Chattelle ready to jump
right back in the cage following loss to ‘Doomsday’ Howard
PROVIDENCE,
R.I. (May 17th, 2012) – After readily admitting he was
outsmarted in his loss to John
“Doomsday” Howard last month, Todd
Chattelle has decided to up the ante in his return to the cage June 15th
at Twin River.
This time, “The Hulk” will face a
different level of intelligence when he battles Chandler Holderness – credit analyst by day, mixed martial arts
fighter by night.
A graduate of Boston University,
Holderness works for Colorado-based Continental Credit, which helps people
solve credit inaccuracies and repair their credit scores. The 25-year-old
welterweight, who is moving up to 185 pounds to face Chattelle, travels two to
three times per month between his hometown of Boulder, Colo., and Boston, where
he serves as the company’s regional director.
Book smarts were never a problem
for Holderness, who graduated with two degrees and enough credits to enter
medical school, and he’s proven to be equally savvy inside the cage with an 8-3
record that includes three knockouts and three submissions.
The key is whether or not he can
match Chattelle’s brawn. Confident as ever, Holderness figures to benefit from
the tutelage of Howard, who faced Chattelle in April and is Holderness’ main
training partner at John Allen’s Wai Kru gym in Boston.
“I feel as though I definitely
have him outmatched in every aspect of the game,” said Holderness, who’ll face
Chattelle in the three-round main event of “Proving Grounds,” presented by
Jimmy Burchfield’s Classic Entertainment & Sports Friday, June 15th, 2012 at the
Twin River Event Center.
“He’s definitely a strong guy
with a dangerous right hand, but I really don’t see him matching up with me on
the ground or standing up. My reach isn’t as long, but I utilize it better than
he does. I plan on keeping my cool and coming here to win.”
Since losing his CES MMA
middleweight title to Howard, “The Hulk” is more concerned with evaluating his
own performance than worrying about what his opponent brings to the table. The
path to improvement starts from within, and Chattelle (10-7, 8 KOs) – a
Pawtucket, R.I., native – is working to get back to where he was both
physically and mentally prior to the fight against Howard.
“I don’t even think it’s
important to win or lose anymore,” Chattelle said. “What’s important for me is
to go in there and be myself and fight to the best of my ability.
“Going into that last fight, I’d
be up all night thinking, ‘Can I make it to the next level?’ All that worrying
didn’t do anything for me. If anything, it took away from my performance. In
the middle of the fight, I second-guessed myself because [Howard] was being so
calm. I’m thinking, ‘Maybe I should calm down, too,’ because it’s going to be a
five-round fight. As soon as I did that, he picked it right back up.”
Howard scored a late takedown in
the second round and then finished Chattelle with a flurry of unanswered
punches from the mount position in the closing seconds.
“I got away from who I am,”
Chattelle said. “I beat myself. I let him outsmart me. I don’t feel like he
beat me. The mistakes I made cost me the fight.
“I have to focus on being myself
and not worrying about what anyone else thinks.”
Chattelle is back in the gym with
his kickboxing instructor, William
Soukhamthath, tying up some of the loose ends that plagued him in the loss
to Howard – “I won’t say what they are, but they’ve been showing up in sparring
and they’ll show up in the fight,” he said – and has a stern warning for
Holderness should his opponent try to match him blow for blow.
“He’s pretty good,” Chattelle
said, “but if he puts pressure in front of me in the cage, I will smash him.”
While Chattelle has the luxury of
training exclusively in his hometown of Pawtucket at TriForce MMA, Holderness
spends many hours traveling cross-country for business, which, surprisingly,
has helped improve his conditioning and discipline.
“A lot of times, I’m in Colorado
training 6,000 feet about sea level,” he said, “so there’s not much I can’t do
in a 15-minute time frame where I won’t be operating at my optimum level.”
Holderness began his professional
career at the age of 19 while still studying at Boston University. Shortly
after his debut – a first-round submission victory over Hector Vasqeuz – Allen invited Holderness to train at Wai Kru,
where he met Howard, a veteran of seven Ultimate Fighting Championships (UFC)
fights who will return to Rhode Island in August to defend his title.
“He’s given me a lot of insight
on Todd,” Holderness said of Howard, “but nothing I can’t see from the videos.
He’s been doing this a while. It’s going to be a fun night.”
The idea of taking an extended
break before his next fight never crossed Chattelle’s mind. He’s been in the
gym since the loss to Howard building toward redemption, and, more importantly,
putting last month’s loss behind him.
“I wanted to get right back in
there and keep busy,” Chattelle said. “I was upset after that loss, but it
helped me a lot because I saw a lot of things that I needed to fix, mentally
and physically. The fact is I stood in there and fought a good fight, and now I
feel I can do that with anyone at this point.
“Tell the world to be prepared,”
he continued. “You won’t see Todd. You’ll see ‘The Hulk.’”
Tickets for “Proving Grounds” 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.cesmma.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.
The undercard features a
lightweight showdown between Abner
Lloveras (8-5-1, 1 KO) of Ludlow, Mass., and Ryan Quinn (6-4, 2 KOs) of Fairfield, Conn.; along with a battle
between featherweights Calvin Kattar
(12-2, 7 KOs) of Methuen, Mass., and Chris
Foster (4-2, 2 KOs) of the Lion’s Den in Middletown, Conn.
Pawtucket bantamweight Andre Soukhamthath (1-1) will face Jon Marchettere (0-2) of Pomfret,
Conn.; Joe Pingitore (1-0, 1 KO) of
Johnston, R.I., will take on Franklin
Isabel (4-4) of Boston; and featherweight Nate Andrews of Cranston, R.I., will make his professional debut
against Pedro da Silva (1-3, 1 KO)
of Boston. Other bouts include Jay
Bakanowski (1-0) of Scituate, Mass., battling undefeated welterweight Leon Davis (2-0) of Springfield, Mass.;
Billy Giovanella making his debut
against Framingham, Mass., bantamweight Gilvan
Santos (1-2); and Nick Drummond
(3-0, 1 KO) of Boston facing John Mowry
(2-2, 1 KO) of Providence in a welterweight bout. Providence middleweight Brennan Ward (2-0, 1 KO), Pawtucket
welterweight Keith Jeffrey (7-2-1)
and middleweight Harley Beekman
(4-1, 2 KOs) of Amsterdam, N.Y., will also be featured on the undercard in
separate three-round bouts.
(Twin River has waived
its 18+ rule for “Proving Grounds.” Anybody under the age of 18 must be
accompanied by an adult and must enter through the West entrance).
– CES –
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