Tuesday, September 1, 2015

A Look Ahead at the New York City Combat Sports Calendar

NEW YORK


It's September, summer's almost over, and soon the winds will grow chill and then 2015 will draw to a close. But until the bell tolls on another year in the Big Apple, there's still some quality violence to take in. From secret unsanctioned boxing matches to eight-man Muay Thai tournaments to amateur MMA events run safely and smoothly, the coming months will have it all. Here's a closer look at the calendar:

New York and New Jersey Repping Hard for TUF 22

AWESOME


The UFC has released the names of the contestants on the upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter, which will be helmed by Conor McGregor and Urijah Faber as coaches and will premiere on September 9. There's a ton of foreigners on the list, but repping New York and New Jersey are Team Serra/Longo vet James Jenkins and Team Quest jiu-jitsu ace Tom Gallicchio.

Booyah!

Jenkins and Gallicchio have long and storied careers, and have pretty much done all there is to do in the Northeast circuit (Gallicchio moved out to the West Coast a while back, having choked the crap out of everyone here). All you need to know about these guys is right here, summed up into one bullet point for each:

  • Tag "Jenks" once on the chin and he turns into a Terminator.
  • "Da Tank" was an expert at taking opponents' backs and tapping them with chokes long before he ever got a jiu-jitsu black belt.
You can bet I'm tuning in to TUF 22 to watch these cats in action.