Issue 017
September 2006
UK NEWS
Paul Daley vs Sol Gilbert for CR WW title at CR 18
A top welterweight clash has been announced for Cage Rage 18. Scheduled for September 30th, the event will see Britain’s top ranked welterweight Paul Daley take on Sol Gilbert.
Gilbert was a successful middleweight who dropped down to welterweight after a pair of tough losses. Now campaigning for the Cage Rage UK title, Sol is confident that whatever happens the fight will be an entertaining one for the fans.
“It will make an exciting fight, plus Paul, who has a big say in who he fights, has already stated that he would consider fighting me, and as I am local to Cage Rage and I sell tickets it makes sense to the promotion. But bottom line I feel it will be an explosive bout, so it’s value for the paying public. ”
Paul was equally respectful about the match up, saying “I was offered this fight, it’s a great fight that the fans have wanted to see for a while, but myself and Sol thought best to hold out as we pursued other paths. Now the time is right, Sol is well deserving, he has proved himself as a top UK middleweight fighter and Ultimate Combat champion, and [he has] taken an opportunity presented to him by Cage Rage. It will be a great fight.”
Legeno to face a real monster!
CHARISMATIC Cage Rage fighter Dave Legeno will face the 6”8 175kg Alexander Lungu. Lungu is a Romanian judo champion who has fought in PRIDE, notably losing the James Thompson. Legeno weighs only 92kgs so this fight will take place as an openweight fight.
The bout will take place on Cage Rage 18 on September 30th. Lungu will be the biggest person to step foot in the Cage Rage ring. Legeno is also to travel to South Africa to headline a show in Durban, where he will challenge the South African super heavyweight champion Ricco Hatting.
Reports are that Dave is now changing his name from ‘The Enforcer’ to Dave ‘Death Wish’ Legeno or even Dave ‘Kamikaze’ Legeno.
CW returns to Sheffield
The popular CageWarriors Quest show, originally scheduled for July, was cancelled only weeks before the show, but an announcement has been made that the show will be rebranded and re-released in September. The CageWarriors team would like to apologise and hope to make amends in September, when they return to Sheffield with a brand new show.
This show, now named CageWarriors: Showdown, will be run by the Coventry-based Warrior Promotions team who promote the successful Cage Warriors Strike Force series. The show will take place at the Octagon Centre in Sheffield and will feature an 11-bout fight card consisting of MMA and Cage Kickboxing action.
Quest was well known for being a breeding ground for up and coming talent, and Showdown will continue to promote new talent by offering B-class matches for aspiring fighters.
CageWarriors hopes this move will renew interest in MMA in the South Yorkshire region and help to promote the growth of fighters and the sport. If anyone is are interested in fighting on this and other CageWarriors shows please contact Ian Dean at [email protected].
Tickets will be available from www.warriorshop.co.uk or from www.mmauniverse.com
Arni Isaksson pulls out of FightFest/CW title bout
WINNER OF THE CageWarriors 8-man tournament earlier this year, Arni ‘The Ice Viking’ Isaksson guaranteed himself a shot at the welterweight title. Unfortunately he has had to pull out of the upcoming title bout (scheduled for August) against defending champion Forrest ‘Hitman’ Petz due to a neck injury.
Isaksson earned his title shot due to his tournament win on March 5th, but suffered an injury whilst training for this double title bout and was pulled from the show by his trainer and manager John Kavanagh. Forrest Petz will now defend both titles against an as-yet unnamed opponent at the Laredo Entertainment Centre in Texas, USA, on Saturday 5th August.
BRAZIL NEWS
Brazilian MMA promotion offers 35 thousand reais for tournament winner
A new MMA association titled Super Challenge will debut on Brazilian soil next October in Sao Paulo. Super Challenge will explore the huge rivalry between Chute Boxe and BTT by booking a superfight involving former partners (yet nowadays extremely bitter rivals) Jorge ‘Macaco’ Patino of Chute Boxe against BTT fighter Roberto Godoy.
The rivalry between these two runs deep. They formed a BJJ team in the past, named Godoy & Macaco BJJ, but after some time they split and became archrivals. They’ will resolve their problems in professional manner in one of the most anticipated MMA matches in Brazil. The prize money, unseen in a Brazilian MMA event to date, will be dispute in 8-man u73kgs and u83kgs tournaments. Thirty five thousand reais (around £8500, or US$18000) will be the prize money for the winner of this tournament. The names weren’t still announced, but we found enough information to report that Gustavo ‘Ximu’ Machado, Thalles Leite, Luciano Azevedo, Luiz ‘Buscape’ Jr are all in different stages of negotiation.
Luta Livre’s powerhouse ‘Chocolate’ Nascimento fights twice in August
WCFC tournament champion Leonardo Lucio ‘Chocolate’ Nascimento will have a busy calendar in August. First he will compete in the national MMA event GuaraFight in one of the single-matches of the show (against local fighter Erick Silva of Alliance). Fourteen days later he’ll make his Japanese debut at MARS-New Deal. This will be an eight-man tournament for up and coming competitors. Chocolate still doesn’t know who his first opponent will be. This will be the third tournament participation of his career. Names such as Bryan Rafiq, Daniel Tabera and Sebastian Reien are confirmed for the event as well.
BTT isn’t just MMA and BJJ!
THE MUAY THAI’S head-coach of Brazilian Top Team, Paulo Nikolai, recently introduced to the fans three of his five students who are going to sharpen their techniques in the Thai Camp of Sityootoong. This camp is well known for its high level and rigidity when choosing its participants. This will be the first time that this camp in Thailand is accepting Brazilians, and BTT are to have the honour of having representatives there.
“Only great Muay Thai champions such as Rob Kaman, Ramon Dekkers, Peter Aerts and a few champions of K-1 MAX had the opportunity of participating at Sityootoong. The state of Rio de Janeiro and state of Sao Paulo champion, Douglas Silva, is our first member to enter, and he’s travelling next Sunday. The Brazilian champion Claudiere Freitas and the heavyweight and 6-0 fighter Gleison Mamute will follow,” stated the proud Nikolai. The fighters are to spend five months of tough training in Thailand, and the intention of this work is to acquire experience with the best. “We looked for Sityootoong and we knew that they don’t accept just any fighter. The contact came through for us and I’m happy that Muay Thai Nikolai/BTT has enough respect in Brazil to be at Thailand’s camp, this is very important to Brazilian Muay Thai” finished Nikolai.
Nikolai thinks the Brazilian Muay Thai that focuses on MMA is the best in the country, and he wants to develop the pure Muay Thai technique with this chance at Sityootoong. Besides the fighters mentioned above, Nikolai told us that fighters from other associations are welcome to join the project. Other fighters scheduled to travel still this year are Guilherme Bravo, Leonardo Vagner, Adriano Ribeiro, Pirata, Eduardo Pachu and Murilo Adriano.
“Barnett has a big mouth”
THE BRACKETS of the PRIDE open weight GP were announced for next September 10th, but before this Josh Barnett was proclaiming his desire to facing BTT’s fighter Rodrigo “ Minotauro” Nogueira. Barnett stated on his website that he’d like to face Minotauro, and Minotauro talked about his impressions of Barnett’s desires: “I’m facing Barnett because PRIDE FC organisation wants it, and not because Barnett does. Barnett always talked about his desire of facing me, and he talked a lot before the fights.
“This is usual for him, and we see sometimes this doesn’t work. He talked a lot before his fight against Mirko, and the result was that he got outclassed. Now he’s saying he wants to face me. Okay! PRIDE booked us, we’ll fight, and I’ll try to make him never have had this desire.”
