Issue 001
March 2005
Darragh Creamer with the news from France.
Well it’s been a quiet month here, with all our wine-drinking cousins still getting over Christmas, foie gras, champagne and other excesses, but that hasn’t stopped some of the beret-wearers from staying active.
Pint-sized pugilist Emmanuel Fernandez —Cage Warriors Featherweight Champion — is out of training. A swelling on his elbow became infected and he spent three days in hospital. He’s been ordered to have a month’s total rest, but being Emmanuel he’s decided to start lifting weights for the first time in his life, lower body only of course. Emmanuel’s due to make his stateside debut with another member of the French Top Team later this year and has decided to upgrade his training with some strength work and ‘weight cutting’. He is accepting applications for the second ‘Peroba Challenge’ Luta Livre event in March. The entry fee is only €10 and it’s a quality event. For more details contact [email protected].
Emmanuel’s brother has been keeping busy. For the last two years Fred’s been winning grappling competitions in France like they’re going out of fashion and he continued his winning streak taking first place in Jean Noel Charollais’ competition in January. While the level was quite high, some controversial rules and Charollais’ infamous decision-making has once again inspired competitors to call for a boycott of his events — French politics: don’t you just love ’em?
Another series of grappling events is quietly developing in the background. Shooto rep Daniel Quoniam has been regularly running events in the Paris area but they seem to be a secret. With little or no advertising and even less information available about the events, some of the top French grapplers seem to be missing their chance to compete. Rumour has it that his next event is a French championship, but let’s hope it’s not going to be a Mickey Mouse title and that Daniel can get some advertising done for it.
All this grappling and not enough striking you say? I have the remedy: French Konnexion’s Loic Pora, former student of Bas Rutten, has continued running interclub events. His next one, the fourth, is on at the end of February. The amateur-rules MMA events have brought out some previously unknown talent and are beginning to get a reputation as the place to compete. Not wanting to be left behind, teammate Jean-François Lenogue has decided to start his own events under the guise of Vo Thuat Superfight. The Vietnamese format will include body shots on the ground, unlike Loic’s interclubs.
Moving south we get as far as Avignon, where the Frere’s Schiavo have been working hard behind the scenes with their Japanese manager. They’ve managed to come to a training agreement with
Wa-Jutsu Association in Japan. Could this mean we see Sammy Schiavo or Mohamed Khacha in Japan? Could this mean that we’ll see Japanese Wa-Jutsu fighters in the UK?
Onwards to Marseille, where Matthias Riccio is keeping busy in kickboxing while awaiting opportunities to fight MMA again. Disappointed with his performance against James Zikic Matthias, he has been training hard, not least on the mental aspect of the game. Matthias took part in the K-1 Rules Marseille and lost a close decision to the experienced Tony Gregory, who literally dwarfed Riccio in what looked like a David vs Goliath match. Matthias topped the bill in his hometown of Perpignan on February 11 against Jordan Faribol from Team Notari, which happened after we went to press.The more volatile of the Riccio brothers — Damien — has been quiet of late as he’s in rehab after a herniated disc operation. However, he’s just agreed to a rematch with Matt Ewin as his comeback fight in April — here’s wishing a full recovery to our very own Chasseur de Gracies.
And what of the French Konnexion, the Brazil TopTeam Paris? Team manager Gregory Huau has a project. Finally, a true France vs UK might happen in the UK, with top French fighters from all of the French teams against top UK fighters. Huau is in negotiations with a UK promoter as I type this.
