latter go, and I'm thinking he might pick up a surprise victory here against "The Bull".

Marcos Maciel v Pete Shilton

Another debutant to lose here and Maciel to retain his unbeaten record. In this case, more down to Shilton's shortcomings than any great faith that Maciel has a great future.

WCW Mark · March 8, 2011

Hi guys, just to let you know that my laptop died Friday, it's currently being looked at and will hopefuly be fixed as it is still under guarantee but I don't know if my saved games will be on it, depends what they have to replace I guess. So this dynasty is definitely going on hiatus and may be coming to a premature end. I'll keep you posted.

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