Tyson told me he is very excited to be back in the AFO cage fighting for the AFO light heavyweight belt in April. His first fight with AFO was back in February of 2010 where he fought Mike Fillipone. He then fought for them again in June against Ricardo Georges. Tyson ended up winning the decision in a very tough fight. He then was offered to fight Nate Andrews in the main event in their first ever all amateur show. Now while he was preparing for the Nate Andrews fight he got a call from a Las Vegas MMA company called Tuff N Uff and they wanted to know if he would be interested in fighting for a 155lb amateur title out there on September 24th against Sean Billinger. They wanted to see some video and pictures of Tyson and AFO quickly obliged and sent over what they had. Unfortunately for Tyson, Tuff N Uff turned him down and gave the fight to a Vegas local Dustin Chevalier. Tyson ended up winning his fight against Nate Andrews. He texted the matchmaker of Tuff N Uff and said "Hey I just won my fight by a guillotine in 2nd round, 7-0, now give me a shot!!" Ten days later he got a text back saying "Hey do you still want that title shot??" He said Yes and the rest was history.
Tyson was set up to fight Dustin Chevalier in Vegas on Sept 24th of 2010. He faced a tough situation thay many fighters face when fighting across to the country and that was coming up with the money to get there. The cost of getting himself there and the corners turned out to be very expensive. He had one sponsor Deathwish Inc who offered to chip some in. Tyson had some of his money in it too but still had a hole to fill. It was an amateur fight and people felt it wasn't a good business investment to sponsor an amateur on such short notice. Pete messaged Tyson one day and asked him how his preparation was going and Tyson responded back with good. Pete then asked, "Hey how come you never asked me to help pay for you to go to Vegas?" Tyson very modestly says back "I didn't want to insult you by asking for help to go fight for another promotion." AFO chipped in the rest of the money that Tyson needed and the trip was a done deal.
Thanks for sharing this with us Tyson and we look forward to seeing you in the cage real soon. Tyson has an upcoming fight for CFX on March 17th. We have not heard who it is against yet but when we hear it, it will be on our Upcoming Local Fight Card found in our menu. Tyson then fights the next month in April as we mentioned for the belt against a fighter who will be named this week so keep checking back!!
If You Enjoyed This Article Please Comment. Support us by following our twitter and our facebook fan page. It is the best way to stay up to date on local MMA! Any news you would like us to share email us at westernmassmma@gmail.com. Thanks!
Belt? He hasn't fought anyone near the top 10? AFO is ridiculous. TysOn is good but come on now. These belts are becoming a complete joke
ReplyDeleteI agree these AFO belts have no VALUE at all in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteYes totally ridiculous, Pedro was their last 35 champ and he's ranked #1, Ken Stone was their 45 Champ and he's in the UFC, Jay McLean beat Stone in the AFO and he's in Strike Force. They stripped Felix for refusing to fight but he won when he beat Proctor who is #1 in Reality and I think in the UFC house, Paddy was top 10 and their HW Champ is a Bellator fighter. They opened the 125 division for the industry and has the most talked about fighter right now as their champ. Your right ridiculous !
ReplyDeleteLOL... You know who they mean something too? Our Fighters , our fans, and ME - and honestly thats all that matters.... Everyone that will be in that room that night will see quality fights as they always do at an AFO show - i suggest you get a ticket cause we are expecting an early sell out - ;)
ReplyDeleteCES is running that same night in RI, should be good night for local mma
ReplyDeletekkkkkkk......... Early sell out,yes keep dreaming! So just help me understand one thing. Why does AFO offers a Title fight for a fighter coming from a loss or a fighter that has not done much to earn the TITLE FIGHT. I just think that by giving a title fight to anyone is not gonna help build the Company. I am not talking about what AFO has done on the past but what is going on now. That's all! By the way i did attend to one AFO event last year and was total empty......i just don't think that the fans want to see a lot of ammy fights and 1 or 2 pro at the end!
ReplyDeletekkkkkkk......... Early sell out,yes keep dreaming! So just help me understand one thing. Why does AFO offers a Title fight for a fighter coming from a loss or a fighter that has not done much to earn the TITLE FIGHT. I just think that by giving a title fight to anyone is not gonna help build the Company. I am not talking about what AFO has done on the past but what is going on now. That's all! By the way i did attend to one AFO event last year and was total empty......i just don't think that the fans want to see a lot of ammy fights and 1 or 2 pro at the end!
ReplyDeleteu are correct...now how do u explain tyson chartier, shawn summey, and theo desjardin being in the same breath as the guys you mentioned
ReplyDeleteOk I have said it before but having top fighters on card don't make them gold, yes they are nice to see but that doesn't mean the lower tiered fighters who when are evenly matched up aren't great fights. I love the way AFO does things. It reminds me of the Patriots not signing many big name guys on the team. As for going for the belts, are you saying Tyson is not a worthy fighter?? Seriously you are nuts. Tyson was 2010 ammy fighter of the year from Boston Herald and it is tough for him to get fights. I know Tyson would back me up on this one! The last AFO show had 800 people there and this is confirmed by my own eyes and Pete.
ReplyDeleteThe AFO that i did attend was the one that Rodrigo Almeida fought for the main event.I was there myself so i can say that the place had 250 people max! So a PRO RECORD of 2-1 (win,loss,win) and you are fighting for the Title wowwwww!!! Listen i really hope that AFO succeed but i just don't agree on the way they choose a fighter to fight for the title that is it.I think that will be more professional if you fight for the promotion 3 or 4 times and have at least 3 straight wins than u will qualify for the Title. TITLE FIGHTS ARE EARNED AND NOT GIVEN.(I LOVE BELLATOR)
ReplyDeleteYes that was a new venue they were trying out and it didn't get as much as a draw as it should have. They no longer are having events there and are at the Holiday Inn in Mansfield to stay. Come check out the Night of Champions and see if your mind will be changed. Pete has said many of times that they will give title shots to fighters who has fought with them multiple times over other fighters because thats what they are about. I love Bellator as well and they don't have top guys in there but they have great quality fights. AFO will succeed, they are the most active promotion like 8-10 events a year and this is their 5th year I believe. Pete will correct me if I am wrong. We will be writing more on the event as it gets closer.
ReplyDeleteMeagan, the show u went to wasnt even our show if was another promoter that used our name like an annex.... But with that being said I am very pleased with our title holders and our formula on who gets shots... Honestly and I'd love to talk about it more but the rankings u see on other sites are just a moist of names to me cause I think everyone forgets we are not one big company with everyone else... Those rankings are like sherdog rankings, with everyone included and not rankings on who does what for the promotion... I don't care who a fighter beat on gfl or cfx cause it's not afo.... That figher might have beaten our best 2 or 3 times and that's who we will award everytime. Fighter also needs to understand and be ok with our championship contract... So that might shorten the list too.... its never just names
ReplyDeleteCome night of champions we ll show you why we hold the belt. Afo shows are always action packed it's always a good time. Like I said come April 13th you'll leave with a different mindset about afo and there fighters!! I'm excited to hear who Tyson is fighting!!!
ReplyDeleteI must say it was smart to have kody get the title so soon cuz he may be the best of all ur champs lb for lb for his weight class...BTW that show had way more than 250, tps alone had like 120 people. I hope Tyson is fighting someone good for that title
ReplyDeleteNice to see an AFO champ on here. Kody your great fighter and what you will learn real fast is once you are on the top the list grows to knock you off. I remember most people saying the AFO would do 1 show and that was it, and that was many years ago and all others haven't come close to the number of shows they have done. No one can deny the fact many AFO fighters made names for themselves locally and some nationally. The hand full that complain don't come close to the 7-10,000 tickets we will sell a year of people that walk through the doors to see you and guys like Kin Moy, Bill G, Paddy, Tyson, and MANY others that choice to spend most or ALL their carers with us. The one thing I am most happy about is the retention we have had with fighters.. numbers don't lie and MANY of the top guys on the lists that everyone likes to look at have spent with us by choice.
ReplyDeleteCongrats to Tyson... AFO has done a lot for a lot of fighters Just saying... Good Luck Tyson!!!
ReplyDelete