GAMMA - The Rise of the Juggernaut

[batsnumbereleven]

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Michael Frankley

 

Nathan Chambers was a loudmouth asshole, but he was damn good in the cage, and people were always keen to see him fight because they'd either see some excellent wrestling or they would see him get beaten, so it was always a win-win scenario when we put him into a match, for as long as his skills remained intact and he stayed relevant at the top of the Welterweight division.

 

 

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Nathan Chambers

 

I wuz getting' ta da point where I wuz askin' where my title shot wuz. Humphreys squeaked thru' two fights an' for all hiz rep as a trash-talkin' bad-ass mofo, he wuz nuthin' on me.

 

 

 

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Jack Humphreys

 

Yeah, Chambers was an asshole, but he was a talented asshole.

 

 

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Lance Decker

 

I have absolutely no idea why Frankley wasn't putting Chambers up against Humphreys – the match was a guaranteed money-maker just from the hype they'd generate between them, but here he was fighting an interim bout while Humphreys was waiting for his next challenger to get lined up.

 

 

 

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James Foster

 

Everyone was looking past Jim Carpenter for a showdown between Chambers and either Regueiro or Humphreys, which I always thought was a mistake. Jim's a quiet, unassuming sort of guy, but he has a wealth of experience in MMA, and he's worked hard to build a skill set that should be a challenge even to the best at Welterweight. Someone once told me that “hard work beats talent if talent doesn't work hard” and that was exactly the sort of mantra that Chambers should have been taking into the fight.

 

 

 

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Michael Frankley

 

The co-main weigh-in made me feel justified in booking John Rivero at Heavyweight. Regardless of whether he was a match for the hugely talented Raul Hughes, he looked much more comfortable not having to even try to cut to 205lbs, though I have to wonder how much effort he ever made in the past, given that he came in at 215lbs for this fight. Even so, that was still 3lbs more than Hughes!

 

 

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GAMMA 35

Card for picks

 

Main Event

Welterweight – Nathan Chambers (17-1) v Jim Carpenter (50-9-2)

 

Co-main

Heavyweight – Raul Hughes (14-3) v John Rivero (12-3)

Undercard

Heavyweight – Norbert Vinkus (2-1) v Oliver Fiderer (3-1)

Light-Heavyweight – Bryan Van Den Hauwe (15-5) v Christian Mountfield (12-4)

Lightweight – Bud Brockett (7-1) v Xavi Castillejo (1-0)

Middleweight – Thomas Smith (11-2) v Danny Akabaro (1-0)

[Thesnake101]

Main Event

Welterweight – Nathan Chambers (17-1) v Jim Carpenter (50-9-2)

 

Co-main

Heavyweight – Raul Hughes (14-3) v John Rivero (12-3)

 

Undercard

Heavyweight – Norbert Vinkus (2-1) v Oliver Fiderer (3-1)

Light-Heavyweight – Bryan Van Den Hauwe (15-5) v Christian Mountfield (12-4)

Lightweight – Bud Brockett (7-1) v Xavi Castillejo (1-0)

Middleweight – Thomas Smith (11-2) v Danny Akabaro (1-0)

[CageRage]

Main Event

Welterweight – Nathan Chambers (17-1) v Jim Carpenter (50-9-2)

 

Co-main

Heavyweight – Raul Hughes (14-3) v John Rivero (12-3)

 

Undercard

Heavyweight – Norbert Vinkus (2-1) v Oliver Fiderer (3-1)

Light-Heavyweight – Bryan Van Den Hauwe (15-5) v Christian Mountfield (12-4)

Lightweight – Bud Brockett (7-1) v Xavi Castillejo (1-0)

Middleweight – Thomas Smith (11-2) v Danny Akabaro (1-0)

[BigRedMachine]

Main Event

Welterweight – Nathan Chambers (17-1) v Jim Carpenter (50-9-2)

 

Co-main

Heavyweight – Raul Hughes (14-3) v John Rivero (12-3)

 

Undercard

Heavyweight – Norbert Vinkus (2-1) v Oliver Fiderer (3-1)

Light-Heavyweight – Bryan Van Den Hauwe (15-5) v Christian Mountfield (12-4)

Lightweight – Bud Brockett (7-1) v Xavi Castillejo (1-0)

Middleweight – Thomas Smith (11-2) v Danny Akabaro (1-0)

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[batsnumbereleven]

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Welterweights Nathan Chambers and Jim Carpenter struggled hard for 25 minutes last night, but neither could put the other away, despite several attempts. Chambers ran out a deserved unanimous decision winner (49-46, 49-46, 48-47), and must surely have GAMMA Welterweight champion Jack Humphreys in his sights.

Chambers demonstrated his superior striking throughout the fight, and got four takedowns during the course of the fight, but he was ever cautious against Carpenter's attacks off his back, and wasn't able to make any progress from top position, even though he controlled the fight there for several minutes at a time. Carpenter was not without his own success in the ground game though – in the fourth and fifth rounds he twice had Chambers with his back on the mat, after reversing position when trapped against the fence. Chambers perhaps was lucky in the final round not to be in deeper trouble, as he got slammed down and was rocked several times with strikes from the back by Carpenter.

 

In the end it was Chambers' more decisive and regular control of top position and his better striking effectiveness that won the fight for him, and with Carpenter being outstruck by more than 2-to-1 when the fight was in the standing position.

 

 

Hughes to retire after comprehensive defeat?

 

John Rivero's debut at Heavyweight might make headlines for lots of reasons, but one of those is that the manner of his victory must cast doubt on how much more Raul Hughes has to offer GAMMA.

 

Rivero and Hughes sparred neatly for the first minute or so of their fight, but then Rivero grappled with Hughes and lifted him into a powerful slam, ending up in side control. From there, Rivero attempted an arm triangle, but Hughes was surprisingly able to pop his head free, and Rivero had to look for other openings. His work on the ground was excellent as he tried to transition into a crucifix position, but although Hughes was able to block it, he fell prey to a re-applied arm triangle that saw him tap out with over a minute left in the first round.

 

Rivero's impressive victory will likely see him headlining against another top quality opponent later in the year, whilst Hughes' future is uncertain. He didn't give any indicate in the post-event press conference that he was looking to call it a day, batting away several questions on the subject, but it must be on his mind.

 

 

On the undercard

 

The purported MMA career of former football star Norbert Vinkus appears to be coming to an end, and we wouldn't be surprised in he was released by GAMMA after his latest performance. Vinkus looked decent enough on his feet against Oliver Fiderer, but once Fiderer took him to the mat there was only ever going to be one outcome. Vinkus bravely fended off and defended an attempt to finish the fight with an armbar, but was in no position to prevent Fiderer transitioning smoothly into side control from where he applied a tight arm triangle that Vinkus was forced to submit to.

 

An awful contest at 205lbs saw Christian Mountfield get the better of Bryan Van Den Hauwe by split decision, though the judging was almost as bad as the fight. Mountfield clearly won the first round, outstriking Van den Hauwe and landing a takedown right at the end that saw him move straight into mount before the clock ran down too soon for him to capitalise. In the second things stayed standing, and Van Den Hauwe was much the better, outstriking Mountfield 58-22, and looking the better boxer. In the third, things were very even until right at the end when Mountfield managed to wrestle the Colorado-native to the ground, and control him there until the buzzer. Mountfield called out Mike Watson after the fight, which could make for an interesting encounter.

 

At Lightweight, promising wrestler Bud Brockett stayed standing for most of the first round, and outstruck Xavi Castillejo, but briefly had him down towards the end of the round. In the second his gameplan changed, and he succeeded in getting a takedown about halfway through the round, and instantly took Castillejo's back, getting both hooks in and forcing a quick tap-out to a Rear naked Choke.

 

In the opener, Thomas Smith controlled the first round with his wrestling, taking Danny Akabaro down twice, but made the mistake of staying engaged in a stand-up brawl in the second, and when Akabaro hit a left jab-right hook combination that stunned Smith, he didn't see a huge right hand coming that knocked him clean out.

 

 

GAMMA 35 Quick Results

 

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Pick Results

 

Cage Rage - 5/6 (Total 57/86)

Thesnake101 - 4/6 (26/38)

BigRedMachine - 4/6 (32/47)

[batsnumbereleven]

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Michael Frankley

 

There was a strong groundswell of opinion within GAMMA that Norbert Vinkus wasn't really suitable to be fighting in the organisation, and this fight only strengthened those claims. It was a difficult call to make, since he had done his best to transition to a new sport, but I didn't feel it would be fair to him to simply terminate his contract, and felt it best to leave it to Norbert to decide what he wanted to do next. If he wanted to carry on fighting, then I'd find some sort of opponent for him, because I'm sure he would have drawn fans in despite his recent record, but at 37 and having found that he didn't have the skills to be at the top of the sport, I wouldn't have been surprised if he decided to call it a day.

 

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Norbert Vinkus

 

I had to take some time ta think 'bout it afta' getting ma ass handed ta me like that. Did I wanna keep puttin' maself through the training if I wasn't gonna make it? Had I done as much as I could ta try an' compete, or was there still more ta come?

 

 

 

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Michael Frankley

 

At this point, the lighter weight classes were very much our weak point. From Heavyweight down to Welterweight I felt that we had good solid contenders in depth, but at Lightweight and Featherweight there was still a dearth of talent. We expected that at Featherweight, having only just set up that weight class, but we needed to do something at Lightweight, and the right talent came available at just the right moment.

 

 

 

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Nicholas Bretton

 

Hearing that Sukarno had been signed away from KDMFC was a bit of a shock, as GAMMA hadn't gone after guys that were signed up to other organisations to that point, but having faced off against Morrison, I was keen to test myself against “Fury Awoken” as well, if I got the opportunity.

 

 

 

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Sean Morrison

 

It didn't matter to me who they brought it – I felt like I could beat any of them. The only condition I would have had before facing him was that he proved himself in GAMMA first, just like everyone else had to before they got a title shot. Guys like Jin Katou, who had shown their skills at the highest of levels in Japan with ALPHA-1 had to learn to fight in a cage in front of an American audience and get their name known before the got a title shot, so I felt that Sukarno should have to do the same – after all, the level of competition he'd been up against in KDMFC was nowhere like here in GAMMA.

 

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Michael Frankley

 

I agreed with Sean on this one, so we set Sukarno's US debut up to headline a TV event in mid-June with an eye to making him a future challenger to Morrison if he won convincingly. Selecting the right opponent was tougher, because with Sukarno's record it had to be someone with a fair amount of experience – we couldn't just put him up against one of the youngsters starting to make their name.

 

 

 

Meanwhile, still in March, GAMMA's third show on East Coast Today was the focus of the organisation over the following weeks. Former ALPHA-1 star Armen Sarkisian was making what was a rather unheralded debut, and a number of the match-ups appeared on paper to be fairly one-sided, a trend that was following the second TV show. It remained to be seen how evenly-matched things turned out once the fights got underway.

 

 

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GAMMA on ECT 3

Card for picks

 

Main Event

Middleweight – Maarten De Vries (16-6) v Dwayne Alleyne (5-1)

 

Co-main

Light-Heavyweight – Junior Patinkin (14-2) v Guillermo Morales (8-0-1)

 

Undercard

Featherweight – Brian Claremont (4-1) v Gonkuro Miyagi (2-0)

Heavyweight – Armen Sarkisian (24-3) v Duke Aiona (13-4)

Lightweight – Bruce Steven (15-8) v Benny Danare (8-2)

[Thesnake101]

Main Event

Middleweight – Maarten De Vries (16-6) v Dwayne Alleyne (5-1)

 

 

Co-main

Light-Heavyweight – Junior Patinkin (14-2) v Guillermo Morales (8-0-1)

 

 

Undercard

Featherweight – Brian Claremont (4-1) v Gonkuro Miyagi (2-0)

Heavyweight – Armen Sarkisian (24-3) v Duke Aiona (13-4)

Lightweight – Bruce Steven (15-8) v Benny Danare (8-2)

[BigRedMachine]

Main Event

Middleweight – Maarten De Vries (16-6) v Dwayne Alleyne (5-1)

 

 

Co-main

Light-Heavyweight – Junior Patinkin (14-2) v Guillermo Morales (8-0-1)

 

 

Undercard

Featherweight – Brian Claremont (4-1) v Gonkuro Miyagi (2-0)

Heavyweight – Armen Sarkisian (24-3) v Duke Aiona (13-4)

Lightweight – Bruce Steven (15-8) v Benny Danare (8-2)

[Lt. Lucrativo]

This is a lot of fun. Thanks for sharing, and I hope you can keep it going a good long time!

 

I may be a bit rusty on picks since I haven't dipped into the game in a while, but here goes:

 

Main Event

Middleweight – Maarten De Vries (16-6) v Dwayne Alleyne (5-1)

De Vries always seems ripe for an upset. Alleyne's a solid enough wrestler that if he gets in close without getting caught, I don't think De Vries will have an answer.

 

Co-main

Light-Heavyweight – Junior Patinkin (14-2) v Guillermo Morales (8-0-1)

If I recall, Patinkin's a bit of an immovable object. I don't know how effective Morales' ground and pound will be, and I don't trust him to have a workable plan B.

 

Undercard

Featherweight – Brian Claremont (4-1) v Gonkuro Miyagi (2-0)

I have no memory of Miyagi so I'll roll with Claremont, who can be dangerous on his night.

Heavyweight – Armen Sarkisian (24-3) v Duke Aiona (13-4)

This looks to be set up in Sarkisian's favor. I'd be surprised if he doesn't just overpower Aiona.

Lightweight – Bruce Steven (15-8) v Benny Danare (8-2)

Feels like a bit of a toss-up to me. I remember Steven as a feast-or-famine type of guy who's dangerous enough to beat a lot of lightweights but vulnerable to lose to just about anyone as well. I'll wager Danare is good enough to take advantage of Steven's weaknesses.

[batsnumbereleven]

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Following two great fights, one won and one lost against other stalwarts of the GAMMA Middleweight division, Dwayne Alleyne's headlining debut against Maarten De Vries was expected to attract quite a lot of interest. For the first two rounds, it appeared that Alleyne was trying to stifle that interest out of the whole crowd.

 

Alleyne was clearly much the better grappler of the two, and was able to push De Vries around at will, a surprising strength for such an inexperienced fighter. De Vries spent almost all the first two rounds with his back up against the cage, and having to cope with Alleyne's smothering, dirty boxing and small inside strikes that kept him under control and unable to mount any offense of his own.

 

Referee Harry A. Bierce had to bring the fighters back to the center of the cage three times during the fight, in an attempt to get more action going, but it wasn't until the third round when Alleyne took De Vries down that things really started to heat up.

 

Alleyne tried a couple of submission attempts – an arm triangle and a kimura both threatened from side control, but it seems that these were both merely misdirection, as on feeling out De Vries' defences to the two holds, Alleyne slipped neatly into mount and started launching some ground and pound.

 

It looked initially as though De Vries was able to defend and cover up well, but Alleyne managed to generate better angles and really started to sting De Vries with some nasty shots. The punches got heavier, and eventually De Vries took a couple of big, clean lefts to the head, and the ref had to jump in to stop things, as he was not defending himself any longer.

 

Fans had mixed feelings about the fight afterwards, with many pointing to the dearth of action in the first two rounds as a real turn-off for them, but I would expect to see Alleyne moving on to another decent opponent in his next fight, with an eye to taking on some of the names towards the top of the rankings next year. He seems to have both the ground striking and cage control to win biog, but time will tell whether his split-decision defeat to Sutton Ripley at GAMMA 31 was a blip or whether if his grappling can be countered then he becomes vulnerable.

 

 

The other fights

 

A poor Light-heavyweight contest serving as the co-main event saw newcomer Guillermo Morales spend most of the fight smothering Junior Patinkin, either on the ground or up against the cage. Patinkin managed a few reversals, but his main attacks were takedown attempts that Morales stuffed one after another, leaving the Cuban free to strike with dirty boxing and grinding that made for a rather unedifying spectacle. Ultimately, it seems that the one takedown that Moprales managed in the first round was just about enough to secure him the victory, which he took in split-decision 29-28, 28-29, 29-28. Neither man will have gained much in the way of momentum from this fight.

 

Brian Claremont showed what a danger he might prove to be in the Featherweight division with a stunning 16-second knockout of Gonkuro Miyagi. Slipping a right hand from the Japanese, Claremont flicked out a left jab and followed it up with a massive right hook to the jaw that put Miyagi's lights out. Claremont improves to 5-1 and might be considered as the first challenger for newly-minted Featherweight Champion Heiko Pander.

 

ALPHA-1 refugee Armen Sarkisian got his GAMMA career off to a winning start as expected against Duka Aiona, but it took all three rounds to do it. Sarkisian surprised everyone in the first round by staying standing, and traded with Aiona, outpointing him and landing more than 100 strikes, though none of them had the Hawaiian in any trouble. It looked like the second round might go the same way, but Sarkisian reverted tro his strength with just over a minute left in the round, and took Aiona down and into side control. He quickly shifted to the mount and pounded away, forcing Aiona to give up his back, and had a rear naked choke cinched in, but the end of the round came too soon for a tap.

 

The final round saw Sarkisian go to his wrestling early, taking control of a grappling exchange and scooping his opponent up and planting him with a slam that left him under half guard. Sarkisian mixed ground and pound with attempts to move to side control, but when the pass came it was straight to the mount, from where Sarkisian hit a couple of heavy rights that looked as though they might stop the contest. Aiona recovered quickly, however, and did his best to cover up and maintain wrist control, and the round ended in that position, with Sarkisian unable to force the finish. All three judges scored the contest 30-27.

 

Kicking the evening off, Bruce Steven and Benny Danare put on a poor contest that went to the judges. An even first round that stayed standing after an early Danare takedown attempt was stuffed promised much, but in the second and third Steven was unable to prevent his fellow Canadian from getting him on his back, where he retained control for almost the entirety of those rounds. A brief kimura attempt from Danare was slipped out of, and although at the end of the third Danare managed to take Steven's back, there was little time remaining. Danare spent about five minutes in half guard and side control attempting to mount his opponent, but without any success, and there was little ground striking of note.

 

GAMMA on ECT 3 - Quick Results

 

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Pick Results

 

Thesnake101 - 5/5 (Total 31/43)

Lt. Lucrativo - 4/5

BigRedMachine - 3/5 (Total 35/52)

[batsnumbereleven]

Also in March '99, GAMMA sprung something of a surprise, announcing that the main event for GAMMA 40, scheduled for the end of July, would see GAMMA Heavyweight Champion Jeff Carlton putting the belt on the line against Tank Manu'a. Almost everyone in the industry had expected Carlton's first defence to be against GAMMA and American MMA legend James Foster, and Foster wasn't the only one who was vocal about the decision.

 

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James Foster

 

It was a friggin' disgrace, is what it was! I never got my chance to re-match Boyer after he snuck the title from me, and now they were putting me on the back-burner again! I nearly upped and quit GAMMA right then!

 

 

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Lance Decker

 

I couldn't believe it when Frankley told the board of his plans to hold James off yet longer. Surely it was the big money match to be made, and surely he deserved it? I can't think of anyone who has done more to make MMA popular in the United States than James Foster, and treating him more-or-less as an afterthought was one of the most unforgivable things that Frankley did as booker.

 

 

 

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Michael Frankley

 

And all the talking heads gave me crap about it for months – “why wasn't Foster being given a re-match?”, “What did he have to do to prove his worth?”, “Surely he was the best candidate?”, and so on. The media frenzy was remarkable for an organisation that had struggled to get any recognition at all before I took over at the helm, and it certainly wasn't for lack of trying.

 

The thing is, this wasn't an attempt to be controversial, to disrespect James Foster, or build up hype. The simple fact was that Foster was only under contract until June. We'd spent several months already, trying to hammer out the details of what he wanted included in the contract and what we were prepared to give him – and guaranteed title shots was the least of it, I can tell you – and we had to be sensible about it. In the meantime, we needed to make a title defence for Jeff Carlton, and we needed to make it fairly swiftly if we were to continue building the momentum we'd done so well to get so far.

 

I could, theoretically have booked Foster into the match anyway, but that would have just made his representatives even more greedy, knowing that if we didn't agree top everything they wanted they could pull out of the match and leave us in the lurch. I wasn't prepared to sacrifice the build up to what was supposed to be a great main event by having someone blackmailing us.

 

 

 

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James Foster

 

Yeah, if you ask Frankley he talks about the contract negotiations, but what was stopping him holding off on making a title match until later in the year? There were plenty of other guys who could have stepped up and done a top job main eventing GAMMA 40, but he was determined that we would carry on with the schedule he'd set and nothing else was going to get in his way.

 

 

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Tank Manu'a

 

Hey I wasn't complainin'! Some guys get all the hype, all the TV, while the rest of us just try to make a livin'. Since Frankley come in, the place was startin' to make real money, and with $25k a pop for fight night bonuses, it was starting to get spread about, too. That short-ass Claremont made more than $50k for 16 seconds work, an' if he can do it, sure as hell the rest of us can too!

[batsnumbereleven]

OOC: Back for another run at this!

 

 

Meanwhile, with all the ructions around the Heavyweight title going on, preparations for another title fight, Matthew Dean's defence of his GAMMA Middleweight belt, were taking shape in Las Vegas in the background and being rather overshadowed by the rows within GAMMA.

 

 

 

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Matthew Dean

 

It didn't really bother me all that Foster was throwing his weight around and making a fuss. To be honest I wasn't paying all that much attention, as I was in the middle of the final preparations for my title defence against Stu Strange. It wasn't like I was worried about my own position – I figured I was fine as long as I held on to the title.

 

 

 

 

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Michael Frankley

 

There were some quite intriguing match-ups at GAMMA 36. In the build-up I found myself looking forward to Linfield Ballard and Mark Cohen going at it, because both guys were coming off high-profile defeats against highly-ranked opponents, Rubenstein and LeToussier, and if either of them impressed in a win it made them good prospects for a headlining fight against some of the other top guys like Jin Katou or Affonso Villar, who had made stunning starts to their GAMMA careers.

 

 

 

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Linfield Ballard

 

At 32 I should have been in the prime of my career and really fighting the big guns, so Cohen was really a bit of a step down in my book. Losin' to the champ shouldn't have been a career stopper, but losing to Cohen really would be, and it was a massive risk. The new booker wasn't lookin' at me as a real contender after that first loss though, I reckon. They'd brought in some top foreign guys and I could see the line in front of me growin'. It was all right LeToussier getting a shot, but it didn't seem right that guys like Villar could come in and get top billin' straight up.

 

 

 

 

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GAMMA 36 Card for Picks

 

Main Event

GAMMA Middleweight Championship

Matthew Dean (c ) (32-5) v Stuart Strange (17-2)

 

Co-Main

Welterweight – Rufus Stephens (16-2) v Gideon Navarro (2-0)

 

Undercard

Heavyweight – Chuck Dooley (3-1) v Sylvester Collins (3-1)

Light-Heavyweight – Linfield Ballard (20-8) v Mark Cohen (34-8-1)

Middleweight – JJ Reid (24-6) v Kadonomaro Deguchi (4-0)

Lightweight – Moss Gilbert (6-0) v Manoel Cabral (4-0)

[batsnumbereleven]

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On a night when only one of the six bouts finished inside the distance, it would have been nice to have been able to say that the headline act, the GAMMA Middleweight Championship fight between Matthew Dean and Stuart Strange, provided the highlight of the night and saw the crowd go home happy, but that wasn't really the story of the evening.

 

Yes, GAMMA stalwart Dean successfully defended his title, taking the fight by unanimous decision (50-45, 48-47, 48-47), but the card was pretty poor from top to bottom, with only the opening fight generating much in the way of entertainment. GAMMA will have to do a lot better than this if they hope to make MMA a truly widespread sport among the American masses, because this was simply not good enough.

 

The main event saw a great deal of wrestling up against the cage, and several takedowns, mostly by the champion, but once the fight got to the mat, neither man seemed capable of taking it any further. Several attempts to pass to a better ground position were made, but with little overall impact on the outcome. A number of periods of stalling, and smothering set the fight up for a dull and uninteresting encounter in which the two combatants seemed primarily to cancel one another out.

 

Neither fighter had an advantage in the stand-up, and it appears that the takedowns that Dean was able to achieve in the early rounds were the deciding factor. Dean managed to land more than twice as many ground strikes as he did from standing, but the vast majority of these were short and provided little threat to Strange at any point. Neither man managed to land a strike that rocked the other. There was just the sole submission attempt across the five rounds, too, with Dean's second round armbar attempt easily defended as the round came to a close.

 

As the fight wore on, Strange was able to show his strength in the clinch, and kept Dean under control against the cage for some extended periods, but the fight had to be re-started from center-cage a number of times by referee Kyle Crisp, who probably had the best fight of the three men in the cage, given that he showed a good understanding of when to call for a break and get the action going again. Even he couldn't make this entertaining though.

 

Dean's win is likely to see him defend next against the winner of the fight between Petey Mack and Patrick Thomas, which is currently scheduled for GAMMA 38, but where Strange goes next is likely to be a more open question. His dominance over Neil Napier showed that he is a high-caliber grappler and wrestler, but we've yet to see him do anything that will excite people.

 

 

Stephens wins but won't headline on this performance

 

Rufus Stephens showed everyone why he is a perennial contender in the 170lb division with a comprehensive victory over newcomer Gideon Navarro. Stephens also demonstrated why he doesn't get the respect that his record would suggest, as once more his victory was obtained through careful planning and precise striking, rather than anything explosive or exciting, and a poor contest saw him take a 30-27 decision on all three cards. Navarro wasn't completely outclassed though, and was able to successfully stymie Stephens wrestling, his usual route to success, with several takedowns defended well. In the third he even managed to get Stephens to the mat himself, but was unable to do anything from top position other than one brief arm triangle attempt that was easily blocked. For the remainder of the fight, Stephens' handily looked the better in the striking game and deserved the victory.

 

The all-Canadian Heavyweight bout between Chuck Dooley and Sylvester Collins failed to live up to the expectations people had of it as a close, entertaining encounter, as there was far too little action for the liking of the fans present. Dooley largely looked the better, getting a takedown in the first and outstriking Collins despite failing on several occasions to take him down in the third, but the middle round was probably Collins' best effort, where he marginally outstruck his compatriot. The judges awarded the fight unanimously to Dooley (30-27, 29-28 twice).

 

Mark Cohen made relatively light work of former title challenger Linfield Ballard in a fight where his grappling skills meant that he was able to dictate where the action took place. Cohen hit multiple takedowns through the three rounds and Ballard had little answer for him.. to be fair, Ballard's defense once grounded was fairly good,, and he largely dealt with any threat from the veteran from Portland, and the biggest chance of a stoppage came in the first round after Cohen had taken Ballard's back and managed to land some damaging shots whilst trying to get the hooks in. If anything, it was a surprise that Cohen didn't make more effort to take the fight to the floor early in the second and third rounds as, although he showed some useful striking, he was clearly dominant in the clinch and in top position, and could have made the fight even more convincing. All three judges scored the fight 29-28 to Cohen, which seemed generous to Ballard. Cohen's response to the verdict was to offer himself up as the next opponent to Japanese import Jin Katou.

 

A poor contest at Middleweight between Canadian JJ Reid and Kadonomaro Deguchi ended with Deguchi taking a split decision, but I can't for the life of me see how one judge scored two rounds to Reid. Like the other two judges, we score all three rounds to Deguchi. He outstruck and outwrestled the more experienced man with takedowns in the first and third rounds, and only a very late trip takedown by Reid scored him anything in a dull middle round where he was easily on the back foot with the striking. On this showing, Deguchi looks a fine prospect, while Reid would appear to be on a serious decline.

 

The night didn't start off the way that striker Moss Gilbert would have liked, with him only getting three punches off before opponent Manoel Cabral was able to take him to the mat. From side control, Cabral was able to easily move to the mount, and Gilbert had no defense for the application of an armbar and had to tap at 1:51 of the first round. Slick work from Cabral, who will no doubt face an opponent with better takedown defense next time, to see what else he might have in his locker.

 

GAMMA 36 Quick Results

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[batsnumbereleven]

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<strong>Lance Decker</strong></p></div><p></p><p></p><p> </p><p>

Matt Dean had been one of our real successes in GAMMA – a talented all-round fighter whose improved boxing skills complemented his excellent grappling. The only problem with him was that once he got the fight to the mat and dominated a fight, it was more-or-less all over, as his top control was a smothering effort that prevented any active fight back from the bottom. After Stuart Strange's great win over Napier, we thought it might finally be a real test for Matt, but it just ended up being a clinch war in the stand-up as well as on the ground.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>

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<strong>Matthew Dean</strong></p></div><p></p><p></p><p> </p><p>

I would have loved to have been able to win while entertaining the fans as well, but it was more important to win first – you get yourself into all sorts of trouble playing to the crowd and trying to be flashy when it isn't something you normally do, and my livelihood is about being the best and winning, not always about looking good.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>

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</p><p><strong>

Michael Frankley</strong></p></div><p></p><p></p><p> </p><p>

And he was right about that – to a certain extent. As long as he was winning, he was earning and didn't have to concern himself with having to do anything spectacular. If he lost the title though, things might change. He wasn't the only one that applied to, though, and some understood that better than others. Since we were making plenty of money at this point, the board agreed to increased the fight night bonuses once more, which made for a nice earner for those guys who did put in a spectacular performance.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>

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<strong>James Foster</strong></p></div><p></p><p></p><p> </p><p>

Yeah, that was one of the things that made it worth re-signing, rather than looking to return to ALPHA-1 or start up my own company – at $75k a pop it was a heck of an incentive.</p><p> </p><p>

</p><div style="text-align:center;"><p>

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<strong>Michael Frankley</strong></p></div><p></p><p></p><p> </p><p>

I was pleased that we eventually sorted out a contract extension with James – he was still a key figure in American MMA and to lose him at this point would have been a setback. The board were very keen that we came to some sort of arrangement, as long as it wasn't promising him something that we really couldn't deliver. We also re-signed Jack Humphreys, a key piece of business as he was the reigning Welterweight Champion, Linfield Ballard and Stuart Strange around that time, and had a new offer in with Sean Morrison, though he was also being courted by XCC fairly seriously.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>

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<strong>Vince Whiteman</strong></p></div><p></p><p></p><p> </p><p>

Absolutely! Why wouldn't we? He'd shown himself to be the class of the Lightweights, and bringing him into XCC would have been a coup. GAMMA were putting their noses into the lighter weight classes, which they had never done before, and we needed to show that we weren't just going to roll over and let them dominate, so we needed to put a marker down.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>

</p><div style="text-align:center;"><p>

<span>http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy352/batsnumbereleven/MichaelFrankley.gif</span></p><p> </p><p>

<strong>Michael Frankley</strong></p></div><p></p><p></p><p> </p><p>

Meanwhile, ALPHA-1 were showing little sign of the sort of restraint we'd been under in GAMMA, and signed up SIGMA Heavyweight Champion Grzegorz Boniek</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>

</p><div style="text-align:center;"><span>http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy352/batsnumbereleven/Rubenstein%20v%20John.png_3.jpeg</span></div><p></p><p></p><p> </p><p> </p><p>

</p><p><strong><span style="text-decoration:underline;">

GAMMA 37 Card for picks</span></strong></p><p> </p><p>

<strong>Main Event</strong></p><p><strong>

GAMMA Light-Heavyweight Championship</strong></p><p>

Spencer Rubenstein (c ) v Marlon John</p><p> </p><p>

<strong>Co-main</strong></p><p>

Middleweight – Adam White v Sutton Ripley</p><p> </p><p>

<span style="text-decoration:underline;">Undercard</span></p><p>

Heavyweight – Tony McCall v Nate MacReary</p><p>

Lightweight – Henry Baldwin v Min-Soo Sik</p><p>

Welterweight – Evan Pizzaro v Felix Mattherson Jr.</p><p>

Featherweight – Alejandro Laguera v Lito Alcala</p>

[Thesnake101]

<p>Main Event</p><p>

GAMMA Light-Heavyweight Championship</p><p>

Spencer Rubenstein (c ) v <strong>Marlon John</strong></p><p> </p><p>

Co-main</p><p>

Middleweight – <strong>Adam White</strong> v Sutton Ripley</p><p> </p><p>

Undercard</p><p>

Heavyweight – Tony McCall v <strong>Nate MacReary</strong></p><p>

Lightweight – <strong>Henry Baldwin</strong> v Min-Soo Sik</p><p>

Welterweight – Evan Pizzaro v <strong>Felix Mattherson Jr.</strong></p><p>

Featherweight – <strong>Alejandro Laguera</strong> v Lito Alcala</p>

[batsnumbereleven]

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GAMMA's recent record of delivering poor quality main events continued at GAMMA 37, with the Light-Heavyweight championship fight between Spencer Rubenstein and Marlon John turning into a complete snooze-fest despite the well-documented skills of both men. John came out the victor, quite rightly, but it was clear that the judges had a difficult time trying to decide who had won some of the rounds, with the final scoring reading a widely divergent 50-45, 49-46, 48-47 in favour of the Californian.

The first three rounds followed a pattern of John achieving a takedown but being unable to do anything with it once he had top position. He managed 20 ground strikes in the first round, but was unable to replicate that again, and referee Leo Behan had to be active throughout, standing the two fighters up regularly in order to try and get some momentum into the fight. Despite his best efforts, neither fighter seemed keen to give the fans much to cheer about it.

 

The closest that the fight came to being finished was in the third, when John was close to moving into mount, but Rubenstein was able to turn and offer his back up instead, but even then John was unable to get hooks in on the champion or threaten a submission. The final two rounds were characterised by Rubenstein controlling the grappling, but both men being happy to engage in dirty boxing up against the cage. Behan again had to get regularly involved to re-set the fight, and probably got cheers louder than either fighter when he did so.

 

This was a high profile contest, and GAMMA management will be very unhappy with the perception of their main event, which had the crowd booing both men at times.

 

 

In the Middleweight co-headliner, Adam White took down Sutton Ripley in all three rounds, but was unable to finish the fight off. The two veterans put on an excellent display of counter-grappling in the second round, with some exciting scrambles, but in each case White managed to come out in top position. Ripley had the better of the third round whilst the fight stayed standing longer, but even then White was able to control the clinch and force the fight to the ground. The contest was scored 29-28, 29-28, 28-29, to give White the split decision victory, though he may feel slightly surprised by the verdicts. Blurcat gave all three rounds to White. After the scores were announced, White indicated he'd like to match up with Osmosis Benn next time out.

 

 

Canadian Nate MacReary followed up his win over Jack Cobblepot with a second victory over a GAMMA Heavyweight stalwart as he took a unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28) over Tony McCall. MacReary dominated the clinch and took McCall down in all three rounds, but seemed overly focused on finishing the fight via Armbar, as he made several attempts to do so, but in each case McCall showed his experience and was able to use the attempt to reverse guard and get back on top. Whilst that served the veteran well in defending against MacReary's submission attempts, it wasn't enough for him to influence the judges into scoring any of the rounds in his favour. Blurcat scored the contest 30-27 MacReary, and he will be looking to test himself against another top opponent in due course.

 

Henry Baldwin dominated Min-Soo Sik at 155lbs, but was rather short-changed by the judges, losing one of the rounds according to all three cards. After taking Sik down and having him mounted in all three rounds, it's difficult to see what more Baldwin could have done short of getting the stoppage. Even if Sik did look the more comfortable in the stand-up, he spent most of the fight on his back defending against Baldwin's ground n' pound.

 

At Welterweight, Evan Pizzaro and Felix Mattherson Jr. put on a well-appreciated bout that went the way of Puerto Rican Mattherson via split-decision. A close bout, and Pizzaro might be considered unlucky after taking Mattherson down in the first and third rounds, but in both cases he failed to make any progress once the fight was on the mat. In the opener, Lito Alcala showed how dangerous he is from the bottom of guard. Having taken Alejandro Laguera down with a huge slam, he ended up on his back in the scramble, but instantly threw up a triangle that forced Laguera to tap at 2:32 of the first round of their Featherweight contest.

 

GAMMA 37 Quick Results

 

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Pick results

TheSnake101 - 5/6 (cumulative: 36/49)

[batsnumbereleven]

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Lance Decker

 

It was a complete farce. How two guys fighting for the Light-Heavyweight title could put on such a poor performance on such a big stage defied belief. I can't even blame Frankley for that, because the three matches that started off the evening were really good contests, despite the fact that they were mostly between guys our fans would never have heard of.

 

 

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Michael Frankley

 

Sometimes it just happens that way. Two guys you think will put together an exciting fight don't mesh at all, and their strengths nullify one another – or one fighter has to concentrate on countering their opponent's best weapons, and you end up with a dour grapple like we had. I know that Marlon and Spencer were just as disappointed as the rest of us at how it worked out. Nobody likes getting booed by their audience.

 

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Spencer Rubenstein

 

I just didn't have anything else to give it – I defended as well as I could, but that doesn't make for a very exciting match.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Michael Frankley

 

I don't know whether it had anything to do with his poor performance, but Spencer had been rather subdued throughout the week, which might have been in response to the issues we had with him earlier in the year.

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Marlon John

 

It should have been one of the best moments o' ma life, but ma memories of winning the title are pretty much tainted by the booing of da fans, an' da fact that I couldn't get the finish that I wanted.

 

 

 

 

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Michael Frankley

 

Thomas versus Mack was essentially an elimination match, assuming all went to plan – they were ranked #2 and #3 in Blurcat's rankings of GAMMA Middleweights and both came into the fight with statement wins. But then it's rare that things all go quite as smoothly as you would like.

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile, European MMA organisation SIGMA were struggling to hold on to their new Heavyweight Champion Aleksander Ivanov, who had dethroned the departing Grzegorz Boniek by Unanimous Decision in mid-May. Ivanov's contract was now also due, and although Ivanov would have made an excellent signing for GAMMA, the management agreed not to make a bid for the Russian at that time and risk further destabilising the European MMA scene. Ivanov would go on to sign for a further 4 fights with SIGMA.

 

 

 

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GAMMA 38 Card for Picks

 

Main Event

Middleweight – Patrick Thomas v Petey Mack

 

Co-main

Welterweight - Julio Regueiro v Yevgeni Sipatov

 

Undercard

Middleweight – Ashley Ballard v Stephan de Winter

Light-Heavyweight – Kendall Tracey v Emil Karlsson

Heavyweight – Ozzy Bintley v Kanezane Fujii

Light-Heavyweight – Bill Cumming v William Harrison

[batsnumbereleven]

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An entertaining Middleweight eliminator contest saw Petey Mack escape by the skin of his teeth with a split decision victory (48-47, 48-47, 47-48) over Patrick Thomas.

 

Mack showed some excellent grappling to be able to take Thomas to the mat on numerous occasions (5 of 10 takedown attempts were successful) and demonstrated a willingness to try and finish the fight with a number of submission attempts, but those attempts nearly came back to haunt him, as each time he tried to finish off a move, Thomas showed the benefit of his experience and was able to reverse the positions and take over the top position on the mat. Thomas also showed some useful ground and pound, landing a total of 88 ground strikes, but Mack rarely looked in any danger.

 

An opponent who was able to strike more heavily on the mat, or who had better submission skills of his own might have made Mack pay for not securing his position more firmly before going for the kill, but Thomas wasn't that opponent today. Mack has two straight wins now, and is likely to be in line for a title shot, but he will need to finish off his attempts much better against Matthew Dean than he did here today.

 

GAMMA have to be applauded for setting up a decent contest here, after some fairly lacklustre outings recently, and the fact that there was no title on the line here has encouraged a certain amount of criticism from detractors, but this time the gamble has come off, and the undercard helped matters as well, with some excellent submission finishes.

 

 

Regueiro Continues Rebound

 

Former Welterweight champion Julio Regueiro re-established his credentials in the division by taking his second straight victory since losing the title, once again in decisive fashion. His veteran opponent, another former champion Yevgeni Sipatov, had no answer to Regueiro's takedown, and could not prevent the Spaniard from smoothly passing from guard to half-guard and then into mount in quick succession. Sipatov showed his determination in fighting odff two attempts from Regueiro to secure and arm triangle, but was powerless to prevent the third attempt after coming out on the wrong side of a scramble for position, and Regueiro was able to slide over into side control to tighten the hold and get the victory. Regueiro must now be a strong candidate for a re-match with Jack Humphreys for the title.

 

Middleweight Debutant Stephan de Winter worked veteran Ashley Ballard hard and eventually took a 30-27 decision on all three judges' cards, though that wasn't as clear cut as it might appear. The first round saw some good and varied striking from Ballard, but de Winter opted to surprise his opponent by pulling guard and trying to secure an arm. The ploy didn't come off and he was left clinging on to his guard for the remainder of the round. The second round saw a fairly even striking battle, with de Winter just having the edge in volume, whilst the final stanza was very much the newcomer's, outstriking Ballard and then again pulling him into guard, though once more without threatening a finish. Blurcat.com scored the fight 29-29.

 

Kendall Tracey bounced back from his defeat by Ricky Heath at GAMMA 27 with a first round submission victory over Sweden's Emil Karlsson. Taking Karlsson down at the second attempt, Tracey set up some smooth guard passing with neat strikes and once in mount was able to secure an armbar that brought an end to proceedings. Karlsson has now lost two straight. Tracey indicated a desire to face off with Guillermo Morales in his next fight.

 

In a match-up of Heavyweights coming off victories, Kanezane Fujii proved to be quick off the mark, taking Ozzy Bintley down early on and mounting him, before transitioning to an armbar that forced a quick tap from the Englishman. Fujii adds to his impressive resume that last saw him choking out Canadian Chuck Dooley. Former US Army veteran William Harrison made an impressive GAMMA debut, taking down Light-Heavyweight opponent Bill Cumming in the first minute of their fight and using the cramped position against the cage to his advantage in securing a tight guillotine choke from top position to end things at 3:19 of the first round.

 

GAMMA 38 Quick results

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[batsnumbereleven]

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Michael Frankley

 

We approached our fourth TV special with a great deal of anticipation – the debut of Indonesian Lightweight legend Sukarno quite rightly took top billing, and if his opponent was a relative unknown, well that was less of an issue here – the plan was to showcase Sukarno's talent with the expectation that he would win impressively and we could match him up against Sean Morrison for the GAMMA Lightweight Title. Morrison was scheduled to fight Brandon Sugar in what was a much-delayed encounter at the end of the month and even if Sugar managed to win, that would also be a money-making match-up for us in a division that needed some serious strengthening.

 

 

 

 

The same day would see ALPHA-1's own Lightweight showcase, with Go Yamamoto and Naizen Hamacho facing off for the right to take on ALPHA-1 Lightweight champion Motoki Hojo. It would be the first time that the two organisations would go up against one another on the same day, if not exactly head-to-head, and comparisons between the two TV events would be inevitable

 

 

 

 

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Lance Decker

 

I could not see this panning out well – we were essentially promoting a one-sided contest up against ALPHA-1s second and third best Lightweights matching up. Unless we had a real barnstorming evening, we were sure to look back by comparison.

 

 

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Sean Morrison

 

And then I got the news that Sugar had suffered an injury and wouldn't be fighting me – some crap about a neck injury that would keep him out for four months. I didn't buy that – it was yet another case of someone ducking me.

 

 

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Michael Frankley

 

Getting the Lightweight title defended seemed to be becoming more of a joke every time we tried it. On such short notice there was no way we could do the most obvious thing and re-schedule Sukarno's debut to be as an opponent for Morrison, much as we would have liked the big bonus that would have given the ratings. Instead we considered dropping the title defence from GAMMA 39 entirely, but that left Leon Banks headlining against Pai Cheng, and we just didn't see that as anywhere near an adequate replacement.

 

There was little time to arrange an alternate opponent either, but Bud Brockett gamely stepped in to fill the void despite concerns from his camp about stepping up to challenge for the title at this point, and the short camp time that he would have to prepare for the fight. We were grateful to him at the time, though in retrospect I'm not sure that it worked out all that well.

 

 

 

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Brandon Sugar

 

Brockett wasn't anywhere like a title contender, but I guess they did the best they could to get a replacement. Three was no way I was going to be fit to compete, no matter what Morrison or others might say about it. No way was I dodging him – I'd been waiting months to get my hands on him and get that title round my waist!

 

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Michael Frankley

 

To make things worse, we got the results back from drug testing at GAMMA 38, and found that Bill Cumming had tested positive for PEDs, not that it seemed to have made much difference to the result of his match. About the only good news coming out the first half of May was the re-upping of a number of our international PPV deals.

 

 

 

 

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GAMMA on ECT 4 Card for picks

 

Main Event

Lightweight - Sukarno (32-0) v Teeratep Nuntum (9-4)

Co Main

Welterweight – Alan Kendall (13-4) v Darin Blood (15-4)

Undercard

Light-Heavyweight – Affonso Villar (24-2) v Dag Kreuger (5-0)

Lightweight – Ian Linderman (7-2) v Nicholas Bretton (10-5)

Light-Heavyweight – Ken Peters (8-1) v Hyun-Shik Lim (10-1)

[CageRage]

GAMMA on ECT 4 Card for picks

 

Main Event

Lightweight - Sukarno (32-0) v Teeratep Nuntum (9-4)

 

Co Main

Welterweight – Alan Kendall (13-4) v Darin Blood (15-4)

 

Undercard

Light-Heavyweight – Affonso Villar (24-2) v Dag Kreuger (5-0)

Lightweight – Ian Linderman (7-2) v Nicholas Bretton (10-5)

Light-Heavyweight – Ken Peters (8-1) v Hyun-Shik Lim (10-1)

[batsnumbereleven]

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The debut of Sukarno showed American fans exactly what they wanted to see, as he tore apart the unfortunate Teeratep Nuntum. Nuntum showed amazing heart and resilience to weather the barrage that Sukarno unloaded on him, but eventually was knocked out with a massive right hook in the fourth round.

 

If the first round was unspectacular, it showcased Sukarno's full range of strikes, as he attacked with feet, hands and elbows, without landing anything heavy. The second and third rounds were a different matter though – in each, the Indonesian legend laid Nuntum out with a head kick or a big right hand, then followed up with ground and pound, but on seeing that he wasn't immediately going to put the lion-hearted Nuntum away, backed off and returned to standing, forcing Nuntum to get up and engage with him once again.

 

At least two of the rounds would have been scored 10-8, but Sukarno made sure there were no doubts in the fourth.

 

With the Morrison-Sugar showdown originally planned for the end of the month falling by the wayside yet again, it's possible that Sukarno could jump ahead of Sugar in the queue for a title shot if he and Morrison are both ready to go at it again before Sugar has recovered from his neck injury. Of course, that also depends on Morrison getting his part of the job done by putting away late replacement Bud Brockett at GAMMA 39, but here at Blurcat.com, we see that as a mere formality ahead of some exciting encounters in the Lightweight division.

 

At 170lbs, Darin Blood showed that his wrestling was better than Alan Kendall's but there must be some doubt over both his striking and his ability to finish fights from top position. Blood started off the better in a tentative first round, but although the second saw him take Kendall down, his guard passing was pretty poor, and he was unable to advance from side control. Minor strikes from top position weren't enough to prevent the referee standing them back up with 30 seconds remaining, but there was little action. The final round saw Kendall's striking take over, as he kept the fight on the feet until the very end of the round and showed some crisp clean attacks, but it was all in vain, as the judges scored the contest 29-28, 29-28, 28-29 to give Blood the split decision victory. Blood was angry with the decision, having felt he won all three rounds clearly, and vented his frustration on interviewer Mance Portman, angrily calling out Nathan Chambers, and with three wins on the bounce he's certainly likely to get a high profile opponent next time out.

 

Affonso Villar put up another case for challenging for the Light-Heavyweight championship as he made fairly short work of Sweden's Dag Kreuger. After a first round that saw Villar show the better striking, but was more of a feeling out process than anything else, Villar sprang into action at the start of the second with a couple of stiff jabs then a big straight right that saw Kreuger collapse to the mat. Villar followed this up with a smashed right hand onto his opponent that knocked him out. Villar was quick to make his challenge to Marlon John known in his post-match interview, and though he might have to wait in line behind the winner of the LeToussier-Katou bout, he seems a cert to be getting a title shot before very long.

 

Lightweight Nicholas Bretton followed up defeats to two of the best in the division with a second round submission victory over Ian Linderman. Bretton got takedowns in both rounds and demonstrated some slick guard passing, but where he erred in letting Linderman spin into guard after he had taken the back in the first round, the second round saw him go straight for the Kimura attempts, and though Linderman was able to pop out of the first, he couldn't prevent Bretton locking it in the second time and getting the tap.

 

To kick things off, Ken Peters was only able to get the one punch off before getting a lovely combination from Hyun-Shik Lim that was finished up with a beautiful right uppercut that made Peters wobble and fall. Lim dived in and started raining down bombs, and referee Kyle Crisp had no hesitation in calling the fight off after just 37 seconds.

 

 

Quick Results

 

http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy352/batsnumbereleven/GAMMA%20on%20ECT%204%20results.png

 

Pick Results

 

CageRage - 4/5 (Total: 61/91)

[batsnumbereleven]

http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy352/batsnumbereleven/SeanMorrison.gif

 

Sean Morrison

 

Sukarno looked a class act against Nuntum, but he also looked like he was playing to the crowd, standing up out of side control when he was raining bombs down on the poor guy, and making him get up and face him again. The ref could have easily called him out on his feet. He wouldn't be able to do that to someone of real quality like I've been facing here in GAMMA over the last few years.

 

http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy352/batsnumbereleven/MichaelFrankley.gif

 

Michael Frankley

 

It's debatable whether it was “good strategy” or whether it was disrespecting his opponent, but either way Sukarno got the job done and done well. A decision on his next opponent would have to wait until he was ready to go again, but I wanted to match him up against Morrison straight away if both men were ready for it.

 

 

 

 

 

http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy352/batsnumbereleven/Morrison%20v%20Brockett.jpg

 

 

 

GAMMA 39 card for picks

 

Main Event

GAMMA Lightweight Championship

Sean Morrison (c ) (29-3) v Bud Brockett (8-1)

 

Co-main

Heavyweight – Leon Banks (33-10) v Pai Cheng (5-0)

Undercard

Middleweight – Buddy Garner (13-1) v Dexter Darling (17-3-1)

Welterweight – Josh Aldarisio (16-2) v Bobby Brubaker (10-5)

Lightweight – H.M. Menzel (10-4) v Jamie Hewitt (10-2)

Featherweight – Bobby Castillo (3-0) v Gregg Grable (19-9)

[KnowYourEnemy]

http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy352/batsnumbereleven/GAMMA%20on%20ECT%204%20results.png

 

I don't know a ton about GAMMA, or I'd be predicting more -- I wanted to drop in to say I love the work you're doing. From an in-game standpoint, this should've been held in Asia -- Sukarno is a huge draw (pretty much High International against anyone) there -- Teeptum probably draws best there and Hyuk Shim-Lim is probably still more over there than in the States.

 

Anyway, looking forward to the future -- some great backstage stuff, etc.

[CageRage]

Main Event

GAMMA Lightweight Championship

Sean Morrison (c ) (29-3) v Bud Brockett (8-1)

 

Co-main

Heavyweight – Leon Banks (33-10) v Pai Cheng (5-0)

 

Undercard

Middleweight – Buddy Garner (13-1) v Dexter Darling (17-3-1)

Welterweight – Josh Aldarisio (16-2) v Bobby Brubaker (10-5)

Lightweight – H.M. Menzel (10-4) v Jamie Hewitt (10-2)

Featherweight – Bobby Castillo (3-0) v Gregg Grable (19-9)

[Thesnake101]

Main Event

GAMMA Lightweight Championship

Sean Morrison (c ) (29-3) v Bud Brockett (8-1)

 

Co-main

Heavyweight – Leon Banks (33-10) v Pai Cheng (5-0)

Undercard

Middleweight – Buddy Garner (13-1) v Dexter Darling (17-3-1)

Welterweight – Josh Aldarisio (16-2) v Bobby Brubaker (10-5)

Lightweight – H.M. Menzel (10-4) v Jamie Hewitt (10-2)

Featherweight – Bobby Castillo (3-0) v Gregg Grable (19-9)