We are a little over thirty days until the next installment of American Fighting Organization is set to take place on April 13th, 2012. It is set to take place in Mansfield Mass and the event is their annual Night of The Champions. For our new fans who are not familiar with what this is, it is the time when AFO displays the best of their best. What does this mean for us?? It means spectacular matched fights and a feast for any MMA fan. Promo Pete, the AFO promoter has said for the last 2 months "this card will be the very best the AFO has ever put in and that's a tall order seeing they have giving us some of the best MMA action over the course of their 5 seasons. This show will have Fighters from from 9 states on it including Thane Stimson who is now out in California training with team Alpha Male full time." This card is so good that it is hard to fit it all into one big teaser article so what I am going to do is break it up into four parts. Follow along with me if you will be so kind...
The first fight in this teaser is between a good friend of the sites, Jeremy Ross and Brandon Chagnon. This is a professional fight for the 170lb belt and is a battle between a Western Mass fighter versus a Northeast fighter. Brandon was originally scheduled to fight Shawn Summey but Shawn had to drop out due to injury and Jeremy Ross stepped in. Thanks for stepping in Jeremy and Shawn heal up fast. Brandon is 3-3 from Team Sityodtong and 1 sub win and two decision wins. His last fight was at the last AFO in January where he fought Joe Powers. It seemed like both fighters were being very cautious and not willing to commit which made for a pretty boring fight. With that being said I doubt that is going to happen in this fight. Jeremy Ross from Gladiator BJJ comes into this fight with a 4-3 record. He has 3 submission wins and one ko/tko. His last fight was for Reality Fighting against Leroy Derricott back in October. Jeremy is very comfortable in all aspects of the game and I know will put on a great show for all of us.
Second fight in this teaser installment is against Tyson Chartier versus Lee Metcalf. This is for the Lightweight Title and should be a great one. Tyson was 2010 Boston Herald Amateur Fighter of the Year and comes into this fight with a professional record of 2-1. He has wins over Barrington Douse and Justin Switzer and wins pretty much all of his fights via submission including in his amateur career. He not only fights out of Team Sityodtong but is a manager of many fighters in their school. Lee fights out of South Shore Sportsfighting and always fights tough opponents. I had the luxury of doing an interview with not too long ago and he is a well spoken, well mannered guy. Tyson is of course as well. Lee comes into this fight with a record of 7-6 and is looking to break his one fight losing streak. He has two KO and 3 submission wins so he is well prepared in all aspects of the sport. I predict this one to be a great jui jitsu battle and most likely won't go the distance. Someone is going to get submitted but who knows, I am wrong once in a while!
One of the main events is between Randy Smith vs. John Jonnston. Randy is a seasoned veteran who is no stranger to the AFO. He is putting his heavyweight belt on the line for the third time and brings a record of 14-10-1. He trains and is an instructor out of CNY New York and is a down to earth great guy. With New York not being sanctioned in mixed martial arts he calls Massachusetts his home. This is tasty treat for all of us because Randy always puts on a good show. Randy has fought for Bellator twice and is in fact fighting for them on March 30th, a few weeks before Night of Champions. We wish you the best in that one Randy. John Johnston is a Muay Thai instructor out of Boston, MA for the legendary Team Sityodtong. He comes into this fight with a 2-0 professional record and fights tough fights. In fact there are many similarities between these two fighters. They both are older fighters, Randy being 37 and John being 41. Age is no matter in the hands of these fighters folks. They both are instructors at their schools and both take tough fights. Both fighters themselves are tough SOBs and have been through wars. Randy Smith went through a five round war with Tyler King not too long ago. John ended up slipping on his way into the cage at the last GFL in Maine and injurying his ankle and still fought and ended up getting the KO victory in Round 2. I expect this fight to be a war and to not go the distance. Who will be victorious?? We will have to wait and see.
The last fight I am going to breakdown for you all is between the Norwegian Assassin Kody Nordby and Josh Spearman. This is for the featherweight title and Kody will be defending it for the first time. He is 1-0 in is pro career and has fought all of his fights for the AFO. He graduated high school and got his first MMA win that same day. I can't really say I know of any other fighter who has had that exciting of a day. He went 4-0 with decision wins over Matt Doherty and Billy Giovanella and sub wins over Jared Sarno and Mark Johnson. He has never taken any easy fights and this one will be exception. I asked Pete about this matchup and he told me "We asked Chris Cole, Chris Concepcion, and Mike Flores... All were unable to face Kody, Josh actually tapped out Mike in 2009 in the AFO so he was the best pick at this time. Most of his fights and losses were over 135 lbs and has fought some of the best." His professional win came against Theo Desjardin and it was a submission win back at the last AFO in January. Spearman comes into this fight with 7-21. He has lots of experience obviously and has been fighting professionally since 2005. His last fight was in 2009 for GFL 3 and he came out of retirement so to speak and called out the featherweights and said he wants the belt. Well Josh, you got your wish because here is your chance! 14 out of 21 losses have come via submission. Kody being a phenomenal wrestler and great with the subs, I predict Kody looking to continue this streak and take this fight to the ground. Josh has 2 KO/TKO and 1 submission win himself. His keys to victory should be using his experience to find the holes in Kody's plan and exploit them to his advantage.
Well that closes out my first teaser of the AFO's upcoming Night of Champions. Tickets are still available and you can get them by clicking on the AFO banner to the upper right of this page. This is a stacked card and will most likely sell out so please don't be the guy/girl who waits to the last minute and is left in the dust. The Boss and I will be there live keeping you up to date on all the action and stay tuned for more segments of my AFO teasers. Feel free to comment and let us know what you think about the fights discussed but please keep em civil! Also everyone please sign up for mmavictor.com using the banner to the right and do the AFO/UFC/Strikeforce fantasy mma. Some pools are free and you can win free money!! It is a ton of fun.
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