This weeks installment of AFO Night of Champions Teaser features the next four fights listed on their card. Again the tickets are still available via www.afomma.com so get them before they sell out. The event takes place on April 13th, 2012 at the Holiday Inn in Mansfield MA. It is about two hours away from Western Mass and it is a great time. The Holiday Inn is a beautiful location and easy to get to. Inside you can see fountains and luxurious marble and slate walkways. Outside the room where the cage is setup is Warchild's favorite appetizer Sausage dogs!! Lets dive in..
First fight in this teaser is between Ricardo Georges and Mike Malvesti. Ricardo who is known to friends as Ricky and the Water Buffalo comes into this professional fight with a record of 0-1. He trains out of Lynn Ma with Team Pradal Serey. He lost a tough fight to a BJJ specialist Carlos Neto of Wai Kru back at Victory Promotions in November. His amateur record was 7-1 and was AFO, Cage Titans champs and he fought many beasts. He is looking to get is first professional win and won't take no for an answer! Not if Mike Malvesti has anything to do with it though. Mike Malvesti trains out of South Shore Sportsfighting out of Rockland, MA. He has a record of 2-0 and they are both via KO. Oh yeah they are both first round knockouts and under 30 seconds!! This 170lber hasn't fought since 2010 but I highly doubt his knockout power has just magically disappeared. Ricky is going to need to weather the storm and try to take him into deep waters. Mike is going to need to be aggressive with Ricky and show everyone that he has no cage rust from not fighting since 2010. This is going to be a fight you won't want to miss because someone is gonna get knocked out!!
Next fight is between Thane Stimson and Dicky White. Thane used to trains out of Team Pradal Serey and has a record of 0-1 professional. He now trains out in California with Team Alpha Male which you should all know is Uriah Faber, Benavidez and TJ Dillashaw's school. Lucky for us we get to see him fight in MA for AFO this April. His loss came back at Warrior Nation in November to Team Bombsquad's Zech Lange and it was a very close split decision. Many TPS nation still believe to this day that Thane won. Thane had a stellar amateur record as well and was 6-0 as an amateur and that includes six finishes. Dicky was a 4-0 amateur fighter who fights out of New York in Cortland New York. Massachusetts fans are lucky that New York hasn't sanctioned mma there yet and we get to see great fighters like Randy Smith, Chris Tier and Dicky White fight out here in MA. Dicky is now turning pro and is doing it in a big way indeed. He is the full package with two submission, a ko and a decision win. This one is going to be a great ground battle I feel. Thane has tremendous wrestling skills and a great submission knowledge as he has many submission wins in his ammy career. Dicky as well has submission wins and in this fight he may want to keep it standing and try it even out the fight that way. Either way we will all find out on April 13th.
Next fight is one of my favorites of the night. It is the female bout between Katie Merrill and Janice Meyers. Katie trains out of Wai Kru and is one of the most feared women in Mass. She is a newly turned pro and has a professional win over a very tough Kaline Medeiros. I first saw Katie at an earlier Premier FC right at Umass Amherst and she stepped in to do a grappling match with Sarah Payant. She quickly got the submission win. Her ammy and professional fights she has also won via submission. If she gets a few more fights I would not be surprised if she gets a call up to XFC someday. I personally would love to see her fight Marianna Kheyfets because they both have a win over Medeiros. Her opponent is from CNY New York and is named Janice Meyers. She is an expert striker and has several boxing wins in her career. This will be her professional debut. Katie will want to get this fight to the ground if she gets in trouble because she most likely will have the clear advantage on the ground. Of course Janice will want to keep it standing and avoid takedowns and the clinch by using her exceptional striking. Little is known how her ground game is as this is her first professional fight. This fight is going to be a great female battle with a classic matchup of Striker vs. Grappler!
Last fight I am going to tease you all with is the amateur title fight between Jared Sarno and Chad Kelly. They are flyweights and they are no strangers to AFO. Jared Sarno trains with South Shore Sports Fighting and has a record of 4-1. He has a submission win, ref stoppage to strikes and decisions for wins in his career so he is very well diversified in the sport of mma. His only loss is to newly crowned 135lb champ Kody Nordby which he suffered a submission loss back in November. Jared has excellent wrestling and knows how to control the fights on the ground. His opponent Chad Kelly is basically a Western Mass guy(least in my book) and fights out of Gardner with Fighting Arts Academy. He has a record of 2-1 and has two decision and one submission win victories in his resume. Also he just was in the King of the Mat Grappling Tournament that was held right here in Springfield and came in second place in his division. His last fight was in November for Warrior Nation where he dominated the fight on the ground and showed off his ground and pound skills to get the decision win. His only loss was to Dan Cormier and he was outstruck but n the middle of the 3rd round ended up getting the takedown and I feel he won that round. My point is it was a very tough fight and he is no slouch. Jared will have to control the fight, get his takedowns and control on top to win. Chad has very good standing skills and he may want to try that for a while and try to avoid the takedowns until he sees his opening for his own takedowns. This fight should be a fast action fight!
That is it for this installment of AFO Night of Champions Teaser II. It was fun researching on all these fighters for you all and I hope you enjoyed it. Just my opinion on these fights and as we all know this is MMA and anything can happen! To see these fights mentioned get your tickets at www.afomma.com and of course stay tuned for next weeks installment of AFO Night of Champions Teaser III!
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!
Last fight I am going to tease you all with is the amateur title fight between Jared Sarno and Chad Kelly. They are flyweights and they are no strangers to AFO. Jared Sarno trains with South Shore Sports Fighting and has a record of 4-1. He has a submission win, ref stoppage to strikes and decisions for wins in his career so he is very well diversified in the sport of mma. His only loss is to newly crowned 135lb champ Kody Nordby which he suffered a submission loss back in November. Jared has excellent wrestling and knows how to control the fights on the ground. His opponent Chad Kelly is basically a Western Mass guy(least in my book) and fights out of Gardner with Fighting Arts Academy. He has a record of 2-1 and has two decision and one submission win victories in his resume. Also he just was in the King of the Mat Grappling Tournament that was held right here in Springfield and came in second place in his division. His last fight was in November for Warrior Nation where he dominated the fight on the ground and showed off his ground and pound skills to get the decision win. His only loss was to Dan Cormier and he was outstruck but n the middle of the 3rd round ended up getting the takedown and I feel he won that round. My point is it was a very tough fight and he is no slouch. Jared will have to control the fight, get his takedowns and control on top to win. Chad has very good standing skills and he may want to try that for a while and try to avoid the takedowns until he sees his opening for his own takedowns. This fight should be a fast action fight!
That is it for this installment of AFO Night of Champions Teaser II. It was fun researching on all these fighters for you all and I hope you enjoyed it. Just my opinion on these fights and as we all know this is MMA and anything can happen! To see these fights mentioned get your tickets at www.afomma.com and of course stay tuned for next weeks installment of AFO Night of Champions Teaser III!
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!