Issue 022
February 2007
SENI 2007 moves to London
Europe’s largest martial arts and combat sports convention is moving to London’s Excel Centre for 2007.
To be held in May, the SENI Expo moves from the NEC to the Excel Centre and will bring an extensive range of fight sports, classic martial arts, culturally stimulating displays and cutting edge health and fitness knowledge to a new audience.
This year the show offers five key zones with something for everyone. MMA enthusiasts will find the Fightsport zone of interest. The UFC will be there to present MMA at its best alongside displays in Boxing, Thai Boxing and Wrestling. Fight fans of all ages are sure to be entertained.
Also featured will be:
Survival Zone – Self protection and reality based combat advice for male and female visitors.
Powersport Zone – Extreme fitness enthusiasts, intense strength tests. How tough are you?
Tournament Zone – With a huge range of open championships, this is your chance to get involved!
The Olympic Youth Zone – This new zone will enable the young, eager and possible
Classical Warrior Zone - Purist fighters and Eastern culture lovers can explore the traditional arts, workshops and fashion.
As well as bringing the Seni ‘Fighting Spirit’ to London, organisers of the expo are working closely with Newham council and the 2012 Olympic Unit to tie the expo into the combat disciplines at the London Olympic games.
"We are really excited to be moving Seni to ExCeL London and aligning the show with the venue which will host the four combat disciplines at the 2012 Olympic Games" says Paul Alderson, Seni Organiser. "We believe the venue, together with its superb, onsite facilities, offers the perfect location for our event. In addition ease of access from central London and the home counties will help us to attract new visitors to the show."
Seni has become synonymous with opening the combat sports to a wider audience. Also featured will be the Seni Film Festival – Seni visitors will be able to see rare and premiere screenings hosted by top film stars at the only film festival dedicated to martial arts cinema.
Headlining the weekend will be the showcase of MMA and K1 Max talent, the event Pain and Glory. With the first ever K-1 sanctioned Grand Prix in the UK, Pain and Glory is to bring a spectacular fight night to London.
UK fighters on Bodog
Two English fighters will appear on the next TV series of BodogFight.
Welterweight Matt Thorpe and female fighter Rosi Sexton have both just returned from two weeks in Russia, where they fought respective opponents Diego Gonzales and Carina Damm.
Results of their fights are being kept secret due to the fighters signing non-disclosure agreements. The fights will be aired on US TV and on free-to-view internet TV shows via the Bodog website.
Sexton is a champion on UK promotion Cage Warriors and a highly ranked international competitor. Her opponent Damm is a freestyle wresting champion and a BJJ black belt.
Thorpe, nicknamed ’12 Gauge’, is an exciting welterweight contender who has battled names such as Dan Hardy and Peter Angerer. His opponent Diego Gonzales is seen as one of the hottest young welterweights currently active in Europe.
To watch the show go to Bodogfight.com.Jeremy Bailey is back!
After being locked away for 5 months, Jeremy ‘Bad Boy’ Bailey is back and will return to action in February.
Arrested last year, the Basingstoke MMA fighter has announced he will return to Cage Rage to rematch nemesis Jason ‘Bad Ass’ Barrett.
31-year-old debt collector Jeremy Bailey appeared at Maidstone magistrates in Kent last year charged with money laundering after a series of arrests that saw £1million recovered. Speculation has pointed to Bailey being associated with the Securitas robbery of last year, but as yet it is unclear exactly what charges have been brought against him or whether his case is indeed linked.
Bailey met Barrett in April of this year in a controversial and bad tempered contest that saw Barrett repeatedly penalised for pulling Bailey’s dreadlocks. Bailey won by verbal submission with seconds left in the first round after turning the tide on the motor mouthed Barrett.
Cage Rage 20 line up announced
Cage Rage don’t waste any time in announcing their next fight card – and once again, they’ve quite literally brought in some big names to bulk up the entertainment value.
In the main event Butterbean return to take on James Thompson in a super heavyweight clash, while wrestler and former UFC star Mark Kerr wil face heavyweight prospect Mustapha Al Turk in an intriguing battle of quality grapplers.
Tengiz Tedoradze faces off with Rob Broughton for the UK heavyweight title, while Zelg Galesic meets his first Japanese opponent, Daijiro Matsui. Also from Japan will be Masakazu Imanari, meeting Robbie Olivier in a featherweight fight.
Rounded off by domestic talent such as Ronnie Mann, Brad Pickett, Marios Zaromskis, Paul Taylor, Suley Mahmoud and Lee Doski, Cage Rage will return to Wembley Arena on 10th February.
10K Grappling Clash
From the promoters of SENI, Pain and Glory, in association with “Urban Gorillaz Grappling Challenge” the first ever 10K Grappling Clash comes to the UK.
32 elite submission fighters have been invited to apply to compete in a £10,000 winner takes all tournament. Big names from the world of grappling and MMA are expected to compete in a groundbreaking tournament. Go to bjj.eu.com for more details.
TUF 5: Penn vs. Pulver rematch!
It has been common knowledge for some time that Jens Pulver would be a coach on the fifth series of The Ultimate Fighter, but it was long wondered who his rival team coach would be.
The show, which will see 16 lightweights battle it out for a place in the UFC, is now joined by none other than BJ Penn.
The Las Vegas Review Journal has reported that UFC president Dana White has named Penn as Pulver's counterpart.
In a thrilling addition to their roles on the show, they will fight at the end of the series in a rematch of their 2002 encounter.
White told the Journal, "A lot of people want to see this fight. There have been people asking to see them fight since about an hour after their first fight."
Pulver’s manager, Monte Cox, confirmed that Penn is taking on the role of Pulver’s counterpart on the show, and that a rematch between the two had been in the works as they negotiated for Pulver.
UFC look towards Chicago, Detroit, and New York
Former Nevada State Athletic Commission representative and now UFC employee Marc Ratner has said the Ultimate Fighting Championship is been working ‘feverishly’ to establish a presence in the states of Illinois and Michigan.
Ratner, who joined the UFC midway through 2006, has been heavily involved in negotiations with states that do not yet sanction MMA. The former executive director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission was brought in by the UFC to assist in furthering the company’s ambitions in the USA.
While Ratner was not specific as to which cities Zuffa is targeting, two of biggest cities in the states of Michigan and Illinois are Chicago and Detroit. Ratner said he was “confident” that the UFC would be hosting events in those two states very soon.
He also stated that the Las Vegas-based company will start negotiations with New York State in early 2007.
Chael Sonnen, fan favourite
BodogFight has recognized Chael Sonnen as its viewer’s choice for favourite fighter. Announced at its pay-per-view event, the fan-based voting contest saw Sonnen beat fellow competitors who competed in the first season of the Bodog TV show.
Sonnen received nearly four times the number of votes than his nearest competitor, and will take home a $50,000 cash prize as the fan’s favourite fighter.
Josh gets punked by the CSAC
The Californian State Athletic Commission has suspended Josh ‘The Punk’ Thomson for wearing an ‘offensive’ t-shirt following his fight with Nam Phan on the most recent Strikeforce event.
The t-shirt at the center of controversy had a slogan that read "Frank Glamrock is my bitch". Thomson has been embroiled in a very public argument with Shamrock over the internet in recent months.
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