BAMMA 15 Review

It seems that with every BAMMA event I attend, the bar is raised ever higher. The promotion is now arguably head and shoulders above the competition on these shores. Strangely, tonight the entire card was broadcast from start to finish on Facebook, which may well explain a few empty seats in the arena. It could turn out to be a stroke of marketing genius in showcasing BAMMA to a whole new audience, but could well come at the cost of some existing fans. Who in their right mind is going to travel miles and pay hard cash for something they can watch at home for free? Of course, the same can be said for any Premier league fixture, and it never did the profile of those guys any harm. Anyway, moving on, MMA has been exploding in popularity here over the past few years, like it has been almost everywhere else in the world, and now UK crowds are finally reaping the benefits of all that training and dedication. BAMMA now attracts some of the most gifted and highly rated in Europe, if not the world.

At BAMMA 15, the main card kicked off with a flyweight contest between German Rany Saadeh and the undefeated Mahmood ‘Persian Pride’ Besharate. Saadeh has been described in the fight press as a ‘top European flyweight,’ but was up against some stiff competition in the shape of undefeated prospect Besharate, who went in with a perfect 5-0-0 record. As it happened, Saadeh kept his cool to pull off an uneventful majority victory. Next up was Ali ‘The Terminator’ Arish versus the highly-rated Sunderland prospect Ryan ‘Big Baby’ Scope who won a close decision to stretch his record to 8-0-0, despite carrying a potentially serious foot injury.

A late addition to the card was a BAMMA Lonsdale British Middleweight Title Bout between Andy ‘Lion Paw’ De Vent, making his first appearance for the promotion, and Harry ‘Mad Mac’ McLeman, who went in to the fight fresh from his decision victory over Matt Howard at BAMMA 14. And it was Mad Mac who somehow pulled off a victory from the jaws of defeat by majority decision, despite spending much of the fight turtled up and taking some vicious knees to the body. 20-year old BAMMA World Featherweight Champion Tom ‘Fire Kid’ Duquesnoy looked to build on his impressive knockout of James Saville in his last outing when he came up against undefeated fellow Frenchman Teddy Violet. This was obviously a big step up for Violet, who until tonight had a record of 8-0-0, all by knockout, despite only turning pro in June 2012. After seeing this performance, one has to wonder what kind of opposition he was knocking out because for the short time this bout lasted he looked completely outclassed, eventually succumbing to a triangle choke in the second round.

Despite losing his last fight, a tilt at Mansour Barnaoui’s lightweight title, and boasting an overall record of 9-4-0, ex-UFC fighter Colin ‘Freakshow’ Fletcher remains one of BAMMA’s biggest draws. Seven of his nine wins have come by submission and he has never knocked anyone out, but long before the fight there was a feeling he could pick up his first against the USA’s Tony ‘Lionheart’ Hervey, who went into the fight with a decidedly average career record of 16-15-0. Saying that, who could forget ‘Fast’ Eddy Ellis who went into his fight with ‘Judo’ Jimmy Wallhead at BAMMA 13 with a similar record, yet ended up winning a split decision and taking the welterweight championship.

Contrary to most people’s expectations, however, this was no quick finish, and no easy ride. Over three rounds Hervey rocked the favourite more than once, notably in the second round, and the fight remained standing, which didn’t suit Freakshow’s gameplan at all. In the end he managed to grind out a split decision victory, but not many would have argued the point if the decision had gone the other way. Freakshow’s problem is that despite his scary persona, he is a fucking nice guy. So nice, in fact, that during in his post-fight interview, he even said that he wouldn’t have complained if he had lost the fight. When asked why he didn’t go for more takedown’s, he admitted that he ‘Just couldn’t do it.’ Bless.

An all-English clash between defending champ Wayne ‘Caveman’ Murrie and challenger Leon ‘Rocky’ Edwards for the BAMMA Lonsdale British Welterweight Championship followed. Murrie has built something of a reputation as a submission artist, with 10 of his 17 wins coming on the ground. This is in contrast to relative newcomer Edwards, who went into the fight with a 5-1-0 record. However, Edwards was the one who left with the honours, getting his opponent in a deep rear naked choke and forcing a tap in the very first round.

At long last, the main event rolls in, a titanic Heavyweight clash between Oli Thompson and Gzim ‘The Albanian Psycho’ Selmani. 34-year old Thompson has been around the fight game for a while, even enjoying a brief ultimately unsuccessful spell in the UFC in 2012, while his opponent, with a pro record of 3-1-0, is relatively unproven. However, he is taller and heavier, and how can anyone doubt the skills someone with a nickname like the Albanian Psycho? Whilst roaming the cage waiting for his opponent to appear he looked the part, and wasted no time getting to grips with Thompson, knocking the champion to the floor before choking him out via guillotine after just 18 seconds of the fight. Job done. On this evidence, the Albanian Psycho looks a fearsome prospect.

The original version of this review appeared on the Huff Post UK:

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/chris-saunders/

BAMMA 13 – Night of Champions review

BAMMA 13

14th September 2013, Birmingham NIA

To echo the sentiments of many other observers, BAMMA 13 at Birmingham NIA was a bit of a weird one. After several fighters’ vacating their titles to take higher-paying gigs in Bellator and the UFC, there was room at the top of the UK’s premier MMA organization. Hence, BAMMA 13 was billed in the press as the ‘Night of Champions.’

BAMMA 13 poster

I was in the bar for most of the prelim action. My bad. The first fight I saw was Welshman Jack ‘Hammer’ Marshman take on Romanian kickboxer Ion Pascu. With a record of 11 wins from 13 fights with 8 knockouts and a large Welsh contingent in the crowd, the former British middleweight champion was expected to make short work of his eastern European opponent. Not so much. Marshman was dropped in the first round with a straight right, face-planted, and didn’t get back up.

The first title fight of the night between English prospect Scott Askham and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu ‘specialist’ Jorge Luis Bezerra for the vacant World Middleweight Championship, went more according to plan, with the Doncaster boy battering his smaller opponent around the Octagon for 15 minutes before winning the decision to take his record to an impressive 12-0, and the title. The only disappointment here was that Askham couldn’t find a finish.

On to the main card (I have no idea why the World Middleweight Championship was on the undercard) and we saw the return of Colin ‘Freakshow’ Fletcher against another Welshman, Tim ‘Superhuman’ Newman. Ever the showman, Freakshow came out to considerable fanfare, with an entourage that included dwarves and sword-swallowers, which was probably a first. One of the biggest personalities in British MMA has flattered to deceive in his last two fights, successive decision losses to Norman Parke and Mike Ricci that saw him rather harshly cut from the UFC. By his own admission, Freakshow wasn’t at his best, neither physically or mentally, for those fights. Here, he was back to his destructive best, dropping Newman twice in the first round with punches and coming close to finishing the fight several times with some vicious ground and pound. To his credit Newman fought on gamely, and could even have pulled off an arm bar, but it wasn’t to be and he ended up on the wrong end of a decision victory. Welcome back, Freakshow.

BAMMA 13 Freakshow poster

The next fight between England’s Curt Warburton and Tunisia’s Mansour ‘Tarzan’ Barnaoui for the vacant World Lightweight Championship was less a fight and more of a demolition. 32-year old Warburton came in with an impressive record of 12-3 but didn’t even get out of the blocks here as Barnaoui, a late call-up, swarmed him and finished the fight with punches in the first round to the delight of his small band of travelling support. The post-fight ‘interview’ was hilarious, as the guy obviously doesn’t speak a word of English and just stood there in awkward silence as Frank Trigg fired questions at him. Still, a good performance by the 20-year old who last fought just three weeks ago at M1 Global Challenge 41. He now boasts a record of 10-2, but has fought largely average competition. If he goes into every fight with this much brutal intensity and destructive intent, the sky’s the limit for him.

And so on to the vacant World Welterweight Championship between ‘Judo Jimmy Wallhead, one of the biggest stars of British MMA and American journeyman ‘Fast’ Eddy Ellis. As it turned out, ‘Fast’ Eddy wasn’t very fast at all, and copped a good one at the beginning of the fight that knocked out his tooth. He was in trouble, but like a solid pro hung on and saw out the round. The expected onslaught from Judo Jimmy, roared on by a vociferous crowd, didn’t happen, and he allowed Fast Eddy to get a foothold in the fight, which ground on for the next two rounds without any significant incident. Judo Jimmy looked out of sorts, and strangely lethargic. Fast Eddy, coming in to the fight on a six-fight win streak but boasting an unremarkable overall record of 18-15, and hadn’t fought for almost two years, did enough in the judges eyes to steal the title.

That left just one more fight, and the second phase of the much-hyped televised portion of the show featuring a Light-Heavyweight clash between golden boy Max Nunes, who went into the bout with a perfect record, and Dutchman Jason ‘the Villain’ Jones. There can’t be many sports where a 32-year old with a record of 19-10 gets plucked from obscurity and handed a title shot. As with a few other fights tonight, he was fully expected to lose. But despite being younger, bigger and faster than his adversary, Nunes was outclassed and soon tapped out to a choke. Another future prospect effortlessly disposed of.

All-in-all, not a good night for British fighters. Perhaps the true level of MMA in this country has been exposed, as three of the four titles went to overseas’s fighters. The night belonged to Freakshow, who finally lived up to his potential. Roll on BAMMA 14 on 14th December, which, we are told, will feature Paul ‘Semtex’ Daley as headliner, the man who will forever be remembered for punching Josh Kroscheck in the back of the head after the final bell at UFC 113.

I can’t wait.

The original version of this review appeared on the Huff Post (UK):

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/chris-saunders/bamma-13_b_3936804.html