Bamma 15 Event Review and Results

Bamma 15 Event Review and Results
by Sam Heard - @samheard_

Held in the Copperbox in the middle of London’s Olympic park, BAMMA took an amazing venue and filled it suitably excellent fights at their most recent event, BAMMA 15. Knowing all the Olympic contests that took place within the main arena just under two years ago, I couldn’t help but think that organising a night of fights in a former-Olympic building could potentially be seen as a statement about MMA’s claim to Olympic sport status. Indeed, one of the sports included in the early Olympic Games in Greece was Pankration which is arguably a direct predecessor of MMA. BAMMA 15 certainly made a case that MMA deserves to be recognised as an Olympic sport – throughout the fight we saw enormous amounts of respect being given from fighters to their opponents, incredible martial arts techniques and bags of heart.

Gzim Selmani (4-1, 1-0 BAMMA) defeats Oli Thompson (12-6, 0-1 BAMMA) by Technical Submission (Guillotine choke) at 0:18 of Round 1 
Oli Thompson was a huge favorite going into this fight and it’s not exactly difficult to understand why. A UFC-veteran, former UCMMA Champion and Britain’s strongest man of 2006 against a 19-year-old with only four fights under his belt against unknowns – it’s not hard to see why Gzim Selmani was considered to be a big underdog. The gigantic teenager lived up to his nickname “The Albanian Psycho”, shocking Oli Thompson with his aggressive start. He ran over to the former UFC fighter and delivered a huge flying knee ala B.J Penn-Sean Sherk which left Thompson slumped down against the cage. He then fired off a flurry allowing him to lock in a standing guillotine which – after a small adjustment – was extremely tight. Mark Goddard lifted Thompson’s right hand only for it to flop to the mat, giving him no option but to stop the fight. It took “The Albanian Psycho” just 18-seconds to put an extremely tough competitor to sleep – what an end to the night!


Leon Edwards (7-1, 4-0 BAMMA) defeats Wayne Murrie (17-6, 1-1 BAMMA) by Submission (Rear-Naked Choke) at 3:13 of Round 1
In the first defense of his BAMMA Lonsdale British Welterweight Champion Wayne “The Caveman” Murrie was quickly put away by “Rocky”, to the delight of the following Edwards had brought with him from Birmingham. To the chant of ‘UTC’ Edwards was able to overwhelm Murrie on the ground, quickly taking his back before sinking in a deep Rear-Naked Choke to force the tap from the Yorkshireman. A clinical performance from “Rocky”.

Colin Fletcher (10-4, 4-1 BAMMA) defeats Tony Hervey (16-16, 0-1 BAMMA) by Split Decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
Those who thought this was a gimme fight for Colin “Freakshow” Fletcher to build on after a disappointing loss to Mansour Barnaoui’ for his Lightweight title couldn’t be more mistaken. Hervey has been in there with some of the sport’s finest including Takanori Gomi and current Bellator Featherweight champion Pat Curran and proved to be an extremely game competitor against “Freakshow” who arguably did enough to win the fight. In his typical theatrical, larger-than-life style “Freakshow” came out atop a pantomime horse (presumably in honor of the Grand National). The jokes came to an abrupt stop at the start of the fight as both men hit each other with some big shots – Fletcher utilizing his height advantage to land some big knees and body kicks while Hervey landed some big counter hooks as “Freakshow” rushed in. Near the close of the second round “Lionheart” was able to badly rock Fletcher on the feet, prevented from getting the finish only by end of the round. My pick for the Fight of the Night. In his post-fight interview the always classy Colin Fletcher stated that he would’ve happily lost the fight as he believed Hervey was just as worthy of the victory.

Tom Duquesnoy (9-1, 2-0 BAMMA) defeats Teddy Violet (8-1, 0-1 BAMMA) by Submission (Triangle Choke) at 1:29 of Round 2
The clash of French Flyweights for the BAMMA World Featherweight Title Fight was a thoroughly entertaining affair which I was sorry to see finish and I am now deeply interested in the career of Tom “Firekid” Duquesnoy. In the six-and-a-half minutes he fought “Firekid” was able to show what he’s all about, displaying his extremely well-rounded arsenal of skills against an unbeaten opponent in fellow countryman Teddy Violet. Violet came into this fight with a decent MMA grappling pedigree of his own but in the end was overwhelmed by a flawlessly executed Triangle Choke from “Firekid”. With no doubt one of the night’s finest performances.

Harry McLeman (7-2, 3-0 BAMMA) defeats Andy De-Vent (10-9, 0-1 BAMMA) by Unanimous Decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
After an intense stare-down at Friday afternoon’s weigh ins I had high hopes for this scrap for the BAMMA Lonsdale British Middleweight Champion and it certainly didn’t disappoint and I believe could’ve gone either way. The round which hung in the balance was the second. “Mad Mac” came out incredibly strong in the first, beautifully changing levels with strikes and takedown attempts and eventually rocking De-Vent on the feet which led to a near submission via Guillatine. However, after this strong start, the new British Middleweight Champ became increasingly fatigued as the fight went on allowing De-Vent to come back into the fight. Despite gassing fairly early, “Mad Mac” was able to muster up a final burst deep into the third round, swinging for the fences as the fight ended – that’s the way to win a belt!

Ryan Scope (8-0, 2-0 BAMMA) defeats Ali Arish (20-3, 0-1 BAMMA) by Unanimous Decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Ryan Scope grabbed the attention of the UKMMA community when he caught former TUF competitor Luke Newman in a Triangle Choke at BAMMA 12 after being brutally rocked on the feet. As he explained to us in the pre-fight interview we conducted, Scope once again felt like he was the underdog going up an extremely opponent in Ali Arish. Despite his underdog status, “Big Baby” was able to pull off another come-from-behind victory as he lost a tentative first round to Arish before pouring it on him in the following rounds, badly rocking the Manchester-based fighter in the third. Despite picking up the win, Scope explained after the fight that he suspected he had broken his foot.

Rany Saadeh (6-1, 2-0 BAMMA) defeats Mahmood Besharate (5-1, 2-1 BAMMA) by Unanimous Decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
The clash of Flyweights normally results in a highly entertaining, back-and-forth fight. Unfortunately this match-up didn’t live up to the weight class’ reputation as Rany Saadeh kept taking Besharate down to the mat and controlling him en route to an uncontroversial yet dull decision victory. Saadeh never threatened to finish from top position and indeed the fighters were stood up by referee Mark Woodard on more than one occasion. “Persian Pride” started to mount some offence in the third round with some heavy body and led kicks but just as he got into a rhythm Saadeh again scored the takedown. It was perhaps this frustration that has led Besharate to announce that he intends to retire from the sport.

Jefferson George (4-2, 2-1 BAMMA) defeats Jack Grant (6-1, 0-1 BAMMA) by Split Decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
The first decision of the evening was a closely fought affair between then-undefeated Jack Grant and Jefferson George. The only round which was clear-cut for me was the first. As the nickname “Shadow Demon Blaximus” would suggest, Jefferson George is a flamboyant fighter who will risk either eating shots or losing position for the sake of putting on a show. This style certainly was ineffective in R1 as
Grant was able to take George down and control him for the vast majority of the 5-minutes. One takedown was particularly memorable; a mighty German Suplex straight out of Kurt Angle’s playbook. Grant was able to maintain periods of control over George in the subsequent rounds which in my opinion was enough to win the fight, however “Shadow Demon Blaximus” did look dangerous at times and this was enough to narrowly win him the nod from the judges. Jack Grant has subsequently tweeted “I felt I did enough feel robbed & gutted back to the drawing board for me”.
 
Alex Montagnani (6-1 MMA, 1-0 BAMMA) defeats Nathan Jones (4-2, 0-1 BAMMA) by Submission (Rear-Naked Choke) at 2:43 of Round 1
Prior to the cage door being closed and these two men throwing down, you will be forgiven for expecting this fight to play out very differently. Alex Montagnani had won all 5 of his fights by KO/TKO while 100% of Nathan “Mr. Bag N Tag” Jones had come via frst round chokes; the phrase 'Striker vs Grappler' had seemigly never been more relevant. However, this bout proved just how unpredictable MMA. Jones – as you’d expect – was relentlessly pursuing the takedown only to be reversed with Montagnani on top of him. Montagnani then took his back and locked up the card’s third consecutive Rear-Naked Choke.

Andy Craven (4-0 MMA, 2-0 BAMMA) defeats Richard Edwards (1-3 MMA, 0-1 BAMMA) by Submission (Rear-Naked Choke) at 2:12 of Round 1
Andy Craven – who had failed to meet the Featherweight division’s 145-lbs limit – negated any of the resulting concerns surrounding his cardio when he made short work of Richard Edwards. Craven quickly caught Edwards with a howitzer of an overhand right which immediately dropped the Keddles Gym fighter. Craven smelt blood and followed up with two huge shots to the grounded fighter before coolly taking Edwards’ back to lock up the Rear-Naked Choke, extending his record of winning all fights by submission.

Ed Arthur (3-0 MMA, 2-0 BAMMA) defeats Nathaniel Wood (4-1 MMA, 0-1 BAMMA) by Submission (Rear-Naked Choke) at 1:48 of Round 3
The clash of unbeaten Bantamweights both putting their flawless records on the line promised a lot and certainly lived up to expectations. Both men displayed some terrific striking and grappling skills and the fight looked sure to be left in the hands of the judges. However, both men held records with 100% finishes and this trend was set to continue when Ed Arthur was able to dig a little deeper and pull off a slick Rear Naked Choke, forcing the understandably fatigued Wood to tap.

Jacek Toczydlowski (5-4 MMA, 1-0 BAMMA) defeats Benny Carr (3-1 MMA, 1-0 BAMMA) by TKO (submission to strikes) at 1:32 of Round 1
Prior to this fight there had been a great deal of buzz surrounding Benny “Brutal” Carr who had proved worthy of his nickname through winning all his professional fights through one-sided TKOs. Jacek Toczydlowski – who made his pro debut way back in 2006 – was doubtless the toughest test of Benny Carr’s short career and proved too much for the Southampton-based fighter. To the dismay of the partisan crowd who zealously cheered Carr on, Toczydlowski was able to rapidly take him down and rain no-nonsense elbows from full mount to force Carr to tap out. Toczydlowsk proved that Benny Carr isn’t the only fighter worthy of the “Brutal” nickname.