XCFL had their debut event last night, and quite frankly, I was impressed. The first thing I noticed was the extra production. This is something they said they were going to do, and I made sure to take notice. They had 4 big video screens above the cage, and they also had flat screen TV’s placed throughout the venue, so there was always somewhere to watch the action if someone got in your way, or if you wanted to watch a replay.
Another thing I noticed were the entrance ways. Each corner walked in from different entrances, and both entrances has lights, smoke, and were closed off from the public, so there was never an instance where the crowd got in the way of the entrance. It was obvious where they’d be walking from, and nobody got in the way. They also played videos in between fights and also did post fight interviews with all the winners.
I’ll comment on other things I noticed as the event progressed as I get through the review.
Ruben Rey (Rockstar) vs. Mike Lee (Xtreme MMA)
This was the only amateur fight of the night and Ruben hit a throw early and mounted. Mike fought it off for a while, and kept working to escape. He’d give his back, try to peel away a hook, try to scramble, but Ruben stayed on him, going from mount, to back, to mount, etc..Ruben locked up an arm bar for the win, but it was a great effort from Mike. It was Mike’s first fight and he never seemed to quit, which was good to see. Great win for Ruben.
Mario Cardia (Xtreme MMA) vs. Joel Choquet (Gracie Barra NE)
Both fighters trade a bit with Mario getting the better of it. Joel tried a body lock, but Mario shrugged him off and landed a huge hook that dropped and stopped Joel. Mickey Ward is the boxing coach from Xtreme MMA, and Mario looked to have great boxing for a guy making an MMA debut.
Doug Sonier (Satian MT & MMA) vs. Eric Fama (Rockstar)
They exchange and Eric catches a kick from Doug with his left hand and drops him with the right hand, and pounces. He looked to be off balance, and not hurt, but he was on his back none the less. Eric takes the back quickly and sinks the RNC for the win.
John Daniels (Grady) vs. Samual Almeida (Dragon Lair/Gracie Barra NE)
Sam is the older brother of Saul, and is a very good BJJ guy. John comes right at him and lands a couple shots. John throws Sam but Sam uses the momentum to roll through and get on top. He mounts right away and John can’t shake him off. Sam takes the back and sinks the RNC for the win.
At this point a video is played featuring an interview with Dan Keefe. It’s announced that he’ll be fighting Lance Everson for the XCFL 185 pound title on March 26.
Steven Skrzat (Wartown) vs. Tony Bowman (Grady)
This one was pretty quick. Steve is pretty jacked up and he rushed Bowman and basically kept throwing until he dropped him.
Ray Shawdee (Xtreme MMA) vs. Travis Reider (Pellegrino)
At this point we realizer Travis Reider is actually Travis Lerchen. I’m not sure what the name change is about, but either way, the fight was pretty good. Ray takes him down with a big slam, but Travis works an arm bar from the bottom. Ray slams out and passes. They scramble and Travis gets on top and takes Ray’s back, but Ray shakes him off and takes top position. A huge knee to the body of Travis looks to hurt him, and Ray takes the back and finishes the RNC.
Tateki Matsuda (Sit Yod Tong) vs. Bill Walsh (United Fighting Arts)
They trade a bit early in the fight, and Walsh looks to be building confidence. He looked a little tight early on, but he’s landing some kicks, and taking some from Tateki. Tateki looks relaxed, but Walsh is starting to push forward. Tateki lands a nice headkick, and follows with a big right. Walsh is hurt and Tateki is hitting him with everything..knees, elbows, punches. I actually wrote “kitchen sink” on my notes. Very good finish from Tateki, and good fight from Walsh as well.
The chants of “We want Calvin!” start as Tateki is being interviewed.
Calvin Kattar (Xtreme MMA) vs. Don Carlo-Clauss (Bombsquad)
The first round plays out like a chess match. Both fighters are throwing 3-4 punch combinations, and slipping in and out. DCC gets a big takedown and pounds from the top. Calvin pushes him away and gets back to his feet. DCC is greeted with a flying knee from Kattar, but DCC gets another takedown as the round expires. I scored it 10-9 form DCC.
Round two was more of the same on the feet. DCC is busier, and always seems to beat Calvin to the punch. Calvin can’t seem to let his hands go for the first two minutes or so. He finally explodes and lands the best shots of the fight. Calvin hits him with a couple huge punches, a knee to the head and DCC looks badly hurt, but won’t go down. DCC is able to take him down, and he needed it. Calvin looked a couple clean shots away from dropping him, but DCC survived and got him down. The next minute or so was DCC landing little shots from the top. This round was very tough to score. If we looked at punch stats, I’d guess DCC threw 40 punches and Calvin about 15, but Calvin did more damage, and it ended with a minute of DCC on top. Very tough round to score and I could see it either way.
DCC’s eye is just about closed as round 3 starts, and Calvin looks to have more gas in the tank. Round 3 was all stand up, and though Calvin looked to be faster, fresher, and quite frankly better…he couldn’t keep up with Donny. Donny kept beating him to the punch, and never let Calvin get into a rhythm. DCC was hurt bad in round 2, and showed a ton of heart in not only gutting out the win, but also winning the 3rd round. I had this round also pretty clean 10-9 for DCC. The judges scored it a split decision with Don Carlo-Clauss winning by scores of 30-27, 29-28, 28-29.
Great fight from both guys, and I would love to see a rematch.
We’re on to the first title fight, and the belts are awesome. Without a doubt the coolest belts I’ve seen on a local show.
Alexandre “Vaca” Moreno (Link) vs. Roger Brackett (Gracie Barra NE)
Vaca gets a quick takedown and when Brackett tries to scramble back to his feet, Vaca grabs a guillotine for the win.
Chris Grandmaison (Renzo Gracie NH/Xtreme MMA) vs. Saul Almeida (Dragon Lair)
Saul has a huge height and reach advantage, and is beating Chris to the punch in round 1. They clinch for a bit also, but Saul controls the action. I scored it 10-9 Saul.
Round 2 was all fought in the clinch, and Saul did work a standing crucifix, and kept Chris off balance for most of the round. No real action in this round, but I had it 10-9 Saul.
Round 3 was awesome. Chris gets a takedown, and Saul works an arm bar that Chris slams out of. He briefly takes Saul’s back, and they just keep scrambling. I couldn’t keep up. I scored it 10-9 Chris but it was close.
Round 4 was more of the same. Chris threw a nice combination that set up a slam. Saul ties Chris all up on the ground. He’s not close to submitting him, but it makes it hard for Chris to mount any offense. Chris does get free and land some good ground and pound. Saul reverses Chris, but Chris reverses Saul shortly after and the round ends with Chris on top. I had it 10-9 Chris.
Round 5 is another big scramble, except Saul spend the most time on top, and actually had Chris in a peruvian neck tie that looked bad. Chris got away, and eventually back to his feet. Chris tried to take him down again late, but Saul wound up on top as the final bell sounded. I had it 10-9 Saul.
The judges score a unanimous decision for Saul Almeida by scores of 49-46, 49-46, 48-47, and he is the new XCFL 145 pound champion.
Overall, I really liked what I saw from the XCFL. Was everything perfect? No, but they tried a ton of things nobody else is doing, and this was great for an MMA show, not just great for a first show. One thing I also want to comment on was that while they used a bunch of Team Xtreme fighters (XCFL President Donny Mustapha runs Xtreme MMA and Fitness in Chelmsford, MA) they didn’t give their guys easy fights. I’m sure we all have been to shows where the matchmaker or owner also runs a fight team, and they always seem to win, and win quickly. That wasn’t the case here. There wasn’t a single fight where I thought they gave “their guy” an easy fight and I have to give them some credit for that.
They also announced that they received word via text message that BJ Penn was watching the fight on Fight Stream PPV from Hawaii, and gave the champ a quick hello. With as good as this event was, I can’t wait for their March 26 event.
Jason Franklin
on Feb 7th, 2010
@ 3:21 PM:
I agree I thought the first show was very well-done. The production of the show was really nice. The screens above the cage was a very nice touch. Ring girls were bad at all…The fighters entrances were cool as hell too… (There was a slight problem with the crowd standing in the aisles blocking the paying customers but that can be fixed with a better staff of ushers. And “the whole BJ Penn just texted me and is watching” was a little over the top but to each his own.)
I thought the matchmaking on the first 7 or 8 fights were a little mismatched (most fights ended under 2 minutes) but there is not much a match maker can do about that if unfamiliar with the fighters or teams. There were a couple of nice KO’s during the first couple of matches which got the crown into it.
The Kattar vs. DCC fight was a hell of a battle. I thought DCC definitely won the fight (he did lose rd. 2 though) but I thought Kattar was going to win in the third as it appeared DCC was gassing. It looked like DCC’s wrestling was the deciding factor in the fight. Awesome fight by both guys though. and would love to see them do it again.
Almeida vs. Grandmaison was a tough fight too judge also. I thought Almeida by a very slight margin but I could understand if Grandmaison received the decision. Grandmaison is tough as hell and Almeida is definitely worth his hype. Another great fight by both fighters.
The show was definitely top notch and fighters should definitely look forward to fighting for them.
Jason Franklin
on Feb 7th, 2010
@ 3:22 PM:
^^^meant to say the ring girls WEREN’T bad at all.
Kevin the Ref
on Feb 7th, 2010
@ 4:11 PM:
I want to say thanks and congrats to all the fighters, officials, fans and promoters of last nights first XCFL event. As a fan/participant/referee of MMA before it was MMA, last night was a real treat. It was awesome to see how far we have come from word of mouth notification to get to an “undisclosed” location where we were lucky even to have a microphone, to a first time promotion equipped with video replays, rockstar entrances, internet pay-per-view, and media coverage. I really appreciate how all the fighters performed like the professionals they are showing great respect to the fans and each other. All in all, great night and I, like Rick, was very impressed.
JohnSepulvedaAFO
on Feb 7th, 2010
@ 5:41 PM:
I was at the show last night, well done guys, its nice to see that the AFO is not the only promotion that is putting extra emphasis on production values and product improvement in 2010, I had a good time at the show and thought it was an excellent showing for your first event… End of the month AFO Last Man Standing, check out http://www.afomma.com for details
anthonyleone
on Feb 8th, 2010
@ 1:08 AM:
me and almedia have to go at
Ego
on Feb 9th, 2010
@ 3:54 PM:
I went to the show, it had most of the same ingredients of MMA shows. One thing I would want to comment on, is the mismatching of fights. Usually misinformation to fighters is a big problem. One fight in particular would be Sam almeida and John Daniels, Sam was announced as 1-0, which is the same record he had when I fought him… Im sure John was told the same thing. Not that its the matchmakers job to do the research, but lying about a record is pretty terrible.
Did anyone see the guest celebrity? 12-pack from I love New York lol. Nice to see all you guys, and congrats to ALL the fighters, it takes a lot to step in the cage.
jsmithmma
on Feb 9th, 2010
@ 8:48 PM:
I too was there as I posted on the other thread and I thought the matching making for 80 % of this card was just gross. The winners don’t and won’t complain, the ones that weren’t there will come on and argue this and the ones with in the organization will too . but if you were there and disagree than you don’t know much
Rick
on Feb 9th, 2010
@ 10:24 PM:
Matchmaking isn’t easy, man. There were 10 fights…you really thought 80% (or
were “gross?” Are you really saying the only fights that were up to your standards were Grandmaison vs. Almeida and Kattar vs. Carlo-Clauss?
Shit, hopefully you guys aren’t this hard on me after the show on Feb 26…
WarwickWrestler
on Feb 9th, 2010
@ 11:39 PM:
I would say 80% is a solid estimate of terribly matched fights, I can’t see how you can argue that the other 8 fights were well matched, but like you said, its not easy, I did notice 12 pack from I love new york, I didn’t really understand it, was he paid to be there or did he just get a guest entry or what? seemed out of place, and he is way shorter than you would think. I hope he wasn’t paid because he was in the 20th row and was never mentioned. I mean I know Kimbo was a guest apearance at a WCF event, but can you really bring in 12 pack and think its the same thing?
Spladle69
on Feb 10th, 2010
@ 1:10 AM:
For the boobs saying the matchmaking was terrible you should try it, and besides that the first 3 fights were the standard beginners fighting which how are you going to accurately going to set up an equal fight everytime, most of those guys had never fought before. The Almeida fight I don’t know perhaps hes a sandbagger, I thought the Skrzat fight perhaps was a mismatch because Steve is a fuckin monster but according to the promoter his opponents coach claimed he had a solid fighter. Shawdee who fought Travis Reider (who is Travis Lerchen) had 4 amateur fights and one pro and to my knowledge Lerchen has had far more experience and came in ten pounds over weight. Bill Walsh I heard won some type of Muay Thai championship (I could be wrong) so looking at it on paper if it were true that would have been an even match up. The rest speak for themself outside of the Vaca fight who obviously is a beast but I also heard Roger Bracket barely trained at all for the fight which is disgusting to the sport and the fans is that is the case. A match maker cannot predict what will happen only the fighter can. Granted there were supposed to be more fights but due to injury some got scratched I think with each show the XCFL will improve you have to remember it was there first show.
DiLorenzo
on Feb 10th, 2010
@ 8:10 AM:
Well I wasn’t there so I’m not gonna comment but there is a lot of talk about Match making…. You wanna see some crazy fiights go check out the fight card at http://www.afomma.com !!
Wow what a cheap plug, lol – Rick you stuck one in so I though I would too
But really go see them, THERE NUTS
Rick
on Feb 10th, 2010
@ 4:11 PM:
LOL, I just looked at my post and somehow there is a smiley face where I meant to write the number 8. I guess is you do 8 and ) right next to each other you get
Rick
on Feb 10th, 2010
@ 4:22 PM:
The Brackett vs. Vaca fight was quick, but I can’t see how you could call it bad matchmaking. Brackett is 5-1 and fought some tough guys. He’s not some loser they tossed to the wolves…As I said before, Bonnell vs. Cushman was one of my favorite fights I’d ever booked before the fight and it wound up being over in less than 20 seconds.
Dan Keefe vs. Dan Pasquarella was also a hyped fight that was supposed to be a war, but Keefe got caught in a guillotine after he shot for a takedown. I could do this all day…tons of fights that looked great on paper wound up being quick, and I don’t think it’s fair to blame the matchmaker for that.
I also thought the Shawdee vs. Reider/Lerchen fight was pretty cool too. Big slams, both guys fighting out of submissions, scrambles, and ultimately a submission win in about 3 minutes…and while Sonier isn’t great, he has like 5-6 fights, and most recently fought Bonnell and Tom Giove. Him vs. a first time pro looked to be solid on paper, but the first timer ran through him.
I dont mean to harp on this, but it’s frustrating when guys say similar things about fights I’ve matched. Nobody ever seems to be willing to give credit to the guy that landed the punch, or locked up the quick submission. You never hear “Wow, Vaca looked great last night.” Everyone seems to want to trash the opponent lately. New fighters who win quickly should be praised, but instead people would rather say their opponent doesn’t belong in the cage.
Spladle69
on Feb 11th, 2010
@ 1:31 AM:
I wasn’t trying to discredit anyone with my post rick this is Keefe by the way I was more trying to make a rebuttle to the dinkus saying its poor matchmaking, I do agree on paper the vaca Brackett fight looked good but what are you gonna do when I get stuck in a Vaca submission the man is damn good at what he does
Matt Peterson
on Feb 11th, 2010
@ 3:44 PM:
Who let Keefe out of the cage and handed him a computer???
Matt Bessette
on Feb 11th, 2010
@ 9:24 PM:
Spladle69 – Even if you say that Brackett didn’t train much for the fight, it would make a difference if it went longer than 50 seconds or whatever, if he was gassed after 3 minutes and then lost it in 5 minutes, then yes, that would be fair to say…but it makes more sense to say that Vaca has great bjj that is second to none around the area and he deserves all the praise for his victory.
By the way, can I just say that I hate how the mma community uses the phrase “He got caught”…because that also discredits the actual technique of the winning fighter and more so points fingers at what the losing fighter did wrong. “Oh I was winning til I got caught.”…right you were winning until you lost, correct.
Just venting. Sounds like it was a good event though!
Rick
on Feb 11th, 2010
@ 10:54 PM:
My post wasn’t directed at you, Dan. I agree with basically everything you said. My comments about the Brackett vs. Vaca fight were in response to the people saying it was a mismatch, not to your post. I didn’t even read the part about you saying Brackett didn’t train until after I posted it.
Reep
on Feb 11th, 2010
@ 11:40 PM:
If you got a fight with Vaca, and you don’t train, then maybe you need a new sport.
Truth is every show has their mismatches…..they feed top teams, and local teams (who sell the most tickets) fighters from smaller teams, or the “independent” fighters. that’s just how it goes…
MMA.TEAM
on Feb 12th, 2010
@ 12:09 AM:
Reep
Good One
Well said
Spladle69
on Feb 12th, 2010
@ 12:33 PM:
I wasn’t talking about you rick or directing anything at you. No worries