An awesome press release from CES which features my favorite weight class...the heavies!!
Well worth the ‘weight’
Heavyweight
showdowns highlight CES MMA’s 2012 debut at Twin River
PROVIDENCE,
R.I. (Jan. 3, 2012) – Coming off an award-winning year in 2011, New
England’s No. 1 combat sports promotion is breaking out the big guns for its
2012 debut.
Jimmy Burchfield’s Classic
Entertainment & Sports – voted No. 1 among its peers by the Boston Herald – returns to the cage Friday, Feb. 3, 2012 with
“Extreme Measures,” featuring two heavyweight showdowns at the Twin River Event
Center in Lincoln, R.I.
Undefeated Eric Bedard (3-0, 1 KO) of Providence, R.I., will face former
University of Connecticut standout and National Football League veteran Tyler King (3-1, 1 KO) of Norwood,
Mass., while former Ultimate Fighting Championships (UFC) contender Josh “Heavy” Hendricks (18-8, 5 KOs) of
Mansfield, Ohio, will face hard-hitting veteran Josh Diekmann (12-3, 8 KOs) of Groton, Conn.
“Whether it’s boxing or mixed
martial arts, there’s nothing fight fans love more than watching two
heavyweights stand toe-to-toe, and we’ve got two exciting heavyweight bouts on
tap for Feb. 3rd,” Burchfield said. “This is our first show of the
year, and we’ve set the bar incredibly high, so our goal, as it is every show,
is to bring our loyal fans the most stacked lineup you’ll see anywhere in mixed
martial arts.”
“Extreme Measures” also features
two of the top-ranked fighters in the northeast as No. 1-ranked featherweight Saul Almeida (11-1) of Framingham,
Mass., will battle Pawtucket, R.I., veteran Jeff Anderson (10-5, 2 KOs), and No. 1-ranked light heavyweight Greg Rebello (13-3, 7 KOs) of
Providence will return to the cage for the first time since beating Cody Lightfoot at Twin River last
September in one of the bloodiest battles of 2011. Pawtucket’s Pete Jeffrey (4-4, 2 KOs) will also be
featured on the undercard.
The sparks will fly when Bedard
faces King in the first of two heavyweight showdowns on Feb. 3. King, the No.
8-ranked heavyweight in the northeast, has accused No. 6-ranked Bedard of
trying to avoid him in the past while setting unreasonable terms for potential
bouts, including a catchweight of 225 pounds, which both sides have agreed to
for this upcoming fight.
“We’re heavyweights. Why would we
have to fight at a catchweight?” King said. “I’ve been trying to fight him for
a while, but he hasn’t wanted to fight me. He’s backed out of fights before.
“I had to jump through a lot of
hoops to get this fight. It just grinds my gears a little bit.”
In reference to the catchweight
for the Feb. 3 bout, Bedard said it’s part of his plan to eventually fight all
of his future bouts at 205 pounds – “It’s a career move,” he said – while
noting that all prior requests to fight King were made on short notice.
“I knew he’d say that [I’ve been
avoiding him],” Bedard said. “I was literally asked to fight him two or three
days before a fight in which I had been training for somebody else. Now I’m
supposed to fight a 6-foot-5 blue belt in Jiu-Jitsu? Who I’m fighting isn’t
just my decision; I get told by [my manager] Tim [Gillett] who I’m fighting.
“[King] can call it ducking. On
Feb. 3, we’ll step into the cage and we’ll see who’s ducking who.”
Both King and Bedard are
relatively new to mixed martial arts. King’s career began in the NFL as a
defensive lineman, spending parts of the 2006 season with Jacksonville, San
Diego and St. Louis. An avid fan of mixed martial arts, he later worked at a
loan modification company in Norwood before deciding to train at the nearby
Connors MMA Training Academy as a way to “relieve stress.”
“I really started to get into it
when I watched ‘The Ultimate Fighter 3’ with Ken Shamrock and Tito Ortiz,”
King said. “I remember watching Michael
Bisping fight Matt Hamill in
England and thinking, ‘This is really good stuff!’
“I just love to train and
compete. Some people play softball or join a recreational basketball league.
I’d rather compete in the cage.”
After winning his first three
fights, King lost a five-round unanimous decision to Bellator Fighting
Championships veteran Randy Smith in
June. King is one of several former professional football players to make the
transition to mixed martial arts, including Herschel Walker, Johnnie
Morton and Marcus Jones. While
the results have been mixed for other NFL vets – Jones is 4-2 as a pro while
Morton lost his first and only fight by knockout – King is hoping to change the
perception that athletes from other sports can’t succeed in the cage.
“I take tough fights and I fight
with a lot of heart,” King said. “I put it all on the line. You can say what
you want about guys like Marcus Jones, but he went out there and fought his
butt off.
“I have a lot of heart and a good
chin. Those things have helped me, and they’ve probably covered up some of the
little mistakes I make along the way.”
Bedard’s athletic background
began with youth wrestling, where he won two state titles, and ended shortly
thereafter. He didn’t wrestle in high school, nor did he attend college, though
he spent time as a youth wrestling coach. After his weight ballooned to 305
pounds in November of 2008, Bedard decided to change his lifestyle.
“I saw pictures of myself and
said, ‘That’s not me,’” he said. “I was fat, out of shape, and I looked like crap.”
Bedard began training at
Gillett’s MMA in Fall River, Mass., where he learned Gillett’s PCS5 system, a
simplified grappling program using five dominant positions. He showed enough
promise to convince Gillett to train him for a professional bout. Three fights
into his brief career, Bedard has cracked the Top 10 in the northeast rankings with
wins over Brian Kononchik, Dan Grove and Marcelo Pereira, the latter which occurred at CES’ “Undisputed”
show on Nov. 18.
“I’ve used it to submit a black
belt [Pereira],” Bedard said, “so the system definitely works.”
The self-proclaimed “fat kid” his
entire life, Bedard considers himself a stand-up fighter who has just enough
experience in wrestling “to where it won’t screw me up on the ground.”
“Lay and pray is not my style,”
he said. “If I get you on the ground, I will hit you and submit you.”
The second heavyweight showdown
between Diekmann and Hendricks features two 35-year-old fighters with
impressive resumes. Diekmann, a winner in three of his last four fights and the
No. 4-ranked heavyweight in the northeast, is a former World Extreme
Cagefighting (WEC) veteran who has also faced two UFC fighters within the past
five years – Justin Eilers in 2006
and Christian Morecraft of Plymouth,
Mass., in of 2009. Prior to his fight against Morecraft, Diekmann handed
Plymouth’s Pat Schultz the first
loss of his career via first-round knockout, and also defeated Smith in March.
During a two-year stretch between
2005 and 2007, Hendricks won 10 of 11 bouts to set up a showdown against
current No. 1-ranked heavyweight Gabriel
Gonzaga of Ludlow, Mass., on the undercard of UFC 91 in Las Vegas. Hendricks
also faced UFC veteran Chris Tuchscherer
and owns victories over UFC competitors Geza
Kalman and Todd Brown, in
addition to an appearance at King of the Cage 34 in 2004, where he beat Jonathan Westfall by submission.
Tickets for “Extreme Measures”
are $35.00, $55.00, $100.00 and $125.00 and can be purchased by calling CES at
401.724.2253/2254, online at www.cesboxing.com or www.twinriver.com, at the
Players Club booth at Twin River, or through any TicketMaster location. Doors
open 6 p.m. with the first bout scheduled for 7.
(Twin River has waived
its 18+ rule for “Undisputed.” Anybody under the age of 18 must be accompanied
by an adult and must enter through the West entrance.)
– CES –
Can't wait for this card...get your tickets early before it sells out!!
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