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| VFL 42: Broad Avenue Brawlers 7 |
Valley Fight League 42
Broad Avenue Brawlers 7
Jaffa Shrine
Altoona, Pa. July 19, 2013
http://www.vflmma.com
Last night the 7th installment of the Broad Avenue Brawlers from Valley Fight League came to Altoona, Pa. The Jaffa Shrine was the location for VFL's MMA action in Central Pennsylvania. The event got off to a rocky start when several of the fights from the fight card went away for various reasons. The original main event of Eli Garshnick Vs. Shedrick Goodridge was cancelled fro unknown reasons. Local favorites like Charlie "The Madman" Gathers & Brett "Showtime" Shoenfelt also had their fights cancelled. The reason for the Gathers Vs. Matt OTT fight not happening wasn't announced. After the original main event wasn't happening, the fight of Brett Shoenfelt Vs. Mitch Whitesel became the new main event. But when Mitch Whitesel came in 12 pounds overweight and an agreement on additional pay for Shoenfelt couldn't be resolved that fight was also cancelled less than 24 hours before fight time. Another fight involving a local fighter, Brandon Lux, was cancelled when his opponent, Roman Swaner, came in 20 pounds under the scheduled weight limit and the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission wouldn't allow the two to fight. After the Commission called into question the qualifications of Daniel McNulty - who was scheduled to fight local fighter Paul Riggleman - that fight was also cancelled, BUT the Commission had allowed a last minute match-up of Swaner Vs. Riggleman which would be a rematch from their fight at VFL 40. However after some thought & getting advice from his coaches, Paul Riggleman pulled out of the fight. It would have been the 4th potential opponent for Riggleman in the past week and his coaches didn't feel taking this fight on less than 24 hours notice would be a good idea.
With two main event fights not happening the fight between Altoona fighter Ryan "Goose Lee" Glunt and Matthew Dean became the new main event. This fight almost didn't happen when Dean came in 7 pounds over the limit, but Glunt agreed to allow Dean to have some additional time to lose some weight and the fight was able to happen.
The night began with 4 boxing matches in a ring before the crew took down the ring and put up the cage for the MMA fights. Actually, the night began with an unexpected delay that pushed back the start time almost an hour. No actual reason was given for the delay to the fight fans enduring the hot July weather in the Jaffa Shrine arena that has no A/C and no fans to help deal with the high heat/humidity that is Central Pennsylvania weather in the middle of July. But eventually the issues were solved and the boxing fights began. After 4 exciting matches (with one more brief delay in the action) and a relatively quick change from ring to cage the MMA action started.
Local fighter Travis Pfahler lost to Patrick Brett in the 2nd Round by Rear naked Choke. Then another local fighter, Gary Pfahler, lost by Unanimous Decision to Scott Wible. The main event ended quickly - with Ryan "Goose Lee" Glunt defeating Matthew Dean by Standing Guillotine at just 28 seconds of the 1st Round. The fight could have ended sooner, had the referee been in a position to see that Dean was tapping out a few seconds prior to the ref stopping the action and awarding Glunt the win.
The fights that did happen were exciting, but it's hard to not fault the promotion for all the fights that didn't happen, not to mention what definitely seems like poor planning that resulted in fighters coming in way over weight or very under weight. Central Pennsylvania fight fans have come to expect quality fights & high level production value in their combat sport events... what happened last night at VFL 42 might be acceptable to some, but I'm sure the people who paid good money & expected to see a full fight card will spread their opinions of displeasure to their friends, and the next time this promotion comes to town they should put on a better show or not be surprised when the ticket sales decline drastically in the future.
Thankfully this is not the only MMA promotion that holds events in the Altoona area, and later this year in the Fall the other promotion will put on an event in the same venue. I expect fight fans to have a much better experience when CDMMA 9 hits the Jaffa Shrine arena.
Fight Results:
MMA
Main Event:
Ryan Glunt over Matthew Dean by Standing Guillotine at 0:28 of Round 1
Scott Wible over Gary Pfahler by Unanimous Decision
Patrick Brett over Travis Pfahler by RNC at 1:03 of Round 2
Boxing
Zaiden over Lopez by decision
Whitney Warmus over by decision
Henry Gaston over by decision
Marcellus Campbell over by decision
For more info on the fight card chaos visit: http://cagenationtv.com/2013/07/19/vfl-42-meltdown-glunt-vs-dean-promoted-to-main-event/
(fight result info provided by Mike Kessling of CageNationTV)
