On Saturday 24th October the Troxy in London once again plays host to a night of MMA and Uk1 action. Following on from the last event, which got a lot of press attention UCMMA have put together a great looking card with 5 Titles on the line.
Looking down the card the highlights include:
Martin Thompson vs Neil Grove - HeavyWeight Title Fight
Reigning champ Grove will be looking to successfully defend the belt he won against James McSweeny before his ill-fated venture to the UFC where he sustained a first round submission loss to Mike Ciesnolevicz. Thompson is the current Cage Gladiators, Strike & Submit and Ultimate Force HW champ and will be looking to add another strap to his collection. Thompson is on a 6 fight win streak including most recently a win over another UFC veteran – Colin Robinson and prior to that 2 impressive wins over highly ranked UK fighters Tengiz Tedoradze and Tom Blacklegde. Both men like to bang and have an impressive KO/TKO rate on their records. With firepower like this on display it’s a fairly safe bet that someone is getting KO’d in this fight!
Denniston Sutherland vs Tom Watson – Middleweight Title Fight
Both fighters are on a tear at middleweight at the moment and this is arguably a fight for the right to call themselves number 1 middleweight in the UK right now (although the author accepts there are other legitimate challengers for this position!). Sutherland has come down from heavyweight and is a powerhouse at middleweight. Watson has been honing his craft at one of the best MMA camps in the world: Jacksons MMA. The ever-confident Watson will no doubt be making one of his trademark entrances but once the cage door locks he’s all business – favouring the stand-game he will be looking to pick Sutherland off whilst setting up the big shots. Sutherland is no slouch though and despite Watson probably having the crisper standup game, he won’t be afraid to trade with him. This one is a potential contender for fight of the night in my opinion!
Alberto Mina vs Edgelson Lua - Welterweight Title Fight
Since Mohammed Khacha vacated the title through being unable to defend it, the undefeated Mina and Cage Rage /Bamma/Ultimate Challenge veteran Lua will contest the belt. Mina is an undefeated fighter and has never been out of the first round, winning his last 3 fights with quick submissions (albeit against mediocre opposition). Lua also has submissions in his arsenal and this could be an interesting battle to decide who walks away with the title. In his favour is the fact that Lua has been quite active this year with 3 fights already whereas Mina has not fought since his victory over Steve Elliot at Cage Rage 28.
Jason Young vs Abdul Mohamed Lightweight
Up and coming lightweight talent Jason Young faces off against one of his toughest opponents to date in the shape of veteran Abdul Mohamed. Everyone in UKMMA knows about Abdul, it’s like he has been around for ever and he is still one of the toughest lightweights out there. With awesome wrestling, powerful hands and great strength he is a difficult test for any fighter. However he is coming off the back of an uncharacteristically poor performance against Tim Radcliffe. Radcliffe fought an excellent gameplan against Abdul and managed to stuff his takedowns and keep Abdul totally off his game. One would think that Young will be looking to emulate this successful strategy against Mohamed – as one thing you don’t want is to get slammed by Abdul and then be looking up at him as he throws down those fists and elbows! For his part Mohamed will just be looking to get back to winning ways after his set back against Radcliffe when they contested the BAMMA Lightweight Title. Interestingly, Young and Mohammed both share losses to Radcliffe but Young has beaten Francis Heagney – who defeated Radcliffe to win the lightweight title at the last Ultimate Challenge. This could set up an interesting rematch for the title if Young can get past Abdul first. Abdul of course will have other ideas and will be looking to earn his own shot at the title.
Dean Amasinger vs Scott Jansen - Welterweight
Amasinger is coming off a stint in the TUF house on series 9 of the Ultimate Fighter. No doubt the training and experience there will have improved him as a fighter and training with UFC stars Paul Daley and Dan Hardy at the Rough House Gym in Nottingham makes him a strong favourite in this match. Jansen is a good striker with KO power and has just won the Ultimate Challenge UK1 title. His MMA form however is not so great, with 1 win in his last 5 fights. His best hope in this fight is to keep it on the feet, hit Amasinger with a big shot and end the fight. He has shown that he has great conditioning taking Ross Mason to a decision on Cage Rage so would be fine with a stand up war. Amasinger however will probably not be interested in playing Jansen at his own game and instead will be looking to put Jansen on his back and use his strength and wrestling ability to keep him there and pound him out for a win. If I was a betting man I’d put my money on Amasinger in this fight but this is MMA and anything can happen!
The Ultimate Challenge – Dynamite card is rounded out with the following undercard fights:
Brad Wheeler V John Joe Ellis – UK1 Featherweight Title
Lee Doski V Jamaine Facey
Ian Hawkin V Ashley Pollard – UK1 Heavyweight Title
Ben Craggy V Tam Khan
Scott Rogan V Michael Brown
Dai Smith V Joe Holder
Abdullah Hamden V Shah Hussain
Pablo Ben V Tommy Kelly
We also caught up with Pablo Ben who is looking to gain his first professional win at the event. “I have been training on my stand up more than ever” said Ben. “I have been sparring with K1 world champion Galore Bofando. Working on my strength and technique. My wrestling is already good as I have been been wrestling for quite a while now. I also have a good ground game, so nothing there to worry me”.
When asked on his opponent Tommy Kelly, Ben replied “I do take each and every of my opponents seriously, but there isn’t anything special in him..I have fought better fighters before and there is nothing about him that scares me or worries me. I’ m sure this man has got his own game but i’ll be by gods will very wary and ready for what his going to bring..”
Props to the UCMMA team for putting this together, the spotlighted fights alone make this a really strong card and it is great for UKMMA that fights like this are getting put together. The jury is still out on whether UCMMA can achieve the heights of Cage Rage in it’s heyday, but with cards like this it could be well on the way.
With this card, the finals of the UCMMA Grand prix matches, the upcoming Bushido MMA card, UFC 105 and ZTFightNight “The Tournament” all happening in the next 3 months. The UK MMA fan really is spoilt for choice when it comes to top class MMA in this country.
