Fighters Only

Issue 135

December 2015

Bonus-hungry UFC bantamweight, Brad Pickett, has launched his own British-based promotion called Rise of Champions. The 37-year-old said he hoped the organization would give mostly up-and-coming amateur fighters real fight experience to push them towards a career in the UFC.

“My show’s basically trying to cater for younger talent, and try to get them the experience,” says ‘One Punch.’ “It’s called Rise of Champions, as in a way it’s the birth of someone’s career.”

Yaoundé, Cameroon: School’s in!

Teenagers in Cameroon are set to learn mixed martial arts after the country’s National Fighting Sports Multi-Martial Arts Association launched a program to make the sport a “major academic discipline” in schools. The Amasia Bilingual School Complex in the capital city of Yaoundé was the first to welcome an educational MMA instructor.

Ituri Rainforest, Democratic Republic of Congo: Fighting for others

Bellator heavyweight Justin Wren hopes he can use his renewed fight career to bring more aid to his adopted family from a community of oppressed pygmies. ‘The Big Pigmy’ returned from a five-year hiatus from competition to defeat Josh Burns at Bellator 141. He hopes to make a run for the promotion’s heavyweight title to raise awareness for his cause and continue his mission of creating land, water and food initiatives to help build better lives for the people of the Congo. The former contestant on the heavyweight season of The Ultimate Fighter also donated his win bonus to help support them.

Acailandia, Brazil: Where’s your daddy now?

What will it take to convince ne’er-do-well lawbreakers that messing with MMA fighters is a bad idea? For the latest example of criminal lunacy, unwise pickpocket Wesley Sousa de Araujo tried to rob strawweight fighter Monique Bastos. Big mistake. Seconds later, he was in a triangle choke, pleading for his father to save him.

Philadelphia, USA: Beyonce’s no DNB

Ronda Rousey’s ‘do nothing bitch’ movement has truly gone mainstream. Pop queen Beyonce used the UFC bantamweight champion’s speech about femininity as the lead-in for her performance of Diva at the Made In America festival, which drew huge cheers from the Philly crowd.