No need to hit the panic button just yet: Andy will be back by the end of August, and the column title restored (I cannot support Canadian stereotypes). Now, having said all of that, one could not have picked a better part of the schedule to start things off.
Gary Goodridge (Pictures) returned to the ring Sunday night for the K-1 Asia GP held at the Asia World Expo Arena in Hong Kong. Faced with a tall task in the name of Hong-Man Choi, the 11-inch height advantage proved to be too much for Goodridge as outside of a few leg kicks in the opening moments of the bout he was unable to close the distance successfully and test the hulking Korean's chin.
The clinch continued to hamper "Big Daddy" as a well-placed knee put the Trinidadian-Canadian on the ropes and Choi never looked back scoring a TKO win at 1:34 of the first round. Look for some post-fight comments in the coming weeks.
Filho Stops Doerksen
Winnipeg, Manitoba's Joe Doerksen (Pictures) fell short in his bid to capture the vacant WEC middleweight championship. Doerksen frustrated Filho early on stifling takedown attempts before being on the wrong end of a Filho combination.
Tough Night For Tompkins' Anacondas
What started out as a dream season for the Shawn Tompkins (Pictures)' led Los Angeles Anacondas turned into a nightmare evening as the International Fight League semifinals unfolded in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
Anacondas' heavyweight Krzysztof Soszynski (Pictures) fell to 0-2 against the Quad Cities Silverbacks -- more specifically Ben Rothwell (Pictures). Let's make things clear, Rothwell is clearly the best heavyweight in the IFL, however if you had asked anyone prior to Thursday night's clash nobody would have expected it to play out the way it did with Soszynski falling in just 13 seconds.
Chris Clements (Pictures) made his IFL debut filling in for the injured Jay Hieron (Pictures) but found himself on the wrong end of a TKO loss to Rory Markham (Pictures). Sherdog.com spoke with Clements Sunday afternoon about the fight, and his upcoming welterweight title fight with Sean Pierson in September.
"I was having a hard time fighting the nerves, having a hard time getting my feet underneath me," said Tompkins-trained welterweight. "I wasn't really fighting my fight, more or less just throwing punches to kind of keep him away and try to set it up. He caught me with a punch, I didn't feel it; I went down. I realized I was on the ground so I was scrambling to get to back to my feet. I wasn't hurt whatsoever; I was seeing clearly, and everything was fine. I thought I was defending fine, I got almost back to my feet and the referee stopped it. I'd love to have a rematch. I think the fans would like to see a rematch too."
Clements plans on taking the next week off to let a cut he received during the Markham fight heal properly before beginning preparations for his next fight with Sean Pierson at TKO 30.
"We're going to bring up some of the guys from Couture's gym," he said. "We're going to be working on a lot of wrestling, a lot of my ground game. I really don't think Pierson's going to have a chance with me standing up."
When asked whether he feels this recent loss will affect him, the "Menace" was quick to the point: "I'm not seeing my loss really as a TKO. I'm going to see it as a bad referee stoppage and I'm going to leave it at that. That's not really going to affect my mental state too much going into my next fight."
Fabiano, Horodecki, Beauparlant vie for GP Titles
The IFL recently announced its lineup for the upcoming grand prix opening round set for November 3 in Chicago and there's no shortage of Canadian talent. With his recent win over the New York Pitbulls' Fabio Leopoldo (Pictures), Toronto Dragons' middleweight Brent Beauparlant (Pictures) has grabbed the fourth and final seed. He has a big task ahead of him as he's slated to meet Benji Radach (Pictures), who has been on a tear since joining the IFL in the opening round.
Securing the number one and two seeds respectively in the lightweight bracket are Dragons' grappling sensation Wagnney Fabiano (Pictures) and Chris Horodecki (Pictures) of the Los Angeles Anacondas.
For Horodecki it will be a highly anticipated rematch with Bart Palaszewski (Pictures), whom many thought did more than enough to hand the "Polish Hammer" his first loss. Like Horodecki the previous year, Fabiano burst on to the IFL scene and quickly impressed racking up three first-round submission wins -- two in under a minute in less than four months in the league.
Nevada Lions standout John Gunderson (Pictures) rounds out the lightweights and will be Fabiano's opening round opponent in what should be an exciting fight. Gunderson has only been the distance twice in 19 fights as a pro.
Lightweights:
Wagnney Fabiano (Pictures) vs. John Gunderson (Pictures)
Chris Horodecki (Pictures) vs. Bart Palaszewski (Pictures)
Welterweights:
Delson Heleno (Pictures) vs. Mark Miller
Antonio McKee (Pictures) vs. Jay Hieron (Pictures)
Middleweights:
Benji Radach (Pictures) vs. Brent Beauparlant (Pictures)
Matt Horwich (Pictures) vs. Brian Foster (Pictures)
Light Heavyweights:
Vladimir Matyushenko (Pictures) vs. Alex Schoenauer (Pictures)
Mike Whitehead (Pictures) vs. Mike Ciesnolevicz (Pictures)
Heavyweights:
Ben Rothwell (Pictures) vs. Roy Nelson (Pictures)
Antoine Jaoude (Pictures) vs. Reese Andy (Pictures)
Bodog filming in Canada
Beginning August 24, Canadian entertainment giant and Bodog owner Calvin Ayre heads back to Canada after a successful 2006 PPV in the province of British Columbia to film the sixth season of BodogFight. Forty-eight fighters will take part in the event including current Bodog welterweight champion Nick "The Goat" Thompson, who is scheduled to meet Mark Weir (Pictures) in a non-title fight.
Sami Aziz (Sweden) vs. Hiroyuki Abe (Japan)
JR Sims (Pictures) (USA) vs. DJ Taiki (Japan)
Rodrigo Damm (Brazil) vs. Darren Elkins (USA)
Per Eklund (Pictures) (Sweden) vs. Rafael Dias (Pictures) (USA)
Ryan Bow (Pictures) (Japan) vs. Santino Defranco (Pictures) (USA)
Chris Ade (Canada) vs. Koji Oishi (Pictures) (Japan)
Nick Thompson (Pictures) (USA) vs. Mark Weir (Pictures) (UK)
Piotr Jakaczynski (Sweden) vs. Dan Hornbuckle (USA)
Chris Wilson (USA) vs. Ray Steinbeiss (Pictures) (USA)
Diego Gonzales (Sweden) vs. Steve Berger (Pictures) (USA)
Tim McKenzie (Pictures) (USA) vs. Yuichi Nakanishi (Pictures) (Japan)
Kyacey Uscola (Pictures) (USA) vs. TBA
Steve Byrnes (Pictures) (USA) vs. Alexander Shlemenko (Russia)
Antony Rea (Pictures) (France) vs. Steve Steinbeiss (USA)
Mikhael Zyats (Russia) vs. Buddy Roberts (USA)
Assuerio Silva (Pictures) (Brazil) vs. Constantin Gluhov (Russia)
Andrew Pederson (Canada) vs. Scott Lincoln (USA)
Dan Evensen (Pictures) (USA) vs. Dominic Richards (Canada)
Kristof Midoux (Pictures) (France) vs. Brad Morris (Australia)
Megumi Fujii (Pictures) (Japan) vs. Lisa Ward (Pictures) (USA)
Carina Damm (Brazil) vs. Jessica Aguillar (USA)
Rosi Sexton (UK) vs. Julia Berezekova (Russia)
Kelly Kobold (USA) vs. Julie Kedzie (Pictures) (USA)
Tama Chan (Japan) vs. Molly Helsel (Pictures) (USA)
Carvalho, Hominick, notch wins at ShootBoxing
Former TKO featherweight champion Mark Hominick (Pictures) and fellow Team Tompkins member Adam Higson made the long journey to Tokyo, Japan last week for MU-SO Shootboxing vs. USA MMA.
Hominick won by a 2-0 decision over Koichi Kikuchi while Higson bested Kenichi Ogata 3-0. Toronto's Antonio Carvalho (Pictures) also saw action on the card as he won a decision over Taiga Yamaguchi.
Xtreme MMA card taking shape
Ring Extreme, the first event for the new David Loiseau (Pictures) and Team Legion's Steve Claveau (Pictures) Xtreme MMA show is beginning to come to form for the organizations inaugural event.
Participants include:
Yan Pellerin (Pictures)
Dave Pariseau (Pictures)
Jon Mirasty
Sylvain Cloutier (Pictures)
Danny Laflamme
Aaron Treagear
Jacques Dube
Stéphane Pinet
Andy Ross
Tommy Pariseau
Yan Pichette (Pictures)