Update on the Next MUSU

From promoter Novell Bell:

Observations from My Couch: UFC 152

• I'm not going to speculate if the stoppage in the Kyle Noke/Charlie Brenneman fight was premature.  But I will say this: Brenneman must go through a ton of hair products each week just to keep that expansive 'fro in check.
• Walel Watson is so skinny, stick figures offer him food.
• Seth Baczynski is slowly but surely turning into one exciting motherfucker.
• Watching Jimy Hettes on the ground is like watching Royce Gracie fight back in the early UFCs.  Watching Jimy Hettes on the feet is like watching Royce Gracie trying his hand at pro boxing.
• The bout between Sean Pierson and Lance Benoist was so memorable, I-
• Well goddamn did TJ Grant and Evan Dunham throw down.  That was the kind of fight that would inspire 50% of the wannabe-fighters, and convince the other 50% that they really should be doing something else less violent.
• If I was on the fence about how good Vinny Magalhaes was with his jiu-jitsu, Joe Rogan made me believe he's a beast.  Also, I now believe Rogan secretly married the Brazilian, and his love for him is eternal.
• In a year, the Devil is going to show up at Cub Swanson's door demanding his soul, and Swanson's going to have to give it to him because, you know, they had a deal.
• Roger Hollett better hope Bellator will take him back.
• As much as I hate to say it, I think Michael Bisping deserves to face Anderson Silva next.  Silva will kill him, but Bisping has proven that he's worthy.
• Demetrious Johnson fought hard and well.  Damn shame he moves too fast for the vast majority of the world to know what he's doing in the cage.
• When Vitor Belfort almost had that armbar, I nearly died of a heart attack.  And you know what?  I would've died happy.

This Week in New York MMA

This week in New York MMA:

• I wrote this for Cagepotato.
• Gladius Fights, Ryan Ciotoli's pro/am MMA show on the Seneca Indian Reservation in Upstate New York, is tomorrow night.  The main event will feature Don Carlo-Claus vs. Eddie Fyvie - two dudes who usually have to travel hella far to fight but get to scrap closer to home this time.
• The rumor mill has that amateur MMA that's supposed to take place at the MMA World Expo at the Javits Center edging closer to reality.  The athletic commission even said to me via email "whatevs, we gots no juice over da amateur stuff" (*said in a Brooklyn accent).
• Lou Neglia's flagship kickboxing promotion "Combat at the Capitale" is tonight in Chinatown.  Of note is TSMMA rising star Julio Arce, who made his pro MMA debut in Philly a couple months ago.  Kids a killer.

That's all I got for now.

From the Department of These Things Happen in MMA

Via a press release sent out by the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board:

Division of Criminal Justice       

Stephen J. Taylor, Director

For Immediate Release: September 17, 2012

TRAINER PLEADS GUILTY TO SUBMITTING FORGED MEDICAL FORMS TO STATE ATHLETIC CONTROL BOARD TO CLEAR FIGHTERS FOR MIXED MARTIAL ARTS

TRENTON – Attorney General Jeffrey S. Chiesa announced that a man who trains fighters for
Amateur Mixed Martial Arts contests in New Jersey pleaded guilty today to submitting false documents, including medical forms, to the State Athletic Control Board so that his athletes could fight without undergoing mandatory physical examinations and medical tests.

Philip Dunlap, 49, of Mahwah, a trainer who owns and operates a gym called Advanced Fighting Systems, pleaded guilty before Superior Court Judge Patrick J. Roma in Bergen County to tampering with public records or information, a third-degree offense. Under the plea agreement, the state will recommend that Dunlap be sentenced to a term of probation. He must perform 200 hours of community service and pay a $5,000 fine. There is a presumption against any custodial sentence for a third-degree crime in New Jersey if a defendant has no prior criminal record. Dunlap has no prior record. Deputy Attorney General Debra A. Conrad took the guilty plea for the Division of Criminal Justice Specialized Crimes Bureau. Dunlap is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 26.

In pleading guilty, Dunlap admitted that, from 2007 through 2011, he submitted false or forged documents, including medical forms and consent to fight forms, to the State Athletic Control Board (SACB), which regulates Amateur Mixed Martial Arts (AMMA). The medical forms certified that a doctor had examined certain fighters whom Dunlap trained and that they were medically cleared to participate in AMMA contests. The consent to fight forms certified that the fighters signed the form. An investigation by the SACB and the Division of Criminal Justice revealed that the fighters did not receive the physicals, the doctor did not sign the medical forms, and the fighters did not sign the consent forms. After the SACB discovered the fraud, it suspended the fighters from any AMMA fights in New Jersey and referred the matter to the Division of Criminal Justice.

“The State Athletic Control Board’s main concern will always be the health and safety of the combative sport competitor, and the integrity of the contest,” said SACB Commissioner Aaron Davis. “We are committed to working jointly with the Division of Criminal Justice in stopping the fraudulent submission of medical forms to the State of New Jersey. Every trainer investigated and arrested for this type of crime enables us to further uphold the integrity of the sport.”

The fraudulent forms were initially uncovered by Deputy Attorney General Nick Lembo, who is assigned to the State Athletic Control Board. Detective Nicholas Olenick, Investigator Ruben Contreras, Detective Christian Harden and Deputy Attorney General Conrad investigated the case for the Division of Criminal Justice Specialized Crimes Bureau, under the supervision of Supervising Deputy Attorney General Andrew M. Butchko, who is Chief of the Bureau.

AMMA is a full contact sport that allows the use of both striking and grappling techniques from a variety of other contact sports. The State provides rules and regulations to the fighters, promoters and trainers that must be followed in order to participate in fights in New Jersey Fighters train at various gyms with trainers. The trainers, such as Dunlap, enter them into fights.

http://www.nj.gov/oag/newsreleases12/pr20120917b.html

Crappy UCL Pics

UCL Postscript

Another Sunday, another installment of the Underground Combat League - this one taking place at a brand new secret location, and featuring a cast of newcomers and veterans alike.  And for the first time ever, we got to see the event's security in action, with promoter Peter Storm's legion of muscle turning away at the door about a dozen would be rumblers who had beef with a mouthy fighter.  Folks, you can't get that kind of "Oh my God, am I going to get hit by a stray bullet?" action at other shows!  Highlights of the event included:

• Team Free Expression's Owen Thomas, who repped the Black Taoist and brought kung fu into the ring.  His first bout ended with him tapping to a guillotine at the hands of Danny Estrella, but Thomas wasn't ready to call it a day, so he got back in there and fought hard against MUSU veteran Mike Brown (a.k.a. Mike from Harlem).  Though Brown bloodied him and tapped him out with an armbar, you can't say Thomas didn't have heart.  Hopefully, he'll be back.
• The grueling back-and-forth battle between Desmond Nelson and Ty Navarrio.  Navarrio put a hurting on Nelson early, but Nelson wore him down, and when his corner shouting for him to jump into a guillotine, Nelson listened and got the tap.
• Peter Storm and Adam Nadler, who rematched vale tudo-style from a bout that Storm won years ago.  Storm won by getting Nadler down, softening him with headbutts, and slipping on the kimura, but it was a strong effort by both men, and hey, it was vale-fucking-tudo.  How often do you get to see that?
• The absolute war between Radical Jiu-Jitsu standout Chad Hernandez and Twin Towers Wrestling badass Pedro Villa.  Villa bloodied Hernandez with punches and threatened with a guillotine, but Hernandez has got zero quit in him to match his top notch skills, and he elicited the tap out from Villa with a barrage of punches from top position in Round 2.  It was a great fight, and with Kenny Rivera retired, Hernandez is clearly the UCL's best, most promising fighter.

Trailer for UCL Documentary

There's a documentary on the UCL that's being shopped around, and here's a look at the trailer.  "The Real Fight Klub" is the title.  Check it out.

ROC 42 and Why You Should Care

Like that old, dependable horse you can count on to carry you over the finish line, Ring of Combat returns for its forty-second installment on Friday - and with it comes all the usual strangulation and face-smashing goodness you've come to expect from one of the Northeast's top regional shows.  So what bouts should you be excited about and glued to your Twitter feed for?  Please, allow me to tell you.

• Ed Gordon vs. Anton Talamantes - Gordon, a.k.a. "Truck" (so named for his sweet ride, which is actually a tricked out Honda Civic - oh the irony), is the closest thing Team Serra/Longo has come to replicating the X-Men villian "The Juggernaut", and he's thus far been unstoppable since donning four-ounce MMA gloves.  Talamantes is some cat from the Midwest who went the distance with UFC vet Joey Beltran earlier this year, but none of the thousand or so people who will be there live for this particular fight are there for him - they're there for Truck.  So yeah, a lot of folks will be screaming and cheering and having spittle shoot out of their mouths for this one.  Should be fun.
• Deividas Taurosvicius vs. Mike Santiago - DT fought in the IFL and WEC, and though he's getting up there in years and mileage, he's still brings the excitement.  Santiago is flying in from the Midwest for this bout, and judging by his mottled record, the dude might be fighting above his pay grade.  We'll see, though.  DT's tough as nails on the feet and ultra-dangerous on the ground, but Father Time has got to become a factor at some point, so maybe Santiago has a chance.  Or maybe not.  I dunno.  DT is so beloved for his accomplishments and personality, it's for me to write him off as "too old".  How's that for impartial journalism? Yeah, fuck you.
• Jimmie Rivera vs. Joel Roberts - Roberts is a Bellator vet who hasn't lost in two years; Rivera is the ROC bantamweight champ who should be kicking ass in the UFC right now, and would be if not for the indomitable Dennis Bermudez and their clash on a recent season of TUF.  I'm picking Rivera to deliver the beatdown.  Easily.
• Andy Main vs. Pat DeFranco - Main is another TUF vet, and thanks to some heavy hands and a smooth triangle, he rose up the Northeast ranks a few years ago and now sits in the clouds of Mount Olympus with the other gods who only occasionally meddle in the affairs of humans.  DeFranco is a solid up-and-comer, but he might be biting off more than he can chew with Main.
• Jamal Patterson vs. Chris Sutton - Patterson was one of Team Renzo's hottest prospects a few years ago, and went head to head with dudes like Vladimir Matyushenko and Matt Horwich.  Plus, his guillotine is killer.  Sutton is coming up from the Carolinas to take him on, and though it's hard to gauge where Sutton is at in terms of ability, one thing is for sure: bro better protect his neck.

TUF 16 Debuts on Friday - Why You Should Tune In

...Sorry.  I got nothing.

UCL Vet to Face WWE Champ in MMA

Pro wrestling has never been my thing, but it's still pretty cool that UCL veteran Rashid "Smash" Evans will be meeting former WWE wrestling champ "Batista" in the cage for the latter's MMA debut.  The deets are that the event is October 6, at a CES MMA show in Rhode Island.  Supposedly, Batista is a strong grappler (like, a legitimate grappler - the kind that doesn't have to whack people with folding chairs to win).  Smash, however, is a Phil Dunlap-trained fighter who specializes in beating dudes senseless, so the potential is there for carnage. 

Alas, Rhode Island is a bit too far out of my area of operations, but hopefully a New England-based journo or two will be on hand to tell us how it goes.

Everybody was Kung Fu Fightin'

Those cats were fast as lightning.

An Amateur MMA Tournament in NYC - Can It Be Done?

As reported by veteran MMA journo Eddie Goldman on his podcast, this year's MMA World Expo at the Javits Center in Manhattan will be on December 1 and 2, and it will likely feature an amateur MMA tournament.  Wait, did I just say "an amateur MMA tournament"?  Yes.  Yes, I did. 

Thanks to the lawsuit Zuffa brought against the State of New York, it's come to light that amateur MMA is not (and has never been) illegal here.  As such, more and more amateur events have been popping up in Upstate New York - far away from New York City, but nonetheless taking place in a very open and public fashion and, most importantly, unmolested by the coarse hands of the New York State Athletic Commission.  However, an MMA show going down in the boondocks of Buffalo or the sticks of Albany is a far cry from one happening in the Big Apple, and none of the established, above-the-board NYC promoters (i.e., promoters of sanctioned kickboxing events) I've talked to are willing to risk aggravating the athletic commission by doing anything MMA in the Five Boroughs.  Which makes what MMA World Expo organizer Paul Paone is doing all the more noteworthy - and risky.

"Yes, I am working on logistics now and should be able to release all the details shortly," Paone said to me via email when I asked for confirmation that he was indeed going to have an amateur MMA tournament at his expo.  Can a tournament be done?  Logistically, it definitely can, especially given that this is Paone's fourth expo and prior expos have had everything from grappling tournaments to kickboxing events to mixes of the two.  Without question, the apparatus to make it happen is in place.  And since this shindig would occur in the heart of Manhattan - and would be the first of its kind since David Ross' tournament attempts at the Borough of Manhattan Community College gymnasium back in 1996 - there will be no shortage of willing participants.  The question, then, is what, if anything, the athletic commission will do.

Standard operating procedure for when the NYSAC wants to shut down a show is to send a cease and desist letter, and threaten to have commission reps and police at the venue to make sure nothing happens (you can probably guess how I know this).  Will they throw such heat at Paone?  Or will they turn a blind eye on an event they admit they have no authority over, an event taking place right in their backyard that will undoubtedly garner a heck of a lot of media attention?

I have no clue.  However, although I haven't yet been able to pin the athletic commission down for a firm answer on what they're allowing re: amateur MMA in the state, you can bet I'm going to continue asking.  We're in a weird, yet strangely awesome, transition period when it comes to MMA in New York.  An amateur MMA tournament at the Javits Center would make it even awesomer.

All Champs, Big and Small: Kenny Rivera

Heh, remember this series that I started like two months ago?  Well, if not, it's a self-explanatory concept.  Anyway, I've been sitting on this interview with Kenny Rivera for a while, waiting for the right time to transcribe and publish it, and since he's going to be fighting at Locked in the Cage in Philadelphia on October 6, I guess the time is now.

The details on Rivera are that he's the father of twin boys and works full-time doing engineer-type stuff, he's built like a 145-pound action figure, he's smooth on the ground but better at sprawling and brawling, and in five years he's fought in just about every amateur MMA outlet there is in the Northeast (and won belts in quite a few of them).  The 24-year-old Queens resident has even trekked to Florida and Virginia for fights, and has amassed a sizeable 18-7-1 record.

Why travel so far for fights?  "The reason I traveled is because New Jersey's rules limited me," he says.  "I felt very, very handicapped by the rules.  I fought in Asylum Fight League, I fought in Newbreen [Fighters], I fought in Evolution [MMA], and I felt very handicapped.  I'm a better fighter, but I wasn't able to use my whole arsenal.  So Virginia, Philadelphia, Florida - their rules are pro rules.  There's kicking to the head and ground and pound, and those are the tools I want to use, and when I go pro, there won't be anything new." 

As for why he's fought so much as an amateur, he says, "That was the formula for my own self.  I'm making a name for myself as an amateur, I'm doing a lot of shows and fighting top guys.  That way, when I turn pro, they'll be like, 'Oh man, there's Kenny.'  When I turn pro, it won't be like, 'Who's this guy?'"

 
Just a few months ago, Rivera became only the second person to become a UCL champ (after a three-round war with jiu-jitsu brown belt Chad Hernandez), and then he announced that he was turning pro - hence the LITC fight in October.  How important is it to him to fight in his home state?  Well, it would damn sure be a lot more convenient.

"I drove seven hours to fight in Virginia and I beat the guy in like a minute and twenty seconds.  It's pretty funny, but it sucks.  And then I had to drive back home for seven hours.  No partying, no nothing.  I didn't know anybody there.  I couldn't sell tickets, so I'm actually losing money because promoters won't pay for hotels or gas or whatever.  In the long run, I'm losing money - but I'm gaining experience."

What's Rivera's proudest moment in the cage thus far?  "There are a lot of fights where I've had one-minute fights and thirty-second fights, and those are not my proudest.  My proudest moment was probably winning the Evolution [MMA] title.  It was against Piotr Andrejko - a Russian guy.  Very, very strong guy.  He was actually the strongest opponent I had ever faced.  The fight went all three rounds and I did what I had to do.  And after that fight, I cried.  I actually cried.  It felt so awesome.  Even though it was amateur, I felt the effects of the crowd and all my friends there to support me - it made everything so right."

So if you're keeping score, Rivera was a champ for Asylum, Evolution and the UCL.  I think the odds are good that once he gets accustomed to the waters in the pro MMA pool, he'll be fighting for more belts in no time.

Cagepotato Article on Shadowing an NJSACB Inspector

Here's a link to the article I did on shadowing NJSACB inspector Vincent Dudley at that CFFC show a couple weekends ago.  Big thanks to Nick Lembo for making it happen.

Oy, Check Out This Link

Jonathan Helwig - a cool cat and a solid New Jersey-based fighter.

Crappy CFFC 16 Pics

CFFC 16 Postscript

Since I was shadowing NJSACB inspector Vincent Dudley all night (story on that to come), I missed the vast majority of the fights at last night's CFFC 16.  But here are some observations on what I did see.

• Artur Rofi, who's on track to be the next big thing coming out of the Northeast, had his bout against Dan Cion scratched when Cion couldn't make weight.  And Cion couldn't just make weight - he failed to make the subsequent catchweight, and declined to weigh in even higher and keep his weight down the day of the fight.  Bum deal for Rofi.
• Jonathan Helwig tapping out Jeremy Shifflett was cool.  Helwig and Shifflett hanging out afterwards, all smiles and friendliness, that was even cooler.
• Chris Birchler had a grueling war against JA Dudley and took the decision, and then afterwards collapsed from exhaustion.  It took the EMTs a while to coax him onto the stretcher and get him some attention.  Dude.  Was.  Spent.
• Evan Chmielski is made of iron.  He took a hellacious beating at the hands of the technically superior Bryan Lashomb, but there is zero quit in Chmielski, and if not for the ever-expanding balloon that his eye had turned into, he would've kept going until he was a zombie.
• Chris Liguori was dominant and in control from beginning to end in his bout against Gert Kocani. 
• I saw the Aljamain Sterling/Sedico Honorio fight on the TV in the locker room, and it looked like Sterling was reluctant to pull the trigger in the first round.  Then came Round 2, and just like when Jon Jones completely iced Lyoto Machida, Sterling out-slicked the jiu-jitsu master and finished him with a choke.  The entire locker room was impressed.
• I was cageside for Sean Santella/Evan Velez, and I had Velez winning three rounds to two.  But I ain't no judge.  Am I right?
• Dustin Jacoby was dangerous as fuck and did what he had to do to get the stoppage.  And once he landed the elbow that opened up the cut on Tim Williams' forehead, so commenced the bloodbath.  The stoppage was very necessary.

Jon Jones Gave Fans and Fellow Fighters the Shaft

After a confluence of events that began with the legend Dan Henderson injuring his MCL and ended with UFC 151 being cancelled – the first fully-marketed UFC event to ever face such drastic action – a UFC champ has gone from hero to zero in record time.  And why not?  For failing to agree to face replacement fighter Chael Sonnen on eight days’ notice, thereby salvaging UFC 151’s main event and giving fans at least some reason to tune into the pay-per-view broadcast, light-heavyweight king, prima ballerina and resident drunk driver Jon Jones gave fans – and especially his fellow fighters on the rest of the card – the epic shaft.  More than anyone else in this whole “death of a UFC” debacle, Jones deserves your scorn.

The facts as we know them are thus:

·    Since the departure of such heroes as Chuck Liddell and Brock Lesnar, and relegation to the injury list for Georges St. Pierre, Jones has become one of the few pay-per-view draws the UFC has left in its rotation.  As such, UFC 151 had his marquee bout against Henderson anchoring a card that was pretty much about as compelling as a TUF finale (read: the rest of the card sucked).

·    When Henderson bowed out due to injury, there were only eight days on the calendar before UFC 151 would grace our television screens.

·    Jones was offered a replacement opponent in Sonnen (a middleweight contender trying his hand at the next weight class up, and coming off a loss to Anderson Silva).  Under the advice of his trainer and Master Yoda, Greg Jackson, Jones said “no dice, homie.”  The UFC had no other viable options to offer Jones.

·    Because it lost its main event, UFC 151 was transformed into a collection of fights that wouldn’t have been worthy of a Bellator broadcast.  Therefore, the powers that be pulled the plug.

In tort law, which is one of the cornerstones of the American judicial system, there’s the tenet of “duty” – does Party A owe Party B a duty?  What was the duty?  Was that duty met?  In this instance, Jones did not officially owe a duty to anyone but himself and his future, and maybe from his perspective, not accepting a fight against a smaller, out-of-shape fighter carried with it more risks than rewards.  Maybe.

Regardless, there’s something called “taking one for the team”, and in this instance, the “team” was every UFC fan who’d planned out shelling out the dough for the pay-per-view, and any poor soul who’d booked a flight and hotel room in Las Vegas to watch the event live.  Also on that team: the fellow fighters on the rest of the card, many of whom were counting on their UFC 151 paychecks for things like rent, car payments, training costs, and meals that didn’t involve 33-cent packages of ramen noodles.

Yup, Jones screwed them all.

Here’s the UFC’s version, courtesy of their press release:

“Own thing that you really have to think about are the fighters on the undercard.  Sure, Jon Jones is rich, what does he care if he cancels the fight?  But 20 other fighters on the card added up to almost half a million dollars in purse money that Jones and Greg Jackson’s decision stole from them.  No champion or headliner in UFC history has ever done that.  As difficult at Tito Ortiz could be… Tito never bailed on a fight.”

“Many people, from fans to PPV distributors, TV networks, sponsors, and more importantly fighters who are working hard to support their families and build their careers are hurt badly by this selfish decision.”

Weep not for the hit the coffers of Dana White, Zuffa and TV networks took.  I certainly won’t shed a tear for them.  What does bother me, though, is the kick in the teeth fans and the other UFC 151 fighters had to absorb. 

Officially, in a court of law, Jones had no duty to look out for their interests.  But in the court of life… the fans are who’ve made it possible for Jones to get paid for fighting in a cage.  Without them, he’d be working in a car wash outside of Rochester, asking customers if they wanted to pay extra for the “wax and shine” treatment. 

As for the fighters, they’re Jones’ coworkers, and it’s very likely that, win or lose, they would not have hesitated in the slightest when it came to congratulating or consoling the champ at the end of the UFC 151 workday.  Was accepting a fight against Sonnen on eight days’ notice optimal?  No, but these fellow UFC 151 fighters are your bros – do you screw your bros out of their work opportunities?   

At the time of this writing, Jones has agreed to fight Vitor Belfort at UFC 152, which will likely change once Belfort puts his arm through a window in training or gets sick with a worm or something.  Regardless, we’ll still likely see the UFC’s light-heavyweight champ fight someone (the UFC needs his presence in the cage to drive pay-per-view numbers, after all).  But from now until eternity, UFC 151 will be remembered as the event that never was, cancelled because some guy didn’t want to take one for the team.  

And Jon Jones will be remembered as that guy, the guy that gave everyone the shaft.

CFFC/CES MMA Preview Mashup

Bellator may be returning to our Friday night MMA rotation this weekend, but for those of us in the Northeast, there's some top notch local violence on tap.  And when I saw "top notch", envision me shooting off fireworks at my desk and blowing holes in my ceiling with a pair of six guns (i.e., I am excited!).  On Friday at the Borgata in Atlantic City, the Cage Fury Fighting Championships is giving us around 15 of the kind of match-ups that would surely make Baby Jesus cry if he were in the audience (because seriously, babies do not belong at MMA shows.  Do not bring them!).  Meanwhile, Rhode Island-based promotion CES MMA will be setting up shop at the Resorts Casino in Atlantic City on Saturday night, and their card's got a lot of "Oh wow, that's cool" attached to it, too.  Sadly, I won't be there for the CES MMA show, and though I'll be at CFFC, I likely won't be able to observe the fights much seeing that I'm shadowing an inspector for the event.  But I'd be remiss if I didn't churn out some kind of a preview, so here's a list of reasons as to why you should care about each particular event.

Cage Fury Fighting Championships 16

• Tim Williams - In six amateur fights and seven pro, jiu-jitsu specialist Williams has yet to taste defeat, and he's currently CFFC's reigning light-heavyweight champ.  Can challenger Dustin Jacoby - who's tasted life in the Octagon twice before - be the one to take the belt?  I doubt it.  Williams went toe-to-toe with dynamic striker Andre Gusmao at CFFC 7, which means he's got skills in all areas, and he's got something Jacoby doesn't: upward momentum.  Williams is remaining champ, and I see him doing a UFC/Strikeforce/Bellator run in the not-too-distant future.
• George Sullivan - CFFC's welterweight champ earned his crown by dropping UFC alum Greg Soto.  This tells us two things about Sullivan: the dude can stop a takedown really well, and he can stop a rampaging bull elephant with a well-placed strike.  Sullivan is defending his title against Maryland-based grappling predator Tenyeh Dixon - who's got a ton of experience as well - so this one should be fun.
• Aljamain Sterling - CFFC's bantamweight champ is also the most talented and promising fighter in the Northeast right now (in my humble opinion), and while Sedico Honorio is a badass jiu-jitsu-heavy opponent, I don't see anyone stopping the Sterling train.  Choo-choo!
• Sean Santella - Flyweight king Santella is the best 125-pounder in the region, and that label comes at a time when there are quite a few viable flyweights competing.  So giddyup!
• Artur Rofi - Rofi, who trains under Romulo Bittencourt and has been giving cats the Ronda Rousey treatment since turning pro, is the meanest mofo around when it comes to action inside the cage - which makes watching his fights one of life's absolute joys.  It's only a matter of time before Rofi is fighting for a belt, so tune in now and you can be all hipster and cool and say you knew of him back when.
• JA Dudley - Dudley has been in the game a long time and has paid dues, so it's good to see him work his way up to upper levels of the heavyweight division.  Opponent Chris Birchler is a well-credentialed wrestler and exponent of the AMA Fight Club, but Dudley's got the edge in experience, so this should be a fairly decent scrap.
• Andria Caplan - Female MMA has certainly had its ups and downs, but with Invicta FC drawing over a quadrillion Internet viewers and Strikeforce champ Rousey the source of many broken-limbed nightmares, now seems to be one of the "up" periods.  Which makes this fight - featuring Philly's Caplan - a real treat.  Woot!  Female MMA!
• Jonathan Helwig - Like Dudley, this dude has been around since forever, and he's always been more than capable of dispensing sudden and brutal violence.  I'm still a little sore over Helwig's random and unprovoked murder of my character in the online zombie game "Urbandead", but I'll forever be a fan of the destruction he leaves behind in the cage, so definitely pay attention to his fight.
• Chris Liguori - Liguori has been fighting for so long, he's like one of three people who remembers when Dan Miragliotta had hair.  You can't go wrong when "the Story" fights, because he's bringing with him solid boxing and sharp jiu-jitsu.

CES MMA: "War at the Shore"

• Kris McCray - McCray is a UFC, TUF and Bellator vet, so yeah, that's what's up.  Dude is made of reinforced steel. 
• Kevin Roddy - I think this is "K-Rod's" one thousandth fight or something, and though he's got some blemishes on his record, he's coming off of two wins - which is my way of saying Roddy's still dangerous and still capable.  Plus, he's one of the nicest, most likable guys in the sport, so watching him win is like watching your best friend mack on a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model and succeed in taking her home.  Brings a tear to your eye.
• Lester Caslow - After seven years of fighting, I feel like I've literally watched Caslow grow up in the cage (his first fight was at the tender age of 13).  He's a man now, though - a very experienced and well-rounded man who can end fights with submissions or strikes - so you're going to get some decent action from this guy no matter if he ends up winning or losing.
• Mike Stewart - I have Stewart as one of the top five (maybe even top two or three) light-heavyweights in the Northeast, although if you ask some of his past opponents (who he knocked out with his fast and heavy hands), they might tell you, "Huh?  Mike who?  I honestly can't remember any of the days surrounding those fights.  Head trauma, you know."
• Jay McLean - If you could genetically engineer a pile of muscles into a human bulldozer, it would still have trouble if it took on McLean.  Is he tough?  Tougher than a steak left in the microwave for two hours.  For that reason alone, you should care about his fights.