Combat Fighting Championships 4: The Rebirth

By Thomas "Larsenator" Larsen

With Mixed Martial Arts being the fastest growing sport in the world it seems like not a single month passes

by without a new promotion seeing the spotlight for the first time – some last, some don’t!

Combat Fighting Championships or simply Combat FC is not one of the latter! Kicked off on July 15^th 2006

at the UCF Arena, Orlando, Florida the promotion was deemed by many as the biggest rival to the UFC® in

recent times. After three successful events it got awfully quiet and officially nothing happened for more than

a year. That is until now! 

Behind the scenes a successful merger between US company Factor MG and Creative Entertainment Group

(CEG) out of the UK has resulted in the promotion coming out stronger than ever with all guns blazing at the

Newcastle Arena on May 17^th this year.

The entire organisation behind the future Combat FC events are all set with both a UK based AND a US

based match maker plus numerous journalists on board to take MMA to a whole new level and growing the

brand globally utilizing the many skills shared between the two newly wedded media mammoths!

Just take a look at the initial (not finished) fight card: You have Jeff ‘The Snowman’ Monson squaring off

against Ricco ‘Suave’ Rodriguez as the headliner of the show. These gladiators will need no introduction for

the hardcore MMA fans as they have 66 professional MMA fights between them and 51 wins! The fight itself

will be a David vs. Goliath war as Ricco sports a 6'4 (193cm) tall frame whereas ‘The Snowman’ ploughs in

at 5'9 (175cm) on a broad and hefty frame. Those in the know expect to see a slug fest like no Geordie has

ever witnessed before!

One of the most explosive light heavyweight fighters on the scene today has to be Melvin ‘Marvellous’

Manhoef of Mike’s Gym in Holland. With a typical Dutch background in kickboxing and sparring partners

like Badr Hari and Joeri Mess, Manhoef is a world class striker who disposes of his adversaries in such a

short time that those who take a deep breath, close their eyes and think “YEEEHAH, another great fight!”

are often seen with not only their eyes suddenly wide open but also their mouths. Melvin possesses true

dynamite in his hands with 95 % of his 20 wins coming by way of brutal knock out.

An opponent for the marvellous slugger has been found but contracts have not been inked yet hence no

official statement about that.

Early this year MMA was finally sanctioned in France resulting in the lifting of the ban the sport had been

plagued with for years. One of the men responsible for this is professional MMA fighter Cyril ‘The Snake’

Diabate who boasts incredible wins by way of flying knees, rear naked chokes, arm bars, KO via punches,

Triangle Chokes etc.  In other words a TRUE Mixed Martial Artist!

His foe is none other than KOTC veteran Seth Petruzelli who comes to Newcastle with a win in his last fight.

When you say Chute Boxe people think of brutal knees, stomps, overall aggressiveness, BJJ black belts

and overall well trained and disciplined athletes and this student of Rudimar Fedrigo (head trainer at the

Chute Boxe academy in Curitiba, Brazil) is no exception. Jean ‘White Bear’ Silva has fought some of the

best at 155lbs (70kg) including wins over Chris Brennan, Paul Daley and Samy Schiavo etc. The fighter

standing across him in the large, circular cage will be American Clay French who comes in with a winning

streak of no less than eight (8) fights – 53.33 % of his wins by way of submissions!

Other notable names so far on the card are Dan ‘The Outlaw’ Hardy, Brad ‘The Heartthrob’ Imes, veteran in

both kickboxing and MMA Pete ‘The Secret Weapon’ Spratt and many more.

Be sure not to miss the biggest thing to hit the UK MMA scene in 2008 featuring the Combat FC’s Combat

Girls at the Newcastle Metro Radio Arena. Tickets are going fast so make sure to get yours at

bookingsdirect.com. 

Combat Fighting Championships is one of the world’s premier Mixed Martial Arts brands.

Combat FC effortlessly combines exhilarating bouts with high quality live and TV production creating a truly

entertaining product. Combat FC has an experienced management team with expertise across MMA,

intellectual property, marketing, TV production, merchandizing, live events, digital media and finance. The

board includes former senior executives from Com cast, the BBC, UIP, Disney and Ralph Lauren.

For more information please contact Tony Goodson via E-mail.

- From Larsenator Sports Promotion with a little editing from us (color, etc...)

Subject to change

(4/2/08)