BCF: A New Day Dawns

Chris2K · December 10, 2014

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Friday, Week 3 of December 2000

CHARLIE KNIGHT ARRESTED IN EMBEZZLEMENT CASE

The C.E.O. of the British Cage Fighting (BCF) mixed martial arts organisation Charlie Knight, 31, has been arrested after a police investigation into a series of financial irregularities in the company's accounts. The investigation was originally started by BCF owner and Knight's long time friend Jerome T McCallum after bank accounts were shown to have been raided by up to as much as $10,000 a month throughout the calendar year.

Although neither Knight or McCallum have made a comment about the arrest as yet it is thought that Knight had tallied up some significant gambling debts over the last two years and was looking to appease his creditors by using the company's money to cover his losses.

Knight was not only the C.E.O (more commonly known in the MMA community as the "match maker") for the mixed martial organisation but was also the company's ringside commentator, both of these positions will need to be filled before the BCF can continue operating. At this moment the company has cancelled all scheduled shows in January of next year with the hope of being able to return to their schedule of shows in February with all the necessary pieces in place.

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Wednesday, Week 4 of December 2000

BRITISH CAGE FIGHTING BREAK SILENCE ON KNIGHT ARREST

British Cage Fighting have finally issued a statement four days after the arrest of their now former C.E.O. and commentator Charlie Knight. It was BCF owner Jerome T McCallum himself that issued a statement to the press:

"At this difficult time I would like to thank the BCF fighters and BCF fans for their patience as we come to terms with what can only be described as the betrayal of our former C.E.O. Charlie Knight. Mr. Knight was a close friend of mine but his actions over the past year are nothing short of disgusting, and whilst I'm sure Mr. Knight had his reasons for his desperate act of stealing the money, the lies, the covering up, and of course the theft itself has left us with no alternative but to pursue all avenues of legal action against Mr. Knight as well as terminating his contract as both C.E.O. and from his on-screen commentary position. We will be assisting the Metropolitan Police in all enquiries and hope that justice will be done once the investigation has concluded.

Due to the fast-paced world we live in we have little time to sit back and wait for the dust to settle, we have to act fast and make decisions that will keep this company rolling after such a successful start to the 21st century. With that in mind we have made moves to replace Mr. Knight in all the areas that his termination leaves open. Firstly we are proud to announce that respected MMA journalist Chris Dewing, someone who has covered the BCF's rise over the past three years and has been a driving force in helping us gain acceptance with the British population, has agreed to take up the position of C.E.O. covering both match making and developing the company's popularity and financial stability. Mr. Dewing will be given the help he needs to acclimatise to his new role and will start in this position on the first day of 2001. We would like to thank the London Daily News for their understanding in allowing Mr. Dewing to join our company at such short notice and we look forward to working together with them in the future as the BCF's official media outlet.

We have decided to bring in two new commentators to accompany Burt West in covering our shows. The first is Geoff Thomas-Gray, Geoff has been very impressive in broadcasting some local British MMA shows and has both experience in broadcasting and a huge knowledge of local fighters. We are also very proud to welcome perhaps Britain's most well-known fighter to the BCF, however his contribution will be outside the cage instead of inside. Wigan's favourite son Jim Carpenter will join the BCF broadcast team to share his vast experience of 62 professional fights, many of them in large pay-per-view events in the GAMMA organisation. Despite not having any broadcasting experience Carpenter is someone who's passion and knowledge of MMA will bring a whole new dimension to the experience of BCF fans watching us on PPV or on UK Broadcasting Digital.

In closing I would again like to thank the fans and fighters for their patience as we deal with this most delicate of situations. As has been reported by various media outlets we have had to cancel our scheduled show in January, however the fighters have been recompensed for this and all scheduled fights from that card will be pushed back to a later date. We hope that the new additions to the BCF will bring forward a new era to the company, an era where we can hopefully prove ourselves as an MMA organisation worthy of challenging the current leaders of the industry. All of us here at the BCF wish everyone a Merry Christmas and invite you to join us on our journey in 2001."

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Sunday, Week 4 of December

BCF Head Office, London

Jerome T (Tim) McCallum

Chris Dewing

"Hello Chris. Thank you again for accepting our offer to join the BCF."

"It's my pleasure Mr. McCallum, thank you for the opportunity."

"No need for the formalities Chris, we've known each other for years, you can call me Tim. Now there's a few things I need to confirm with you, as discussed at our initial meeting I will be away from the company for some time as the police investigation continues. I need you to understand that, whilst I will be leaving you in charge, I will require constant updates on the progress of the company."

"I understand. And I can promise you Mr.... Tim, that what happened with Charlie will not be repeated. I can understand if you have a hard time trusting people right now after what he did, but my love is MMA, not money. I want to make the BCF the strongest force in MMA no matter what it takes..."

"I know you do, but we have bills to pay, fighters to keep happy and contracts to honour. The financial security of this company is more important than anything else right now as we have to earn back the trust of our sponsors. I need detailed reports of all expenditure and of course the money we make. We can't take the risk of splashing out on trying to get in top stars from GAMMA and ALPHA-1, we're not fighting them right now, just leave them alone until we're in a stronger position."

"What about Carpenter? I'm sure he's not moving his family over from the USA without a significant financial incentive.."

"Jim's going to be getting paid more money than most of the guys on our roster. Just don't tell the guys that. We need Jim to bring some much needed credibility to our broadcasts and his name value alone could help bring in new viewers. He's worth the money, believe me."

"OK, fair enough. We're going to have some competition for our big names though, Curt Kitson, Carter Potter, Will Kane, GAMMA and ALPHA-1 are probably looking at this as an opportunity for a smash and grab to get hold of them whilst all this upheavel is happening."

"Well that's going to be your first task. Try and get the bigger guys under exclusive contracts as quickly as possible, if they don't want to sign exclusivity then we're going to have to be prepared to lose them. We can't afford to be matching big offers from the bigger companies right now, we have to make sure our books balance, the bank is watching us like a hawk."

"Understood. I did have a plan though... We need to use Best of British to our advantage. PPVs are only going to bring us money if we have the star power to get people to buy the shows, Best of British is by far the best way of making new stars. I want to get the show on SportTube to get our fighters showcased around the world, and I want us to get on to a proper television network as soon as possible."

"These are all perfectly good ideas Chris but we have to do things by the book. Take baby steps if you have to, we can aim big but we have to play it safe in getting there."

"OK Tim, leave it to me."

"Oh, just one more thing. I want you to raid SIGMA. I want you to take their top talent and make them our top talent. Charlie wasn't a gambler, he's the tightest guy I know, I don't think he's bought a round of drinks in his life. I would bet my house that someone at SIGMA paid Charlie off or even threatened him to take our money and discredit our company, I don't know how they got to him but they've got powerful and dangerous connections. I'm not playing their dirty games, I want to beat them fair and square, and their talent don't have exclusive contracts either. Get them. Get Soldo, get Kanchelskis, get Ivanov, get everyone who's worth a damn in that company. I hear they've got some American guy in charge now so strike while they're re-organising themselves. I want the BCF to succeed and if we can do that whilst crippling those German bastards in the process then I'll be the happiest man on the planet. We got a deal?"

"Um.. yeah, sure. I'll get right on that. I've got to say, I'm a little confused though. How am I going to lure them here without spending money?"

"That's what you've got to work out. This job ain't easy Chris, you know that, you're in the position now to make this company great but everything in life has restrictions. Just offer them something that SIGMA can't, I'm sure you'll think of something. Just make sure you do it quickly and hopefully we can get in before GAMMA and ALPHA-1."

"Right, sure, OK. Sorry, I'm a little taken back by what you said about SIGMA. I never realised they were so dangerous. I might have something up my sleeve though, but I'll let you know the details when I've thought it through a bit more."

"Gotcha. Take it easy tonight Chris, a new day is coming, and I believe you're the man who can take this company to the heights of the World of Mixed Martial Arts 4."

"... What do you mean, "4"?"

"Ignore that. Good luck Chris, and see you tomorrow."

Chris2K · December 12, 2014

BRITISH CAGE FIGHTING ROSTER AND RANKINGS

(As of Monday, Week 1 of January 2001)

HEAVYWEIGHT

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Champion: CARTER POTTER (19-4)

2. Stafford Alois (28-9)

3. Harry Milne (43-8)

4. Percy Catcher (11-3)

5. Vic Millican (19-5)

6. Dave Lennon (15-6)

7. Perry Barr (15-6)

8. Eddie Whelan (14-4)

9. Mark Bicknell (10-3)

10. Fritz Phipps (7-1)

11. Michael Bannon (8-5)

12. Reynolds Baer (7-1)

13. Linton Renn (8-2)

14. Christopher Drew (6-0)

15. Howard Pursglove (13-8)

16. Ozzy Bintley (4-0)

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LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT

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Champion: Curt Kitson (13-0)

2. Lenny McFadden (12-1)

3. Garry McSweegan (23-8)

4. George Laurent (39-12)

5. Adrian Majoram (9-1)

6. Daniel Hornsby (13-4)

7. Perry Barr (15-6)

8. Tikhon Diev (9-0)

9. Michael Bennon (8-5)

10. Murray O'Hare (6-2)

11. Mick Curran (15-9)

12. Neville Granville (6-0)

13. Danny Akabaro (7-0)

14. Matthew Michael Kirby (6-0)

15. Crow Leddy (6-1)

16. Conor Houghton (7-7)

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MIDDLEWEIGHT

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Champion: Davis Spyrou (20-5)

2. Rob Baines (31-11)

3. Ram Phookan (11-4)

4. Andrew Rush (18-8)

5. Hans-Peter Schneider (16-7)

6. Henning Olsen (16-7)

7. Tucker Plumm (17-9)

8. Ginger Beaumont (7-0)

9. Wayne McKellen (7-3)

10. Snuffy Fontana (7-0)

11. Augustus Shorrock (7-1)

12. Danny Akabaro (7-0)

13. Rhys Buck (6-0)

14. Edgar van den Hoogenband (5-0)

15. Heath Kaladaris (5-0)

16. Robin Catskill (2-0)

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WELTERWEIGHT

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Champion: Will Kane (18-3)

2. Vikram Sithalayan (18-3)

3. David Webb (17-5)

4. Mills Mullally (18-5)

5. Doug Hansen (18-5)

6. Robert Darrell (14-5)

7. Martin Cupples (10-0)

8. Mikey Wallace (8-1)

9. Gordon Idle (10-4)

10. Buzzy Tuttle (9-2)

11. Timothy Latchkey (8-1)

12. Steven Griffin (15-8)

13. Iain Fussell (7-2)

14. Caragh Green (5-1)

15. Bret Clement (6-3)

16. Malloy Mahoney (6-0)

17. Scott Gillespie (5-2)

18. Grant Kyle (4-3)

19. Jerome Atkins (1-0)

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LIGHTWEIGHT

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Champion: Seth O'Breen (16-1)

2. Doug Hansen (18-5)

3. Gordon Idle (10-4)

4. Jochen Bellof (8-2)

5. George Astaire (11-6)

6. Mal Beswick (7-1)

7. Keith Jolly (6-1)

8. Dominick Oppenheimer (6-)

9. Gregory O'Hara (8-0)

10. Olafur Petursson (5-2)

11. Rupert Lennox (7-0)

12. Sid Morgan (7-0)

13. Tim Oldacres (7-0)

14. Gerrard Kneeling (6-0)

15. Jeremy Spoule (6-4)

16. Dom Yorke (5-2)

17. Ignatius Hepfinger (9-8)

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Cyclops · December 12, 2014

Very nice start! I always love dynasty's that delve into the actual conversations and motives of the characters involved. That being said, I'm eagerly anticipating the new signings and announcement of the first card. Good luck!

Chris2K · December 13, 2014

BCF Head Office

London, England

Jerome "Tim" McCallum

Chris Dewing

"Chris, come on in, I've been looking forward to this."

"Hey Tim, it's been a busy week."

"I'm sure it has mate, I'm sure it has. Sorry I've not been able to be in the office, it's been a bit hectic over at the Lane."

"Yeah I heard you're getting more involved at United..."

"Don't worry, I'm not ignoring the BCF, it's just I'm not really allowed to do much while the police are investigating. Speaking of the police, what's our financial situation looking like?"

"Well we've lost $13,575 this week."

"... Wait, how? How have we lost 13 grand when we've not even run a show?"

"Well like I say, I've been busy. SIGMA didn't know what hit them."

"Really? REALLY?! Tell me more Chris, tell me more!"

"I got in contact with all the big names at SIGMA and I've got hold of Fjodor Kanchelskis, Niko Soldo, Fiyero Lermontov, Lefter Oktay and Kenneth Toadspew. So... all their champions in the weight classes we have. We have a legal contract with them and they will be joining the BCF in the coming months."

"ALL OF THEM?! That's amazing. Amazing work."

"That's not all. We've also secured the service Aleksei Chkov, Valentin Taneyev, Nicolai Mickiewicz, Thorbjorn Rekdal, Stian Agdestein, Evgeni Medtner, Dominykas Jankovic, Matti Kurri, Aleksander Ivanov, Templeton Crumb, Georges Nouri, Lubos Plasil, Lukas Mellberg and Roope Kuqi. Oh, and Jesse Singh and Ollie Castle, but they're not from SIGMA."

"Wait, wait, wait... that's... You've signed how many people?!"

"Um... well, 21 people. So far."

"So far?! SO FAR? Are you MAD?! Don't you remember what I told you about taking it easy on signing fighters?"

"Yes, I do. I also remember you telling me to raid SIGMA and take away their talent because of some personal vendetta."

"Oi, don't turn this around on me! I told you to get SIGMA but I didn't say to do it in a week! Do you have any idea how much this is going to cost us?"

"... It cost us $13,575. That's what the expenditure from this week is. I signed them to contracts with lower signing fees but higher fight pay and bonus structures. It means we won't make as much of a profit from the shows but we'll still make a profit, plus we kept got them away from SIGMA."

"*sigh"... I don't like this. This worries me a lot, what are we going to do with all these extra fighters?"

"I want to run more shows. I've signed the deal with SportsTube so we can get some exposure all around the world. We can run a TV show and a PPV every month, the TV show to bring exposure and the PPV to make the money. When I've not been signing contracts I've been doing research; the audience is there. The British fans want more MMA and I would much rather they watched our product than GAMMA or ALPHA-1. Our shows will have some of the world's best fighters, our PPVs will have the biggest names in our company and we'll get the traction we need to forge ahead. More importantly, if we can keep our schedule ahead of SIGMA's then we can get the drop on them in booking talent."

".... You had better be right about this. I took a punt on hiring you and I'm already starting to have doubts. This is a big change, a dangerous change, and one that could come back to bite us. Not only are we sharing guys with with those arseholes at SIGMA but if we over-saturate the market we could quite easily turn the fans off. Anyway we're running out of time here, you got anything else you want to share?"

"Yes I do, unfortunately it's not all been good news this week. We've had offers for some our fighters, the biggest of which is Stafford Alois. I've offered him a renegotiation and he suggested he was leaning towards us, we've also had offers made to Tikhon Diev, Henning Olsen and Edgar van den Hoogenband."

"This from GAMMA or ALPHA-1?"

"Neither. It's SIGMA, they're fighting back. They're trying to steal our guys but hopefully I can convince them that the BCF is the place to stay. That's not to say that the big two aren't getting involved in our business though, GAMMA have made an offer for Luis Basora and ALPHA-1 have gone after Grzegorz Boniek. I'm not sure we can compete with what they're offering those guys."

"Don't push it too hard, if they leave SIGMA that's a start at least. What have you got on tap for our first show?"

"Um... that's... that's a good question..."

"You have booked a show, right? Tell me you've booked a show for February?"

"It's going to be my next thing to do, I promise."

"It better be, we're paying for a bloody marketing department and right now they've got nothing to promote. Right, I'm off now. We're going to have to have another meeting soon because I'm still worried about where you're taking us. Just remember, it's not your money on the line here. The sooner we get up and running again the sooner we can get past this ugly mess with Charlie."

"It'll be done. I promise."

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THE WEEK IN MMA

Week 1 January 2001

The new year has brought out the money from every company in the world as they start planning for the year ahead by boosting their rosters. GAMMA's biggest signing of the first week was SIGMA's Lightweight stand out Luis Basora, the Spaniard turned down the chance to join several of his colleagues by moving to Britain and instead headed to the brighter lights and bigger paychecks of America. Another signing was Brazilian Middleweight Elgar, a veteran of 35 fights and already 36 years old this seems a pretty strange signing when FLB have far better talent to poach. GAMMA have also brought in some of the most talented fighters Northern American independent scene, the main ones being Sylvester Collins, Steve Mason, Delroy Rhodes and Toby Sorkin.

Over in the Eastern hemisphere ALPHA-1 haven't made as many signings as their main rivals but have brought in two names which will get people talking. Jonathan Huang, possibl the greatest jiu jitsu competitor of all time, finally signs with a major MMA organisation to compete in ALPHA-1's Middleweight division, Huang already has a 7-0 record to his name although this will be a big step up in competition. A potential opponent for Huang would be ALPHA-1's other major signing, Fernando Amaro is another fighter who turned down a move to the BCF to join the big time. The Spanish Middleweight is a former SIGMA champion but at 35 this may be his last chance at a shot at the big time.

Perhaps the biggest news however was that ALPHA-1 have signed a new broadcasting agreement with J-Network East so they will be able to showcase their talent on the biggest network in Japan and Asia. It's a huge deal which gives ALPHA-1 a big advantage over GAMMA and could possibly be a real difference maker in the long-standing rivalry between the two organisations.

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THE WEEKS IN MMA

Weeks 2 & 3 January 2001

After the dramatic start to the year the news has really dried up, perhaps the biggest story that could end up worth following is that BCF and SIGMA seem to have started sharing talent. However it is believed that there is no working agreement between the two organisations, in fact there are rumours of some deep-seated tensions between the two European MMA companies, and these fighters are signed between both companies more because each are trying to one-up the other. SIGMA have got hold of Stafford Alois, perhaps the BCF's biggest name, as well as other fighters such as Tikhon Diev and Henning Olsen, whilst the BCF have signed up as many of SIGMA's top fighters as possible to fight in their five weight classes including all the SIGMA champions.

The real shot was fired when the BCF revealed that they had scheduled six, yes, SIX shows for the next three months. On those cards feature the SIGMA fighters that they have signed with title matches on five of them (however none of those title matches include SIGMA fighters so no title vs. title matches). It's a sign that the BCF aren't playing around here, they're fully intent on making sure that SIGMA can't use their top talent other than the Featherweights, a division which the BCF don't have, well not yet anyway.

Outside of Europe there have been a couple of other signings, ALPHA-1 have signed Grzegorz Boniek from SIGMA, another veteran looking for a shot at the big time, whilst GAMMA have brought in highly rated Alex Cole. There was also a bidding war for Chuck Dooley, a hugely powerful Heavyweight, and surprisingly it was ALPHA-1 who secured his services even though Dooley is based in North America.

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BRITISH CAGE FIGHTING ANNOUNCE SCHEDULE FOR THE NEXT THREE MONTHS

In an unprecedented move British Cage Fighting have made the the decision to reveal details of their next three months of action in one press release, they also plan to run six shows in that time, far more events than any other MMA organisation will be running before the end of April.

The BCF will be running a monthly internet-based show, Best of British, on the third Saturday of February, March and April, that will be followed a week later by a PPV event which will be extensively hyped throughout the preceding week's Best of British show. Best of British will be broadcast live on UK Broadcasting Digital and will also available on SportTube around the world on a slight delay, whilst United Kingdom Choice will be broadcasting the PPV events at a cost of $9.99.

"Our goal is to bring more MMA to the BCF fans and in doing so bring the BCF brand to a worldwide audience thanks to our new partnership with SportTube." said new BCF CEO Chris Dewing in part of the press release, "Obviously the last two months have seen the BCF go through some significant changes and it has been at the cost of not being able to run any shows during that time, now we have the opportunity to move forward and in doing so we are going to make sure that the BCF becomes known for being the most active and fan-friendly MMA organisation in the world."

What is not so friendly is the rivalry brewing between BCF and SIGMA as the British company have contracted a significant number of SIGMA-based fighters to appear on these shows. It is thought that these shows may have been booked so far in advance to tie the SIGMA fighters down to contracts to fight in the BCF before SIGMA had a chance to book fights of their own. We have run down the expected cards (all of course subject to change) below including details of the SIGMA champions fighting in undercard fights for the BCF.

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BEST OF BRITISH 3: O'BREEN vs. OLDACRES

The first show of BCF's schedule will feature a Lightweight title match between champion Seth O'Breen and undefeated challenger Tim Oldacres. O'Breen has taken over the mantle of former BCF Lightweight champion Jake Keane as the dominant fighter in the Lightweight division whilst Oldacres has not had much action against top level fighters. This show will also feature Thorbjorn Rekdal and Daniel Hornsby, as well as young undefeated fighters Matthew Michael Kirby, Ozzy Bintley and Stian Agdestein.

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BCF: POTTER vs. ALOIS

The February PPV will be headlined by Carter Potter defending his BCF Heavyweight title against Stafford Alois in what might be the biggest money match available to the BCF at this time. Alois holds a victory over Potter and is the company's most popular star, Potter on the other hand has made his way into becoming the Heavyweight champion but this will be his toughest test so far. The show will also feature SIGMA Lightweight champion Fiyero Lermontov, Vikram Sithalayan, Valentin Taneyev and Heath Kaladaris.

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BEST OF BRITISH 4: SPYROU vs. BEAUMONT

A surprising challenger for the BCF Middleweight title, Ginger Beaumont is undefeated with five victories in his time at the BCF, however he has got the nod here over the more experienced and more popular Rob Baines and the SIGMA champion Fjodor Kanchelskis. A whole heap of SIGMA talent will be fighting in Aleksander Ivanov, Alkeksei Chekhov, Evgeni Medtner and Lubos Plasil.

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BCF: KITSON vs. DIEV

Curt Kitson may be the best pound-for-pound fighter in the BCF and he will be making yet another title defence here, Tikhon Diev is undefeated like Kitson but may be a little out of his depth in this contest. There are a lot of people wondering why Diev has got the shot and not Niko Soldo or another strong SIGMA fighter. Two SIGMA champions are on this card, SIGMA Heavyweight champion Lefter Oktay and Welterweight champion Kenneth Toadspew to be exact, as well as Lukas Mellberg and Rob Baines.

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BEST OF BRITISH 5: KANE vs. CUPPLES

Martin Cupples is another undefeated fighter getting his title shot here, Will Kane has been on quite a run with wins over David Webb and Vikram Sithalayan and I would think he should be OK against Cupples. SIGMA Light Heavyweight champion Niko Soldo is booked for this show along with Middleweight champion Fjodor Kanchelskis, Georges Nouri and Roope Kuqi are also on the card.

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BCF: HANSEN vs. O'HARA

This might be an indication that this expanded schedule may not be a

good thing, these guys are good fighters but I'm not sure there's going to be much excitement to buy a PPV with them headlining. Doug Hansen's a good talker so maybe they're relying on him to build some interest. There's not much star power on the rest of the card either, Nikolai Mickiewicz and Dominykas Jankovic are the only SIGMA fighters with Christopher Drew and Mark Bicknell being given the co-Main Event slot.

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Chris2K · December 15, 2014

Wednesday, Week 4 of January 2001

Phone Conversation

SIGMA Owner DL Freeman

Chris Dewing

"Hello?"

"Is this Chris Dewing?"

"... Who is asking?"

"Mr. Dewing, my name is DL Freeman and I am the owner of Signature Martial Arts. It has come to my attention that you are the new CEO of British Cage Fighting and it seems your first piece of business is to make things as difficult as possible for the fans of SIGMA."

"Good evening Mr. Freeman. How are you?"

"Please dispense with the pleasantries Mr. Dewing this is not a social call. We have seen the schedule you have created for the BCF and we have seen that you are using SIGMA fighters on your cards, our champions none the less. These actions are inexcusable."

"These actions are perfectly legitimate Mr. Freeman, the fighters that we have signed were not under any exclusive contracts with SIGMA or any other MMA company, we had every right to approach them and offer them a schedule with more regular fights which will allow them to earn a much better living."

"I do not understand your course of action Mr. Dewing, perhaps you are jealous of our success? Perhaps you are frustrated that we are considered a better promotion than yourselves? In reality I would not be surprised that your decisions are being made to placate that scumbag of a boss of yours Jerome McCallum. His personal vendetta against SIGMA has been well known for years and I am disappointed that he seems to have taken another willing but misguided disciple under his wing. The man is a fool, he does not know what he is getting into with this pointless crusade."

"Mr. Freeman my job is to be the CEO of BCF, and as part of that job my responsibility is to bring the best fighters at my disposal to the UK for the fans of my company. Is there an element of competition between our two promotions? Yes, there is. We are both fighting to try and keep our best talent from going to the GAMMAs and ALPHA-1s of this world and the only way we can do so is by proving to those fighters that we are companies that can provide them with a regular income which allows them to train full time without the need for working elsewhere to pay their training bills. This is a ruthless business and I am sorry if you feel like anything we have done is immoral or under-handed, however what I have done is simply to give the BCF the best chance of being able to compete at the highest level. What I have done is my job."

"What you have done is to anger people who you should be working with, not against, in your attempts to rise in the MMA world. Your predocessor Charlie Knight realised that but it seems you do not. I am aware of your reputation as a journalist but it is obvious that MMA knowledge does not equate to business knowledge. As you know we have already targeted signing some of your fighters as a retaliatory measure, and we will continue to do so until this pathetic attempt at disrupting our company ceases. Make sure that you do not use our champions on your cards again or I promise you there will be repurcussions against both your company and you personally. I hope I will not need to call you about this matter again. Goodbye."

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E-MAIL CORRESPONDANCE

From: ChrisDewing@BCFighting.co.uk

To: JTMcCallum@BCFighting.co.uk

Subject: British Independent Show

Hey Tim,

Here's the scouting report of the independent show from Saturday, I've put together some comments on all the fights so if you get a chance I'd love to get your feedback on whether we should make an approach for anyone. I think I saw some SIGMA guys there tonight but I don't think they're going to be too concerned with British talent that we haven't put the effort into developing yet.

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Featherweight

Dallin Friedland (6-0) vs. Some Guy

Didn't catch his name. Didn't need it. Featherweight fight, Friedland knocked him out in just over 2 minutes with a big right. If we're going to move into a Featherweight division at least we know there's someone out there with some knockout power.

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Lightweight

Cyril Kamoze (6-0) vs. Brian Hirst (4-4)

Another quick finish, Kamoze knocked him loopy with a right and finished it with some powerful ground and pound after that. Kamoze is from Jamaica and it might be worth looking at him as someone who could bring in some of the strong Carribbean community in London. I've offered him a deal based off of this performance alone.

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Welterweight

Duncan Thistlewood (5-3) vs. Javid Khan (5-4)

Nothing fight. No real action at all, no big strikes, no takedowns, just occasional grappling and some fairly weak strikes. Khan just kept throwing a jab with nothing else behind it, Thistlewood at least landed a few decent strikes. Thistlewood won the decision but he's not good enough to come here yet.

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Lightweight

Ron Chuckle (6-2) vs. Nigel Collett (4-2)

Bit of a surprise here, Chukle was the favourite and controlled the fight by utilising his wrestling for the first two rounds, then in the beginning of the third he knocked Collett the funk out with a right hook to the jaw. Collett's a former amateur boxer so that's saying something, I think Chuckle's worth a shot even though I hate his moustache.

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Welterweight

Paddy McNamara (7-1) vs. Humbert Gest (5-5)

McNamara was a guy I was interested in watching but he didn't do a lot here to show he deserves a shot in the BCF. He got the win and it was a fairly entertaining fight, but he struggled his way to a split decision against a guy who's nowhere near good enough to be in the BCF. I'm going to hold off on McNamara for now until he proves himself a bit more.

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Light Heavyweight

Eoghan Behan (5-4) vs. Hardy Tristan (2-3)

I wasn't really interested in either guy befrorehand and I'm still not. Behan landed the only decent shot of the fight with a right hand that knocked Tristan down but couldn't do anything to finish the fight, he still got the unanimous decision win though.

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Middleweight

Richard Smith (21-17) vs. Paxton Brinkel (8-6)

Two veterans here, particularly Smith who seems to have been around since the start. Smith got the win after a pretty impressive hip toss and some brutal ground strikes, but at 38 I think it's best we concentrate on the younger guys for now. Could always bring him in if we need a late replacement.

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Featherweight

Liam O'Donnell (8-3) vs. Jay Dorridge (7-2)

I think if SIGMA are going to go for anyone it'll be Dorridge, he seems like he's got a lot of potential and if we do start a Featherweight division he should definitely be in it. He controlled the fight from the start before getting the submission with three seconds left in the fight. I appreciated him going for the finish even though he had the decision wrapped up.

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Super Heavyweight

Graham Goodbody (19-10) vs. Some Guy

Didn't get this guy's name and I doubt he can remember it either now. Goodbody knocked him out in 2 1/2 minutes with a brutal right. Goodbody could drop down to Heavyweight if he went on a brief diet but at 40 years old I'm not sure we can invest anything in him and I've heard that GAMMA and ALPHA-1 might want him for their Super Heavy divisions.

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Heavyweight

Kevin Portman (12-8) vs. Terry Bull (5-0)

I've seen Portman fight a lot but he looked fantastic here, knocked Bull down almost immediately and pummelled him into the mat until the referee stopped it. I think we should give Portman a chance, he might be 36 but even if he doesn't do well his fights are likely to be exciting.

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Lightweight

William Powell (11-8) vs. Roy Lynch (9-7)

Powell got the victory with an Arm Triangle to make a mockery of Lynch's "No Surrender" nickname. It was an entertaining fight but Powell's been with us before and didn't show a lot against tougher opposition, another win like this might change my mind though.

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Heavyweight

Phil Verdigree (22-16-1) vs. Bob Dozier (15-10)

Well this wasn't a fun way to end the evening. Two lumbering Heavyweights who spent most of the time on the ground doing nothing and it was five rounds of torture. I won't even bother going into detail, Dozier won but would get destroyed by most of our guys. Verdigree retired afterwards.

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THE WEEK IN MMA

Week 4 of January 2001

The big news of the week was the first major show of 2001 as ALPHA-1 had a Warriors of the Ring show. They went all out for ratings by putting on a Middleweight title match between Carlos da Guia and Mal Phe Roby, da Guia was just too strong for the challenger though and the power of the Brazilian's leg kicks were enough for the referee to stop the fight when Roby couldn't stand any more. Tadamasa Yamada defeated Sho Kitabatake in a highly anticipated Light Heavyweight match, it took less than five minutes for the Dragon to knock Kitabatake out with a big right hand. Also on the card Ari Peltonen grinded out a decisio win over fellow ranked Heavyweight Mason Archer, the Finnish fighter nearly stopped Archer in Round 2 but had to settle for a clear decision victory in the end. There were also main card victories for Robun Yamazaki and Tomoji Takaoka, whilst there were stand out wins for Gekko Goto, Tadao Miyazaki and Kadonomaro Deguchi on the preliminary card.

There was also a fairly big independent show in the USA with most of the top free agent fighters on show, incredibly there were seven knockouts on the main card with GAMMA-bound Alex Cole the most well known of the winners, undefeated Jerry Bogonovich also continued his winning run by KOing Tobias Goulet.

It seems that SportsTube is taking a real interest in MMA, or perhaps MMA is taking a real interest in SportsTube, as almost all the world's MMA companies seem to be taking advantage of the internet channel's service to get more eyes on their product. Right now there are 5 organisations (BCF, FLB, KDM FC, SIGMA and WEFF) which will be running internet shows on the channel with XCC likely to announce a similar deal soon, whilst GAMMA and ALPHA-1 will likely only be providing archive content rather than new shows. If you're an MMA fan now would be a good time to upgrade your modem's internet speed!

BCF have suffered their first injury blow of their packed schedule as an eye injury has forced Rhys Buck out of his fight with Thorbjorn Rekdal, his replacement is Danny Akabaro who puts his undefeated record on the line whilst also moving down to Middleweight from Light Heavyweight.

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THE WEEK IN MMA

Week 1 of February 2001

After ALPHA-1's 2001 debut last week it was time for GAMMA to get into the action this week, although they were running on PPV instead of television. The Middleweight division was also the focal point as Matthew Dean defended his title against Braulio Moura, Dean was able to dominate the fight to get the unanimous decision victory for his eighth title defence (3 x 50-45) however he was only able to score one takedown in the whole fight in the fourth round. Raul Hughes looked back to his best by knocking out Duke Aiona in exactly two minutes, whilst Tim Boyer also made it look easy by finishing Leon Banks in 124 seconds. Elsewhere there was a win for Josh Aldarisio in a very close fight with Rufus Stephens, Norman Pike tapped out Frank Sheedy, and Ashley Ballard won a split decision over Tora Mizwar.

The show itself was not without its setbacks, just three days before the show Anthony LeToussier injured his foot in training and had to pull out of his fight with Linfield Ballard, the fight itself was cancelled as nobody was willing to step up and face Ballard on that short notice. There was also a weigh in issue as John Rivero failed to make it down to 205, it's not the first time the Puerto Rican has failed to make weight so maybe a move back to Heavyweight would be a better idea.

Following their fights on the ALPHA-1 Warriors of the Ring show there were several new contracts offered to fighters coming to the end of their previous deals, signing on for several more fights are Mason Archer, Gekko Goto, Tadamasa Yamada, Carlos Da Guia, Mal Phe Roby and Davi Carlos Ramos.

Women's MMA lost one of its biggest stars as 34 year old Sarah Vaughan made the decision to retire from active competition, no official reason was given but it is thought Vaughan may have decided to pursue a family and a more sedate life. Vaughan was ranked as the #1 Pound for Pound female fighter in the world and was the WEFF Bantamweight champion, her retirement is going to leave a huge hole in the WEFF and in Women's MMA in general.

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BRITISH CAGE FIGHTING ANNOUNCE PLANS FOR FEATHERWEIGHT DIVISION

The amount of MMA news out of the UK this year continues to grow as British Cage Fighting have announced that they are expanding their company to include a sixth weight class. From May of 2001 the British company will be introducing a Featherweight division (145 pounds) to their roster with a multi-show tournament to be held to crown an inaugural BCF Featherweight champion.

"It makes complete sense for us to expand to a sixth weight class considering we are planning to run a much more active schedule in 2001" stated BCF CEO Chris Dewing in a press conference this morning, "the choice we had to make was whether to introduce a Super Heavyweight division to mirror GAMMA and ALPHA-1 or to go for the Featherweight division. We concluded that with so many British and European fighters being ranked highly in the Featherweight division that the 145 pounders was the way to go. There are no plans for us to bring in a Super Heavyweight division any time soon as we believe there simply isn't enough quality talent to stretch between three companies."

It is no coincidence that this brings the BCF's weight classes in line with the six weight classes that their main rivals SIGMA have, and it can be considered a safe bet that the BCF will be pursuing SIGMA's main Featherweight contenders to compete in this new division, as well as scouting for talent in the British independent scene. The subject of SIGMA was brought up to Dewing during the press conference and his answer could be taken as being quite defensive:

"A lot of people are telling me that we're at war with SIGMA, that we're trying to put them out of business, that we're stealing their talent in some kind of raid. From a personal perspective I don't care what SIGMA are doing, my job is to look after the BCF and to do what's best for business. It is well known that SIGMA, like ourselves, are not in a position to pay fighters extra to tie them down to exclusive contracts, that leaves them on the open market to fight for the company that they choose. It just so happens that we have scheduled our shows before SIGMA did and in doing so struck first to get the talent we wanted. If you're asking whether we will be "targeting" the SIGMA Featherweight division then I guess the answer is "yes", purely because we want the best fighters available to us to fight in our new division and anyone under contract to SIGMA can be considered part of that group. It will also give fighters such as Jason Dalglish and Manish Khan, if they choose to sign with us, an opportunity to fight in their home country for the first time in a long while and I'm sure the BCF fans will support their countrymen."

Dewing also explained how the first champion would be crowned in the new division.

"Again we had two options, a one night tournament which would have to be unregulated and left to the lottery of people getting injured or a multi-show tournament with the winner being crowned the first BCF Featherweight champion. We want to make sure we do things by the book and therefore will be running a 8 man tournament over multiple shows. We are hoping to have the 8 competitors in place by June of this year and, barring any issues, we should have a BCF Featherweight champion by the end of the year. We want to keep the tournament fights on the same shows where possible to make sure that the fighters get the same time between fights across the board."

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THE WEEK IN MMA

Week 2 of February 2001

Another big week for fights as it was SIGMA's turn to run their first show of the year, however the show itself was not broadcast on any media as the lack of star power meant that SIGMA didn't feel that putting the show on PPV was a worthwhile decision. Headlining the show was a SIGMA Featherweight bout between champion Snorri Gunnarsson and Jason Dalglish, we're told it was a fairly dull contest which Gunnarsson won comfortably, also in the Featherweight division Lars Bohlin scored a decision victory over Manish Khan, Marco Bernacci defeated Molovan Ajetovic and Colm Dee overcame Gerrit Dudok. The prelims were much more exciting with three KOs and a submission

ALPHA-1 have been busy bringing in new talent this week and have completely raided the upper ranks of Fight League Brazil in the process, the Japanese giants have exclusively signed three of FLB's champions leaving the Brazilian promotion in a state of disarray. Heading to ALPHA-1 will be Helio, former FLB Lightweight champion and a devastating striker with an 18-1 record, the undefeated Welterweight Manuel Silva who many believe could be one of the best of all time, and submission expert Joaquim Fontes who vacates his FLB Middleweight title. All three fighters are expected to make their debuts with ALPHA-1 in the coming months.

GAMMA have also been signing some deals although the majority of their contracts were extensions for fighters they already have, Middleweight kingpin Matthew Dean has signed to stay with GAMMA for some time with Josh Aldarisio and Tora Mizwar also securing multi-fight deals with the company. One new addition is the return of Marvin Stevens to the company to fight in their fledgling Super Heavyweight division, Stevens will add a much-needed dose of star power to the weight class. It was not all good news for GAMMA this week, Sutton Ripley suffered a major arm injury in training and was forced to pull out of his GAMMA 41 fight with Patrick Thomas, no news yet on whether anyone will replace Ripley in that fight.

A less important injury this week was to Augustus Shorrock who suffered some kind of injury to his face during a sparring session, that has forced him to pull out of his fight with Hans-Peter Schneider at a BCF show in April. Replacing him will be Paul Goodfellow making his professional debut after a fairly successful kickboxing career before his move to MMA. The BCF also released further details of their new Featherweight division with the first 20 names brought in to fight at 145 pounds, a full list can be found elsewhere but the biggest names are all from SIGMA, Snorri Gunnarsson, Jason Dalglish, Manish Khan, Lars Bohlin, Colm Dee, Alvaro Negredo, Francesco Marazzina and Fernando Peragon are all world ranked Featherweights who will be available to the BCF. Also signed are British fighters Jay Dorridge, Freddie Lomax and Graeme Spark.

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Monday, Week 3 of February 2001

Phone Conversation

BCF Light Heavyweight Champion Curt Kitson

Chris Dewing

"Hello?"

"Hey Chris? This is Curt, Curt Kitson, how are ya?"

"I'm good thanks Curt, yourself?"

"Yeah I'm doing fine brother, really good actually."

"Really? What's got you so cheery?"

"Well I thought I should let you guys know as soon as possible; ALPHA-1 have offered me a contract and I'm going to accept it."

"... Oh, right. Well I hope you can understand that I'm not as cheery about that as you are."

"Hey come on man, you know that I've always wanted to make a name for myself on a bigger stage and this move would make a world of difference to me. ALPHA-1 really want me on board, they're letting me stay and train with my guys in Scotland and are flying me and my family out to Japan whenever I need to go, plus I'll finally be able to prove myself against the top guys in my weight class."

"I understand, I understand that and don't get me wrong I'm really proud that you've been offered this opportunity, but you're probably our top star and our strongest fighter in the Light Heavyweight division, we're looking to grow ourselves and losing someone as talented as yourself is a real setback. Is there anything we can do to fight back? Why not sign an exlcusive deal with us and help the BCF grow into a company the size of ALPHA-1?"

"I'm 28 years old and this is something I have to do now while I'm in my prime. I really thought you'd understand, you're as big an MMA fan as I know and you know the quality of opposition I can face in Japan. Who do I have here to face? Hornsby again? Laurent again? There's no challenges here any more."

"And you know that we're bringing in a whole load of European fighters like Niko Soldo and Valentin Taneyev, really strong guys who are a real challenge for you."

"There's no upside to me fighting those guys because nobody in the UK, at least the casual fans, know who they are. If I win I've beaten someone nobody knows, if I lose I've lost to a guy that nobody knows and my reputation is gone. Fighting Yamada, Asanovic and Katou on massive shows? That's my idea of a challenge."

"Again, I understand your point, it's just leaving us with a huge problem. Not just your departure, but it worries me that other fighters will see you leaving and decide that they want out as well. We're not a feeder system here, we want to be the best MMA organisation in the world."

"Maybe you will one day, but I have to live for the moment and right now it's my moment to join the big leagues. Sorry Chris, my mind's made up, I'll be leaving right after my fight with Diev in March."

"Well if you're not open to negotiation then I guess I have to wish you the best for the future. I'll be following you, and I expect we'll work together again one day."

"I hope so. Tell Jerome thanks from me, the BCF has been good to me but it's time to move on. See you soon bud."

"Goodbye, Curt."

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THE WEEK IN MMA

Week 3 of February 2001

It was the turn of organisations that specialise in lighter weight classes to get their years under way with both KDM FC and XCC running their first shows of 2001 on the same Friday. Due to time zones the first show of the two was KDM FC, they brought out the big guns with both their Lightweight title and the Featherweight title being defended, however the big news coming out of the show was the upset of Yoshuro Makamori defeating Li-Kong Ho. The Little Dragon hasn't been the same since his defeat to Tomohiro Takeuchi and Makamori scored a clear decision victory here. Speaking of Takeuchi he defended his Featherweight title once again with a decision victory over Kenji Akita, meanwhile in the main event Atep of Indonesia knocked out Teeratep Nutnum in just over two minutes once again proving there's very little competition for Atep in this organisation.

In California the XCC went with their biggest money match straight away, a re-match for the Featherweight title between Luiz Machada and Philip Ziskie, the match that headlined XCC's first ever show. Ziskie, who lost the title to Sammy Gaffigan in 1998, got his first shot back at the title and didn't have it all his own way, but overall he did enough to score a unanimous decision win (2 x 49-46, 48-47) for his second XCC title win. Lamont Banner showed what a dangerous man he is by using his boxing prowess to knock out Frank Romita in 3:18 of the first round to keep his undefeated run alive, elswhere on the card there were also wins for Ross Smith, Wallace Everett and D'Arcy Spode.

The big signing of the week was ALPHA-1's annoucement that they had signed BCF Light Heavyweight champion Curt Kitson to an exclusive contract. Up to this point BCF had not been the victim of a talent raid but Kitson's departure will be a huge loss to the British company. Kitson currently holds a 13-0 record and has impressed numerous people with a versatile skillset and he currently has a fight still to go with the BCF, a title defence against Tikhon Diev. I think we know who the BCF management will be supporting in that one. ALPHA-1 also took another champion by signing FLB's Light Heavyweight champion Roberto Aldez, the 36 year old defeated Affonso Villar in 2000 priving that his age of 36 was not a handicap, he too will be fighting once for FLB against Nilton Fantoni before joining ALPHA-1.

There was disappointment for ALPHA-1 this week as well as their next Warriors of the Ring show took a huge hit when its main event was canclled, Kunimichi Kikuchi suffered a thigh injury which takes away his shot at Terron Cabal's Heavyweight title. ALPHA-1 chose not to find a new opponent for Cabal to allow Kikuchi to keep his title shot, main eventing the show now will be Heiki Endo against Haranobu Oshiro.

GAMMA's signing of the week was Glen Siemaszko who leaves the XCC and vacates his XCC Lightweight title in the process. Siemaszko has not fought since winning the title and will hop straight over to GAMMA without any delays. GAMMA have also been bringing in as many talented rookies as possible, Isaiah Monroe, William Harrison, Joshua Ziegler and Guillermo Morales are just a few of the newcomers to their ranks.

Sorry there's not been a show yet, the narrative meant that I had to wait 7 weeks for my first show. A preview of that show will be up next!

D-Lyrium · December 16, 2014

Would be kinda funny if Kitson lost to Diev now, and arrives in Japan all "I'm one of the best Light Heavyweights in the world, er... ignore that last fight, I was... excited... about coming here?". Gooo Diev!

BYU 14 · December 16, 2014

Great job on the 'This Week in MMA' segments, just like reading a magazine <img alt="

" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/smile.png.142cfa0a1cd2925c0463c1d00f499df2.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" />

Cyclops · December 18, 2014

Gotta say, I love the narrative going on between all the non-fighters, as well as the week-by-week world recaps. Really fleshes out the universe and makes it a joy to read.

Keep up the good work!

Paatero · December 18, 2014

Enjoying it a ton, I'll have to say. I like playing BCF as well, so this is inspires my game play too. Keep up the good work.

Chris2K · December 18, 2014

<div style="text-align:center;">Thanks for the comments everyone <img alt="" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/smile.png.142cfa0a1cd2925c0463c1d00f499df2.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" />

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/BCF/SethOBreen-2.gifhttp://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/vs.jpghttp://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/BCF/TimOldacres-1.gif

The BCF start their 2001 odyssey with a broadcast of their relatively new show Best of British, this one being the third episode of the show and the first show under the leadership of new CEO Chris Dewing. Headlining the show will be a BCF Lightweight title match as Seth O'Breen looks to make his second defence of the title after defeating Gordon Idle for the title and then defending it against Keith Jolly, both of those fights were on Best of British shows so this means O'Breen has been on the first three Best of British cards. Co-Main Eventing the show is a Light Heavyweight battle between Daniel Hornsby and the undefeated Scotsman Matthew Michael Kirby, plus two Norwegian fighters make their debuts in Stian Agdestein and Thorbjorn Rekdal.

Kicking off the show will be three preliminary fights, the first is a Lightweight division match between Olafur Petursson (5-2) and Dom Yorke (5-2). Olafur Petursson is a kick boxer from Iceland who really lacks a well-rounded game, whilst his striking is fairly decent he has no grappling or ground skills to fall back on and against an opponent who has these skills he really shouldn't be much of a threat. Despite his weaknesses Petursson had a very strong year in 1999 earning himself a title shot eliminator match with Keith Jolly, however Jolly, himself no grappler, beat the stuffing out of him and won in just over two minutes. Dom Yorke is a wrestler by trade but not a particularly good one, he does have some decent submission skills but often struggles to get the fight to the ground where he can put those talents to use. Yorke has been fighting with the BCF for a while with mixed results, he goes into this fight ranked #16 compared to Petursson's ranking of #10, however despite this the bookmakers have Yorke a -310 favourite in this contest.

In the Heavyweight division we will see Eddie Whelan (14-4) take on Vic Millican (19-5) in a battle of English veterans. Eddie Whelan is a Muay Thai practitioner who started off in the sport with just his striking but has through good training has since developed a more well-rounded game. He has had some decent success in the BCF Heavyweight division earning two title shots during his time in the company, however he has lost both of those opportunities to Stafford Alois and Carter Potter. One of Whelan's major drawbacks is his weight, he weighed in for this fight at 218lbs, 47lbs under the official weight limit for the Heavyweight division. Vic Millican is a non-nonsense Geordie who has no problem in calling himself a "street fighter" for his fighting style. As you'd expect Millican has some big boxing power and is well known for throwing his punches from strange angles to catch people by surprise. He was also famed for his granite chin, however in his last fight he was brutally knocked out by the now departed Rav Kapur in under four minutes perhaps suggesting that age is beginning to catch up with the 34 year old. Millican enters this fight as the #5 ranked Heavyweight and a -550 favourite, and will also have at least a 12lb weight advantage over the #8 ranked Whelan.

The final preliminary fight will see Grant Kyle (4-3) take on Scott Gillespie (5-2) in the Welterweight division. Kyle was a surprise addition to the BCF roster in 1999 as he had never shown himself to have much star potential, his main trait is his almost zombie-like ability to take punishment. He often has exciting crazy brawls but he also loses them because he has no real offensive weaponry other than tiring his opponent out. Scott Gillespie is a kick boxer from Glasgow with some good striking skills that are amplified by his long reach with both his arms and legs. Gillespie doesn't have much in the way of grappling skills but does always pose a threat to opponents who are willing to stand and trade with him, unfortunately for Gillespie that doesn't always work out as in his last fight Jerome Atkins knocked him out with a knee in Atkins' pro debut. Gillespie is the -580 favourite for this fight, both fighters are very low ranked (Kyle #18, Gillespie #17) but their ranking won't matter if they provide a very exciting fight.

In the first main card match we will see the debut of Thorbjorn Rekdal (9-1) as he takes Danny Akabaro (7-0), an undefeated prospect making the move down to Middleweight following an injury to Rekdal's original opponent Rhys Buck. Akabaro was born in Nigeria but moved to the UK with his family at an early age, under the training of his father he started down the path of a boxing career, however he fell in love with MMA and soon began training in the other areas of the game. Akabaro's boxing is still his strongest asset and he will no doubt be hoping for a stand-up battle as the rest of his skills still require a lot of work. Akabaro made his BCF debut in 2000 and was successful in that outing. Thorbjorn Rekdal is an elite kick boxer who made the move over to MMA a few years ago and has been reasonably successful fighting in Europe, his striking may well be at another level to everyone else in the BCF with the power, technique and speed to knock anybody out who stands against him. Rekdal also has the defensive skills to prevent being taken down allowing him to dictate the position of the fight and that normally spells bad news for his opponents. Rekdal lost his previous fight to Fjodor Kanchelskis for the Middleweight title in another organisation. Rekdal may be giving up a bit of weight here but he is still considered a -650 favourite in this fight.

Also making his BCF debut on this show will be Stian Agdestein (5-0) when he goes up against Buzzy Tuttle (9-2) in a Welterweight division match. Agdestein has signed for two companies in just under a month but it's the BCF who he will make his major league debut with. The Norwegian has a background in sambo which gives him a strong grappling base, he still needs to work on his striking but he looks like he may have the talents to do very well in the Welterweight ranks. His opponent Buzzy Tuttle has a pretty decent record from his eleven fights but they've all come from his striking skills as he barely has anything else to offer inside the cage, he has secured a lot of victories on the preliminary cards of shows meaning that he may have escaped the notice of a lot of fans. Tuttle is known for being a very good-humoured and fun-loving individual currently ranked at #10 in the Welterweight division but this will be his toughest test for him in his career thus far, the bookmakers certainly think so as they make Agdestein the -340 favourite.

In the Heavyweight division Jesse Singh (17-5) returns to the BCF to take on the undefeated and strongly hyped Ozzy Bintley (4-0). Singh has spent four years outside of the BCF after being surprisingly cut in 1997, Singh was not pleased with this decision and had refused any offer from the BCF to return until the recent change in management. Singh has won his last 9 fights on the independent scene but that is against far less talented opposition, Singh himself is a decent striker who can take a fair deal of punishment, he doesn't really have much to offer in terms of grappling so we could be in for a bit of a stand-up war. Steven 'Ozzy' Bintley is a former rugby player who bounced around various different sporting endeavours such as boxing and triathlons before finally settling in MMA. Bintley has been with the BCF for all of his professional career and has been somewhat protected thus far, Singh will definitely be his toughest test to date and may prove a few people wrong who doubt his potential in the sport. Bintley weighed in with a six pound weight advantage and the bookmakers have him as a very slight favourite at -110, however Singh does have a 5 inch reach advantage at his disposal.

The co-Main Event in the Light Heavyweight division will see Daniel Hornsby (13-4) take on the undefeated Matthew Michael Kirby (6-0). Hornsby is a fighter who has always gone into his fights with a specific gameplan, get his opponent to the ground and start pummelling away until he (hopefully) wins. As you'd expect that tactic works against weaker opponents but not against the stronger Light Heavyweights which may explain why Hornsby has fought for the Light Heavyweight title twice and has been handily defeated in both of those title matches. Hornsby's last fight was a title fight against Curt Kitson which the Scotsman won by TKO in the second round. Matthew Michael Kirby (or MMK as he is often known) is only 21 years old with three years of MMA experience already, very tall at 6'4" and an immensely powerful puncher he is already looking like someone who could be a stand-out performer at 205 pounds. MMK signed for the BCF in late 2000 after impressing on the British independent shows, in fact all six of his victories have come via KO or TKO. Despite those performances the bookies don't fancy MMK's chances, Hornsby is a strong favourite for this fight at -440.

And finally in our Main Event the BCF Lightweight title will be on the line when Seth O'Breen (16-1) takes on Tim Oldacres (7-0). O'Breen has become the dominant figure of the Lightweight division since Jake Keane moved to GAMMA and his style of Sli Beatha, a Celtic martial art and lifestyle, has left his opponents with very little idea of how to fight against him. O'Breen is a submission specialist with 10 wins by submission on his record with leglocks his favourite move to use, but he has also trained really hard to get his striking and wrestling up to a high standard making it difficult to find a weakness in his game. O'Breen has won his last three fights against Mal Beswick, Gordon Idle and Keith Jolly (all by submission) and this will be the second defence of his BCF Lightweight title. Tim Oldacres is a surprise choice for a title shot here although he is one of a few fighters in the division that O'Breen hasn't beaten. Oldacres is a well-trained kick boxer with a powerful array of punches making him a threat at all times for a one punch KO, he built up a strong reputation in lower levels of MMA but has proved himself in the BCF by winning his first two fights. O'Breen is ranked #8 in the world at Lightweight and obviously #1 in the BCF as the champion, Oldacres on the other hand is only ranked #13 in the BCF to show what a surprise this title opportunity is for him. O'Breen is a massive favourite at -1200 which may be the shortest odds for a title match in BCF history.

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OFFICIAL BCF BEST OF BRITISH 3: O'BREEN vs. OLDACRES CARD

BCF Lightweight Title

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/ie.png Seth O'Breen (16-1) © vs. Tim Oldacres (7-0) http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/england.png

Light Heavyweight Division

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/england.png Daniel Hornsby (13-4) vs. Matthew Michael Kirby (6-0) http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/scotland.png

Heavyweight Division

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/england.png Jesse Singh (17-5) vs. Ozzy Bintley (4-0) http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/england.png

Welterweight Division

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/no.png Stian Agdestein (5-0) vs. Buzzy Tuttle (9-2) http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/england.png

Middleweight Division

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/ng.png Danny Akabaro (7-0) vs. Thorbjorn Rekdal (9-1) http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/no.png

Welterweight Division

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/england.png Grant Kyle (4-3) vs. Scott Gillespie (5-2) http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/scotland.png

Heavyweight Division

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/england.png Eddie Whelan (14-4) vs. Vic Millican (19-5) http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/england.png

Lightweight Division

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/is.png Olafur Petursson (5-2) vs. Dom Yorke (5-2) http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/england.png

Predictions welcome <img alt="" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/smile.png.142cfa0a1cd2925c0463c1d00f499df2.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></div>

Paatero · December 18, 2014

Seth O'Breen by KO, I'd wager. Submission would be easier but Seth likes to stand and can definitely do so

Daniel Hornsby by decision, though MMK can crack and Hornsby can fight stupid at times

Ozzy Bintley by KO, though this could go the distance since Bintley is inexperienced

Stian Agdestein by submission

Thorbjorn Rekdal by decision, both guys are dangerous and tough to finish off. Definitely could end sooner, but I think it's a three rounder.

Scott Gillespie by decision, no stopping Grant Kyle with Gillespie's skills

Vic Millican by KO

Dom Yorke by submission, I think this is the quickest finish of the night

zackufc · December 18, 2014

Lightweight Division

Seth O'Breen (16-1) © vs. Tim Oldacres (7-0) SUB

Light Heavyweight Division

Daniel Hornsby (13-4) vs. Matthew Michael Kirby (6-0) KO

Heavyweight Division

Jesse Singh (17-5) vs. Ozzy Bintley (4-0) KO

Welterweight Division

Stian Agdestein (5-0) vs. Buzzy Tuttle (9-2) by UD

Middleweight Division

Danny Akabaro (7-0) vs. Thorbjorn Rekdal (9-1) SUB

Welterweight Division

Grant Kyle (4-3) vs. Scott Gillespie (5-2) TKO

Heavyweight Division

Eddie Whelan (14-4) vs. Vic Millican (19-5) TKO

Lightweight Division

Olafur Petursson (5-2) vs. Dom Yorke (5-2) Sub

Cyclops · December 19, 2014

Lightweight Division

Seth O'Breen (16-1) © vs. Tim Oldacres (7-0)

Tim is a good hand, but not on O'Breen's level yet. 1st round submission

Light Heavyweight Division

Daniel Hornsby (13-4) vs. Matthew Michael Kirby (6-0)

This could go the other way if Hornsby manages to get him to the ground, but even then I see him unable to finish. MMK by unanimous decision.

Heavyweight Division

Jesse Singh (17-5) vs. Ozzy Bintley (4-0)

Bintley will be one of the best down the line, but I gotta root for the returning veteran. 2nd round TKO

Welterweight Division

Stian Agdestein (5-0) vs. Buzzy Tuttle (9-2) by

Not to familiar with either of these guys, but Buzzy is a dumb name so I'm going to go with Stian. Unanimous decision.

Middleweight Division

Danny Akabaro (7-0) vs. Thorbjorn Rekdal (9-1)

I've seen both of these guys do very well, it will come down to if Akabaro can land enough good strikes. I just don't see it happening. Thorbjorn will take him down and submit him in Rnd 2.

Welterweight Division

Grant Kyle (4-3) vs. Scott Gillespie (5-2)

Kyle is a punching bag. 1st Rnd tko

Heavyweight Division

Eddie Whelan (14-4) vs. Vic Millican (19-5) TKO

I can't see Whelan taking many punches by Millican. 2nd Rnd Knockout.

Lightweight Division

Olafur Petursson (5-2) vs. Dom Yorke (5-2) Sub

Iceland needs something to cheer about. Unanimous decision.

CageRage · December 19, 2014

OFFICIAL BCF BEST OF BRITISH 3: O'BREEN vs. OLDACRES CARD

BCF Lightweight Title

Seth O'Breen (16-1) © vs. Tim Oldacres (7-0)

1st Round Submission

Light Heavyweight Division

Daniel Hornsby (13-4) vs. Matthew Michael Kirby (6-0)

Decision

Heavyweight Division

Jesse Singh (17-5) vs. Ozzy Bintley (4-0)

Decision

Welterweight Division

Stian Agdestein (5-0) vs. Buzzy Tuttle (9-2)

2nd Round Submission

Middleweight Division

Danny Akabaro (7-0) vs. Thorbjorn Rekdal (9-1)

1st Round Submission

Welterweight Division

Grant Kyle (4-3) vs. Scott Gillespie (5-2)

1st Round TKO

Heavyweight Division

Eddie Whelan (14-4) vs. Vic Millican (19-5)

3rd Round KO

Lightweight Division

Olafur Petursson (5-2) vs. Dom Yorke (5-2)

2nd Round Sub

D-Lyrium · December 20, 2014

OFFICIAL BCF BEST OF BRITISH 3: O'BREEN vs. OLDACRES CARD

BCF Lightweight Title

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/ie.png Seth O'Breen (16-1) © vs. Tim Oldacres (7-0) http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/england.png

- Gotta go with the lean, mean, O'Breen Machine, as nobody calls him. I like Oldacres for his ability to take a fight at five minutes' notice, but O'Breen is a beast. 3rd round submission.

Light Heavyweight Division

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/england.png Daniel Hornsby (13-4) vs. Matthew Michael Kirby (6-0) http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/scotland.png

- Neither has impressed terribly well in my game, but I like MMK more, because his name is unwieldy and strange. Unanimous Decision.

Heavyweight Division

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/england.png Jesse Singh (17-5) vs. Ozzy Bintley (4-0) http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/england.png

- Haven't signed Singh in my game, so I'll go for the unknown element. Via UD.

Welterweight Division

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/no.png Stian Agdestein (5-0) vs. Buzzy Tuttle (9-2) http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/england.png

- Because Stian is a great name. I've always thought so. And Buzzy Tuttle is... not. Stian by UD after he ties him up all fight but can't get a submission.

Middleweight Division

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/ng.png Danny Akabaro (7-0) vs. Thorbjorn Rekdal (9-1) http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/no.png

- The name thing again. Rekdal by TKO, round 2.

Welterweight Division

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c297/HeavyMetalJesus/StPiran_small.png Grant Kyle (4-3) vs. Scott Gillespie (5-2) http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/scotland.png

- Gotta go for mah boi. He may be awful, but he's still got a job somehow. That's the Cornish spirit. Fixed the flag for ya too. #blindpatriotism. Kyle by split decision in a shocking display of judging.

Heavyweight Division

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/england.png Eddie Whelan (14-4) vs. Vic Millican (19-5) http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/england.png

- Whelan's doing ok in my game, after a horrendous start. Vic is probably the better fighter, but I don't like him as much. Whelan by KO in round 1 (because if it goes much longer, he's screwed).

Lightweight Division

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/is.png Olafur Petursson (5-2) vs. Dom Yorke (5-2) http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/england.png

- Love Dom Yorke. He's a wrestler who's not very good at actually wrestling, which is perfect. Plus a similarity to a certain musicians name means in my head he comes out to Creep by Radiohead. Yorke by UD.

SeanMcFly · December 20, 2014

OFFICIAL BCF BEST OF BRITISH 3: O'BREEN vs. OLDACRES CARD

BCF Lightweight Title

Seth O'Breen (16-1) © vs. Tim Oldacres (7-0)

- O'Breen picks up the 'dub with a submission in the second, Oldacres is tough down the line but not in Seth's league yet

Light Heavyweight Division

Daniel Hornsby (13-4) vs. Matthew Michael Kirby (6-0)

- I find Daniel Hornsby got slower and slower as the games moved forward. What was once a tough fighter in WMMA1 is now a weak gatekeeper in this edition, Kirby KO's him late in the third.

Heavyweight Division

Jesse Singh (17-5) vs. Ozzy Bintley (4-0)

- Singh's a tough looking guy but in reality is quite weak. Bintley grinds this one out.

Welterweight Division

Stian Agdestein (5-0) vs. Buzzy Tuttle (9-2)

- Buzzy's a decent striker and if he can keep things off of the mat he should be able to pull through with a decision.

Middleweight Division

Danny Akabaro (7-0) vs. Thorbjorn Rekdal (9-1)

- Rekdal, in my previous games, carries a lot of power in those hands and that will be the telling factor in this match.

Welterweight Division

Grant Kyle (4-3) vs. Scott Gillespie (5-2)

- Gillespie should be able to out point him on the way to a close decision.

Heavyweight Division

Eddie Whelan (14-4) vs. Vic Millican (19-5)

- Vic hits hard and that's all there is to it.

Lightweight Division

Olafur Petursson (5-2) vs. Dom Yorke (5-2)

- Olafur pulls out the submission game and stops Yorke in his tracks.

Chris2K · December 21, 2014

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/BCF/BCF.jpg

BCF BEST OF BRITISH 3: O'BREEN vs. OLDACRES

SATURDAY - WEEK 3 OF FEBRUARY 2001

------------------------------------

Preliminary Fight #1

Lightweight Division

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/BCF2/OlafurPetursson.jpghttp://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/vs.jpghttp://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/BCF2/DomYorke.jpg

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/is.png Olafur Petursson (5-2) vs. Dom Yorke (5-2) http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/england.png (-390)

Referee: Lee Tynan

Judges: Bobby Serocke, Jimmy Drever, Steven Renshaw

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/BCF/Round1.jpg

The two fighters step in together to start and trade some punches but neither fighter is able to do any damage, Petursson continues to move forward but has to stop to avoid a counter right hand from Yorke. Petursson does manage to connect with a decent left hand and follows that up with a leg kick, however he cannot prevent Yorke from moving in and taking the fight into the clinch to negate Petursson's striking advantage. Yorke uses the clinch to execute a perfect belly to belly suplex and gets Petursson to the ground with Yorke able to land in side control. Yorke begins working for a submission immediately and isolates an arm to start getting an armbar applied, it looks like Yorke has it locked in but somehow Petursson manages to get his arm free to get out of trouble right at the last minute. Petursson really needs to get into a better position but can't get Yorke back into his guard, Yorke goes for the armbar again and this time he is able to get it fully applied and Petursson is forced to tap out before his arm is broken! Yorke celebrates his victory after a pretty dominant performance.

Winner: Dom Yorke (6-2) via Submission (Armabr) - 2:29 of Round 1

Fight Rating: Great

FIGHT METRICS

Olafur Petursson

4 Strikes Landed (3 punches, 1 kick)

0 Takedowns Attempted

Dom Yorke

0 Strikes Landed

1 Takedown Completed (100%)

1 Submission Successful (50%)

------------------------------------

Preliminary Fight #2

Heavyweight Division

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/BCF2/EddieWhelan.jpghttp://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/vs.jpghttp://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/BCF2/VicMillican.jpg

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/england.png Eddie Whelan (14-4) vs. Vic Millican (19-5) http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/england.png

Referee: Matt Wooster

Judges: Martin Mills, Don Dill, Bobby Serocke

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/BCF/Round1.jpg

No touch of gloves to start as Millican declines Whelan's offer, that perhaps makes Whelan angry enough to charge in with some strikes allowing Millican to connect with two counter left hands. Whelan connects with a nice combination of two punches and a leg kick before an exchange of strikes goes nowhere, Whelan then steps in with a pair of jabs and a hard kick to the body before getting out of range when Millican tries to fire back with a right hook. Whelan continues to use his speed to his advantage with another combination of punches and kick to the body landing before getting out of harm's way, Whelan then lands a left, right, left combination leading to another strike exchange where nothing lands. Millican lands two good left hands but Whelan is able to respond with a jab and a right hook to the body, again they move in to strike from close range but again neither fighter is able to land anything significant and they separate again. With a minute left in the round another exchange goes nowhere but this time Millican uses his proximity to Whelan to get hold of him in a clinch, however time runs out before Millican is able to do anything from that position. Tough round to call, Whelan landed more shots but Millican had more control and possibly did more damage.

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/BCF/Round2.jpg

Millican starts the round by landing a nice pair of jabs in an exchange of punches, Whelan manages to land a jab himself but Millican gets out of the way of a big right. Whelan moves in again but gets caught by Millican's jab twice more, Whelan does land a jab of his own though and follows that up with a leg kick. A couple of strike exchanges take place with neither fighting landing a decent shot, Whelan continues to move forward and despite missing a jab he is able to connect with another leg kick. Whelan seems perfectly happy to move forward despite Millican's reputation for being a heavy hitter. A wild exchange sees Millican connect with another right hook before Whelan scores with a jab and a body kick, Whelan then lands with another jab and a right cross and soon they're both swinging wildly with nobody able to land a clean shot. Both fighters are willing to just stand and bang with each other which is making for a very entertaining round, it's just that neither fighter seems able to land the killer shot. Millican scores with two counter jabs but gets caught by a jab and a straight right from Whelan shortly afterwards, we then get one more flurry of strikes from both fighters before the round comes to an end. The crowd give the fighters a standing ovation and once again it's a round which could go either way, Millican did land the harder shots of the round though.

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/BCF/Round3.jpg

Fatigue is likely to be a factor here and the first exchange of the round certainly looks a lot slower than what we've seen before, Whelan moves in for a one-two combination which Millican avoids, Millican then connects with a jab but misses with a right hand, Whelan connects with a jab but Millican ducks under a right head kick. Whelan seems to be going for broke here as he misses with a wild right hand, Millican then gets caught by a jab and has to move back to avoid a right hook. Whelan lands a nice leg kick but can't follow up with anything, Whelan continues to press the action but his punches are starting to be more ragged and Millican is able to see them coming and avoid them. Whelan relentlessly moves forward and this time he lands a left hand and follows that with a right hook, however Millican catches Whelan with a left hook forcing him to move backwards. All this action has left Whelan exhausted and he tries to initiate a clinch to get some time to catch his breath, however Millican ends up taking control of the grapple and is able to push Whelan back until he's pinned against the cage. With a minute left in the fight Millican decides to make sure that Whelan can't escape but also lands some strikes inside the clinch, a left uppercut connects before Millican hits a knee to the side of Whelan's ribs, Millican continues to dominate the grapple with a couple of right hands to the head and another right to the ear, there's plenty of action so it's surprising when the referee Matt Wooster decides to separate them with ten seconds left. There's time for one more flurry of punches before the buzzer sounds and nothing decent lands so we go to the judges for a decision. They score the fight 29-28 (Mills), 30-27 (Dill) and 30-27 (Serocke) all in favour of Vic Millican to give him the Unanimous Decision victory.

Winner: Vic Millican (20-5) via Unanimous Decision

Fight Rating: Great

FIGHT METRICS

Eddie Whelan

34 Strikes Landed (27 punches, 7 kicks)

0 Takedowns Attempted

Vic Millican

24 Strikes Landed (1 Power Punch, 22 Punches, 1 Knee)

0 Takedowns Attempted

------------------------------------

Preliminary Fight #3

Featherweight Division

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/BCF2/GrantKyle.jpghttp://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/vs.jpghttp://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/BCF2/ScottGillespie.jpg

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/cornwall.png Grant Kyle (4-3) vs. Scott Gillespie (5-2) http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/scotland.png

Referee: Warren Munro

Judges: Jimmy Drever, Steven Renshaw, Martin Mills

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/BCF/Round1.jpg

Gillespie comes out aggressively and scores with a jab before glancing the top of Kyle's head with a high kick, Kyle misses with a jab in response but does land a right hand. Gillespie connects with a nice combination of two jabs followed by a hard roundhouse kick to the body, Kyle tries to respond with a jab and a right hand but both strikes are off target. Gillespie continues to look for that head kick as Kyle misses a combination giving Gillespie the opportunity to throw it, again it just grazes Kyle though and Gillespie has to back off to avoid a right cross. A one-two combination from Gillespie lands but he gets caught by a right hook on his way out, Gillespie continues to be far more accurate than Kyle as he scores with another jab and a right hand before avoiding a jab. Kyle does manage to land a right hook but gets hit with a jab and a right cross from Gillespie for his trouble, Gillespie then lands another body kick which forces Kyle out of range when he throws a right hand. Gillespie is picking Kyle apart at the moment with another combination of jabs and a roundhouse kick to the body, Kyle's lack of technique means that he keeps missing his target. Gillespie scores with another jab and goes for a head kick which connects more than the previous two did, Kyle just takes it in his stride though and scores with a right hand. That's the last action of the round and it surely has to go to Gillespie 10-9.

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/BCF/Round2.jpg

A brief exchange of strikes starts the second round with neither fighter landing anything damaging, Kyle then moves with with some quick punches but they all miss. Gillespie continues going for a head kick but he can't get his aim right and it's not causing Kyle any problems, Kyle then moves forward but walks into a couple of counter jabs from Gillespie. Kyle has two punches blocked by Gillespie, the Scotsman then connects with a jab and a right hand before getting out of trouble. The fight slows down significantly as neither fighter is able to land anything in some brief strike exchanges, it takes another minute before another strike connects when Gillespie lands two left hands during an exchange before dodging a one-two combination from Kyle. Gillespie goes for yet another head kick which Kyle avoids altogether this time, Kyle has the chance to counter but once again misses with a jab and a right hook. Gillespie lands his first leg kick of the fight after setting it up with a jab, Kyle manages to respond with a right hand which triggers an exchange of strikes between the two, Gillespie gets the better of it with a jab and a right hand whilst Kyle misses with a wild right hook. The round ends and Gillespie again has landed far more than Kyle, the Englishman will likely need a finish in the final round.

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/BCF/Round3.jpg

It'll be interesting to see how active Kyle is considering his position in this fight, he certainly starts aggressively with a one-two combination but Gillespie moves out of the way. Gillespie scores with a couple of jabs and follows that with a right cross, Kyle manages to land a jab in response but a big right hand misses by quite a margin. Both fighters move forward but it's Gillespie who connects with another nice body kick, Kyle throws out a jab and a right cross but neither of them land. Kyle continues to move forward but Gillespie has no problem avoiding a combination of punches, he then scores with a jab and a right hand when Kyle is in range. Kyle throws another two punch combination which catches nothing but air as Gillespie continues to show good movement, a brief exchange of strikes follows with neither fighter landing anything significant. Gillespie moves forward and connects with some more jabs and a hard kick to the body, Gillespie's variety of strikes have also given him an advantage here and he follows that with another jab and a right hook. A minute passes with only a couple of strike exchanges which go nowhere before the deadlock is broken when Gillespie scores with another jab and a right cross to the temple, Kyle tries his best to respond but his jab and right hook are too slow to connect. The fight ends without any further action and we go to the judges again, all three score the fight 30-27 to give Scott Gillespie a comfortable unanimous decision victory.

Winner: Scott Gillespie (6-2) via Unanimous Decision

Fight Rating: Decent

FIGHT METRICS

Grant Kyle

6 Strikes Landed (6 Punches)

0 Takedowns Attempted

Scott Gillespie

47 Strikes Landed (36 Punches, 11 Kicks)

0 Takedowns Attempted

------------------------------------

Main Card Fight #1

Middleweight Division

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/BCF2/DannyAkabaro.jpghttp://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/vs.jpghttp://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/BCF2/ThorbjornRekdal.jpg

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/ng.png Danny Akabaro (7-0) vs. Thorbjorn Rekdal (9-1) http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/no.png

Referee: Lee Tynan

Judges: Bobby Serocke, Jimmy Drever, Steven Renshaw

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/BCF/Round1.jpg

Rekbal got hardly any reaction coming out, I think the BCF might have over-estimated how well-known the fighters from SIGMA are in the UK. After a brief exchange of strikes Akabaro moves forward but walks right into a jab from Rekdal, Akabaro then misses with a two punch combination but does eventually connect with a straight right hand. Akabaro is really coming out swinging and throws a three punch combination this time which fails to trouble the Norwegian, Akabaro moves forward again and gets caught by a couple of jabs from Rekdal. Akabaro uses a jab to set up a big right hand which Rekdal avoids, he tries that again moments later but Rekdal is wise to it already. Rekdal's lack of attacking so far has been surprising but he finally gets going with a pair of jabs and follows that with a left kick to the body, the fighters then exchange strikes in the centre of the cage but neither one lands anything meaningful. Akabaro lands a couple of jabs but misses a cross, Rekdal responds with a jab of his own but misses with a leg kick. Akabaro continues to dictate the pace and forces Rekdal into another exchange of strikes and this time he connects with a decent straight right hand. The round ends shortly afterwards and I think I would have to give that to Akabaro for being far more aggressive and landing more strikes throughout the round.

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/BCF/Round2.jpg

Rekdal needs to be more assertive in this round and starts by landing a jab but missing with a kick to the body, Akabaro counters with a jab of his own and left hook to the ribs. Rekdal scores with a couple of jabs before backing away to avoid a one-two from Akabaro, Rekdal then connects with a jab and a right head kick which seems to phase Akabaro a little bit, the Nigerian is off-balance because of it and misses with a right cross. Rekdal is doing much better now and starts working the leg of Akabaro with a hard leg kick after a jab, Akabaro does manage to connect with two left hands though and lands two more lefts when Rekdal presses forward. Rekdal uses a jab to set up a vicious right hand which barely misses, however he ducks under a counter left from Akabaro and hits another had kick to the leg. Rekdal seems to be targeting the front leg of Akabaro now as he suses some wild punches to set up another crunching kick, however Akabaro's movement isn't being affected too much as he is able to avoid an onrushing Rekdal's attempt at some punches and another leg kick. Rekdal connects with a couple of jabs to set up a high kick but the kick misses, Rekdal slips as a result and falls to the ground! Akabaro tries to get hold of Rekdal on the ground but the Norwegian is able to scramble before Akabaro secures a position, in the end it's Akabaro left on his back with Rekdal in half guard. Neither of these men have much in the way of ground skills so the remaining minute of the round doesn't provide much excitement, Rekdal stays on top the whole time and occasionally lands some short punches to the head.

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/BCF/Round3.jpg

The final round begins with a brief strike exchange where neither fighter lands anything, Akabaro comes closest with a counter left hand but Rekdal avoids it. Rekdal lands a lovely one-two combination of a left hand and a right hook, he then follows that with a jab and a quick head kick. Rekdal is really starting to turn it on now and a right cross lands to send Akabaro stumbling backwards on wobbly legs, Rekdal tries to finish him with a head kick but Akabaro is able to duck just in time. Rekdal continues to close the distance on Akabaro until he's in range for a big right uppercut, it lands right on the chin of Akabaro and knocks him out cold! Rekdal celebrates with very little emotion, perhaps a bit disappointed in himself for taking this long to finish the fight.

Result: Thorbjorn Rekdal (10-1) via Knock Out (Punch) - 1:59 of Round 3

Fight Rating: Fantastic

FIGHT METRICS

Danny Akabaro

13 Strikes Landed (13 Punches)

0 Takedowns Attempted

Thorbjorn Rekdal

30 Strikes Landed (2 Power Punches, 18 Punches, 3 Power Kicks, 3 Kicks, 4 Ground Strikes)

0 Takedowns Attempted

1 Ground Pass

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Main Card Fight #2

Welterweight Division

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http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/no.png Stian Agdestein (5-0) vs. Buzzy Tuttle (9-2) http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/england.png

Referee: Matt Wooster

Judges: Don Dill, Bobby Serocke, Jimmy Drever

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Agdestein wastes absolutely no time in getting the fight where he wants it by moving in to clinch within the first ten seconds, Agdestein then pushes Tuttle back until he is trapped against the cage. Agdestein control Tuttle well and lands a sharp right hand to the ear of the Englishman, he then throws a left uppercut up the middle which also lands. Agdestein smothers Tuttle for a while and the referee decides that's not enough actio so separates the fighters, it doesn't last long as Agdestein immediatley grapples with Tuttle again and takes the fight back to the cage. Agdestein keeps Tuttle tapped for over two minutes with the only action coming from the occasional foot stomp or short punch, to his credit Tuttle is trying to escape but Agdestein's grappling skills are too strong for him to get out of this position. With twenty seconds left in the round the referee steps in again to separate the fighters, but once again Agdestein immediately closes the distance when the fight restarts and grapples with Tuttle again until the round ends. It's been a very boring round as Agdestein has been playing for control rather than excitement, but even so he controlled the entire round so he has to win it.

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Unsurprisingly Agdestein immediately moves in to clinch with Tuttle at the start of the round, however instead of pushing Tuttle back against the cage he instead chooses to work for a takedown, Agdestein has the strength and the leverage to lift Tuttle up and slam him down to the ground getting straight through into side control in the process. Agdestein quickly goes for an arm triangle whilst Tuttle recovers but he isn't able to get the move locked in, Tuttle tries to get Agdestein back into his guard but the Norwegian isn't giving up the dominant position easily. Agdesein next tries to get himself through into mount and he is simply too good for Tuttle to stop him, as soon as Agdestein gets the mount he begins unloading some hard right hands which get through the defences of Tuttle to do some damage. Agdestein continues to land powerful shots as Tuttle struggles to do anything to stop him, his attempt to roll is blocked by Agdestein who lands a few more hard punches, one of them in particular catches Tuttle right on the button and he goes limp! The referee is watching intently and quickly steps in to stop Agdestein doing any further damage by stopping the fight! That was some very impressive ground and pound from Agdestein who controlled the fight from start to finish.

Winner: Stian Agdestein (6-0) via Knock Out (Punch) in 3:03 of Round 2

Fight Rating: Decent

FIGHT METRICS

Stian Agdestein

119 Strikes Landed (98 Punches, 1 Kick, 14 Power Ground Strikes, 6 Ground Strikes)

1 Takedown Completed (100%)

1 Submission Attempted (0%)

Buzzy Tuttle

34 Strikes Landed (34 Punches)

0 Takedowns Attempted

I have no idea where all those strikes came from, I assume they were inside the clinch and they just didn't get reported in the PBP text.

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Main Card Fight #3

Heavyweight Division

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http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/england.png Jesse Singh (17-5) vs. Ozzy Bintley (4-0) http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/england.png

Referee: Warren Munro

Judges: Jimmy Drever, Steven Renshaw, Martin Mills

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It looks like we're in for another stand-up battle here as both fighters start throwing at the beginning but neither fighter lands a telling shot, Bintley lands the first good strike of the fight with a right hand after a jab, Singh manages to connect with a jab of his own but can't score with a right. Singh throws a quick one-two which Bintley avoids and counters with a right hand, Singh hits another jab but a one-two misses again. Another exchange of strikes results in Singh missing a jab but hitting a nice right cross, another exchange sees Singh throw two quick punches which both miss. The second half of the round begins with Bintley landing two nice jabs before moving back to avoid a two punch combination from Singh, Bintley then sees Singh moving in and connects with two counter left hands to stop him in his tracks. Singh misses with a jab but connects with the straight right which he was using the jab to set up, Singh seems to be connecting with his power shots more than his jab at the moment which is strange considering he has the reach advantage. The final minute of the round sees just one exchange of strikes where Singh lands a combination of a left hand and a right cross, that brings to end an entertaining round where both fighters landed some good shots, Bintley perhaps was the one who landed the most in the round.

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The second round starts with a few strike exchanges but both fighters seem a bit half-hearted in their punches and nobody lands anything significant during the entire first minute and a half. Singh eventually moves close enough for both fighters to land some decent blows, Singh lands the best strike of the exchange with a straight right. Singh certainly becomes the more active of the two in the next minute as he begins aggressively hunting down Bintley, unfortunately for Singh his combinations and quick punches don't find a home as Bintley uses good movement to stay out of trouble. Bintley then connects with a jab and a clean right hand, that might have rattled Singh as he responds with a clumsy jab and a wild right hook which both miss by some distance. Singh moves forward and connects with a left hand but he is starting to look very tired now, all that pressing during this round is coming back to haunt him, and to try and get some rest he lumbers in to try and clinch with Bintley. It seems Bintley is happy to do that as he immediately uses some good wrestling to drag Singh down to the ground, however Singh does at least manage to pull guard on his way down. Bintley postures up to try and land some punches from the guard, a few shots connect but there's not much power behind them. Singh tries some wild swings from his back which Bintley easily avoids and uses the opening to hit a few more strikes, however it's obvious that Bintley isn't entirely comfortable on the ground as he slows things down to plan his attack. The final minute of the round is spent on the ground with Bintley smothering Singh and landing the occasional punch, that control should be enough to give Bintley the round.

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I've got Bintley two rounds to the good at the moment so Singh needs to have a big round here. Singh tries for a one-two combination which doesn't connect, Bintley then scores with a jab and a right hook for the first major strikes of the round. Bintley moves forward and avoids a counter left from Singh before landing a jab and a straight right hand to the nose, another exchange of strikes follows with Singh landing a jab and Bintley hitting a jab of his own and a right hook to the body. Singh seems to be completely drained of energy now and has to stumble into a clinch again, Bintley doesn't try for a takedown this time as he decides to push Singh back until he's trapped against the cage instead. Bintley shows his good grappling skills by completely negating anything Singh tries to do and just keeps him bullied up against the cage, it takes a while for Bintley to actually lands some strikes but he does eventually use some dirty boxing to do some damage as well as a foot stomp and a hard knee to the ribs. Singh is unable to get free of the clinch but gets from assistance from the referee who decides to separate them due to a lack of action even though both fighters are landing punches on the inside. There's a minute left in the fight but both fighters are tired now, it's not until the last ten seconds that they both start throwing with Singh landing a left hand and Bintley connecting with a jab but missing a big right. Time runs out and we're going to the judges for another decision, this one is fairly clear cut as Bintley won all three rounds, it's 30-27 across the board to give Ozzy Bintley the unanimous decision victory.

Winner: Ozzy Bintley (5-0) via Unanimous Decision

Fight Rating: Decent

FIGHT METRICS

Jesse Singh

27 Strikes Landed (27 Punches)

0 Takedowns Attempted (0%)

Ozzy Bintley

89 Strikes Landed (2 Power Punches, 70 Punches, 1 Kick, 1 Knee, 15 Ground Strikes)

1 Takedown Completed (100%)

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Co-Main Event

Light Heavyweight Division

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http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/england.png Daniel Hornsby (13-4) vs. Matthew Michael Kirby (6-0) http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/scotland.png

Referee: Matt Wooster

Judges: Don Dill, Bobby Serocke, Jimmy Drever

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Hornsby isn't wasting any time here as he moves in to grapple with MMK shortly after they've touched gloves, Kirby lands a few good shots as Hornsby moves in but Hornsby still manages to secure the grapple. Hornsby pushes Kirby back until the Scotsman is stuck against cage, he keeps him trapped there for over a minute before executing a nice foot stomp. That foot stomp might distract MMK enough for Hornsby to work the underhooks and the Englishman uses the cage to his advantage in tripping Kirby to get him down to the ground. Hornsby gets right into side control but immediately moves through into the mount, from there he makes sure to push MMK towards the cage to stop him from rolling out of danger. Hornsby begins landing some of the hard ground and pound he is noted for and several powerful punches connect with the head of Kirby, a few more get through Kirby's defences and it becomes obvious that Kirby is not able to defend himself any more. Hornsby lands another hard shot to the temple before the referee decides he's seen enough and covers up Kirby to stop the fight! A very impressive performance from Hornsby who neutralised the powerful striking of Kirby and dominated the fight as a result.

Winner: Daniel Hornsby (14-4) via TKO (Strikes) - 2:56 of Round 1

Fight Rating: Great

FIGHT METRICS

Daniel Hornsby

35 Strikes Landed (29 Punches, 1 Kick, 5 Power Ground Strikes)

1 Takedown Completed (100%)

1 Ground Pass

Matthew Michael Kirby

12 Strikes Landed (12 Punches - in clinch I assume)

0 Takedowns Attempted

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Main Event

BCF Lightweight Title

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http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/ie.png Seth O'Breen (16-1) vs. Tim Oldacres (7-0) http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/england.png

Referee: Matt Wooster

Judges: Bobby Serocke, Jimmy Drever and Steven Renshaw

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The first strike of the fight is landed by Oldacres who dodges a right cross from O'Breen and connects with a jab, however a second exchange sees O'Breen score with a jab and a nice right hook to the body and Oldacres misses with his attempt at a body kick. O'Breen misses a jab but connects with a left hand to the body, O'Breen's speed is really causing Oldacres problems though as he is too quick for Oldacres to land a couple of punches. A brief exchange of strikes results in nothing of interest before O'Breen connects with a nice jab/right hook combination, once again Oldacres isn't able to land anything in result as O'Breen creates enough distance after landing his punches. We get a few strike exchanges which entertain the fans due to all the wild punches being thrown, it's just that very few of them actually land and those that do don't cause much damage. O'Breen eventually lands another jab and another right hand but this time Oldacres actually manages to retaliate with a jab and a leg kick, Into the final minute of the round and both fighters are trading strikes yet again, O'Breen connects with a jab and a right hand combination again and avoids an Oldacres jab on his way out, there's just enough time for one more brief flurry of punches between the two without any significant shots landing before the round ends. It was definitely an exciting round with O'Breen landing the most strikes which should give him the advantage.

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/BCF/Round2.jpg

O'Breen is the man initiating the striking in the second round but he gets caught by a jab from Oldacres as he moves in, O'Breen keeps moving forward though and is able to score with a jab and a right hook. Oldacres moves in to try and grapple with O'Breen which seems like a pretty dumb idea, he's lucky to get away with just getting caught by a jab as he has to duck under a big right hand from O'Breen. Another exchange of strikes begins with O'Breen getting clipped by two left hands from Oldacres, however O'Breen connects with a combination of jabs and a right hook. O'Breen continues to move forward and takes a jab from Oldacres in order to hit a jab of his own followed by a right hand, Oldacres connects with two more left hands, O'Breen lands two left hands of his own and marginally misses with a big right. We're halfway through the round when O'Breen connects with another left hands, Oldacres lands a couple of lefts of his own but O'Breen's movement restricts the damage they do, O'Breen then connects with a right hook as Oldacres throws out a weak jab which O'Breen has no problem avoiding. O'Breen is dominating the stand-up which is a real surprise and he continues his onslaught with a jab and a right to the body, he then connects with a beauty of a straight right hand which is probably the best shot of the fight so far. The last minute of the round sees more strike exchanges but neither fighter lands anything of any note. Another 10-9 round for O'Breen there who is really looking good so far.

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/BCF/Round3.jpg

O'Breen moves in straight away and takes a jab from Oldacres for his troubles, that doesn't stop O'Breen landing a jab of his own and a hard right hand. The two fighters exchange strikes with neither landing anything, Oldacres winds up for a big left hand but O'Breen ducks it and lands a good left followed by a hard right cross. O'Breen is really dominating the stand-up which is surprising, you'd think by now he'd go for a takedown seeing as he's a submission expert. Well what do I know, on the next strike exchange O'Breen connects with a jab and a beautiful right uppercut, it catches Oldacres right on the jaw and Oldacres goes to the ground! O'Breen sees the opportunity for a finish and dives down to start unloading some punches, however he seems reluctant to use his right hand and Oldacres is eventually able to recover. O'Breen eventually gives up on his strikes and settles in to side control to work on the ground which is where he specialises, Oldacres tries to get him back into his guard but that doesn't work. O'Breen begins to go for a kimura but Oldacres is able to fight it off, either Oldacres has got better at his submission defence or O'Breen is struggling with something. The referee decides to stand them up which is surprising considering O'Breen is in side control, but he wasn't doing anything either. Back on the feet a strike exchange results in Oldacres landing a left hand and O'Breen ladning a right hand, O'Breen then tries to initiate a clinch but Oldacres stays out of the way. O'Breen manages to land one more right hand before the end of the round, that knockdown is surely enough to put O'Breen three rounds up.

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Into the championship rounds we go, and things might have changed as O'Breen was overheard telling his corner that his right hand feels broken, we'll have to see how that affects his fighting. After a couple of exchanges with no big strikes Oldacres tries to take the fight into a clinch but O'Breen moves away, O'Breen then connects with a jab but misses with a right to the body. Oldacres misses with a left hand giving O'Breen the chance to land a left hand and a right cross so he is still able to use his broken hand, he does it again shortly afterwards with another one-two, left-right combination. Oldacres lands a jab but gets caught by a right hook from O'Breen shortly afterwards, Oldacres tries a left hand afterwards but O'Breen moves out of the way in time. O'Breen moves back in to land two jabs, Oldacres again tries to grapple but O'Breen simply pushes him away. Oldacres moves in for a left hand but O'Breen dodges that and scores with another left hand, right cross combination, that same combination works once again for O'Breen and Oldacres' desperate attempt at a big right hand goes sailing too high. The last minute of the round sees both fighters less active than before, O'Breen is probably taking care of his busted hand whilst Oldacres hasn't been able to get anything going at all during this fight.

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/BCF/Round5.jpg

I have O'Breen 40-36 up so OIdacres surely has to come out looking for a finish in this final round. The two fighters exchange straight away but it's O'Breen getting the better of it, a jab and a right hand connect for him whilst Oldacres misses a jab and a right hook. A couple of flurries from both men don't result in anything of note, Oldacres then moves in but misses with a right hand and O'Breen connects with a left hook to the body. For the first time in the fight O'Breen decides to grapple with Oldacres and unsurprisingly he immediately gets control, he pushes Oldacres back until he's trapped against the cage and then immediately hoists Oldacres up and slams him to the ground for O'Breen's first takedown of the fight. Is it just a matter of time for O'Breen to get a submission? Maybe not as Oldacres immediately gets back to his feet with O'Breen maintaining a rear waist lock, Oldacres tries to get free but O'Breen ends up just taking him back again. That doesn't last long either though as the impact of the takedown causes O'Breen's grip to break and Oldacres gets free, a scramble results in both fighters back on their feet and heading to the centre of the cage. That action seems to have tired both fighters out and the remainder of the fight is just the two circling each other, it's been very one-sided in O'Breen's favour but it's still been an entertaining fight. The judges render their decision and it's no surprise that they all score the contest 50-45 in favour of Seth O'Breen who remains the BCF Lightweight champion.

Winner, and still BCF Lightweight Champion: Seth O'Breen (17-1) via Unanimous Decision

Fight Rating: Great

FIGHT METRICS

Seth O'Breen

80 Strikes Landed (5 Power Punches, 56 Punches, 19 Ground Strikes)

2 Takedowns Completed (66%)

1 Submission Attempted (0%)

Tim Oldacres

20 Strikes Landed (19 Punches, 1 Kick)

0 Takedowns Attempted

------------------------------------

Statistics

Attendance: 140 ($12,300)

Critical Rating: 75%

Commercial Rating: 21%

Awards ($500 Each)

Fight Of The Night: Thorbjorn Rekdal vs. Danny Akabaro

KO Of The Night: Daniel Hornsby

Submission Of The Night: Dom Yorke

FINANCES

Income

Gate: $12,300

Sponsorship: $13,972

Advertising: $41,760

Merchandise: $3,276

Total: $71,308

Expenditure

Fighter Pay: $30,072 (Highest: Seth O'Breen $4.750)

Drug Testing: $19,200

Production: $18,239

Total: $67,511

Profit: $3,797

Popularity

UK - http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/gb.png = 34.8% (-5.2%)

Europe - http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/europeanunion.png = 5.0% (+5.0%)

Russia - http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/ru.png = 5.0% (+5.0%)

USA - http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/us.png = 5.0% (+5.0%)

Australia - http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/au.png = 5.0% (+5.0%)

Canada - http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/ca.png = 5.0% (+5.0%)

Mexico - http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/mx.png = 5.0% (+5.0%)

Japan - http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/jp.png = 5.0% (+5.0%)

Asia - http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/cn.png = 5.0% (+5.0%)

South America - http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/br.png = 5.0% (+5.0%)

Africa - http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/za.png = 5.0% (+5.0%)

Central America - http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/hn.png = 5.0% (+5.0%)

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Post Show Meeting

Jerome "Tim" McCallum - BCF Owner

Chris Dewing - BCF C.E.O.

"Hi Tim."

"Chris, sit down."

"It was fun show, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, yeah, it was a good show, but we've got some problems."

"Problems?"

"Big problems. As good as the fights were we've had a lot of complaints, particularly from UK Broadcasting Digital. They're saying the show was a huge letdown, there was nobody that casual fans would recognise, newcomers that people don't know all over the main card, a weak title contender who looked out of his depth and as a result the ratings are atrocious. And then there's the fact that we only got 140 people through the door which is just atrocious, we were doing five times that under Charlie's leadership. What do you have to say for yourself?"

"Um... well... I.... Tim, the fights were good and that has to count for something. Like I said to you before we need these shows to build the popularity of newer fighters and get some of our champions more screen time. The card is weak on paper I admit that but we have a limited pool of talent."

"We only have a limited pool of talent because of the decision, YOUR decision, to run six shows in three months. We could have had any of our more well-known fighters on this card and it would have been an improvement. Instead we had a guy off the independents co-main eventing and two guys who've never fought in the UK on the main card. When I first saw the card I was sceptical and it's my fault for not saying something sooner. I thought you knew what you were doing, obviously I was wrong."

"Now that's just unfair, I know what I'm doing. Yes I'll admit that in hindsight this show was a bit of a failure in some areas but it was a positive in many others as well. Seth O'Breen has upped his stock as a strong Lightweight champion, we've gained popularity in every region around the world thanks to our deal with SportTube, and I assume the most important thing is that we made a profit."

"A slim profit Chris, a very slim profit, and that doesn't explain why we've lost $180,000 since you took over."

"That money has gone into the marketing of the future shows, it will be a good investment in the end. I made sure we didn't spend too much to leave us in a whole and I guarantee we will see a big profit from our PPV shows as a result."

"Well we'll see about that. I hope you're right, for everyone's sake. But we need to start working on getting more star power on these shows, I know we've booked 6 for the next few months but we have to have a re-think when it comes to the shows after that and get cards that keep everyone happy, OK?"

"OK, I understand. Do you want to run through tonight's show?"

"Sure, let's do it."

"Great. I thought Dom Yorke looked pretty good, admittedly Olafur Petursson looked out of his depth, but his grappling worked well and he was resiliant in getting the submission. It's a good job he did because he got the Submission of the Night by default as the only submission winner."

"Yeah Yorke looked good, not sure about Petursson though. He looked really average, like he didn't have a clue how to defend anything that Yorke was throwing at him. He's not developing his grappling skills anywhere near enough to compete."

"I agree. What was next... Eddie Whelan and Vic Millican. Great fight, just what I was hoping from these two, a stand-up war which could have gone either way. Vic did enough in my book but Eddie didn't back down at any point."

"See this is what I'm talking about, fights like this need to be on the main card. Heavyweight sluggers smashing each other and they're both well known to our fan base."

"I agree, that was a bad call on my part. Could say the same for Scott Gillespie and Grant Kyle but their fight wasn't much to write home about. Scott was too good for Kyle and it really showed how limited Kyle is."

"Yeah, I think we should be done with Kyle. He's 4-4 now, he came in because Charlie thought he would provide some entertaining brawls but he couldn't even do that this time. Time to let him go."

"OK, I'll get right on that. Time for the main card that everyone hated, Rekdal and Akabaro. Great war this, really entertaining from start to finish. I thought Danny was doing alright but Rekdal really stepped up his game in rounds 2 and 3, and that uppercut to finish things was brutal. They got Fight of the Night and I'm hoping Rekdal did enough to get some fans in the UK."

"I wouldn't be so sure, it was a great fight don't get me wrong, but I don't think the show did enough viewers to make any new stars. I'm sure a few more people know him but there's no way he's a star, he can't headline shows or even co-Main Event yet. Don't get too far ahead of yourself. The fight was fantastic though, really good back-and-forth stuff."

"Stian Agdestein looked pretty good for a youngster, it was an adequate and unspectacular performance but it got the job done. That first round was dire but he picked it up in the second, poor Buzzy never semeed to have a chance."

"I'd never heard of this Agdestein guy before so I was ready to rip into you for signing a nobody, but he seems pretty good. Strong grappler definitely which might not make for very entertaining fights. I expected Buzzy to be more of a threat than he was but Agdestein just shut him down."

"I thought the next fight was a bit of a letdown, Ozzy Bintley and Jesse Singh. I'll be honest I was hoping Ozzy would get a statement victory with a knockout but Singh held in there. I think Ozzy got a bit confused by the reach advantage which shows his inexperience, I think he's got the tools to be a big hit though."

"Yeah I think Ozzy's definitely one to get behind, try and keep his opponents favourable so we can make him a star. He'll get over his limitations in time. I thought Singh was disappointing, I can't believe he gassed in the second round, he had his second chance with us and didn't make a very good impression."

"I'll give him another chance but I agree, he needs to be in better shape. More muscle than stamina I guess. My star of the night was Daniel Hornsby, I was actually expecting Kirby to win that fight but Hornsby completely shut down his striking and used that vicious ground and pound of his."

"I think Hornsby came out of tonight better than anyone else. Superb performance from him, personally I thought Kirby was over-matched and he looked it."

"I've seen Kirby fight before and he's usually devastating with his striking, I think Hornsby knew that as well and made sure not to give him the room to wind up a big punch. I think Kirby's got a bright fuiture and hopefully he'll learn from this setback."

"OK, but don't go giving him lots of chances because you think he has "potential", he's got to deliver as well."

"Trust me, he'll be fine. Main Event was..."

"The main event was a one-sided beating, like we all knew it would be when the match was announced. Why on Earth did you pick Oldacres for the title shot?"

"Honestly Tim it's because there was no-one else. Oldacres had two BCF wins under his belt and he's one of the few people O'Breen hasn't beaten before. In the end I decided that, whilst O'Breen would likely wipe the floor with him, that the likely victory would give O'Breen a much needed popularity boost. Still, at least it was an entertaining one-sided beating."

"I guess it was. Any idea why O'Breen didn't just take him down and submit him early on?"

"Well I thought it was because he broke his hand, but I spoke to him backstage and he said he wanted to prove that he wasn't just a submission guy and had the boxing skills to compete with a striker like Oldacres. I guess he proved that but I think a quick submission win would have done better for his reputation, when you're called "Submission King" I think you should be trying to win by submssion."

"Haha, couldn't agree more. Right then, I'm going home. Remember what we've discussed tonight, we can't just put anyone out there and expect people to come to the shows or watch on the internet. How's that television deal going?"

"I'm very near to signing a deal, it would be for a new show though as the broadcaster wants exclusive content."

"OK, keep me posted on that. See you next week Chris, let's hope the Potter vs. Alois show is more successful than this one."

D-Lyrium · December 21, 2014

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/cornwall.png Grant Kyle (4-3) vs. Scott Gillespie (5-2) http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/scotland.png

Shame he lost. 4/8 on the predictions, not too shabby. Would've been 5/8 if I hadn't gone all ridiculous with Grant Kyle.

Only 1 of the finishes correct though (and got the winner for that one wrong). Though I had Rekdal by TKO, so if he'd kept punching Danny on the floor and forced the ref to step in, that would probably have counted. ¬_¬ Impressed Oldacres lasted 5 rounds!

Chris2K · December 23, 2014

THE WEEK IN MMA

Week 4 of February 2001

Fans of British Cage Fighting were left somewhat frustrated by the company's first show of the year, whilst the fights themselves were entertaining the feedback we've had from fans is that the show didn't appeal to them very much due to the lack of star power. Seth O'Breen was the biggest name but he lacks the drawing power to bring fans in, the rest of the card was filled with youngsters and new fighters from SIGMA so a lack of viewers really shouldn't have been a surprise. It's a worrying sign for BCF as they need these TV shows to make new stars but I don't think anyone came out of this show with any more popularity than when they started. The disappointment of the show means we have pushed BCF down to #6 in our rankings behind XCC leaving them even further behind their rivals SIGMA.

Some brief news out of GAMMA as two fighters have essentially swapped weight classes with each other, Leon Banks has moved down to Light Heavyweight to try and rejuvenate his career, meanwhile John Rivero has moved back up to Heavyweight which makes sense considering he wasn't able to make weight at 205.

Contract news from around the world, both Li-Kong Ho and Tomohiro Takeuchi have extended their deals with KDM FC which makes sense consideing there are no real alternatives for a Featherweight in Asia, meanwhile in BCF Seth O'Breen, Scott Gillespie, Matthew Michael Kirby and Danny Akabara have had their contracts extended, whilst Grant Kyle has been cut. SIGMA have offered a deal to Will Kane meaning that the BCF Welterweight champion might be in two different companies just like all of the SIGMA champions.

Some late news coming in, Doug Hansen has injured his arm in training and has pulled out of his main event fight with Gregory O'Hara, he is replaced by SIGMA fighter Milenko Rudonja who we didn't even know had signed a BCF deal. The show has been re-organised to push Christopher Drew and Mark Bicknell into the main event position which sounds like a very lacklustre show in terms of star power.

We are just getting through the results of ALPHA-1 Warriors of the Ring 2, we don't have full details yet but Heiji Endo has won the main event by submitting Haranobu Oshiro with an armbar. Other results include Fukusaburu Hirano beating Ikku Funkai by first round TKO and Motoki Hojo beating Shizukya Nakae also by TKO, there were also wins for debutant Grzegorz Boniek, Chew Chua, Ali Shivari, Jiroemon Hasegawa and Ieyoshi Yamashita.

-------------------------

MEETING

Euro Cable Sport Headquarters, Munich, Germany

Euro Cable Sport 1 Controller Hans Madsen

BCF CEO Chris Dewing

"Mr. Dewing, welcome."

"Hello Herr Madsen, thank you for seeing me, and thanks for speaking English!"

"Please, call me Hans, and I am guessing my English is better than your German, yes?"

"Yes. Well, ja, I guess."

"Haha, quite. Well Mr. Dewing we should get to business. We are very aware of your promotion and we are also aware that you have a conflict going with SIGMA. You realise we have had a working relationship with SIGMA in the past?"

"I am aware of that, but I'm also aware that you have ceased your agreement with them due to a disagreement with their owner. I myself have had interaction with Mr. Freeman and I can understand why you chose to cancel their deal."

"Now Mr. Dewing we are not here to slander those who are not present, the SIGMA/Euro Cable Sport deal may be over but I will not divulge the reasons why in this meeting. We are here to discuss whether or not BCF would be a suitable fit for our network."

"I understand that Hans, my apologies. I have noticed that your network has begun airing highlight packages of KDM FC shows and the response has been quite positive. I believe that your viewers are looking for more access to MMA and the BCF are able to supply it for you. Not only that but I believe that the programming that the BCF can offer you will help bring in new subscribers to your network."

"Yes, I have read the plan you have sent me and the points you make are valid ones. MMA is something that Euro Cable Sport are interested in marketing, but our concern is that the product we have needs to appeal to more than just one country's viewers. Your promotion is, by its name alone, a British company, but we broadcast in all European countries, including Britain, and also Russia."

"I agree that we are first and foremost a British company but we are developing a much wider range of talent. As part of our ongoing "battle" with SIGMA we have acquired some of the strongest fighters from a number of European countries, many of them Russian, and we would be able to draw in new viewers by marketing those fighters to their home areas."

"OK, OK, I see your point. I have discussed this with our team and we have decided that we are willing to give live MMA a run, and as your company fits many of the criteria we are looking for we are looking to run some BCF shows on our network this year."

"Really? That's fantastic news! Thank you very much for this opportunity."

"There are some restrictions though. I understand you have a deal with SportTube?"

"Yes, they broadcast many of our shows on a delayed basis."

"I'm afraid that will not be possible with shows broadcast by Euro Cable Sport 1. The terms of our deal are that any shows broadcast by us become our property, both on television and the internet, so SportTube will not be allowed to broadcast any of it even on a delay."

"OK, I understand. The deal we have with them is quite flexible, and to be honest they have so many MMA companies on their platform I'm not even sure they'll notice."

"Excellent. I look forward to hearing from you soon with regards to when the first show will be and we will get to work on marketing the show in the best way possible."

"That's great. Thanks very much again, I'll make sure we don't let you down."

"I hope you don't Mr. Dewing, this is just a trial run so if the ratings are not up to scratch or there are other problems we will not be following up with a longer deal."

"Understood. Thank you for your time, and speak to you soon."

Chris2K · December 25, 2014

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/BCF/CarterPotter-2.gifhttp://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/vs.jpghttp://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/BCF/StaffordAlois-2.gif

The BCF will broadcast their first PPV of the year this Saturday when United Kingdom Choice plays host to BCF: Potter vs. Alois II. This is a re-match of a fight from all the way back in December 1996 when Alois was the BCF Heavyweight Champion and he knocked out the first-time challenger Potter, now it's Potter who holds the title with Alois looking to win it back. Also on the show we will see highly touted Lightweight Fiyero Lermontov make his BCF debut along with Valentin Taneyev, as well as the experienced Vikram Sithalayan.

There will be three preliminary fights at the start of the evening with the first taking place in the Heavyweight division when Howard Pursglove (13-8) takes on Michael Bannon (8-5). Pursglove is a veteran of the sport who has trundled along in a career without making many waves, he has won fights he was expected to win and lost fights he was expected to lose. A former policeman, Pursglove was issued an ultimatum by the police force to either give up MMA or lose his job, Pursglove opted for MMA and now works as a security guard to help pay for his training. Pursglove's main strengths lie in his boxing as he has the technique and power to cause problems for anyone. Michael Bannon is well known for having some of the nastiest ground and pound in MMA thanks to his lightning fast punches, he also has decent enough wrestling skills to get the fight to the ground. Bannon previously fought at Light Heavyweight but made the decision to bulk up to Heavyweight when it became apparent his chances of fighting for a title were dashed with a loss to Daniel Hornsby, however Bannon's move to Heavyweight has also proved unsuccessful with a loss to Eddie Whelan in his debut in that weight class. Unsurprisingly Bannon will have a weight disadvantage of at least 12 pounds for this fight but he is still the -460 favourite, in terms of rankings Pursglove is ranked at #22 whilst Bannon is at #15.

In the Welterweight division we will see Timothy Latchkey (8-1) taking on Bret Clement (6-3) in a traditional grappler vs. striker match-up. Latchkey is the grappler in question as he is a student of catch wrestling which has given him a strong base of grappling and submission skills, those talents have been the reason behind all of his victories as his striking is a nowhere near as advanced. Latchkey has been with the BCF for a while but has found himself stuck in the preliminary card despite amassing a decent record during his time with the company. Bret Clement is one of the few New Zealanders in MMA and has a background in kick boxing, he's not the most proficient of strikers though which makes his lack of grappling and ground skills even more of an issue. Clement's main strength comes from the speed of his strikes but without the technique and power behind them they don't present much of a threat. Clement was 6-0 before joining the BCF but is beginning to slide downhill with three consecutive losses. The bookmakers have Clement pegged for another loss here with Latchkey going in a -850 favourite, Latchkey is ranked #14 in the BCF whilst Clement is down in #22.

The final preliminary fight will see Jeremy Sproule (6-4) take on Gerrard Kneeling (6-0) in the Lightweight division. Sproule, known as "The Doctor Of Style", is one of the fastest fighters in the BCF and he uses that speed to keep away from strikers and grapplers before firing back with decent strikes of his own. That tactic does come with a risk though as if someone is able to get hold of him then he tends to get easily overwhelmed due to a lack of grappling skill and very little power in his hands. Sproule has a 4-3 record in the BCF but is mainly kept in prelim fights, his biggest match was against Seth O'Breen in 1998 where he was obliterated. 22 year old Gerrard Kneeling is yet to taste defeat in his MMA career and has a couple of very low level BCF fights to his name, his main style involves standing and trading strikes with his opponents and he doesn't really have a secondary style to fall back on if he faces someone who's stronger than him. Kneeling has been able to get away with it so far but it's likely he will face a much stronger level of competition if he keeps winning so he had better get training on his defensive skills. Sproule is ranked #23 and Kneeling is ranked #22 in the BCF, and to further prove how close this is the bookmakers have both fighters even on -110 with neither being a favourite.

In the first main card match the BCF welcomes one of the best Lightweights in the world to the company as Fiyero Lermontov (15-0) makes his British debut against fellow undefeated fighter Rupert Lennox (7-0). The Russian Lermontov learned hand-to-hand combat when he was part of the Russian Army's special forces unit, after leaving the military he started in MMA and took to it immediately winning his first eleven fights by stoppage. His dominance continued as he became the Lightweight champion of another organisation defeating the legendary Luis Basora twice. It's hard to find a weakness in Lermontov's game, he is ruthless on his feet, incredibly strong at grappling, and very well accomplished on the ground. Rupert Lennox may be walking to his doom here but he's not going to just give in to his highly decorated opponent, Lennox is one of the best Muay Thai competitors to ever come out of the United Kingdom and is a former national champion. Lennox is best suited to striking and fighting inside the clinch as he is weak on the ground, but he has the power to knock people out should he get the opportunity. The bookmakers, like everyone else, see this fight as a one-sided massacre and are making Lermontov a -1200 favourite, hardly surprising when he's ranked the #6 Pound for Pound fighter in the world whilst Lennox is only the #16 Lightweight in the BCF.

In a Welterweight division fight we will see Vikram Sithalayan (18-3) return to the cage to fight Caragh Green (5-1). Sithalayan may be the best fighter based in Britain to never hold a BCF title, twice he has earned his way to a title shot but has lost those opportunities to David Webb and Will Kane. Sithalayan certainly has the skills of a champion, trained in the Asian wrestling art of Pehlwani he has a very impressive grappling base which allows him to control the fight, he also has some vicious submissions in his game and isn't bad on his feet either. Sithalayan will likely be hunting another title opportunity and has apparently been training harder than ever to make it happen. Caragh Green is a fighter from Dublin in Ireland who has a fairly well-rounded game, unlike Sithalayan though it's more a case of a jack-of-all-trades style rather than being particularly good in any particular area. Being decent in many different things may have worked for Green on the independent scene but it didn't prepare him for his BCF debut where he was beaten by Mikey Wallace and this fight is even tougher than his first one. Sithalayan has been made a -1200 favourite and is ranked as the #21 Welterweight in the world, Green is merely ranked the #20 in the BCF.

In the third consecutive match which could well be a one-sided slaughter we will see Valentin Taneyev (9-0) take on Neville Granville (6-0) in the Light Heavyweight division. Taneyev is one of the hottest prospects in MMA thanks to being well-trained in almost every aspect of the sport, plus he has the physical gifts to cope with any situation. Unlike other elite fighters Taneyev has been training specifically for MMA since a young age with no background in any particular martial art and is fully equipped to perhaps be one of the best Light Heavyweights in the world. Taneyev's biggest fight was defeating the legendary Mantas Andreyev in what would be Andreyev's retirement fight. Neville Granville only moved over to MMA five years ago having previously been a professional boxer, as such his striking is the fundamental part of his game with his punches having both power and accuracy behind them. His grappling is still very weak having not had much time training it, if he gets that aspect of his game up to speed he could be a handful but at 32 time is not on his side. Granville won his BCF debut but this fight is going to be a whole lot harder, once again the bookmakers are very confident of how it will go with Taneyev down as a -1200 favourite despite being only 6 places ahead in the BCF Light Heavyweight rankings.

The co-Main Event will be a Middleweight division fight which should be a lot closer than the three previous fights, Australian Heath Kaladaris (5-0) hopes to continue his winning streak when he takes on Henning Olsen (16-7). Kaladaris is considered a real prospect for the future as he is another fighter who has been training for all aspects of MMA for a while, however he also has a strong striking game thanks to training as a kick boxer as a teenager. Kaladaris is called "The Total Package" for a reason as he has no holes in his game, he also has the look of a superstar. Kaladaris has already made his debut for the BCF which he won without any problems and will be looking to do the same here. Henning Olsen has a 6-3 record in the BCF and has been with the company for many years, he has become somewhat of a gatekeeper in recent years which is what he is effectively doing here. Olsen's strength lies in his striking due to a background in kick boxing and having been in MMA for eight years he has also been able to train his grappling skills to a decent, if not spectacular level. Olsen will be hoping to de-rail the Kaladaris hype train here and start making his way towards a Middleweight title shot, something he has not had the opportunity at before. Kaladaris is only ranked #19 in the BCF Middleweight division compared to Olsen's #8, however Kaladaris comes into this fight a clear -410 favourite.

And finally in our Main Event the BCF Heavyweight title will be on the line when Carter Potter (19-4) defends his title against BCF's biggest name Stafford Alois (28-9). This is a re-match of a fight in 1998 which Alois won with a head kick knock out, but since then Potter has become the Heavyweight champion whilst Alois is nearing the end of his career. Carter Potter is New Zealand's biggest name in MMA even though he moved to the UK a long time ago, his style combines both good striking skills with a very dangerous ground game making him a threat to any opponent regardless of the situation of the fight. Potter is als o known for his physical prowess, he is naturally strong, has an excellent chin, and has some of the best conditioning of any Heavyweight fighter. Potter made a name for himself in 2000 when he was granted at shot at Rav Kapur's vacated Heavyweight title, and Potter defeated Eddie Whelan with an arm triangle to become the Heavyweight champion. Stafford Alois has been the flagship fighter for the BCF since its inception, a former BCF Heavyweight champion, a title he held for three years, his run would end at the hands of Rav Kapur who knocked Alois out. Alois then announced his retirement from the sport, however the thrill of competition was too much for Alois to ignore and he returned in 2000, knocked out Reynolds Baer, and earned himself a shot at his former title. Alois' strength lies with his brutal striking, powerful and technically perfect, if one of his trademark head kicks lands it's going to cause a lot of damage and usually means the fight is over. Despite Potter being the champion he is ranked lower in the world rankings than Alois, #15 compared to Alois' #11, and Alois is being made the favourite for this fight with odds of -230. Alois will also come into the fight with at least a 21lb weight advantage.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

OFFICIAL BCF: POTTER vs. ALOIS CARD

BCF Heavyweight Title

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/nz.png Carter Potter (19-4) © vs. Stafford Alois (28-9) http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/england.png

Middleweight Division

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/au.png Heath Kaladaris (5-0) vs. Henning Olsen (16-7) http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/dk.png

Light Heavyweight Division

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/ru.png Valentin Taneyev (9-0) vs. Neville Granville (6-0) http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/england.png

Welterweight Division

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/pk.png Vikram Sithalayan (18-3) vs. Caragh Green (5-1) http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/ie.png

Lightweight Division

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/ru.png Fiyero Lermontov (15-0) vs. Rupert Lennox (7-0) http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/england.png

Lightweight Division

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/england.png Jeremy Sproule (6-4) vs. Gerrard Kneeling (6-0) http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/england.png

Welterweight Division

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/england.png Timothy Latchkey (8-1) vs. Bret Clement (6-3) http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/nz.png

Heavyweight Division

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/england.png Howard Pursglove (13-8) vs. Michael Bannon (8-5) http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/england.png

Chris2K · December 28, 2014

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/BCF/BCF.jpg

BCF: POTTER vs. ALOIS II

SATURDAY - WEEK 4 OF FEBRUARY 2001

------------------------------------

Preliminary Fight #1

Heavyweight Division

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/BCF2/HowardPursglove.jpghttp://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/vs.jpghttp://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/BCF2/MichaelBannon.jpg

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/england.png Howard Pursglove (13-8) vs. Michael Bannon (8-5)http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/england.png

Referee: Lee Tynan

Judges: Don Dill, Jimmy Drever, Steven Renshaw

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/BCF/Round1.jpg

The first strikes of the fight are a jab and hook combination from Pursglove but Bannon immediately fires back with a jab and hook of his own, the two fights then exchange strikes but neither lands anything significant. Another exchange seees Purglove connect with a jab and a big right hand, Pursglove then scores with a left but a big right hand misses its tarrget. Both fighters seem happy to trade strikes with each other, on the next exchange Pursglove misses a hook and Bannon counters with a jab and a right hand, Pursglove continues to move forward but walks right into a couple of jabs from Bannon. Pursglove misses with a jab but it still helps him set up a nice striahgt right hand, the fighters then stand and trade in the centre of the cage but nothing lands with much powr behind it. Pursglove connects with a nice left hand and follows that with a right hook, moments later he connects with an even more powerful right hook which affects Bannon enough that he misses with a jab and a hook of his own. You can see that Pursglove is far more confident in his striking than Bannon and he hits another left but misses with a big right hand, in the next exchange Bannon connects with two left hands but Pursglove hits a jab and this time does connect with the big right hand. That's the last action of the round and due to his dominance in the striking it has to be a 10-9 round to Pursglove.

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/BCF/Round2.jpg

It's more striking to begin the second round with Pursglove landing a jab and right hand before Bannon lands the same himself, a second exchange doesn't produce any significant strikes. On the next series of strikes Pursglove hits a jab and a right cross, Bannon responds with a jab and a right hand of his own, a few moments later they're swinging again with Pursglove using the same one-two combination that has been working throughout this fight and Bannon uses a similar combination in response. Pursglove is starting to look very tired now just halfway through the second round, the fight has had a very frenetic pace but you'd think he would be able to last a bit longer than this. Bannon connects with a jab and a right hook but Pursglove responds with a much more powerful right hook of his own which sends Bannon stumbling backwards, Pursglove immediately moves in to capitalise and floors Bannon with a right hand to the jaw! Pursglove drops down to start trying to fining Bannon off by raining down punches but Bannon does a good job of covering up, Pursglove's fatigue most likely prevents him from doing too much damage and he eventually has to settle for just having the top position. Bannon gets Pursglove trapped in his guard and whilst Pursglove fires off some punches there's not much power behind them. Pursglove tries to keep himself tight to Bannon to stop him executing a sweep and to try and avoid getting caught in a submission but it doesn't seem to work, Bannon isolates an arm and raises his legs to lock Pursglove in a triangle choke! Bannon has it deeply applied and Pursglove doesn't have the skill to get out of trouble so he has to tap out! A very good turnaround performance from Bannon who could have been finished himself just moments earlier.

Winner: Michael Bannon (9-5) via Sumbission (Triangle) in 4:04 of Round 2

Fight Rating: Fantastic

FIGHT METRICS

Howard Pursglove

41 Strikes Landed (11 Power Punches, 12 Punches, 18 Ground Strikes)

0 Takedowns Attempted

Michael Bannon

15 Strikes Landed (15 Punches)

0 Takedowns Attempted

1 Ground Sweep Attempted (0%)

1 Submission Attempted (100%)

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Preliminary Fight #2

Welterweight Division

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/BCF2/TimothyLatchkey.jpghttp://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/vs.jpghttp://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/BCF2/BretClement.jpg

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/england.png Timothy Latchkey (8-1) vs. Bret Clement (6-3) http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/england.png

Referee: Lee Tynan

Judges: Martin Mills, Don Dill, Steven Renshaw

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/BCF/Round1.jpg

Latchkey knows exactly what he wants to do here and moves in to clinch with Clement straight away, Latchkey then starts using some good dirty boxing to land hard punches to the head and body of Clement. It seems Clement has no real knowledge of how to defend himself here and Latchkey just bullies him up against the cage without any problems, a few more punches land as Clement continues to be beaten up on the inside. Latchkey gets the underhooks secured and lifts Clement up for a Greco-Roman slam, Latchkey expecutes it perfectly and Clement is left on his back with Latchkey in side control. This is turning into a bit of a massacre as Latchkey immediately moves through into full mount, from there he tries to set Clement up for an armbar. Latchkey swings over to the side of Clement and straightens out his arm to hyper-extend it, Clement again seems to have no grasp of how to defend this and ends up having to tap out before his arm gets severely damaged! This was just a complete ass-kicking as Clement had no answer to anything Latchkey was doing.

Winner: Timothy Latchkey (9-1) via Submission (Armbar) in 3:05 of Round 1

Fight Rating: Great

FIGHT METRICS

Timothy Latchkey

11 Strikes Landed (11 Punches)

1 Takedowns Attempted (100%)

1 Ground Pass (100%)

1 Submission Attempted (100%)

Vic Millican

5 Strikes Landed (5 Punches)

0 Takedowns Attempted

------------------------------------

Preliminary Fight #3

Lightweight Division

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/BCF2/JeremySproule.jpghttp://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/vs.jpghttp://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/BCF2/GerrardKneeling.jpg

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/england.png Jeremy Sproule (6-4) vs. Gerrard Kneeling (6-0) http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/england.png

Referee: Warren Munro

Judges: Bobby Serocke, Don Dill, Martin Mills

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Sproule lands the first strike of the fight with a jab but a big right misses, Sproule continues moving forward but his quick punches miss allowing Kneeling to counter with a jab. Sproule lands a decent right hook and quickly avoids a jab and right hand from Kneeling, another exchange of strikes follows where nobody lands anything of interest. Sproule continues to be more aggressive and moves in to strike again, he throws a one-two combination which Kneeling blocks with his gloves and Kneeling returns fire with a decent left hand. Sproule manages to land four successive strikes with a jab, a right hand, a second jab and a right cross, before using his speed to get out of the way of a big right hand from Kneeling. It seems Kneeling has realised he's not winning the striking game and tries to take the fight into a clinch, however Sproule is too quick and Kneeling simply can't catch him. Kneeling blocks another combination from Sproule but misses with a left hand as Sproule darts back out, Sproule then connects with a jab and a hook and again gets out of danger in time. For the remainder of the round Sproule continues to be more active and lands another jab/hook combination followed by another right hook just before the bell. Sproule deserves to win that round as his speed and accuracy have been too much for Kneeling to handle even if his strikes aren't doing that much damage.

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Sproule starts the second round by using that same jab and hook combination as the first round whilst Kneeling misses with the same punches in retaliation, Sproule connects with another jab but misses the hook this time, Kneeling again can't land anything in response as Sproule gets out in time, a brief striking exchange then follows where neither fighter can land a clean shot. Kneeling finally lands his first meaningful punch of the round with a left hand to the ear, Sproule responds with a two-punch combination which Kneeling manages to avoid. Sproule steps in to strike but Kneeling connects with a jab before he can throw anything, Sproule keeps moving forward though and connects with a clean right hand before getting back to avoid a big right hand. Sproule has found his timing again and he lands a right hook which is possibly the best strike of the fight so far, once again he gets out before Kneeling can land anything. Sproule moves in but this time Kneeling catches him with two left hands, that doesn't stop Sproule though who moves in and lands a left of his own and a straight right. Kneeling misses with a jab allowing Sproule to connect a right hook. Sproule lands a jab and then fires in a big right hook which causes Kneeling to back off, Sproule then pounces with a big right hand to the temple which knocks Neeling down! There's only 30 seconds left in the round so Sproule has to work fast, he follows Kneeling down and starts pounding away with right hands and lands several big shots to Kneeling, however Kneeling manages to recover enough to defend himself and prevents Sproule from taking the mount by scrambling back to his feet. The round ends shortly afterwards and the break couldn't come at a better time for Kneeling who still looks a bit wobbly.

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I have Sproule two rounds up so Kneeling almost certainly needs a finish here. Kneeling's plan seems to be to clinch with Sproule but again he can't get hold of the quick fighter, Sproule lands a nice straight right hand and dodges a jab from Kneeling. Sproule moves in again and uses a jab to set up a big right hook, that does enough to damage to stagger Kneeling again and a second big right from Sproule knocks Kneeling down for the second time! Sproule has a lot more time to work with on this occasion and begins unloading some more hard punches to the still stunned Kneeling, however Sproule might have used up too much energy in the previous round as he can't get much power behind these punches and Kneeling is not only able to recover but also manages to get Sproule back into full guard. Sproule is not a ground fighter in the slightest which gets proven immediately by Kneeling executing a perfect sweep to not only take the top position but also getting straight into full mount! Now it's Kneeling's turn to start firing in some ground and pound and he has the energy in the tank to make these punches mean something, Sproule eats a few big shots and he really seems to be struggling to cope with them! Kneeling unloads more hard right hands as he smells the opportunity for a finish and Sproule just rolls to his side not defending himself, a few more hard shots land and Sproule is doing nothing, in fact he may be out already but the referee is still letting it continue. Kneeling just keeps on punching until finally the referee steps in to stop the fight giving Kneeling the victory! That's an incredible comeback after being two rounds down and knocked down twice, I think Sproule just used up too much energy looking for the finish and didn't have enough left to defend himself on the ground.

Winner: Gerrard Kneeling (7-0) via TKO (Strikes) in 3:20 of Round 3

Fight Rating: Great

FIGHT METRICS

Jeremy Sproule

51 Strikes Landed (8 Power Punches, 20 Punches, 7 Power Ground Strikes, 16 Ground Strikes)

0 Takedowns Attempted

1 Ground Pass Attempted (0%)

Gerrard Kneeling

29 Strikes Landed (7 Punches, 17 Power Ground Strikes, 5 Ground Strikes)

0 Takedowns Attempted

1 Ground Sweep Attempted

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Main Card Fight #1

Lightweight Division

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http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/ru.png Fiyero Lermontov (15-0) vs. Rupert Lennox (7-0) http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/england.png

Referee: Michael Ephron

Judges: Bobby Serocke, Martin Mills, Don Dill

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This may be the biggest mis-match in recent MMA history, although the reputation of Lermontov has at least got people talking. Lermontov doesn't come out with his SIGMA Lightweight title belt, the BCF have been trying their best to disassociate Lermontov from SIGMA in all their press releases. The fight begins with a strike exchange where nothing significant is landed so Lennox has at least survived that, on the next exchange Lermontov connects with a couple of jabs and a leg kick whilst Lennox misses a right hook. Lermontov scores with a jab and hook combination whilst Lennox finds thin air with an attempted left hook, another exchange shortly afterwards results in neither fighter landing anything with any power. Lermontov hasn't gone for a takedown yet and it's soon apparant why, Lennox misses a right coross and Lermontov fires a straight right down the middle which sends Lennox crashing to the canvas! Lennox isn't out so Lermontov joins him on the ground and begins pounding away with strikes to finish Lennox off, Lermontov connects with some big right hands and Lennox looks like he's almost out, however Lermontov then decides to stop throwing strikes and just takes side control instead. It doesn't take long for Lermontov to transition through to mount as Lennox simply doesn't have the skill to stop him and is probably still rocked from the strikes, from there Lermontov sets Lennox up for an armbar and has no trouble getting it fully applied, the Russian gets Lennox's arm hyper-extended and Lennox wastes little time in tapping out. Well that went exactly how everyone expected, although maybe Lennox lasting four minutes could be considered a surprise.

Result: Fiyero Lermontov (16-0) via Submission (Armbar) in 4:12 of Round 1

Fight Rating: Great

FIGHT METRICS

Fiyero Lermontov

20 Strikes Landed (1 Power Punch, 5 Punches, 1 Kick, 6 Power Ground Strikes, 7 Ground Strikes)

0 Takedowns Attempted

1 Submission Attempted (100%)

1 Ground Pass Attempted (100%)

Rupert Lennox

0 Strikes Landed

0 Takedowns Attempted

0 Ground Pass

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Main Card Fight #2

Welterweight Division

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http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/pk.png Vikram Sithalayan (18-3) vs. Caragh Green (5-1) http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/ie.png

Referee: Michael Ephron

Judges: Martin Mills, Bobby Serocke, Jimmy Drever

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It's time for part two of the one-sided matches, Sithalayan really shouldn't have any trouble here. The fight begins with an exchange of strikes which results in nothing important, Green then misses with a jab giving Sithalayan the chance to land a jab and a big right hand. Green does connect with a jab on the next exchange but Sithalayan does far better with a jab, a right to the body, followed by another jab and a right hook to the cheek. Sithalayan is more of a grappler but he's completely out-classing Green on his feet, another left hand connects for him before he catches Green with a perfectr striahgt right hand. Sithalayan moves in again and this time Green is able to counter with a left hand, Sithalayan keeps moving in and lands a jab and another straight right, Green then decides to move in and try and clinch Sithalayan which sounds like a terrible idea, for some reason Sithalayan chooses not to engage in a grapple with Green and moves away. Sithalayan moves in to strike again and lands a jab, however a counter jab from Green prevents Sithalayan from landing anything stronger, in the next exchange Green lands another jab but this time Sithalayan keeps coming and hits a left hand followed by a right to the body. Green obviously doesn't want to strike with Sithalayan any more and decides to try for a takedown, needless to say that doesn't work either and Sithalayan is able to land a straight right hand when they separate. It's taken four and a half minutes but Sithalayan finally decides to use his grappling skills, he gets a clinch and immediately gets the underhooks, a trip leaves Green on his back and Sithalayan gets side control on his way down. Sithalayan looks to move into mount and does so without any trouble, however he's left it too late to go for a finish as the round ends before he can even throw a strike. It was complete domination from Sithalayan but it was almost like he was toying with Green rather than looking to finish the fight.

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Sithalayan lands the first strikes of the second round with a jab and a left hand to the body, Green tires to respond but misses a jab and a right cross. Sithalayan continues to pick Green apart with a jab and a big right hand, a counter jab misses from Green and Sithalayan punishes him with a left hand and a crunching right hook. Green is trying to do anything to stop Sithalayan punching him in the face but his attempt to grapple results in Sithalayan nailing him with a straight right hand, Green is definitely rocked by that one as he stumbles backwards into the cage, Sithalayan sees him in trouble and quickly moves to capitalise by grabbing Green in a guillotine choke! Sithalayan pulls Green to the ground and traps him inside his guard to get the most leverage and Green is forced to tap out before he passes out! Sithalayan takes a victory that was always likely to happen, he just took his time in getting it.

Winner: Vikram Sithalayan (19-3) via Submission (Guilltoine) in 2:01 of Round 2

Fight Rating: Good

FIGHT METRICS

Vikram Sithalayan

32 Strikes Landed (8 Power Punches, 24 Punches)

1 Takedown Attempted (100%)

1 Ground Pass Attempted (100%)

1 Submission Attempted (100%)

Buzzy Tuttle

7 Strikes Landed (7 Punches)

0 Takedowns Attempted

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Main Card Fight #3

Light Heavyweight Division

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http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/ru.png Valentin Taneyev (9-0) vs. Neville Granville (6-0) http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/england.png

Referee: Lee Tynan

Judges: Jimmy Drever, Steven Renshaw, Bobby Serocke

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Here's yet another fight where one fighter is a ridiculously strong favourite, this is more like a squash match show than a proper MMA card. Taneyev comes out aggressively and lands a jab followed by a right kick to the body, Granville steps in to strike himself but the threat of a takedown from Taneyev causes him to back off. Granville lands a jab but misses with a wild right hand, Taneyev then land a couple of jabs before blocking a one-two combination from Neville. The two fighters circle for a while looking for openings and it's not until the second half of the round before they engage properly again, neither one lands during an exchange and Taneyev has to back-pedal quickly to avoid three punches from Granville. Taneyev decides it's time to take the fight into a clinch and there's nothing Granville can do to stop him, Taneyev immediately begins working on the inside with some punches before pushing Granville back against the cage. Taneyev begins peppering Granville with strikes form all angles for the remainder of the round, mostly punches on the inside to the body and the head, but also the occasional foot stomp and knee to the thigh to keep Granville guessing. Granville is unable to get free but does at least manage to land some shots to Taneyev during the grapple, but the Russian dominated the position of the fight for so long that it has to be his round.

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The fighters come together with an exchange of strikes to start the second round but nothing of significance lands, a second exchange sees Taneyev connect with a jab and a kick to the body before Granville lands a jab but misses with a looping right hand. Taneyev decides to take the fight back into the clinch again as it worked well for him in the first round, he quickly steps in and grabs Neville before beginning to land some more short strikes to the head. Granville desperately wants to break free as he probably knows that he's not going to be able to do much from this position, however Taneyev is just too strong and keeps Granville in the clinch before pushing him back to trap him against the cage again. Taneyev continues to punish Granville with some dirty boxing and keeps Granville trpped for over two minutes against the cage, he does land the occasional foot stomp and punch to the ear as well but despite the strikes that Taneyev is landing the referee decides that he's seen enough and separates the fighters. Taneyev isn't very happy with this decision but it doesn't affect him too much, he simply takes the fight back into a clinch straight away drawing a bit of a groan from the crowd. There's only 50 seconds left which is more than enough time for Taneyev to muscle Granville back against the cage and keeps him there for the remainder of the round. It's not the most spectacular of performances but Taneyev has dominated Granville from start to finish so far.

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Granville needs a finish now surely but he's not likely to get one after Taneyev immediately takes the fight into a clinch at the start of the third round. Taneyev gets complete control of the clinch and uses the underhooks to throw Granville down to the ground and he gets side control on his way down for good measure. Taneyev doesn't want to waste any time at this stage and goes straight for one of Granville's arms to apply a kimura, Taneyev has the skill to lock it in and Granville certainly doesn't have the skill to defend it, even with the amount of sweat on both fighters Taneyev is able to get the hold applied and forces Granville to submit! It's not a surprising result but I'm surprised Taneyev needed quite this long to get the victory.

Winner: Valentin Taneyev (10-0) via Submission (Kimura) in 1:03 of Round 3

Fight Rating: Great

FIGHT METRICS

Valentin Taneyev

80 Strikes Landed (75 Punches, 4 Kicks, 1 Knee)

1 Takedowns Attempted (100%)

1 Submission Attempted (100%)

Neville Granville

28 Strikes Landed (28 Punches)

0 Takedown Completed (0%)

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Co-Main Event

Middleweight Division

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http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/au.png Heath Kaladaris (5-0) vs. Henning Olsen (16-7) http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/dk.png

Referee: Warren Munro

Judges: Steven Renshaw, Bobby Serocke, Jimmy Drever

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There's a lot of hype behind Kaladaris so he had better live up to it here. Olsen lands the first strike of the fight with a kick to the ribs, Kaladaris returns fire with a jab but Olsen lands a jab and follows that with a right hook. Another strike exchange in the centre of the cage sees Olsen land a jab but a missed hook gives Kaladaris the chance to counter with a head kick, Kaladaris continues to move forward and connects with a pair of jabs and a right hand. Olsen lands a jab but again misses with a right hook, Kaladaris then misses with a hook of his own. Either these fighters have some great strike evasivesness or they're both really inaccurate. Kaladaris proves me wrong by landing a nice combination of jabs and a right hand, Olsen lands with a jab but that hook misses once again. Kaladaris begins to get a bit flashy with a spinning back kick to the ribs of Olsen, the Danish kick boxer lands the same strike in return but without the spin. Olsen then goes for a head kick which Kaladaris ducks underneath, Kaladaris counters with a couple of jabs and goes for a head kick of his own which also misses. Into the final minute of the round we go and Kaladaris is able to score with a jab and a great right hook, Olsen responds with a jab but his attempt at a right hook doesn't find the mark. Kaladaris seems to have his timing down now and he connects with a pair of jabs and a roundhouse kick to the body before Olsen can connect with a jab, there's time for one more exchange of strikes before the end of the round but nothing powerful lands. The round was pretty close up to the final minute at which point Kaladaris really turned it on so he should take the round.

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The two fighters exchange jabs at the start of the second round before Kaladaris hits a nice kick to the ribs, a few moments later Kaladaris uses a couple of jabs to set up another kick to the same side of Olsen's body, perhaps he's starting to target a specific area now. Kaladaris keeps on the pressure with another two jabs and a third kick to the same spot on Olsen's ribs, Kaladaris then goes upstairs for a head kick but Olsen is able to block it. Olsen is off target with a body kick of his own and an exchange of strikes begins, lots of punches are thrown but not a single one actually connects during the whole thing. Kaladaris tries to use a jab to set up a head kick but it misses again, Olsen counters with a jab and a leg kick. Kaladaris strikes with a combination of jabs and a right cross, Olsen again lacks accuracy in his strikes by missing a jab and a hook and he pays for it when Kaladaris tags him with another couple of jabs. With a minute left in the round Olsen misses with yet another jab and this time Kaladaris connects with a hard right hand, it caught Olsen flush on the jaw and a second big right hand is enough to send Olsen to the canvas! Kaladaris quickly gets down to join him and takes side control, Kaladaris lands a few punches but his chances of getting a finish here are squandered by the round ending before he can do too much damage. That's another round for Kaladaris and it remains to be seen whether Olsen can even come out for round 3.

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Well Olsen is coming out but he might still be hurt from that onslaught at the end, it's probably not helping that he's been told he has to get a finish in this round. Kaladaris starts the round in a similar vein to the first two with a jab and a powerful right hook, Olsen tries to land a jab and a cross but he can't do so. A quick exchange leads to nothing but on the next strike exchange Kaladaris lands a jab and a head kick which leaves Olsen stumbling backwards, Kaladaris follows him and lands a big right which sends Olsen crashing down for the second time in this fight! Kaladaris has a lot more time to work than in the previous round and begins firing away with some nasty looking punches to the head, however Kaladaris suddenly stops punching with his right hand and isn't able to do much damage with his left. With striking now out of the equation apparently Kaladaris instead gets to side control and locks in an arm triangle, I'm not sure Olsen ever really recovered from the knockdown as he very weakly taps as soon as the hold is applied! Kaladaris remains undefeated and comes though his toughest test to date with a dominant performance.

Winner: Heath Kaladaris (6-0) via Submission (Arm Triangle) - 2:40 of Round 1

Fight Rating: Great

FIGHT METRICS

Heath Kaladaris

52 Strikes Landed (5 Power Punches, 27 Punches, 1 Power Kick, 5 Kicks, 4 Power Ground Strikes, 10 Ground Strikes)

0 Takedowns Attempted

1 Submission Attempted (100%)

Henning Olsen

12 Strikes Landed (10 Punches, 2 Kicks)

0 Takedowns Attempted

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Main Event

BCF Heavyweight Title

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/BCF2/CarterPotter.jpghttp://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/vs.jpghttp://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/BCF2/StaffordAlois.jpg

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/nz.png Carter Potter (19-4) vs. Stafford Alois (28-9) http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/england.png

Referee: Warren Munro

Judges: Jimmy Drever, Bobby Serocke, Martin Mills

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/BCF/Round1.jpg

There's a rumble of anticipation for this fight with the crowd very much behind their countryman Stafford Alois against the foreigner Carter Potter, plus there's the fairytale storyline of Alois retiring and coming back to try and reclaim his title. The first strike that lands is a jab from Alois who goes for a high kick straight away, Potter is wise to that though and manages to avoid it. A strike exchange goes nowhere and an exchange after that sees a lot of strikes thrown only for none of them to land, Potter finally manages to land his first punches of the fight with two jabs but has to get out of range quickly when Alois throws another kick at his head. Alois uses a jab to set up a nice kick to the ribs of Potter, the champion tries to retaliate with a jab which misses but he does manage to land a decent left hook to the body. Alois starts targeting the lead leg of Potter with his powerful kicks, however he gets caught by a jab from Potter who follows that with a nice right cross. Alois connects with a couple of jabs and slams in another leg kick, Potter returns fire with a jab and a right hook before Alois lands a jab and hook combination of his own. Potter lands a jab but then gets caught by a trademark Alois head kick, it doesn't seem to affect Potter much though as it wasn't a particularly solid contact. Potter lands a nice right hook and this time manages to get out of the way of another Alois head kick, and that turns out to be the last action of the round. It's a close one to call but I think Alois landed more shots so I'd give it to him.

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The two fighters move straight in to strike at the start of the second round, Potter lands a jab and a right hand during the exchange whilst Alois lands a jab and a right cross. Potter misses with a right allowing Alois to hit a left/right combination on the counter, another couple of exchanges take place but nobody lands a solid shot. Potter uses a jab to set up a powerful right hook which is probably his best strike of the fight so far, Alois connects with a pair of jabs but Potter is out of range for a right hook. Potter misses with a right cross allowing Alois to counter with a jab and a right hand, both fighters then land a jab but Alois' follow-up leg kick is checked by Potter. Alois throws his first head kick of the round but Potter avoids it and counters with a jab and a right hook, Alois is really going for that head kick now but a second one misses allowing Potter to hit a jab. Potter lands a quick jab and scoots away to avoid a leg kick, however Alois follows after him and connects with a couple of jabs and a right hand. There's time for Alois to throw one more head kick which again misses the target, however this time Alois has time to move back and avoid the counter striking of Potter. The round comes to an end without any more action, this one is a bit clearer to me with Potter landing more strikes and also doing more damage.

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Alois lands a jab to start the third round but misses a body kick, Potter responds with a right hook before both fighters connect with jabs and back away. An exchange in the centre doesn't lead to any decent strikes connecting but ashortly afterwards Potter lands a good combination of a jab and a right cross, Alois cannot respond with a leg kick in time. Alois does land a nice body kick shortly afterwards, Potter keeps moving in though and even takes a counter left hand in order to get close enough to score with a big right cross the jaw, Alois looks like he's hurt by that one but he's definitely hurt by a huge left hook which drops him to the canvas! Potter senses the opportunity for victory and begins raining down punches to the fallen Alois, a lot of them get through and do some big damage but Alois manages to regain his senses enough to drag Potter to the ground even if it means giving Potter side control in the process. Potter now ahs the chance to put his submission skills to use and goes for an arm traingle straight away, this isn't Alois' first rodeo though and he is able to block it from being applied. After landing a few short punches Potter next tries for a kimura but Alois again doesn't let the submission get locked in, the Englishman also tries to get Potter back into his guard but Potter is took skilled to give up his dominant position so easily. Potter's next submission attempt is an Americana but Alois is block that and is able to control Potter for the remainder of the round. I think it's fair to say Alois has only just survived that round whilst Potter could very well be given a 10-8 for it.

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I have Potter 29-27 up at the moment so Alois is going to have to step up the intensity now. Potter comes in and starts with two left hands which land but a body shot doesn't connect, Potter then scores with another left hand and Alois is looking a lot slower now. A possible combination of fatigue and still feeling the affects of being knocked down in the third round forces Alois to get hold of Potter and take the fight into the clinch, Alois has a big weight advantage so that helps him push Potter against the cage. Alois controls Potter and catches him with a hard elbow to the face, it's hard enough to open up a cut right above Potter's right eye. Alois lands a hard knee to the ribs and a foot stomp but the amount of strikes Alois throws is limited due hit tiredness, he keeps him smothered against the cage for a while just to catch his breath. Alois lands a knee to the thigh of Potter and a left hand to the gut, he then hits another elbow directly on to the cut and the blood is now gushing out of that wound down Potter's face and on to Alois' body as well. For sixty seconds the fighters throw the occasional punch on the inside until Alois throws another knee, this time Potter is ready and uses his wrestling to turn the situation around and get Alois against the cage. The referee takes this opportunity to have the doctor check on Potter's cut and it looks really bad, I hope it doesn't bring an unpleasant end to this fight. The doctor's checking... ah crap, he's waving it off. Potter is arguing with the referee and the doctor but they're unmoved, Stafford Alois is going to be awarded this match by TKO and as such is the new BCF Heavyweight champion. It's not a nice way for this to happen, the crowd are booing the stoppage but it's the safety of Potter that's being considered here.

Winner, and NEW BCF Heavyweight Champion: Stafford Alois (29-9) via TKO (Doctor Stoppage) in 3:51 of Round 4

Fight Rating: Good

FIGHT METRICS

Carter Potter

55 Strikes Landed (4 Power Punches, 40 Punches, 6 Power Ground Strikes, 5 Ground Strikes)

0 Takedowns Attempted

3 Submission Attempted (0%)

Stafford Alois

54 Strikes Landed (44 Punches, 6 Kicks, 2 Elbows, 2 Knees)

0 Takedowns Attempted

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Statistics

Attendance: 381 ($33,528)

Critical Rating: 72%

Commercial Rating: 28%

Awards ($500 Each)

Fight Of The Night: Michael Bannon vs. Howard Pursglove

KO Of The Night: Gerrard Kneeling

Submission Of The Night: Timothy Latchkey

FINANCES

Income

Gate: $33,528

Sponsorship: $8,402

Advertising: $0

Merchandise: $3,078

PPV Buys: $304,000

Total: $349,008

Expenditure

Fighter Pay: $54,640 (Highest: Stafford Alois $23,520)

Drug Testing: $19,200

Production: $82,240

Total: $156,080

Profit: $192,928

Popularity

UK - http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/gb.png = 35.2% (+0.7%)

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Post Show Meeting

Jerome "Tim" McCallum - BCF Owner

Chris Dewing - BCF C.E.O.

"Chris, come on in, have a seat."

"Hey Tim, you seem a bit more cheerful than the last time we had a post show chat."

"Well I've got reason to be cheerful, tonight was an excellent show. Granted, we still need to work on producing more audience-attracting cards like we discussed last time, but from a fighting standpoint this might have been the best BCF show we've had."

"Yeah I thought it was excellent as well, eight fights, eight finishes, every fight was entertaining as well. It's a shame the main event ended the way it did as a lot of the crowd left here unhappy, that was something beyond our control though."

"Yeah that was a real shame. We may as well get this out of the way now, what are we going to do with Carter Potter? Does he get an immediate re-match?"

"I think we have to. I had him winning the fight before the stoppage and Stafford was really exhausted whilst Carter was pretty fresh, but Stafford did throw those elbows for a reason. The problem is that it'll be a third match between the two where one guy is already 2-0 up, it might be a tough sell to casual fans."

"I was worried about that too but if we market the fight right we should be OK. What other Heavyweight contenders do we have?"

"Well there's Harry Milne who has faced Alois before, Vic Millican won last time out, a lot of others already have fights planned and the SIGMA guys we have don't really have enough popularity to warrant a main event."

"OK, so we'll go with Alois/Potter 3 when they're both ready."

"I'll write that down. Speaking of future matches Heath Kaladaris called out Rhys Buck after his fight, that'll be two undefeated fighters squaring off and I'm happy to make that fight, problem is Heath broke his hand during his ground and pound so he's going to be out a while."

"That's annoying, he looked really good in that fight with Olsen. Right, let's go through the rest of the card."

"OK, Michael Bannon and Howard Pursglove was a fantastic way to start, Bannon's comeback was superb, it's the sort of thing believe wouldn't believe happens unless they saw it."

"I thought Bannon was mad when he said he wanted to move to Heavyweight but he showed some real heart in this one. I still think he'll struggle against higher calibre opponents though."

"Well the win here will put him into the mix for a better opponent so he'd better get training. Tim Latchkey just dominated Bret Clement in their fight, it was fairly brutal really. He's earned himself a much higher position on the card but I'm not sure Clement is good enough to be here."

"We need to keep Clement, even though I agree he's not that strong. He's good friends with Carter Potter and with people like ALPHA-1 and GAMMA sniffing around it would be best to try and keep our top stars happy in ways that don't cost us too much money."

"Good thinking, I'll extend his contract for a couple of fights. Gerrard Kneeling was another good comeback story, Jeremy Sproule seemed to be too quick for him but one big shot changed the whole complexion of the fight."

"That's always been Sproule's problem, he darts about all over the place like an electrified ferret but once he gets caught by a punch or a grapple he just folds. I like his fights though so let's keep him around, I'm not sold on Kneeling much yet though. Don't go giving him a bloody title shot like you did with Tim Oldacres."

"Ha, OK, I won't. Time for the main card, Fiyero Lermontov did what was expected of him, I put him on the card because his reputation hopefully brought in some viewers plus we need to get him known enough for a title shot. O'Breen/Lermontov could be a really big match for us."

"It could, but again don't think that one fight here makes a star. The buys for this show weren't great, UK Choice weren't happy at all with the number of buys for the show and that means there weren't many eyes on it."

"OK, but I still think an O'Breen/Lermontov fight is needed pretty soon as I can't say Lermontov is going to be around for long. Next up was Vik Sithalayan giving Caragh Green a mauling, I've always though Vik was much better than people thought and if he can replicate this kind of performance I think he might finally get the Welterweight title he's wanted."

"I love Vik, he's a top bloke, but I've always questioned his attitude. He seemed to coast on the talents he had and never kicked on. I hope this shows that he's more focused now and if he is he's going to be a real threat."

"Agreed. Next up was Valentin Taneyev and Neville Granville which was another one-sided fight, Granville showed how tough he was to stay in it for so long but Taneyev is just too good."

"I didn't know what to make of Taneyev, he looked good but I didn't sense much of a killer instict. I think he could have finished this a bit quicker and I'm not sure why he was so cautious. If he'd taken Granville to the ground in the first round I reckon he'd have done the same thing, just a lot quicker."

"I think he was trying to nullify Granville's striking because we know Neville is a powerful guy, maybe he was a bit over-cautious but he got the win in the end and it wasn't a boring fight by any means. We've talked about Kaladaris/Olsen and Alois/Potter already so I guess that's the show done."

"Yep. Right, three weeks to the next show, I want you to get that new TV deal signed and have a look at re-jigging some of the cards to get bigger names on the show. Have less prelims if we need to, Best of British is an internet show so we can have more than five fights if we need to."

"OK, I'll have a look at the shows. See you soon."

Chris2K · December 29, 2014

THE WEEK IN MMA

Week 1 of March 2001

The big show of the week was GAMMA 41 headlined by GAMMA Lightweight champion Brandon Sugar defending against former BCF Lightweight champion Jake Keane. It ended up being a successful defence for Sugar but Keane pushed him all the way to a 48-47, 49-46 48-47 decision. This wasn't that spectacular but it still won Fight of the Night, the remainder of the card was nothing special with decisions on all five main card fights. The highlights were tjat Nathan Chambers defeated Jack Humphreys in the Co-Main Event, Neil Napier defeated Dexter Darling and Junior Patinkin defeated Mike Watson. On the Prelims there were only two finishes in 8 fights, the big fights were Adam White submitting Woody Fierstein, Kurt McDonald defeating Steve Mason in a battle of (then) undefeated fighters, and Luis Basora made his GAMMA debut by defeating Clifton Curry but didn't look all that impressive in doing so.

Earlier in the week down in Brazil FLB ran their first show of the year, ironically it was the last FLB show of Roberto Aldez before he moves to ALPHA-1. It worked out well for FLB as Aldez was defeated by the unranked but undefeated Nilton Fantoni, it wasn't even close as Fantonio won every round despite coming in a +390 underdog. Also on the card Zaco defeated Mario de Souza by unanimous decision, whilst Affonso Villar showed he is still a force to be reckoned with by destroying the veteran Leandro Piquet in only 50 seconds. A title fight between Fantoni and Villar looks like a certainty at this point and should do FLB some good business.

WEFF ran their first TV show on Q-TV and loaded the card, #1 and #2 ranked Bantamweights Pamela O'Neill and Michelle Addams had a great fight which ended in a split decision win for O'Neill. The popular Layla Holmes also fought but made hard work of her fight with Sandy Oliver, also eventually winning by split decision.

Contract news? Everyone loves contract news. The big stories were cuts this week, Dexter Darling, a staple of GAMMA's Middleweight division, was surprisingly released from his contract after his loss to Neil Napier. I wouldn't be surprised if ALPHA-1 made a move for him, they could pay him with the money they'll save after cutting Gerson Mauricio from their roster. Extensions were signed in ALPHA-1 for Jiroeman Hasegawa, Haranobu oshiro and Ieyoshi Yamashita, whilst in the BCF Gerrard Kneeling, Caragh Green, Heath Kaladaris, Bret Clement and Vikram Sithalayan have signed new contracts. As reported last week it is now confiermed that BCF Welterweight champion has signed to fight for SIGMA as well as his British home company.

The BCF suffered two injuries this week to mess up their planned cards, George Astaire injured his arm in training and had to pull out of his fight with Gordon Idle, with only two weeks left before the fight the BCF scrambled to put together a catchweight (152lbs) fight between Idle and SIGMA Featherweight Benedikt Streit. Also injured was Lukas Mellberg, so the BCF cancelled Mal Beswick's fight and replaced it with Graeme Spark and Francesco Marazzina in one of their Featherweight tournament fights.

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E-MAIL CORRESPONDANCE

From: GeoffThomasGrey@BCFighting.co.uk

To: ChrisDewing@BCFighting.co.uk

Subject: British Independent Show

Hey Chris,

I went along to the small independent show in London last week. What a dreary place that was, you thought our attendance was bad for the BCF shows but there was about 20 people here, I think three of them were lost and one of them might have been dead.

Anyway, here's a brief rundown of the fighters involved, it was exclusively more experienced guys against local nobodies.

Geraint O'Connell (2-0) knocked out Warren Whitworth in 2:18. O'Connell is a really tall Lightweight and his reach advantage here was ridiculous, Whitworth couldn't get close and O'Donnell just pounded him. O'Donnell is only 21 so he's raw, but worth keeping an eye on.

Irving Braun (6-0) won by TKO against Karl Plotcheck in 4:37. Braun was the better fighter but made hard work of this, Plotcheck had him pinned against the cage for a lot of the fight until Braun finally secured a takedown, his ground work looked good though as he blitzed through the the mount and finished it with punches.

Aidan McHugh (6-2) won by knock out in 3:47 of Round 2 against Fred Jericho. I'm not sure that's his real name. McHugh knocked Jericho down in the first round but couldn't finish the fight, a left hook finished the job in the second round though. McHugh is a good striker but is pretty terrible everywhere else.

Ivor Orr (7-0) submitted Jim Dayl with a rear naked choke in 3:29 of Round 2. Orr looked really good here despite taking his time to win, he showed good boxing skills to knock Dahl down in the first round and then good wrestling and jiu jitsu to finish him off in the second. I think we should offer Orr a deal, he's got some good momentum behind him and I reckon he could beat a few of our Middleweights.

Thomas O'Cann (5-5) knocked out Dan Florian in 1:32. As quick as this was O'Cann is just what his name suggests, a can. And a can with a glass jaw.

Basil McCrystle (8-6) finished Eugene Elwes by TKO in 2:17. I spoke to McCrystle who told me his boxing skills were more than enough and he didn't need to work on his non-existant grappling skills. I won't be pursuing him.

Duey Rickert (8-5) defeated Duane Griffin by TKO in 3:18. Rickert is another one with just striking skills and whilst we need Featherweights I think we can find a better level of talent than him.

Pierce Jeeler (6-5) beat Nelson Coleman by TKO in 2:24. We both know Pierce well after his last disastrous run in the BCF and whilst he looked good here I think we can agree he's not at the standard we need.

Angus Silversmith (4-0) beat Joe Evans by unanimous decision. Silversmith is a big, strong, young Super Heavyweight and a good performance here might have got him an invite to ALPHA-1 or GAMMA. This was not a good performance.

Brian Barnes (13-11) beat Bobby Frehley by KO in 1:44. A quick win but at 35 years old Barnes is not one for the future and he's very one-dimenstional.

Dennis Gallagher (13-7) overcame Zachary Edwards by TKO in 1:53. An impressive performance from Gallagher who trains with the London Kick Boxing Academy, I'll keep my eye on him but at 32 time isn't on his side.

So yeah, Ivor Orr was the only stand-out really so only look at bringing him in, the others can stick to these little arenas.

Best wishes,

Geoff

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THE WEEKS IN MMA

Week 2 & 3 of March 2001

There's a complete void of shows for the next few weeks, we've only got two BCF shows between now and the first Saturday in April and, with all due respect to the BCF, I'd rather that Jin Katou v Zvonimir Asanovic wasn't so far away.

In the absence of shows the biggest news of the past two weeks is ALPHA-1's signing of Atep of Indonesia to compete in their Lightweight division. Atep, rumoured to be from Indonesia, was immediately stripped of his KDM FC title and will be free to fight with ALPHA-1 straight away. It's smart from both parties, ALPHA-1 have a new Lightweight contender, and Atep will be getting paid the money his talent deserves and will finally get some competition after clearing out the KDM FC Lightweight division.

We've had our first drug test failure of 2001 as Dutch Women's Bantamweight Stella Massey failed a test for PEDs after winning comfortably at a European local show. Considering the incredibly low standard of her opponent I don't know why she felt the need to take PEDs, but her failure means she is suspended for the next 12 months.

GAMMA have made a couple of signings, first is the gargantuan Wally Bryant for their Super Heavyweight division who may be the fattest man in MMA, and also the undefeated Middleweight Kramer Mayweather.

Syed Tan injured himself in training for his fight with Simon Vine and as a result that fight is completely off, therefore the ALPHA-1 show on Saturday Week 1 of April will be one fight shorter than expected.

In gossipy news there was apparently an altercation at the Team Desire training camp between Nathan Chambers and Duke Aiona. According to one source at the camp Aiona refused to spar with Chambers after Chambers had previously been too aggressive, Chambers took this as a slight that the Heavyweight didn't want to train with the Welterweight and a scuffle broke out. Chambers, a known hothead, apparently stomed out of the camp and said he was never coming back. No news on where Chambers might be heading next, he has time on his side though with no fight scheduled.

The ever changing world of British Cage Fighting has flown off in another diection with the announcement that they will be broadcasting a new television show on Euro Sport 1. The show, entitled BCF Adrenaline, will begin during the summer and will run concurrently with BCF Best of British and their PPV shows. The reasoning behind a new show is that Euro Sport 1 refused to share content with UK Broadcasting Digital, the home of Best of British, and so a new show was created to appease both parties.

BYU 14 · December 30, 2014

Really loving the detail you put into this, outstanding job!

Chris2K · January 1, 2015

Thanks, glad you're reading

. The matches are probably a bit long at the moment so I'll be shortening them up a bit, particularly the three round decisions.

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/BCF/DavisSpyrou-2.gifhttp://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/vs.jpghttp://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/BCF/GingerBeaumont-1.gif

The BCF head back to UK Broadcasting Digital and SportTube for their next Best of British show just one month after their previous outing, just like the February show there will be a title match headlining the event as long time BCF Middleweight champion Davis Spyrou defends his Middleweight title against the undefeated Ginger Beaumont. There will be a number of debuts on the show, Lubos Plasil, Aleksander Ivanov, Aleksei Chekhov and Evgeni Medtner all fight in the BCF for the first time and will all be tested against tough BCF veterans looking to spoil their welcoming party. The BCF have changed the format of the show giving the fans watching on the internet an extra fight, there are now six on the main card and two preliminary bouts.

Kicking off the show will be a first for the BCF, a contracted catchweight fight at 152lbs between Benedikt Streit (19-7) and Gordon Idle (10-4). This replaces a scheduled Lightweight match between Idle and George Astaire after an injury to Astaire in training. The German Benedikt Streit is making his BCF debut here and is officially the first Featherweight fighter in the BCF, however this is not the first Featherweight division fight. Streit is a former Lightweight competitor so he won't be too disadvantaged in the weight department, his main form of attack comes from grounding his opponents and using powerful strikes to finish them off, as a result he has been given the nickname of "The Bulldozer" for the way his opponents are left when they're beaten. Streit doesn't have much in the way of boxing skill so expect him to try and get the fight into a grappling contest very quickly. Gordon Idle has been a BCF regular for many years having fought in both the Welterweight and Lightweight divisions, he has earned himself title matches in both weight classes but has gained the reputation as a bit of a choker having lost convincingly in both of those fights. Idle's technique is similar to Steit's in that he likes to ground his opponents and clobber them with strikes, this is helped by Idle's impressive natural strength which makes his takedowns very hard to stop and puts a lot of power behind his punches. The bookmakers are giving Idle the tag of favourite putting him at -430.

In the second and final preliminary fight we will see Lubos Plasil (7-1) make his BCF debut in a Lightweight division match against Dominick Oppenheimer (6-1). Lubos Plasil made a relatively late entry into MMA having spent most of his early life training the Russian army in combat sambo. His military career was brought to an early end when Plasil was run over by a tank, having somehow survived that he had no fear of what other human beings could do to him and took his impressive grappling skills into MMA. Plasil's striking game still needs some work and his age is working against him in the sense of having a limited amount of time to make a real mark in the sport, but his grappling skill makes him a dangerous opponent for anyone in the Lightweight division. Dominick Oppenheimer is a young man from Cheshire who took the BCF by storm during the last few years, he earned his way to a Lightweight title shot surprisingly early in his career and it wasn't a shock when Jake Keane took him apart. Oppenheimer has a very technical striking style which he uses with some impressive speed to strike quickly and get out of danger before he gets caught, the issue he has is that if someone does catch him he has very little grappling skill to fall back on, and if he gets put on his back he has little defence at all. These fighters are ranked next to each other, Plasil #14 and Oppenheimer #15, but despite their ranking proximity Plasil has been made a huge -950 favourite for this fight.

In the first fight on the main card Murray O'Hare (6-2) will take on Mick Curran (15-9) in the Light Heavyweight division. O'Hare is an all-out brawler from Northern Ireland who is quite one-dimensional in his approach, however the power he has in his strikes makes him very dangerous if he gets the opportunity to stand and trade punches. O'Hare's lack of grappling knowledge makes him vulnerable to anyone who has some basic wrestling skills, the question usually is whether they can get past O'Hare's striking to get hold of him. Lenny McFadden was able to do just that in O'Hare's last fight, the Scotsman took O'Hare into a clinch and a vicious elbow knocked O'Hare out cold in what has gone down as one of the most brutal knock outs in BCF history. Mick Curran is a vastly experienced fighter who has never really stood out as being a well-rounded individual, however his sheer toughness and resilience make him a very difficult fighter to break down and finish. He doesn't have much in the way of technical skill in terms of either striking or grappling, his game plan is usually to go into the cage and try and outlast his opponent, his chin is solid enough to do that but as he gets on in years the younger, more trained fighters shouldn't have too much trouble breaking through him. Curran has been with the BCF for a long time but has never put together a winning streak longer than two matches. O'Hare is ranked #15 in the BCF Light Heavyweight division and Curran is ranked #17, the betting lines for this fight are incredibly close with O'Hare the slightest of favourites at -150.

The next match looks like it could be a brutal slaughter on paper when Aleksander Ivanov (9-1) takes on Perry Barr (15-6) in the Heavyweight division. It's going to be a fight where Ivanov is likely to come into the cage with a 60 pound weight advantage as Barr is moving back up to the Heavyweight division when he is really the size of an average Light Heavyweight. Aleksander Ivanov is considered one of Europe's top Heavyweights thanks to his incredible grappling skills, a student of sambo since an early age he is also enormously physically strong which allows him to use his grappling to dominate opponents as well as having huge power behind his strikes. Ivanov's only slight weakness is if he gets put on his back, but doing that to someone with Ivanov's strength is much easier said than done. A former Heavyweight champion in another organisation, Ivanov is stil only 24 and still has the potential to get even better than he already is. Perry Barr has been fighting in the Heavyweight division for most of his career and recently dropped down to Light Heavyweight, but he specifically asked to face Ivanov here as he truly believes he can beat the Russian. Barr is a BCF veteran having fought in the company for the last five years, his big right hand has brought him some success and he has an under-rated wrestling game, his biggest moment was a Heavyweight title shot against Stafford Alois but his weak chin cost him any chance of glory. At 36 Barr isn't likely to get many more chances so a win here is vital as could give him another shot at gold. Ivanov is ranked #8 whilst Barr is slightly behind at #10, the bookmakers are making Ivanov a firm favourite at -850.

The third Russian making their debut on this show is Light Heavyweight Aleksei Chekhov as he goes up against Adrian Majoram. Chekhov is one of the most feared strikers at 205 pounds thanks to his seamless reckless abandon towards throwing punches, there's nothing scientific or cautious about his style, he just comes out looking to hurt people with his brutal power. Chekhov isn't that well-skilled on the ground but he rarely goes there thanks to his impressive takedown defence, as a result it forces opponents to stand and trade with him which is a situation that rarely works out well for them. Chekhov's last match ended in defeat but it was a championship match to fellow BCF Light Heavyweight Niko Soldo, but there's no doubt Chekhov has the power to defeat anyone on his day. Adrian Majoram is a powerful kick boxer himself and can not only do significant damage with his striking but also has the ability to take a lot of punishment and still keep coming forward. Majoram doesn't have the takedown defence to keep the fight standing though and that is what resulted in Majoram's first and thus far only defeat, Curt Kitson was able to take him down and it didn't take long until Majoram was forced to submit to an armbar. Chekhov has already slotted in to the #3 spot in the Light Heavyweight rankings whilst Majoram is at #11, however the odds for the fight are quite close, Chekhov is the favourite as expected but only at -200.

Had enough Russians yet? Well there's time for one more as also debuting here is Evgeni Medtner (23-6) as he takes on Mills Mullally (18-5) in the Welterweight division. Evgeni Medtner has been a dominant force in the European Welterweight ranks for many years and held the Welterweight title of a another organisation for nearly two years and has amassed an impressive list of victims throughout his career. Medtner is a true all-rounder in that he combines quick, powerful striking with a very good wrestling game, however some fighters have managed to find that Medtner is weak on his back so if a fighter is able to out-grapple him then he is liable to be submitted. Mills Mullally is an ultra-tough Irishman from Dublin who has likely never backed down from a fight in his life. Mullally has a boxing background which is a strong component of his MMA game, his strikes are thrown with precision and with a lot of power behind them, but Mullally also has a good defensive game, his chin is strong enough for him to take punishment on the feet and his grappling is solid enough to defend himself when necessary. Mullally has really become a threat in the last few years as his game has improved enough to challenge any Welterweight that opposes him, a win here would be enough to get him a shot at the Welterweight title. Medtner has come in at #4 in the rankings whilst Mullally is at #7, however Medtner is a strong favourite at -630.

The co-Main Event is from the Middleweight division when Edgar van den Hoogenband (5-0) puts his undefeated record on the line against veteran Tucker Plumm (17-9). Dutchman Edgar van den Hoogenband has been out of action for nearly two years after suffering a horrific knee injury in training, this is his return fight so it will remain to be seen if the injury has hampered his career prospects. Van den Hoogenband was one of the best kick boxers in the world before deciding to move to MMA, all of his strikes are fast and incredibly powerful, his wide variety of strikes also make it difficult to know what he's going to next. One thing he likely won't do is grapple, it is part of his game that is still very under-developed and the injury hasn't helped as he hasn't been able to train his wrestling. Tucker Plumm has been fighting in the BCF for a long time, he had a Middleweight title shot all the way back in 1996, but despite his frequent fights he is yet to cement himself as a big name in the division thanks to a lack of consistency in his results - any wins are almost always followed by losses. Plumm's offense comes from his karate background and he is more than happy to throw head kicks at anyone trading strikes with him, he has worked hard on developing a good defensive grappling game but strong grapplers still shouldn't have a problem getting him to the ground. Due to his injury van den Hoogenband has fallen down to #19 in the rankings whilst Plumm is #9, van den Hoogenband has still been made the favourite though at -240.

And finally in our Main Event the BCF Middleweight title will be on the line when Davis Spyrou (20-5) takes on Ginger Beaumont (7-0). Spyrou has been the Middleweight champion for almost all of BCF's existence having won the title in December 1996, since then he has only lost the title once to Ram Phookan in a big upset but won the title back in the re-match. Spyrou is a powerful kick boxer with his kicks usually being more powerful than his punches, he is also very quick allowing him to land a thumping strike before getting out before his opponent can retaliate. Spyrou's grappling has always been his weak point and it still is an issue, he has worked on his defensive game but there is very little chance of him trying a takedown or a submission any time soon. Ginger Beaumont has been with the BCF for the majority of his career, he has seven pro fights and five of them have been on a BCF card, he has won all five of those fights and has earned this title shot as a result. Beaumont's usual game plan is to go for takedowns and pound his opponents on the ground, his takedowns are usually quite quick and powerful and he uses that strength to throw dangerous punches both on his feet and on the ground. Beaumont is a bit tentative in the striking game as he's not the quickest inside the cage, he has to hope that his chin is resilient enough to take a few punches if he moves in to grapple. As champion Spyrou is of course ranked #1 whilst Beaumont is at #10, the odds are very close between the two with Spyrou being made a slight favourite at -190.

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OFFICIAL BCF BEST OF BRITISH 4: SPYROU vs. BEAUMONT CARD

BCF Middleweight Title

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/england.png Davis Spyrou (20-5) vs. Ginger Beaumont (7-0) http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/scotland.png

Middleweight Division

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/nl.png Edgar van den Hoogenband (5-0) vs. Tucker Plumm (17-9) http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/england.png

Welterweight Division

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/ru.png Evgeni Medtner (23-6) vs. Mills Mullally (18-5) http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/ie.png

Light Heavyweight Division

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/ru.png Aleksei Chekhov (22-4) vs. Adrian Majoram (9-1) http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/scotland.png

Heavyweight Division

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/ru.png Aleksander Ivanov (9-1) vs. Perry Barr (15-6) http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/england.png

Light Heavyweight Division

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/northernireland.jpg Murray O'Hare (6-2) vs. Mick Curran (15-9) http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/wales.png

Heavyweight Division

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/ru.png Lubos Plasil (7-1) vs. Dominick Oppenheimer (6-1) http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/england.png

Catchweight Fight (152lbs)

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/de.png Benedikt Streit (19-7) vs. Gordon Idle (10-4) http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/england.png

Predictions are of course welcome!

Chris2K · January 2, 2015

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/BCF/BCF.jpg

BCF BEST OF BRITISH 4: SPYROU vs. BEAUMONT

SATURDAY - WEEK 3 OF MARCH 2001

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Preliminary Fight #1

Catchweight Fight (152lbs)

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/BCF2/BenediktStreit.jpghttp://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/vs.jpghttp://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/BCF2/GordonIdle.jpg

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/de.png Benedikt Streit (19-7) vs. Gordon Idle (10-4) http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/england.png

Referee: Richard Joyce

Judges: Don Dill, Jimmy Drever, Osford T Drakeford

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Streit immediately moves in to clinch with Idle to start the fight and gets hold of him, despite having a weight disadvantage he is able to push Idle back against the cage with ease. There's a distinct lack of action for the next two minutes as Streit just keeps Idle controlled and only occasionally to the fighters land some short punches on the inside, it seems strange that Streit was have the mindset to immediately grapple with Idle but seemingly had no tactics for what to do after that. The referee eventually decides to separate them and bring them back to the centre of the cage (not a moment too soon), now there's some action as Streit connects with a weak jab whilst Idle hits a big right hand. Idle moves forward and ignores some weak jabs from Streit to connect with a left jab and a straight right, however Streit takes advantage of their proximity to clinch up with Idle again. The German is able to push Idle back against the cage again, but it's only momentarily this time as Idle wrestles back and turns Streit against the cage. Idle continues to use his wrestling and is able to take Streit down relatively easily, Idle can only get to half guard but he postures up and lands a hard elbow shot. Idle's attacking options are limited by his position and Streit does a good job of keeping him under control for the remainder of the round, however the elbow that did land has opened up a cut underneath the left eye of Streit. The round ends and it's likely to be given to Idle, he got the takedown and landed the more significant strikes.

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Idle starts the second round with a nice jab/right straight combination, Idle then moves forward through some more weak jabs from Streit, the Englishman delivers a jab but a big right hand misses his target. Idle continues to dominate on the feet and scores with another jab/straight combination, moments later he misses the jab but still scores with the straight punch. Streit lands a left hand and gets out quickly to avoid a one-two from Idle, that also gives Streit the opportunity to take the fight into a clinch and he is also able to push Idle back against the cage once more. It didn't work in the last round and it hasn't worked here, Idle has the wrestling skills to overpower Streit and takes control against the cage, Streit then reverses that to regain control only for Idle to wrestle his way back into the dominant position once again. Idle gets the underhooks and uses the cage to his advantage and trips Streit to leave Streit seated against the cage. Idle does well to pull Streit away from the cage to get a better position and moves into side control, however Idle is starting to look a little tired and struggles to do anything with this strong position, he does attempt to get through to the mount but Streit manages to fend him off. With just twenty seconds left in the round Idle finally makes another move to get to mount, Streit rolls over to defend it but gives up his back in the process, however Idle doesn't have enough time to do anything from that position. It's another round to Idle so he's 2-0 up, Streit needs a finish in the third now.

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Idle starts the final round with a left/right combination, Streit then connects with a jab but his punches have so little power behind them that they're not troubling Idle at all. Idle lands another good left and right combination and it seems Streit has had enough of being punches as he moves forward to take the fight into the clinch, he traps Idle against the cage for third round in a row and keeps him there for over a minute with both fighters landing short punches on the inside. Eventually Idle is able to reverse the positions and take control of the clinch, with Streit now trapped against the cage Idle goes for a takedown and successfully gets Streit to the ground landing in side control. Idle throws some punches from side control which don't do a whole lot of damage, Streit tries to move Idle back into full guard but in doing so he gives Idle the opportunity to go for an arm triangle. Idle jumps across and it seems the submission is locked in tight, however Streit manages to get himself free before he has to tap out. Idle continues to work for a submission with a kimura but the fighters are probably too sweaty for a submission to work at this time. Streit tries to get back to full guard again but once more Idle stops him, this time Idle is able to get through to full mount as a result but only has 15 seconds left to do anything. Idle doesn't even bother throwing any strikes, he just maintains his position until the end of the fight to show he was in complete control. We head to the judges for a decision and it's a fairly simple one, all three judges score the contest 30-27 for Gordon Idle.

Winner: Gordon Idle (11-4) via Unanimous Decision

Fight Rating: Decent

FIGHT METRICS

Benedikt Streit

96 Strikes Landed (96 Punches) - All in the clinch

0 Takedowns Attempted

Gordon Idle

65 Strikes Landed (3 Power Punches, 46 Punches, 16 Ground Strikes)

3 Takedowns Attempted (100%)

2 Submissions Attempted (0%)

3 Ground Passes Attempted (100%)

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Preliminary Fight #2

Lightweight Division

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http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/ru.png Lubos Plasil (7-1) vs. Dominick Oppenheimer (6-1) http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/england.png

Referee: Richard Joyce

Judges: Archibald Cohen, Don Dill, Bobby Serocke

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Here comes the first of the Russian invaders, in fact this show should really be called BCF Best of Russian. Oppenheimer lands the first shot of the fight with a decent right hook that causes Plasil to miss his attempt at a big right hand, Oppenheimer then lands a jab and gets out of range to avoid a jab and a right cross from Plasil. A big right hands from Plasil which is the best shot of the fight so far, an exchange then results in no decent strikes landing before both men miss with various punches. There are a few more strike exchanges with no significant shots landing, both men are willing to throw strikes it's just that neither one seems able to land much. Another exchange results in Plasil landing a jab, Oppenheimer also lands a jab but misses with an attempt at a big right hand. Plasil lands another jab, Oppenheimer lands another jab and this time hits with a right hook, they then trade jabs again before a brief flurry of punches results in neither fighter landing a good shot. There are more strikes thrown which just results in more strikes missing, I'm not sure if it's a lack of accuracy or just good strike elusiveness from both men. The round ends without another strike landing (that's over a minute without a punch hitting) and as they go back to their corners I'm left wondering who on Earth won a round where the biggest victim was thin air.

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Fight Metrics says that 11 strikes landed in that round from both fighters combined. Yikes. Plasil starts this round out with a jab, Oppenheimer responds with a jab and a right hook but somewhere during that exchange an errant finger caught Plasil in the eye. The referee halts the fight to give Plasil a chance to recover, as usual the fighter only takes about 20 seconds of his allowed five minutes and gets back fighting again. We go back to strike exchanges where neither fighter is able to land a strike, we have two of those before Oppenheimer finally lands a jab and a right cross, Oppenheimer then scores with a right hook whilst Plasil continues to struggle, at least he has the excuse of being partially blinded now. Part of the problem is that both fighters look tentative and aren't throwing with much conviction, the chances of a knockdown here are slim at best. Oppenheimer lands another good jab/cross combination but this time Plasil is able to land a left hook to the body, Plasil then hits a right hand and darts out before Oppenheimer can land his jab/cross combination again. Plasil finally seems to have found his range, first he uses a couple of jabs to set up a powerful right hook, then another jab allows him to score with a second big hook, this one is enough to make Oppenheimer stumble back towards the cage! Plasil doesn't follow up with a strike, instead he grabs a guillotine choke and pulls Oppenheimer down to the mat! It looks like it's locked in pretty tight but Plasil's biggest issue here is time, Oppenheimer only has to survive another 18 seconds before the round ends.... and he does! Maybe it wasn't in that tightly as I think a Plasil guillotine would make someone tap or go out in 18 seconds. Those punches at the end and the guillotine should be enough to give Plasil this round.

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It remains to be seen if Oppenheimer has suffered any lasting damage from the second round, either from the punch that rocked him or the guillotine that nearly choked him out. The fighters exchange some jabs to start with Plasil landing more than Oppenheimer, Plasil then scores with a nice jab/right hook combination. Plasil is able to land a right cross and gets out of the way of a jab/cross combination from Oppenheimer, it seems Oppenheimer's speed isn't quite what it was at the start of this fight. I don't know if Oppenheimer is out on his feet here but his movement is pretty much gone, Plasil is picking him off with ease connecting with jabs and hooks whilst Oppenheimer himself continues to swing but rarely finds a home for his punches. Oppenheimer swings out a big right hand which Plasil avoids without any problems before firing back with two jabs and another big right hook, this one wobbles Oppenheimer again and the Englishman is trapped against the cage again! Just like in Round 2 there is no hesitation from Plasil, he immediately grabs Oppenheimer in a guillotine and drags him down to the ground looking for the submission. Time can't save Oppenheimer here as there's over two minutes left in the round, Oppenheimer holds on as long as he can but he has to tap out to avoid passing out to give Plasil the victory in his BCF debut.

Winner: Lubos Plasil (8-1) via Submission (Guillotine) in 2:57 of Round 3

Fight Rating: Great

FIGHT METRICS

Lubos Plasil

25 Strikes Landed (7 Power Punches, 18 Punches)

0 Takedowns Attempted

2 Submissions Attempted (50%)

Dominick Oppenheimer

17 Strikes Landed (17 Punches)

0 Takedowns Attempted

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Main Card Fight #1

Light Heavyweight Division

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http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/northernireland.jpg Murray O'Hare (6-2) vs. Mick Curran (15-9) http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/wales.png

Referee: Michael Ephron

Judges: Archibald Cohen, Don Dill, Osford T. Drakeford

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O'Hare strikes first with a jab but Curran returns with a jab and a right hand, Curran continues his accuracy with another left jab, right hand combination whilst O'Hare only hits a jab and misses with a right hook. Curran seems really focused for this fight and scores with another jab/hook combination, O'Hare on the other hand is struggling to find his range and misses with a jab and a right hand. Curran scores with a nice right cross and walks though a jab from O'Hare without any trouble, Curran then avoids a right hand from O'Hare and counters with a jab and a right cross. Curran stays with that jab and cross by connecting with them both again, O'Hare continues to struggle as Curran avoids his jab and a right cross. Curran is just picking O'Hare apart in quite alarming fashion as that jab and right hand combination comes back once again, O'Hare at least manages to connect with a jab this time but can't follow up with anything. There's a minute left in the round which is plenty of time for Curran to continue dominating the round, another jab and right hook scores for Curran whilst O'Hare misses a jab and a big right hand, and finally Curran scores with another jab and right hand before getting away from O'Hare to avoid a jab and right. It's been very one-sided but Currant will probably only get a 10-9 as he never looked like finishing it.

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Curran continues where he left off in the first round by starting the second with a jab and a right hook, O'Hare responds with a jab but a big right hand misses. Curran seems to be able to land his jab/right hook combination at will and hits it twice more in the opening minute of this round, both times O'Hare tries to retaliate with some punches of his own but Curran is too good and gets out of danger every time. Curran switches it up slightly with a jab and a right cross and still O'Hare finds it impossible to connect with anything, Curran connects with yet another jab/hook combination and O'Hare wildly throws a big right hand which doesn't come close to landing. Curran continues moving forward and scores with a jab and a big right cross, this one is the most powerful one so far and it leaves O'Hare rocked, a big right hook from Curran then lands to send O'Hare to the canvas! Curran senses the chance of victory and starts unloading punches to the head, he pounds away for a while but O'Hare eventually regains enough sense to defend himself and Curran might have tired himself out looking for the finish. Curran is able to secure side control but the punches he throws don't have much venom behind them anymore, Curran does at least keeps side control when O'Hare tries to move him back to full guard. Curran definitely seems more interested in catching his breath than looking to finish the fight now and just maintains his dominant position until the end of the round. It must be 20-18, maybe even 20-17 after that round, so O'Hare is going to need a finish in the third.

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Curran can probably afford to take it easy in this final round but he still moves forward and connects with a left jab and a powerful straight right, Curran may be seeking a finish himself as he follows that with another jab and a hard right cross, the same punch that hurt O'Hare in the previous round. Another right cross lands for Curran whilst O'Hare continues to miss almost every punch he throws, Curran continues to pick him apart in quite brutal fashion as another right cross slams into the jaw of O'Hare. Curran keeps moving forward and lands a beautiful left hand/right hook combination which stuns O'Hare, another right hand connects from Curran and that sends O'Hare to the mat for a second time! Curran joins O'Hare on the ground and looks for the finish with some hard punches, O'Hare rolls on to his side but that does nothing to help as the punches keep connecting. A few more hard shots land before O'Hare actually taps out to prevent any further beating! That's the sign of a man who has been physically and mentally broken by his opponent, I think O'Hare realised he had no chance of getting back into this fight and just wanted out.

Winner: Mick Curran (16-9) via Submission (Strikes) in 2:32 of Round 3

Fight Rating: Good

FIGHT METRICS

Murray O'Hare

8 Strikes Landed (8 Punches)

0 Takedowns Attempted

Mick Curran

77 Strikes Landed (13 Power Punches, 32 Punches, 10 Power Ground Strikes, 22 Ground Strikes)

0 Takedowns Attempted

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Main Card Fight #2

Heavyweight Division

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http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/ru.png Aleksander Ivanov (9-1) vs. Perry Barr (15-6) http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/england.png

Referee: Michael Ephron

Judges: Bobby Serocke, Archibald Cohen, Don Dill

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Ivanov has such an unassuming aura about him that it makes it scarier to know he's probably going to destroy you. The Russian starts off with a nice right cross but Barr lands a good jab and a cross of his own in the exchange, Barr then connects with another jab but Ivanov walks through it and scores with a big right hook. Ivanov connects with a jab and a left to the body, he then follows that up with a jab and a right hand, Barr does manage to connect with a right hook but the difference in power between the two is evident. Ivanov connects with a jab and another right cross, Ivanov is just hunting Barr down and he nails another hard right hand which definitely rocks Barr, the Englishman stumbled backwards and finds himself trapped against the cage with Ivanov looking to finish. Ivanov lands a couple of punches but takes advantage of the covering up Barr to slap on a guillotine choke, the Russian drags Barr down to the ground to tighten the hold and Barr is left with no option but to tap out! It's a clinical performance from a very clinical fighter.

Result: Aleksander Ivanov (10-1) via Submission (Guillotine) in 2:40 of Round 1

Fight Rating: Great

FIGHT METRICS

Aleksander Ivanov

9 Strikes Landed (5 Power Punches, 4 Punches)

0 Takedowns Attempted

1 Submission Attempted (100%)

Perry Barr

4 Strikes Landed (4 Punches)

0 Takedowns Attempted

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Main Card Fight #3

Light Heavyweight Division

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http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/ru.png Aleksei Chekhov (22-4) vs. Adrian Majoram (9-1) http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/england.png

Referee: Michael Ephron

Judges: Bobby Serocke, Archibald Cohen, Don Dill

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Two Russian victories already, can Chekhov make it a third? An exchange of strikes starts the fight with Majoram landing a jab but Chekhov missing with a spinning back kick, Majoram then lands another jab before avoiding a head kick from Chekhov. It's a wild start from Chekhov but he settles down with a jab and a right cross, another exchange of strikes sees neither fighter land anything significant before Majoram manages to connect with two jabs. A jab from Chekhov sets up a head kick which Majoram avoids, the Englishman tries to rush Chekhov to take the fight into the clinch but Chekhov sees him coming and nails him with a jab. Chekhov takes a jab and lands one of his own before going for another head kick, Majoram must have studied up before the fight as he's had no trouble avoiding Chekhov's kicks. Majoram avoids a low kick from Chekhov but misses with a return jab, that leaves Chekhov an opening to score with a left hand. The next couple of minutes sees both fighter being very tentative and there's not a lot of action, Chekhov eventually hits a left but misses with a big right and that's the last meaningful strike of the round as one more strike exchange results in nothing of interest landing. Chekhov probably did enough to win the round due to his aggression and landing the better shots.

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Majoram tries to close the distance at the start of the second round but Chekhov again sees him coming, a strike exchange follows with Chekhov landing a jab and a nice straight right. Another exchange results in Chekhov missing with three attempted punches but Majoram isn't able to counter with anything, on the next exchange Chekhov avoids a jab from Majoram and hits one of his own, but a body kick doesn't find the mark. Chekhov continues to be more aggressive but Majoram is doing a good job of remaining elusive, three strikes from Chekhov miss including a kick to the body. Chekhov finally lands something with a decent leg kick and gets away to avoid a combination from Majoram, Chekhov then moves back in to land a lovely left/right combination. Majoram manages to land a decent left hand which is one of his best strikes of the fight, however he soon gets caught by a nice jab from Chekhov. Moments later Chekhov is moving forward again, he avoids a jab from Majoram and connects with a hard left and an even harder right which knocks Majoram down! Chekhov quickly follows Majoram to the ground and lands several hard shots to the head, however Majoram recovers quite quickly and is able to defend himself enough that Chekhov has to slow down hi barrage. Chekhov doesn't look interested in trying anything on the ground despite being in side control, and in the end he decides to just relinquish the position and stand back up. By the time Majoram is back up there's barely any time left, in fact there's not enough time for any further action. Chekhov definitely gets that round after the knockdown.

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The final round starts with some strike exchanges but the first significant strike comes when Chekhov uses a jab to set up a hard roundhouse kick to the ribs of Majoram. Chekhov continues with the kicking strategy with a nice leg kick, Majoram then misses with a left hand allowing Chekhov to counter with a couple of quick left hands. Chekhov is in complete control of the fight now and lands another good left hand before slamming another hard kick to the body of Majoram, the Russian continues to move forward and avoids a jab to connect with a jab and a crunching right hook. Majoram manages to land a couple of left hands but there's not much power behind them, the same cannot be said for a straight right hand from Chekhov which catches Majoram on the temple at some pace, Chekhov then uses a jab to set up a brutal right head kick which catches Majoram and leaves him rocked! Majoram back-pedals as quickly as he can but Chekhov continues to hunt him down, Chekhov eventually catches Majoram with another right hook and down Majoram goes for a second time! Chekhov starts pounding away looking to finish the fight and some hard shots get through, however Chekhov may be a little tired as the punches slow down and Majoram is able to recover again. Chekhov stands up out of side control again which makes sense considering there's a minute left and Majoram is almost out of it, once they're back standing Chekhov connects with a left hand but Majoram moves forward to clinch with the Russian to prevent any further strikes from landing. Majoram does a good job of pushing Chekhov back against the cage and even manages to land some punches on the inside and a foot stomp, but his chances of winning are realistically over and he doesn't celebrate when the round ends. We head to the judges for a decision and all three score it 30-27 to Aleksei Chekhov, Majoram might consider himself lucky there were no 10-8s given.

Winner: Aleksei Chekhov (23-4) via Unanimous Decision

Fight Rating: Decent

FIGHT METRICS

Aleksei Chekhov

50 Strikes Landed (5 Power Punches, 24 Punches, 3 Power Kicks, 2 Kicks, 6 Power Ground Strikes, 10 Ground Strikes)

0 Takedowns Attempted

Adrian Majoram

12 Strikes Landed (11 Punches, 1 Kick)

0 Takedowns Attempted

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Main Card Fight #4

Welterweight Division

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http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/ru.png Evgeni Medtner (23-6) vs. Mills Mullally (18-5) http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/ie.png

Referee: Richard Joyce

Judges: Jimmy Drever, Bobby Serocke, Archibald Cohen

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Mullally immediately moves in to strike as you'd expect from someone of his brawling nature, he gets caught by a couple of jabs from Medtner though and then misses with a two punch combination. Mullally continues moving forward and this time is able to connect with a straight right hand, another exchange of strikes between the two results in nothing significant landing and due to their proximity Medtner is able to take the fight into a clinch. Medtner immediately looks to take Mullally down and executes a perfect trip to leave Mullally on his back, the Irishman does manage to pull guard on his way down though. Medtner smothers Mullally against the ground for a bit before peppering him with some strikes, however as he's only in Mullally's guard there's not much power behind them. The fighters stay on the ground for over a minute with not much happening until Medtner makes the move to get into side control, he gets through but can't control Mullally enough and ends up back inside his guard again. Medtner tries to improve his position again but in doing so allows Mullally to get back to his feet, Medtner keeps hold of him though and pushes him back against the cage. Medtner tries to take Mullally down again but this time he is met with some good defensive work from the Irishman who keeps the fight standing. Mullally can't hold on forever though as another takedown attempt from Medtner is successful and he gets in to side control, from there Medtner immediately goes for an arm triangle but Mullally is able to block it. Medtner spends the remainder of the round trying to get through to the mount but is unsuccessful, even so the two takedowns should easily be enough for him to win the round.

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Medtner immediately takes the fight into the clinch at the start of the second round and Mullally can do nothing to stop him, the Russian lands some shots to the side of the head of Mullally before utilising another trip takedown to get Mullally on his back. Mullally manages to pull guard but it doesn't take long for Medtner to get through in to side control despite Mullally's best efforts to scramble his way out of trouble, Medtner fires in some punches from side control but there isn't much power behind them and Mullally is able to deal with them comfortably. We spend several minutes with Mullally trying and failing to get Medtner back to his guard, Medtner isn't able to do much attacking as he's busy maintaining his good position and he only throws a few more weak looking punches to the body. Medtner throws a few more punches whilst Mullally remains active in trying to get back to guard, it's really not very entertaining as it's just a stalemate that takes up almost the entire round. Medtner eventually gets enough room to work on an arm triangle but Mullally blocks it again, and the remainder of the round is just the same exercise in futility with neither fighter able to improve the position they are in or do any more damage. That might have been the worst round of the year so far but it was definitely Medtner's.

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Mullally has been pumped up by his corner (mentally, not literally) so he'll be coming out swinging. Mullally misses with a jab and a body shot and gets caught by a left hand from Medtner as a result, Mullally then throws two quick punches which miss and Medtner counters with two more lefts. Mullally finally lands a jab but a wild right hand doesn't find its mark, the two fighters then trade weak jabs for a bit as they always seem to be out of range when a bigger punch is thrown. Mullally manages to land a big right hand at last which is by far his best shot of the fight, he follows that with a nice jab/right hand combination and gets out of danger of any retaliation from Medtner. Mullally is doing well so far but Medtner moves in to close the distance and clinches with him to nullify Mullally's striking, Medtner controls him well and lands some short punches to the side of the head, he doesn't go for a takedown this time and instead pushes Mullally back against the cage. Medtner is in no mood for providing excitement as he just makes sure to keep Mullally controlled and grind out the clock, he does eventually land a foot stomp and a couple of knees to the thigh. With a minute left Medtner lands a couple of knee strikes to the thigh to remain as minimally active as possible, he also lands a nice short uppercut and a foot stomp before the fight ends. It's another judges decision and another fairly simple one, all three score it 30-27 for Evgeni Medtner.

Winner: Evgeni Medtner (24-6) via Unanimous Decision

Fight Rating: Decent

FIGHT METRICS

Evgeni Medtner

63 Strikes Landed (28 Punches, 2 Kicks, 2 Knees, 31 Ground Strikes)

4 Takedowns Attempted (75%)

2 Submissions Attempted (0%)

4 Ground Passes Attempted (75%)

Mills Mullally

15 Strikes Landed (1 Power Punch, 14 Punches)

0 Takedown Attempted

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Co-Main Event

Middleweight Division

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http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/nl.png Edgar van den Hoogenband (5-0) vs. Tucker Plumm (17-9) http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/england.png

Referee: Richard Joyce

Judges: Don Dill, Bobby Serocke, Archibald Cohen

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van den Hoogenband immediately moves in to exchange strikes and gets off to a good start with a straight right hand after avoiding a left from Plumm, both fighters then throw out some punches but neither one is able to land anything. They seem willing to stand and trade in the centre of the cage which surely favours van den Hoogenband, he connects with a jab/cross combination before moving back to avoid an attempted body kick from Plumm. van den Hoogenband connects with a pair of jabs but Plumm is still struggling to get close enough to land anything, he finally scores with a jab but only when van den Hoogenband moves in to attack and van den Hoogenband nearly catches him with a vicious right hand as they separate. van den Hoogenband lands a jab but Plumm is able to duck under a head kick, the fighters than have a few more strike exchanges where nothing decent lands. van den Hoogenband is quite obviously the better striker and lands a lovely three punch combination of rights and a left, Plumm really needs to change up his strategy because he's never going to win a stand-up contest. van den Hoogenband continues to move forward and lands a jab and a crunching right hook to the body, Plumm is still throwing out his jab but it's not causing van den Hoogenband any problems at all. The last strikes of the round are from van den Hoogenband again who scores with a couple of jabs and a right hook to the chin, Plumm tries a wild right hook in response but it doesn't come close to landing. The round ends and it's been all van den Hoogenband, Plumm hasn't had a look in so far.

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/BCF/Round2.jpg

van den Hoogenband comes straight out looking to strike in the second round and connects with a jab and a crunching right hook, Plumm misses with a jab and has to scurry back quickly to avoid a head kick from van den Hoogenband. A strike exchange results in no damaging strikes before van den Hoogenband uses their proximity to hit a jab and finally lands with a head kick which definitely did some damage, Plumm manages to shake it off but he can't connect with a jab or a right hand. van den Hoogenband's striking appears to be just as good as it was before his long injury lay-off, he scores with another big right hook and evades a leg kick from Plumm, van den Hoogenband then connects with a jab and a hard body kick. Plumm deserves credit for his willingness to stand in the centre and trade strikes even if he is losing nearly every exchange, the next one sees van den Hoogenband land a right hand whilst Plumm misses with a jab and a big right. van den Hoogenband lands a jab and a leg kick that is powerful enough to knock Plumm off balance, van den Hoogenband then lands a three punch combination ending with a left hook to the body whilst Plumm fails to land yet another body kick. Into the final minute we go and van den Hoogenband is able to avoid a leg kick from Plumm before punishing him with a jab and a hard right hook, Plumm doesn't back up and van den Hoogenband unleashes another big right hook which knocks Plumm down! van den Hoogenband quickly joins Plumm on the ground but time is not on his side, van den Hoogenband connects with some hard punches but with only seconds remaining Plumm is able to survive to hear the end of round buzzer. This was definitely van den Hoogenband's round, the only question is whether it was 10-9 or 10-8.

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/BCF/Round3.jpg

We'll see how hurt Plumm still is, he needs a finish but he has been out-classed so much that I don't know how he can get one. van den Hoogenband is definitely slowing down and the first minute of the final round goes by without a decent strike landing, van den Hoogenband eventually lands a jab and follows that with a leg kick, thirty seconds later van den Hoogenband scores with a couple more jabs and another powerful head kick which Plumm isn't able to defend but he does survive it. van den Hoogenband continues to stalk Plumm and lands another pair of jabs followed by an even more powerful head kick, Plumm is backing away as best he can but van den Hoogenband follows him and lands a hard right to knock him down! van den Hoogenband has much more time to get the finish here with half the round remaining, he lands some hard punches to the head of Plumm but he doesn't have a whole lot of energy left, Plumm is able to recover and soon the punches from van den Hoogenband are being easily blocked by the Englishman. van den Hoogenband decides to just slow down completely and secures side control to throw some punches to the body and catch his breath, the Dutchman throws a few more weak strikes as he seems happy to just let the clock run down for a bit. van den Hoogenband eventually decides to give up his dominant position and stand back up which makes sense considering he's dominated the stand-up throughout the fight, he manages to connect with one more left cross before the fight ends whilst Plumm has time to miss a couple more punches before the bell sounds. It's yet another judges decision and another simple one, van den Hoogenband gets 30-27 scores across the board but probably deserved a 10-8, if not two.

Winner: Edgar van den Hoogenband (6-0) via Unanimous Decision

Fight Rating: Good

FIGHT METRICS

Edgar van den Hoogenband

61 Strikes Landed (11 Power Punches, 25 Punches, 3 Power Kicks, 3 Kicks, 19 Ground Strikes)

0 Takedowns Attempted

Tucker Plumm

1 Strike Landed (1 Punch).

Seriously. 1 punch in 15 minutes.

------------------------------------

Main Event

BCF Middleweight Title

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/BCF2/DavisSpyrou.jpghttp://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/vs.jpghttp://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/BCF2/GingerBeaumont.jpg

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/england.png Davis Spyrou (20-5) vs. Ginger Beaumont (7-0) http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/Flags/scotland.png

Referee: Michael Ephron

Judges: Jimmy Drever, Bobby Serocke, Archibald Cohen

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/BCF/Round1.jpg

It's a classic battle of grappler vs. striker so both men will want to bring the other into their world as quickly as possible. It's Beaumont who is the quickest to do that as, after nearly a minute of stalling, he moves in and grabs Spyrou into a clinch. Beaumont begins pushing Spyrou back and traps him against the cage, that completely nullifies Spyrou's striking advantage and Beaumont's strength also means that Spyrou isn't likely to get out of this situation easily. Beaumont keeps him trapped for a significant amount of time and remains active by landing some dirty boxing punches to the body of Spyrou, he also lands a nice elbow strike when he has enough room to do so. The crowd's booing perhaps gets to Beaumont who decides to move things forward by getting the underhooks and sweeps the legs of Spyrou to execute a takedown with Beaumont landing inside Spyrou's guard. Beaumont is better on the ground than Spyrou as well and so has no problem moving from the guard and into side control even if it does take a minute to do so, that only leaves him thirty seconds to do something from the dominant position, he manages to land a few punches to the body but nothing more before the round ends. It was a round with very little action as Beaumont just controlled the entire thing, Spyrou didn't get the slightest bit of offense in other than small, effectively meaningless punches in the clinch.

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c98/chris_kotw/BCF/Round2.jpg

The second round can't be any worse than the first for Spyrou, he needs to make sure he stays away from Beaumont's grasp. Spyrou does land some strikes to start the round with a nice jab and a leg kick, he then avoids a left hand from Beaumont and connects with a nice left head kick which gets the crowd going. Spyrou's confidence seems to be growing and he moves in again, avoiding a jab from Beaumont he connects with a nice combination of jabs and a left hand, Beaumont misses with a counter left and then gets caught by another jab and another hard kick to the head. Beaumont seems a bit phased by that one but he's definitely phased by a third kick to the head which sends Beaumont crashing to the mat! I think Beaumont might be out from the kick but Spyrou is going to make sure of the finish with some powerful shots to the fallen Beaumont, some very hard shots from the champion leave Beaumont getting completely obliterated before the referee steps in to stop the fight! It's a good comeback from the champion who defends his title and hands Beaumont his first professional loss.

Winner, and still BCF Middleweight Champion: Davis Spyrou (21-5) via TKO (Strikes) - 1:59 of Round 2

Fight Rating: Great

FIGHT METRICS

Davis Spyrou

31 Strikes Landed (22 Punches, 3 Power Kicks, 1 Kick, 5 Power Ground Strikes)

0 Takedowns Attempted

Tim Oldacres

67 Strikes Landed (63 Punches, 1 Elbow, 3 Ground Strikes)

1 Takedown Attempted (100%)

------------------------------------

Statistics

Attendance: 130 ($11,400)

Critical Rating: 75%

Commercial Rating: 21%

Awards ($500 Each)

Fight Of The Night: Edgar van den Hoogenband vs. Tucker Plumm

KO Of The Night: Davis Spyrou

Submission Of The Night: Aleksander Ivanov

FINANCES

Income

Gate: $11,400

Sponsorship: $12,737

Advertising: $39,600

Merchandise: $3,079

Total: $66,816

Expenditure

Fighter Pay: $38,750 (Highest: Aleksei Chekhov $5,300)

Drug Testing: $19,200

Production: $17,897

Total: $75,847

Loss: $8,991

Popularity

UK = 33.2% (-2.3%)

Europe = 4.6% (-0.4%)

Russia = 4.6% (-0.4%)

USA = 4.6% (-0.4%)

Australia = 4.6% (-0.4%)

Canada = 4.6% (-0.4%)

Mexico = 4.6% (-0.4%)

Japan = 4.6% (-0.4%)

Asia = 4.6% (-0.4%)

South America = 4.6% (-0.4%)

Africa = 4.6% (-0.4%)

Central America = 4.6% (-0.4%)

------------------------------------

Post Show Meeting

Jerome "Tim" McCallum - BCF Owner

Chris Dewing - BCF C.E.O.

"Chris... Chris... hello."

"Hi Tim. That doesn't sound encouraging."

"Well we're in the same situation we were in after the last Best of British show, in fact things may be slightly worse based on what I've heard."

"I get the feeling that you're going to tell me the show wasn't very popular again."

"Well yes, I am, but it's the fallout of that which is the biggest concern. The ratings were so bad on UK Broadcasting Digital that they're basically saying they won't be renewing our contract once it's finished."

"I'm not surprised, but I don't buy that the ratings are the reason. They've not been very supportive of us ever since the Charlie incident and I think the people in charge at UK Broadcasting don't really want MMA on any of their channels. The ratings are lower than they were last year but they're still higher than any other of their shows, the dip just seems like an excuse to get rid of us."

"You may have a point but that doesn't alter the fact that we're losing our biggest broadcaster in our home country and that's going to have a big effect on our advertisers, sponsorship and morale within the company."

"I don't know, I think that moving to Euro Cable Sport will actually be better in the long run. Being on television instead of the internet is an advantage as far as I'm concerned, internet streaming is still not something that people are comfortable with whilst watching it on a TV is what people are used to."

"Well we'll see, I hope you're better at trying to explain why this is a good thing to the press than you were explaining it to me. Right, let's get through the show, it was a good one again."

"Yeah, if nothing else we're putting on some really entertaining shows, we just need people to actually watch them. Benedikt Streit and Gordon Idle started things off, the match was hastily arranged to cover us after Idle's original opponent got injured. Fair play to Streit for stepping in at short notice but Idle never really looked in any danger."

"I know it was a last minute thing but these catchweight bouts just confuse people so I'd rather we didn't do them, plus Idle came into the cage with a massive weight advantage, it was essentially a Welterweight fighting a Featherweight. Idle won but what has he really achieved? He doesn't come out of this with much more momentum or even a win in his weight class."

"Well a win's a win and it gets Idle back into form, and we need some more Lightweight contenders from the UK. Speaking of Lightweight competitors Lubos Plasil wasn't quite as impressive as I was expecting him to be, whilst he dominated Oppenheimer his striking looked relatively slow until he stepped it up a gear. His submissions looked strong at least."

"To me he's just another European guy coming here and not setting the world on fire. You have to remember that your knowledge of MMA you had as a journalist isn't the same as a casual fan's knowledge. These guys show up, beat someone they know, and don't make much of an impact."

"That's a very cynical view Tim, any new fighter coming to the company is going to need some time for the fans to get to know who they are. Plasil did get a finish and did control the fight, plus it was a pretty entertaining fight."

"Fine, I'm just getting a little tired of our regulars getting put into fights where they're out-matched. Having British fighters losing all the time doesn't exactly paint a very good picture for the level of MMA in the UK."

"I see where you're coming from but our job is to provide the most talented fighters we can regardless of their nationality. If anything I'm hoping the British guys will up their game with the higher level of competition. Anyway, next up was Murray O'Hare and Mick Curran, this was a bit of a war between two brawlers, Curran proved he still has some life in his old body and he still hits like a tank."

"I think it says more about O'Hare than anything. I don't like people who tap out to strikes, it seems like the cowards way out. O'Hare has gone down a long way in my estimation, in fact I'm not entirely sure that I want him around anymore. It would send a message to the rest of the roster that we don't want people who don't have the heart to carry on when things are going badly."

"That seems a bit harsh... but it's your company. I'll let Murray know we're letting him go. I still think we should give him a second chance in the future though. His place in the Light Heavyweight division can go to Perry Barr, he looked completely out of his depth against Aleksander Ivanov but he was fighting up a weight class. Ivanov looked superb, the man is a real beast and I think we could really get behind him."

"Again, we need to start focusing on the British guys more than just throwing more Russians into the top positions. Yes Ivanov is very good and is going to get better, but what British fan is going to want to cheer a big bad Russian guy? Have you seen Rocky IV?"

"I think you're getting a bit over-dramatic, I get your point about pushing the British fighters more but Ivanov is a world class talent, I want him to be showcased so that we're considered a company that has the best fighters in the world. Aleksei Chekhov falls into that bracket as well, Adrian Majoram is no joke and he dominated the fight whilst nearly finishing him."

"I get the feeling we're going to keep disagreeing about this so I'm going to let it go. Chekhov fought well, he's a good fighter, you know what I think about the European guys, let's just keep going."

"OK, Evgeni Medtner beat Mills Mullally..."

"Didn't think much of the fight, Medtner smothering Mullally took away any entertainment there was going to be, Mills is a firebrand when he's swinging like a madman and we didn't get to see any of that."

"Well Medtner did what he had to do, this is MMA after all, not just boxing. Medtner's a grappler and he used his grappling to win the fight. I've got no problem with that. I guess Edgar van den Hoogenband and Tucker Plumm had a fight that you preferred, and I did too to be honest. Edgar was just outstanding considering he hasn't fought in so long, his striking and movement was sublime and Tucker was completely out-classed."

"I have a soft spot for Edgar, and you're right, I want more fights like this. He's obviously had a rough few years with that injury and it was good to see him come back so strongly. Tucker tried his best but he just looked completely out-classed."

"Indeed, I think there could be big things ahead for van den Hoogenband. In fact maybe he could get a match with Davis Spyrou for the title. Ginger Beaumont did so well in the first round but as soon as Spyrou had the room to strike he just tore him apart. I think Davis has been under-rated for a long time so it was good to see him get a big victory here."

"Davis has been his own worst enemy in the past, that loss to Ram Phookan for example was down to a lack of focus and preparation. When he's on his game he's a really dangerous man. No doubt you've got some Russian guy who can beat him though just like in every other division...."

"Well there's Fjodor Kan... never mind. Tim I'm not trying to bring in some kind of invasion to undermine every British fighter in our organisation, I'm just trying to bring the level of competition in the BCF to a higher standard."

"Well just remember what I've said, British is in our name and we have to make sure that British fighters are given the chance to shine, not used as enhancement talent. Right, see you next week for the next PPV, it's Curt's last fight with us right?

"Yeah, I guess we'd better be supporting a Russian that night against a British guy..."

"Very funny, you know full well that Tikhon is one of our own. Bye Chris, take it easy."

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