By Charles Cieri
The John Perzel Community Center will host the forth Locked in the Cage (LC4) event this Friday night. The local scene grows in spurts and this fightcard, while low keyed, should be a healthy push upwards.
Brazilian Jui Jitsu United (BJJU) will be sending out three of its top prospects. Matt Nice and Lionel “Noriega” Borreli (who were both featured in the Philadelphia Citypaper cover story — Ultimate Ass Kicking — last week) have been on the scene for a few fights, while Alexandre Bezerra will be making his Philadelphia debut. BJJU — headed by Jared Weiner under the Lloyd Irvin lineage and featuring a bevy of BJJ blackbelts including Bellator Fighting Championships' featureweight Wilson Reis — is one of the deepest talent pools in the area. Their limited participation to date in Philly MMA events makes this show a glimpse into just how much impact they will have on the scene.
This should be the last chance to catch Borreli, 31, as an amateur. Although, as of Wednesday night, promoter/ match-maker Fran Evans was scrambling to find a fighter to keep the match alive after Derrick Hart cancelled due to injury (this was the only fight on the bubble according to Evans).
Matt Nice, 26, is making his highly anticipated pro debut (you can see his last amateur fight here) against Steve Franklin, a West Virginia product. Catching up to Nice last week after his Friday night training, he seemed relaxed but focused, with only nominal weight to cut to reach fighting specs. He faces a three inch height disadvantage but don’t expect him to shy away from trading hands. When asked what entrance music he’ll chose, he retorted that superstition prevents him from choosing.
I’m personally still baffled anyone comes out to anything other the Motorhead’s Ace of Spades. It multiples badassness to the umptenth power- do yourself a favor and let it roll while the rest of this piece sinks in. You will be ready to win a fight against a roided-up bouncer by the chorus.
The dark horse coming out of BJJU is Bezerra, 22 hailing from Brazil. While his official record is 0-1 he could be a dangerous sleeper due to his close ties with Wilson Reis and unsanctioned fight experience. He takes on a proven grinder in Will Martinez Jr, 29, coming out of Semper Fi MMA.
Semper Fi adds excitement to this card in quite a few ways. After their coming out party at Matrix Fights 1, local scene-watchers have been eager to see more from the little known gym. On top of that, the three fighters representing them on Friday night are all family.
Will Martinez Jr’s Brother Jesus Martinez, 26, will be facing off against Corey Popanz, 21, fighting out of West Virgina. While we expect to see Martinez go for broke, we don’t know what to expect from his opponent, who has stacked up a 10-4 record but has yet to fight in a sanctioned event.
The cousin of the Martinez brothers- Julio Rosario, 32, blew through his Matrix 1 fight against Steven Baker in the first round. While he showed good standup and ground work (he finished the fight with a Kimora) we didn’t get to see much of him and hope that Michael Phillips, 30, fighting out of VA, can keep him in the ring long enough for the crowd to get a bead on his skills.
Also on the card is a heavyweight title fight between Joel Wyatt and Randy Smith. Wyatt is best known for being the training dummy that Cole Konrad ran through on his brief layover in Philly before being absorbed into Bellator. This is unfortunate for Wyatt, who at 23, looked very poised in the initial moments of the Konrad fight. Although he seemed to melt as everyone’s expectations of Konrad sunk in to his perception and then, before he knew what was happening, Konrad division-one-pined him to the floor and dropped a toaster sized fist in his eye socket, ending the fight.
Hopefully he will be able to put the high-profile loss behind him and realize his natural gifts against NYer Randy Smith, 35. Smith comes in five inches taller then Wyatt and with an 11-5 pro record.
The card is rounded out with some smaller big guys- Jimmy Adkins fights John Swangler in a 185 pound fight while Joe Stripling faces Robert Copora at 205 pounds.
In addition, a few amateurs are of note: Ben Tichy will fight Brian Pitaniello for an amateur featherweight title. Doug Nelson (who won his last fight on his first punch seven seconds into the first round) fights
Anthony Chicone in a 185 pound bout. Lastly Adam Roberts, 26, fighting out of Rocco MMA (who had an impressive debut at LC3) faces Chris Tier at 155 pounds.
It all goes down at the John Perzel Community Center, 2990 St. Vincent Street 19149. Doors open at 7pm and fights start at 8pm.
Tickets run $40-$90 and are available on-line and at the door. Or you can stream it live over the internet for $7.99 at http://www.gofightlive.tv/showEvent.do?eventId=674
Full fight card with links to fighter profiles:
Matt Nice vs Steve Franklin
Jesus Martinez vs Corey Popanz
Will Martinez, Jr. vs Alexandre Bezerra
Randy Smith vs Joel Wyatt
Julio Rosario vs Michael Phillips
Joe Stripling vs Robert Corpora
Lionel Borreli vs Derrick Hart
Adam Roberts vs Chris Tier
Jimmy Adkins vs John Swangler
Doug Nelson vs Anthony Chicone
Ben Tichy vs Brian Pitaniello
Matthew Kakarek vs Randy Campbell
1 comment:
IM TIRED OF PEOPLE TRASH TALKING RANDY SMITH. GIVE THE GUY A BIG FIGHT AND HE WILL SHOW U ALL THAT HE NEEDS TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY ID LIKE TO SEE THE TRASH TALKERS GET IN THE RING WITH HIM THEIR MOUTHS WOULDNT RUN LONG LYING STRETCHED OUT ON THE MAT.
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