Cage Fight MMA-The Preview

Roger Woo and the rest of Cage Fight MMA bring us their first show entitled “The Beginning” this Saturday, May 17 from the Quality Inn & Wayfarer Convention Center in Bedford, NH. Their first event looks very good from a fans point of view. They have solid fights across the board, with a good mix of newer fighters and experienced veterans…some well known fight teams and some lesser known teams as well. It’s a really good mix of talent and I’m excited for the event. They currently have 10 fights, but Roger mentioned he was working on 1-2 more.

Here’s what the fight card looks like:

Chris Plourde – Premier Martial Arts vs. Matt Changelian – Vassapolli’s MMA 170#

Mike Tierney – MMA of Southern ME vs. Chris Correia – Team Kaze 145#

Brent Kinberger – Team Woo vs. Ben Knight – Keene MMA 170#

Aaron Shultz – Team Aldo Batista vs. Jeff Soucie – Team Fury 170#

Jeremy Ross – Team Link vs. Ricky Hines – Team Fury 155#

I don’t know much about these first five fights. I’ve seen some of the guys fight before, but not nearly enough to be able to accurately talk about either guy. They do feature some solid teams, who normally produce studs, so I’m sure they’ll be exciting.

Ed Carr – Team Woo vs. Anthony Pina – Hoodlum MMA/East West Kenpo Karate 225+#

From what I understand, Ed is an instructor at Team Woo and he’s been trying t fight for a while. I’ve never seen or heard how good he is, so I can’t say for sure, but if he’s an instructor at a solid fight team, he has to be good. Anthony made his debut recently and ran into Jon Jones. If you don’t know Jon, read the article about him on this site. It’s impossible to say how good or bad Anthony is based on that performance. However, I notice this is listed as 225+ and Anthony didn’t look to be that big compared to Jon and Jon fights at 205, so maybe Ed has a big size advantage?

Tom Moreau – Team Valor vs. Dan Keefe – Team Aldo Batista 180#

Very sick fight that’s flying under the radar. Moreau is 2-0 and has wins over Colby Brown and Eric Henry. Though it was early in Eric’s career, Eric has always been tough and was 2-0 at the time Tom submitted him and Eric is 6-4 and the only guys to stop him were Woody Weatherby and Gregor Gracie, so that’s pretty good company to be in. Keefe is listed at 3-0 with 3 first round TKO’s but I also remember him losing quickly by guillotine to undefeated Dan Pasquarella, so he’s really 3-1. Either way he’s a beast and I’m glad to see him on shows again. I’d have to say Dan is clearly the better wrestler and the meaner and bigger of the two, but Tom should have an advantage in the submission department. I think if Dan wants to put him on his back, he will, and it’s a matter of can Tom sub him before Dan TKO’s him? I could see it going either way and I’m glad I’ll be there to see it.

Calvin Kattar vs. Roberto Conception – Dragon Warrior MMA 155#

Roberto is always taking the tough fights, and Calvin has looked solid so far. Both guys can wrestle and both guys can punch, but I think Calvin is the more explosive of the two. It’ll be interesting to see how this one goes down.

Ben Manseau – Team Woo vs. Eddie Felix – Dragon Warrior MMA 155#

Is this fight really at 155? I’ve never seen either guy fight much on their feet, and once on the mat, Eddie looks to ground and pound while Ben looks to sub guys. I hear that Eddie has been working on his boxing, so we’ll see if he tries to keep it standing. Ben has the BJJ advantage, but I see this a lot like the Moreau vs. Keefe fight. We know the fight will end up with Eddie in Ben’s guard. Eddie is going to try to pound Ben out, and Ben is going to try to either triangle, or scramble to take the back to RNC. If the fight is in fact at 155, Eddie should be the bigger and stronger of the two.

Main Event  Gabriel Santos – Team Link vs. Mandela Kponou – Dragons Lair 185#

To start, I love Mandela, always have and always will. However, he burst onto the scene and was just crushing guys, either knocking them out standing or on the ground. He then looked to somewhat cooled off. After going 6-2-1 in 2005, he only fought twice in 2006 (1-1 with a decision win over Erik Charles and a decision loss to Lance Everson) and only fought once in 2007, which was a loss to John Howard. The fights were all exciting, but he certainly didn’t look like the same guy who was dropping everyone back in 2005. It’s now just over 18 months since the last time he stopped a guy, and he’s stepping in with Cage Rage veteran Gabriel Santos. His record is listed as 2-3 but I’ve heard he’s 5-5. Either way he’s got a win over Mark Weir and Mark is super tough.

Mandela is known for his KO power, but nothing Mandela is going to throw at him is going to be harder/faster than what Weir threw at him. Santos beat Weir by decision, so there was ample time for Mark to try to hurt him and if he avoided a standing KO from Weir, it’s going to be tough for Mandela to KO him standing. However, Mandela is a better grappler than Weir, and will be harder to take down than Weir was. This fight could go either way. Mandela could use his hands to hurt him, then put him on his back and pound him. Santos will want to slow Mandela down and control him, and eventually submit him. Though Mandela is hard to submit, he’s so comfortable on the ground that he often lacks a sense of urgency when a slick ground guy has him is a bad spot. I’m torn in this fight. Both guys can beat the other in many different ways. The one thing that may separate these two is cardio. I’ve never met anyone who could make Mandela tired, so the longer it goes, the more deadly he becomes.