Tuesday, May 28, 2013

World Series of Fighting signs Nick Newell and Jeff Smith

World Series of Fighting signs Nick Newell and Jeff Smith


The World Series of Fighting (WSOF) has recently signed two new Featherweight fighters to their ever expanding roster. Last week OnFire Management announced that their fighter Jeff Smith was signed by WSOF and would be fighting on their June 14 fight card featuring former UFC veterans Jon Fitch & Josh Burkman in the main event. (plus other stand-out fighters like Jacob Volkmann, Dan Lauzon, and Rolles Gracie)
Today MMAfighting.com announced that former XFC Lightweight Champion "Notorious" Nick Newell was also signed to the WSOF roster.

Jeff Smith




Jeff Smith fights out of Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania and was on the UFC reality fight show "The Ultimate Fighter Live" (also known as "The Ultimate Fighter 15") In the elimination round to see which fighters make it into the TUF House Jeremy Larsen defeated Jeff Smith by unanimous decision. Central Pennsylvania MMA fans may recognize Smith when he fought D'Juan "Dirty South" Owens at Complete Devastation 5 in Altoona, Pennsylvania back on July 14th 2012. Smith had previously stated at CDMMA 5 that his goal was to return to the UFC and fight for what is widely considered ot be the #1 MMA promotion in the world. By signing with up-and-coming promotion MMA World Series of Fighting Smith will face a higher quality of opponent that could end up with him being in the UFC if he continues his winning ways.
OnFire Management released a statement about Smith getting signed by the WSOF.
The World Series of Fighting can be viewed on NBC Sports channel. Smith's opponent for WSOF 3 has not been announced yet, but the fight card (subject to change) can be seen at http://wsof.com/schedule/ and on the Wikipedia page for the event.

UPDATE: According to OnFire Management's latest press release, Smith Replaces Injured Chris Gruetzemacher Against Jerrod Sanders on the June 14th fight card.  



"Notorious" Nick Newell





Nick Newell made MMA news when he was the first "one arm" fighter to compete in MMA. Nick was born with a congenital amputation resulting in him having nothing below his left elbow. He has not let this condition hold him back in life, he competed in wrestling in high school & college - with over 300 victories to his record.
Before turning professional in MMA, Nick amassed an amateur record of 2 wins, 1 loss. He describes his early MMA career as a struggle, not because he could not win (he is currently undefeated as a pro, with a 9 - 0 record) but because other fighters did not want to fight a one armed fighter. The opponents who have turned down a fight against him felt that it would be a lose-lose situation for them, as if they won, they just beat a one armed fighter, and if they lost they lost to a fighter with only one arm. One fighter did not even show up at the weigh-ins because he did not want to fight him. This became a bit of a struggle for Newell to find good opponents for the number of fights he'd like to have.
Newell signed with up-and-coming regional promotion XFC. Nick continued to keep his undefeated record and eventually won the XFC's Lightweight Championship. Newell was scheduled to face Scott "Hot Sauce" Holtzman at XFC 24, but controversy erupted and the result was Newell announcing that his contract with the XFC had expired and that he chose not to re-sign with the promotion. Nick claimed that he never agreed to fight Holtzman, as no contract for the fight had ever been signed by him. On the internet radio show MMA Mayhem #66 Newell said that he chose not to re-sign with XFC because he wanted to fight "former UFC fighters" rather than "younger fighters looking to make a name off him" as well as not liking the lengthy time periods (that could be 6 months or longer) between fights.
That same episode of MMA Mayhem had XFC President John Prisco explaining the promotions side of the situation. Prisco said that the promotion had announced match-up between Newell & Holtzman because they felt a deal between XFC and Newell would eventually be worked out.
In the MMAfighting.com article is reported as saying that there is no word just yet on when Newell will make his WSOF debut. However, (WSOF Executive V.P.) Abdel-Aziz said it will "most likely happen in August or September."
Back when I first heard that Newell was no longer with the XFC, but that a "deal was in the works" I figured it would be with either Bellator MMA or WSOF rather than other promotions because these two MMA promotions made the most sense. Other promotions would either be a lateral move or worse, and while Bellator has more public awareness due to Viacom's heavily promoting the events & a reality show on Spike TV... but MMA World Series of Fighting has the caliber of fighters Newell was looking to face. Nick has said that his goal is to eventually make it to the UFC, and (like Smith) his best bet is beating the competition in the WSOF.
I'm just glad to see that both of these talented fighters have found a new home in MMA World Series of Fighting.







Sunday, May 5, 2013

Rocktagon XXVI: Veni, Vidi, Vici Results



Rocktagon XXVI: Veni, Vidi, Vici

Rocktagon MMA Worldwide brought the latest installment of people doing battle in the Rocktagon went down at The Agora in Cleveland, Ohio last night with an exciting fight card for Rocktagon XXVI: Veni, Vidi, Vici.

The main event put Kettering, Ohio native, Tyler "Superman" Combs against Micah "Maverick" Miller. Miller is the brother of TUF5 and UFC veteran, Cole Miller, and has fought in several promotions like the XFC, DREAM, and the WEC. Combs has fought for several local/regional promotions since turning pro, and his fight previous to this event was when he faced Andrew Osborne at Complete Devastation 6 in Clearfield, Pennsylvania back on September 15, 2012. 

Also on the fight card was Complete Devastation 5 veteran, Darryl "The Magic Man" Madison who faced Micah "Mayhem" Bender. The main event of the Amateur portion of the fight card put Daniel "The Assassin" Coffman against James "The Hybrid" Pfeiffer. Also in action was Coffman's brother, Jonathan "Leviathan" Coffman - who helped start the action off with the first fight of the night against Chris Fortune. The co-main event of the night was "Animal" Andrew Cseh Vs. Jordan Espinosa.Two fights from the fight card didn't happen were Lauren Stoffel Vs. Janel Krafft and Winston Witherow Vs. Ray “Crazy” Hollis

The event was held at the famous Agora Theatre and Ballroom (commonly known as "The Agora") which has been the venue for some famous bands as well as local favorites over the years. Many bands such as Grand Funk Railroad, ZZ Top, Ratt, Glass Harp, and The Raspberries have played at the Agora. 

The band American Wi-Fi played the intermission between the amateur and professional portions of the fight card.

Rocktagon MMA broadcasts events via GFL.TV on the internet and on television via Comcast's Sportsnet. During the GFL live feed I was watching it was announced that Rocktagon MMA signed a deal with Canada's "The Fight Network" to get the Rocktagon MMA events aired on that network, possibly on a weekly basis. I have Dish Network and part of my programming package is the "Pursuit Channel" (channel 240 on Dish Network) and on Monday nights they air 2 hours of programming from The Fight Network. The shows "Best of DEEP" (a Japanese MMA promotion) and "Texas Fight Night" (showing fights throughout Texas, but mostly from the Corpus Christi area) are HUGELY successful - and I have my DVR set so that I don't miss a single episode! Hopefully they will add the Rocktagon MMA fights to this line-up so that I can see previous fights/events on my TV every Monday night!

The event can be purchased on GFL.tv for $9.99 and you own the event for LIFE and can replay it whenever you want. The link for this event at GoFightLive is: http://www.gfl.tv/Events/Fight/MMA/Rocktagon_MMA_XXVI___Veni_Vini_Vici/1914


Fight results for the night are:

Rocktagon XXVI: Veni, Vidi, Vici
Cleveland, Ohio at The Agora
05/04/13


Main Event:
Micah Miller defeats Tyler Combs by TKO (knee) at 0:43 of the 3rd Round
Co-Main Event:
Andrew Cseh defeats Jordan Espinosa by RNC at 3:49 of the 1st Round
Micah Bender defeats Darryl Madison by RNC at 1:49 in the 1st Round
Amateur Fight Card Main Event:
James Pfeiffer defeats Daniel Coffman by Unanimous Decision
Brandon Vasquez defeats Steve Chapple by Unanimous Decision
Uriah Karkow defeats Matt Zindren by Armbar at 2:22 of the 2nd Round
Tobiaus Taylor defeats Orundi Colvin by Knock Out at 2:03 of the 2nd Round
Nicholas Rodriguez defeats Billy Freedson by Triangle at 2:12 of the 2nd Round
Tim Taumoepeau defeats John MacGregor by Unanimous Decision
Jonathan Coffman defeats Chris Fortune by Armbar at 1:21 of the 1st Round

Main event winner: Micah "Maverick" Miller


Co-main event winner: "Animal" Andrew Cseh


Micah "Mayhem" Bender after the win
Amateur Main Event winner: James "The Hybrid" Pfeiffer
Brandon "Killa B" Vasquez after the win


Tobiaus "Freight Train" Taylor wins by KO


Tim Taumoepeau wins his MMA debut at the Rocktagon
American Wi-Fi playing the intermission


American Wi-Fi playing the intermission

I want to thank everyone at Rocktagon MMA for putting on another awesome event. Also a big thanks to the people at GoFightLive for making the event available via internet live feed. And I can't forget Skippy Cohen and Carl Mortensen at MMAmadhouse.com for allowing me to report these results on Twitter & Facebook as a member of TEAMmadhouse!

The recap over at MMAmadhouse.com for this event is here: http://www.mmamadhouse.com/rocktagon-mma-xxvi-veni-vini-vici/



Thanks guys - Can't wait for the next Rocktagon event to happen!!!