MM-Eh! News and Notes from Canada
Andy Cotterill Nov 30, 2006
Welcome to MM-Eh!, Sherdog.com’s weekly column devoted to the
Canadian mixed martial arts scene. This past week was a very busy
one for Canada. We have a ton to cover and it will be our
lengthiest column to date, so get a bag of popcorn, put your feet
up, and be prepared to be entertained.
Tompkins headed for California
On Tuesday evening I spoke with Shawn Tompkins (Pictures), trainer extraordinaire and
leader of Team Tompkins based out of London, Ontario.
Shawn confirmed that he would be taking over the position of head striking coach for Dan Henderson (Pictures)’s new Team Quest location in Temecula, Calif.
Recent events recap
This past weekend saw King of the Cage stage an event in the Albertan Provincial capital of Edmonton. KOTC, a very well established promotion that started out in the U.S. in 1999, expanded into Canada in 2005 and is approaching its 100th event.
The featured main event on this card saw “Warpath” Ruben Villareal (Pictures) defeat Wade Hamilton by knockout. Of interest, this card also featured Danny Valimaki, whose brother Victor Valimaki is the MFC light heavyweight champion, and will be making his UFC debut against David Heath (Pictures) December 13, live on Spike TV.
Sherdog.com will be releasing an in-depth interview with Victor prior to his appearance at the UFN.
The Maximum Fighting Championship is undoubtedly the more established promotion in Edmonton, and has a well-known policy of not using fighters who perform in any other local promotions, with the consequence of not being selected for subsequent MFC shows. It will be interesting to see if appearance of the brother of one of their champions in a KOTC card will affect that rule.
Rumble in the Cage is another great promotion based in Alberta, Lethbridge to be exact. Lee Mein (Pictures), owner of the Lethbridge-based Canadian Martial Arts Centre, has been steadily building a stable of tough, quality fighters who have been actively seeking fights wherever they can, including the ECC, MFC and KOTC promotions.
This past Saturday RITC had a very busy fight card with 15 fights, 11 of which were amateur. The CMAC provided 10 fighters, with the remainder coming from the Western Provinces.
All accounts report this event as being a barnburner that gave the fans everything they wanted.
Little known fact
Want to meet your favorite fighter? One thing about professional fighters that might not be known to the casual fan is that many of them spend some of their off time going to different gyms to give seminars.
These seminars typically run one to two days and are generally very affordable. They give fight fans an opportunity to get very up close and personal with the fighters, and also give fighters in training an opportunity to learn valuable techniques from some of the very best.
Denis Kang (Pictures) seminar
This past weekend the city of Vancouver saw one of its favorite sons return to impart some of his knowledge to lucky MMA practitioners. Before he moved to Florida and joined American Top Team, Kang was a student of Marcus Soares in Vancouver. Unfortunately I didn’t get this information in time to pass it along to Sherdog readers before it happened, but if any of you attended I’d love you to send me an e-mail and tell me all about it.
Georges St. Pierre (Pictures) seminar
The newly crowned UFC welterweight champion, Georges St. Pierre (Pictures), will be in Truro, Nova Scotia, on the 2nd and 3rd of December to give his first seminar since capturing the belt.
Gerald Tobin, who’s running the seminar, said that the 75-person limit is full, and no spectators will be permitted. Mr. Tobin said when seeking a fighter to bring in, St. Pierre seemed like the logical choice.
“He’s always been very respectful and a class act, and his skills are very well rounded,” Tobin explained. “We look forward to showing him some Maritime hospitality.”
GSP was booked several months ago, and Mr. Tobin says that it’s pure serendipity that he is now champion. The Monday following the seminar, Georges will travel to Aruba for a well-deserved vacation.
On a side note, in the last MM-Eh! I mentioned that GSP had donated the shorts he wore at UFC 65 to the Ryan Bennett Memorial Fund. Bidding on eBay ended Tuesday at $5,200 USD. Big thumbs up to Georges!
B.J. Penn (Pictures) seminar
Pound for Pound announced that B.J. Penn (Pictures) will be at the Kombat Arts Training Academy in Mississauga, Ontario, for a two-day seminar December 9-10. The cost for this seminar is roughly twice that of either GSP or Matt Hughes (Pictures), but well worth it to spend time on the mat with “The Prodigy.” Also in attendance will be B.J.’s brother, Reagann, and spectators can attend for $15.
Matt Hughes (Pictures) seminar
Along with Joe Doerksen (Pictures), Matt will be a guest referee at the SUAF card (see more below) in Vernon, BC. While he’s there he’ll visit one of the six Canadian Miletich Fighting Systems (MFS) affiliates — Proving Grounds Combat Club — to give a one-day seminar on Saturday December 2.
I’d like to share with you an excerpt from Matt Hughes (Pictures)’ blog on his official website:
Monday, November 27, 2006
The amount of support I am getting from this loss is just overwhelming. I'm getting a lot of mail and just a lot of support and positive feedback as far as the rematch goes. I also really appreciate all the support I am getting from fans in Canada. I'm headed to Vernon, British Columbia in early December for an appearance and a seminar. Which is good because I get a lot of requests for appearances north of the border. I've heard that British Columbia is very nice, so I look forward to seeing it and meeting my fans there. Other than that, this week I just plan to stay home with the family and relax some more. –Matt
Classy comments Matt … I know for a fact that you have many fans up here and I wish you all the best.
John Alessio (Pictures) training opportunity
UFC, PRIDE, TKO, WEC and KOTC veteran, “The Natural” John Alessio (Pictures) will spend close to a month on Vancouver Island at Duncan Mixed Martial Arts. He’ll be giving one-on-one lessons for only $30 CDN an hour. John has the reputation of an incredible work ethic, and he has trained and fought with some of the best. If you’re interested, check out some of the pictures of him on Billy Rush’s Web site.
Upcoming events
The ECC promotion, based out of Halifax, Nova Scotia, will be holding the fourth edition of their popular Maritime show this weekend. This is the event that first got me involved with Sherdog and I’m already getting excited. I’m not going to talk about it here, as you can read my preview article on the front page now.
ECC President Rob Walker tells me that a cage-side table has been offered for Georges St. Pierre (Pictures) to use. GSP will be giving a seminar (see above) in Truro, which is an hour’s drive away. It is not known at this time if Georges will accept or be in attendance.
The small British Columbia city of Vernon will be playing host to Shut Up and Fight, a card targeted specifically towards fighters with little or no experience. There are seven fights scheduled, with “El Dirte” Joe Doerksen (Pictures) guest referee for the first three, and former UFC welterweight champion Matt Hughes (Pictures) taking over the duties for the last four.
The upstart BodogFight promotion started by Canadian billionaire Calvin Ayre shows a surprising sense of irony when it has its U.S.A. vs. Russia card in Canada on Saturday night. The title fight pits Eddie Alvarez (Pictures) vs. Aaron Riley (Pictures), and there are some other potentially entertaining fights, including Antonio Silva (Pictures)-Eric Pele (Pictures) and Roger Gracie-Ron Waterman (Pictures). I think this is the first time that the 300-pound Silva enters a contest as the lighter of the two fighters.
Mailbag
Once again I’ve gotten a lot of feedback from loyal Sherdog readers. Probably the biggest surprise to me has been the interest shown by MMA fans not from Canada, but from around the world. As would be expected, the vast majority of the e-mails I get are from Canadians, but some of the other Countries I’ve gotten them from are the USA, England, France, Guam, Brazil, Japan and even China. It’s nice to get these e-mails and I’m glad to have this opportunity to answer your questions.
On a side note, I’m going to use my newfound power here at Sherdog to bring up one of my favorite jokes, which has nothing to do with MMA.
The most underrated late-night TV host is in my opinion, Craig Ferguson. When he tells people to email him, he tells them in a light Scottish brogue, “Email me at Craig_Ferguson@Google@the_internet.com.” I’m actually laughing at myself right now.
I encourage you faithful MM-Eh! readers to e-mail me your questions, comments, queries or concerns, at acotterill@sherdog.com
Dan Dillon from the Internet writes regarding my ID of Kru Phil Nurse inside the Octagon after GSP’s victory:
You're the first guy in the press to mention Phil. GSP was keeping his name out of interviews leading up to the fight, but I saw him training at The Wat two weeks before the fight. Phil said that GSP's been training with him for a couple years now. FYI, Phil also trains Matt Serra (Pictures) in Muay Thai. Best – Dan
Thanks Dan. This news actually takes me quite by surprise. I like to think I have a pretty good ear close to the ground, and if Georges has been training at the Wat for years, I think that was a pretty well kept secret. I wonder what else he has up his sleeve?
Hello, I don't have anything to say, just that I read the article and like the Canadian perspective. I'm in Vancouver. – Jim P.
Hi Jim, You’re the strong, silent type, aren’t you? How’s the snow out there? Kind of backwards that Vancouver is having its first snow in years, and I’m here in Halifax and the forecast is 16 Celsius tomorrow.
Hi Andy, love your new column! I'm a huge MMA fan (all because of Tito on TSN 4 years ago!!) and Canadian … so your column is a good fit for all us Canucks.
Will you be covering Extreme Cage Combat in Halifax next weekend (Dec 2nd)? If so, keep your eye open for the young protégé of Frank Shamrock (Pictures) — Dave "Shoulders" MacMillan (an Ottawa Valley boy). He's a last-minute add to the undercard. Hope you'll be there!!
Keep up the good work and I look forward to reading your brilliant prose weekly. Yours truly – Katherine S.
A real live girl! Thanks for the kind words Katherine. If I remember correctly, Tito was on TSN (for non-Canadian fans, TSN is the Canadian version of ESPN) as the coach for the American side in Freedom Fight “Canada vs. USA.” That was a pretty solid card despite the Joslin-Fitch fiasco.
Yes I’ll be covering ECC4 for Sherdog. Dave is an Ottawa Valley boy eh? So is my cousin Paul, who’s a police officer for Ottawa and is tougher than heck himself. Keep your eyes peeled to Dave’s FightFinder page on Sherdog after ECC is over and I’ll have his picture up.
Tompkins headed for California
Advertisement
Shawn confirmed that he would be taking over the position of head striking coach for Dan Henderson (Pictures)’s new Team Quest location in Temecula, Calif.
Unfortunately our conversation was cut short, as he’s very busy
preparing Mark Hominick
(Pictures) for his bout against
Douglas Edwards at “Ring of Fire” 27 on December 9.
Recent events recap
This past weekend saw King of the Cage stage an event in the Albertan Provincial capital of Edmonton. KOTC, a very well established promotion that started out in the U.S. in 1999, expanded into Canada in 2005 and is approaching its 100th event.
The featured main event on this card saw “Warpath” Ruben Villareal (Pictures) defeat Wade Hamilton by knockout. Of interest, this card also featured Danny Valimaki, whose brother Victor Valimaki is the MFC light heavyweight champion, and will be making his UFC debut against David Heath (Pictures) December 13, live on Spike TV.
Sherdog.com will be releasing an in-depth interview with Victor prior to his appearance at the UFN.
The Maximum Fighting Championship is undoubtedly the more established promotion in Edmonton, and has a well-known policy of not using fighters who perform in any other local promotions, with the consequence of not being selected for subsequent MFC shows. It will be interesting to see if appearance of the brother of one of their champions in a KOTC card will affect that rule.
Rumble in the Cage is another great promotion based in Alberta, Lethbridge to be exact. Lee Mein (Pictures), owner of the Lethbridge-based Canadian Martial Arts Centre, has been steadily building a stable of tough, quality fighters who have been actively seeking fights wherever they can, including the ECC, MFC and KOTC promotions.
This past Saturday RITC had a very busy fight card with 15 fights, 11 of which were amateur. The CMAC provided 10 fighters, with the remainder coming from the Western Provinces.
All accounts report this event as being a barnburner that gave the fans everything they wanted.
Little known fact
Want to meet your favorite fighter? One thing about professional fighters that might not be known to the casual fan is that many of them spend some of their off time going to different gyms to give seminars.
These seminars typically run one to two days and are generally very affordable. They give fight fans an opportunity to get very up close and personal with the fighters, and also give fighters in training an opportunity to learn valuable techniques from some of the very best.
Denis Kang (Pictures) seminar
This past weekend the city of Vancouver saw one of its favorite sons return to impart some of his knowledge to lucky MMA practitioners. Before he moved to Florida and joined American Top Team, Kang was a student of Marcus Soares in Vancouver. Unfortunately I didn’t get this information in time to pass it along to Sherdog readers before it happened, but if any of you attended I’d love you to send me an e-mail and tell me all about it.
Georges St. Pierre (Pictures) seminar
The newly crowned UFC welterweight champion, Georges St. Pierre (Pictures), will be in Truro, Nova Scotia, on the 2nd and 3rd of December to give his first seminar since capturing the belt.
Gerald Tobin, who’s running the seminar, said that the 75-person limit is full, and no spectators will be permitted. Mr. Tobin said when seeking a fighter to bring in, St. Pierre seemed like the logical choice.
“He’s always been very respectful and a class act, and his skills are very well rounded,” Tobin explained. “We look forward to showing him some Maritime hospitality.”
GSP was booked several months ago, and Mr. Tobin says that it’s pure serendipity that he is now champion. The Monday following the seminar, Georges will travel to Aruba for a well-deserved vacation.
On a side note, in the last MM-Eh! I mentioned that GSP had donated the shorts he wore at UFC 65 to the Ryan Bennett Memorial Fund. Bidding on eBay ended Tuesday at $5,200 USD. Big thumbs up to Georges!
B.J. Penn (Pictures) seminar
Pound for Pound announced that B.J. Penn (Pictures) will be at the Kombat Arts Training Academy in Mississauga, Ontario, for a two-day seminar December 9-10. The cost for this seminar is roughly twice that of either GSP or Matt Hughes (Pictures), but well worth it to spend time on the mat with “The Prodigy.” Also in attendance will be B.J.’s brother, Reagann, and spectators can attend for $15.
Matt Hughes (Pictures) seminar
Along with Joe Doerksen (Pictures), Matt will be a guest referee at the SUAF card (see more below) in Vernon, BC. While he’s there he’ll visit one of the six Canadian Miletich Fighting Systems (MFS) affiliates — Proving Grounds Combat Club — to give a one-day seminar on Saturday December 2.
I’d like to share with you an excerpt from Matt Hughes (Pictures)’ blog on his official website:
Monday, November 27, 2006
The amount of support I am getting from this loss is just overwhelming. I'm getting a lot of mail and just a lot of support and positive feedback as far as the rematch goes. I also really appreciate all the support I am getting from fans in Canada. I'm headed to Vernon, British Columbia in early December for an appearance and a seminar. Which is good because I get a lot of requests for appearances north of the border. I've heard that British Columbia is very nice, so I look forward to seeing it and meeting my fans there. Other than that, this week I just plan to stay home with the family and relax some more. –Matt
Classy comments Matt … I know for a fact that you have many fans up here and I wish you all the best.
John Alessio (Pictures) training opportunity
UFC, PRIDE, TKO, WEC and KOTC veteran, “The Natural” John Alessio (Pictures) will spend close to a month on Vancouver Island at Duncan Mixed Martial Arts. He’ll be giving one-on-one lessons for only $30 CDN an hour. John has the reputation of an incredible work ethic, and he has trained and fought with some of the best. If you’re interested, check out some of the pictures of him on Billy Rush’s Web site.
Upcoming events
The ECC promotion, based out of Halifax, Nova Scotia, will be holding the fourth edition of their popular Maritime show this weekend. This is the event that first got me involved with Sherdog and I’m already getting excited. I’m not going to talk about it here, as you can read my preview article on the front page now.
ECC President Rob Walker tells me that a cage-side table has been offered for Georges St. Pierre (Pictures) to use. GSP will be giving a seminar (see above) in Truro, which is an hour’s drive away. It is not known at this time if Georges will accept or be in attendance.
The small British Columbia city of Vernon will be playing host to Shut Up and Fight, a card targeted specifically towards fighters with little or no experience. There are seven fights scheduled, with “El Dirte” Joe Doerksen (Pictures) guest referee for the first three, and former UFC welterweight champion Matt Hughes (Pictures) taking over the duties for the last four.
The upstart BodogFight promotion started by Canadian billionaire Calvin Ayre shows a surprising sense of irony when it has its U.S.A. vs. Russia card in Canada on Saturday night. The title fight pits Eddie Alvarez (Pictures) vs. Aaron Riley (Pictures), and there are some other potentially entertaining fights, including Antonio Silva (Pictures)-Eric Pele (Pictures) and Roger Gracie-Ron Waterman (Pictures). I think this is the first time that the 300-pound Silva enters a contest as the lighter of the two fighters.
Mailbag
Once again I’ve gotten a lot of feedback from loyal Sherdog readers. Probably the biggest surprise to me has been the interest shown by MMA fans not from Canada, but from around the world. As would be expected, the vast majority of the e-mails I get are from Canadians, but some of the other Countries I’ve gotten them from are the USA, England, France, Guam, Brazil, Japan and even China. It’s nice to get these e-mails and I’m glad to have this opportunity to answer your questions.
On a side note, I’m going to use my newfound power here at Sherdog to bring up one of my favorite jokes, which has nothing to do with MMA.
The most underrated late-night TV host is in my opinion, Craig Ferguson. When he tells people to email him, he tells them in a light Scottish brogue, “Email me at Craig_Ferguson@Google@the_internet.com.” I’m actually laughing at myself right now.
I encourage you faithful MM-Eh! readers to e-mail me your questions, comments, queries or concerns, at acotterill@sherdog.com
Dan Dillon from the Internet writes regarding my ID of Kru Phil Nurse inside the Octagon after GSP’s victory:
You're the first guy in the press to mention Phil. GSP was keeping his name out of interviews leading up to the fight, but I saw him training at The Wat two weeks before the fight. Phil said that GSP's been training with him for a couple years now. FYI, Phil also trains Matt Serra (Pictures) in Muay Thai. Best – Dan
Thanks Dan. This news actually takes me quite by surprise. I like to think I have a pretty good ear close to the ground, and if Georges has been training at the Wat for years, I think that was a pretty well kept secret. I wonder what else he has up his sleeve?
Hello, I don't have anything to say, just that I read the article and like the Canadian perspective. I'm in Vancouver. – Jim P.
Hi Jim, You’re the strong, silent type, aren’t you? How’s the snow out there? Kind of backwards that Vancouver is having its first snow in years, and I’m here in Halifax and the forecast is 16 Celsius tomorrow.
Hi Andy, love your new column! I'm a huge MMA fan (all because of Tito on TSN 4 years ago!!) and Canadian … so your column is a good fit for all us Canucks.
Will you be covering Extreme Cage Combat in Halifax next weekend (Dec 2nd)? If so, keep your eye open for the young protégé of Frank Shamrock (Pictures) — Dave "Shoulders" MacMillan (an Ottawa Valley boy). He's a last-minute add to the undercard. Hope you'll be there!!
Keep up the good work and I look forward to reading your brilliant prose weekly. Yours truly – Katherine S.
A real live girl! Thanks for the kind words Katherine. If I remember correctly, Tito was on TSN (for non-Canadian fans, TSN is the Canadian version of ESPN) as the coach for the American side in Freedom Fight “Canada vs. USA.” That was a pretty solid card despite the Joslin-Fitch fiasco.
Yes I’ll be covering ECC4 for Sherdog. Dave is an Ottawa Valley boy eh? So is my cousin Paul, who’s a police officer for Ottawa and is tougher than heck himself. Keep your eyes peeled to Dave’s FightFinder page on Sherdog after ECC is over and I’ll have his picture up.
