On April 20th, 2012 Warrior Nation returns to Western Mass with another excellent card for us to feast our eyes on. For the third time they will be returning to Chicopee Massachusetts at the famous Hu Ke Lau. This will be a mixture of Amatuer and Professional fights. Jesse Camp, the promoter and matchmaker Nick Newell have really found their niche and are just plainly doing things awesome for the sport. Yes you read that right, that Nick Newell. The XFC two time winner who is undefeated and is now 7-0 professional. Oh yeah not to mention he also made ESPN's Top 10 highlight from his last fight. Isn't that good enough reason to attend the show?? The last show was a sold out event and the crowd loved their polynesian food and adult beverages while they watched some excellent matched fights in the cage. This card is stacked with 8 fights, 1 professional and 7 amateur fights. Tickets start at just $45 and they are well worth it. Get them by visiting their site here. The event holds around 450-500 people so don't wait til the last minute. Let me break down the card for you all.
The first amateur fight will be between Matt Allen and Allen Edgecomb in the 135lb division. Matt is from Ultimate MMA and comes into this fight with a record of 0-1. The school is located in Connecticut. I was not able to find out any information on him from Sherdog or MixedMartialArts.com so I guess we will have to wait and see. Allen Edgecomb is from Shaolin Kempo. He will be making is amateur debut. I dub this fight the battle of the Allens!
The second fight is between Nick Berube and Eric Mendiola. Nick is from Team Link NH and comes into this fight with a 2-3 amateur record. This fight will be at the 155lb weight. Nick's two wins he won a unanimous decision and won a ref stoppage to punches in round 3. His last fight he lost a split decision to David Spero back at Combat Zone 40 back in January. I know he will be thirsty for a war!! His opponent Eric Mendiola will be making his amateur debut and trains with Mohawk Valley MMA which is out of Utica NY. This is a very popular school so I know Eric will be ready for his ammy debut.
The third fight of the evening will be between Addison O'Neil and Ryan Debartolomeo. This fight will be in the 155lb division and both fighters will be making their amateur debuts. Addison is from DCNU which stands for Danilo Cherman Nova Uniao BJJ school. It is run by three time world champion Danilo and the school is located in CT. Ryan trains with the Factory and American Top Team. Not only does he train two damn good schools, he has a kick ass last name! This is going to a battle you won't want to miss!
Next amateur fight is between Justin Kristie and David Baxter. Again both fighters will be making their amateur debut and this one is in the 135lb division. The Boss will certainly be paying attention to this fight and so will we all! Justin trains with Ultimate MMA which again is located in Connecticut as I stated above. David trains with USMMA which stands for United States Mixed Martial Arts and are located in Bellingham MA. I really enjoy it when both fighters are making their amateur debuts because you never know what to expect. It could be one sided fight or it could be very even with both fighters taking it to each other. Which way will it go?? We will find out on April 20th!
Then we have in the 155lb division Neil Breen against John Dipietro. Neil is from a big school called Lion's Den located in Middletown CT. They have fought for Warrior Nation before and are always ready to put on a show for us all. Neil comes into this fight making his amateur debut. John is also making his amateur debut and trains with Michael Tang's mma school. They train all sorts of various arts in that school and it is located in Haverhill MA. Which amateur will get their first career win?? We will have to wait until Friday to find out.
Next bout is between Irving Cortes and Edwin Rahardjo. This fight will be in the 135 lb division. Irving comes into this fight with a record of 0-1 and trains with Underdog BJJ. This school is located in Hartford CT and if you haven't heard of them, then all you need to know is Matt Bessette and Parker Porter go there. Nuff Said. I guess that means we will see The Mangler in attendance! Irving's only loss came to Sam Nadeau at Premier FC 5 back in April of last year. I know he will be ready! His opponent Edwin trains with Gracie Farmington Valley and will be making his amateur debut. They are located in Tarriffville CT and I know will be well versed in BJJ. This could end up being a big ground battle, guess we will have to wait and see.
The last amateur fight of the evening is between Joshua Carrero and Angel Laboy. This fight is also in the 135lb division. Josh comes into this fight with a 1-0 record. He trains with DCNU which we mentioned up above. I couldn't find any info on his win unfortunately. Angel is an independent fighter who comes into this fight with a record of 3-3. Of course they have no information on Angel either but with a trusty search in a cool site I know called WesternMassMMA.com we find out that he fought Anthony Skwirl Carmenatty back at PFC 3 and won via guillotine in Rd 1. He likes to push the pace and I guarantee you this will not be a boring fight!
The last bout of the night is in the professional division which means the lovely scraping elbows and heel hooks! This is also the main event and is a double pro debut in the 170lb division. It is between Damian Malon from American Top Team Connecticut and Dave Marfone from Mohawk Valley MMA. Damian put on a stellar amateur career and went undefeated at 5-0. Warrior Nation fans know Damian from his last battle against Adam Gordon at the Warrior Nation event in November where he won a unanimous decision. He also won a unanimous decision at a CFX show against Frank Sanchez in his career so we all know he can go the full 15 minutes if he needs to! Dave comes into this fight with also a great amateur carreer of 3-1. He won all three of his fights with the way of the fist. He has two second round KO's and his other win was a submission to strikes. His only loss came at a show called Fight Night Cage Fight where he fought Jose Martinez and lost via ref stoppage to strikes in round 1. That was waaaay back in 2009 and he has since then gotten two more wins and much more better faster stronger! Which fighter will be victorious in their professional debut?? You know the drill, we will find out this Friday Night!
Well that is all we have for you fight fans and I hope you all enjoyed this teaser. Warrior Nation is a blast and is right there in our backyard! There will be a 50/50 raffle to Tap Out Cancer which I plan on winning. Also as mentioned about the youtube sensation Nick Newell will be there. Also in attendance will be Leon Davis who is fresh off his win from CES and has just signed a 5 year fight deal with CES. The doors will open at 6pm...just in time for you to dine on some Polynesian food and get it all on your table before the fights start! See you all there!
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