Global Fight League

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GFL premieres new reality show, 'I Wanna Be a Global Fighter' By Evan Mugford Staff writer AMESBURY — It may not look like much from the outside, but there is a storm brewing within 77 Elm St.'s Old Mill warehouse. The newest venture for Amesbury native Scott Millette's mixed martial arts brainchild, the Global Fight League, is his most novel and exciting idea yet: reality programming. After a pair of meet and greets at the Mad River Tavern in Amesbury and Jillian's Billiards Club in Manchester, N.H., where nearly 100 MMA fans gathered, Millette and his crew handpicked a gang of 10 average joes with aspirations to train and eventually fight within a legitimate MMA contest. The reason for the casting calls is the GFL's latest endeavor, "I Wanna Be a Global Fighter." The format for the show, which is pending considering an assortment of twists Millette is promising, is a six-week MMA training regimen between two teams of five — Team Guy Chase and Team Seacoast. After an assortment of elimination episodes, the teams will be skimmed down to a single remaining fighter from each team, and then be given the chance to fight on the upcoming GFL 4 fight card on Sept. 19. Each team will be training four times a week: once under the lights and camera (three-hour session), the other three times at their home team's gym. The home gyms in question are held by the two supporting MMA camps that were brought in to help get the 10 participants into fighting shape. Team Guy Chase, of the Guy Chase Academy of Martial Arts in Greenland, N.H., is made up of Guy Chase, Aldo Batista and guest trainer Chris Fisette. Team Seacoast, of the Seacoast Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) and MMA, is comprised of Troy Pickering, Adam Rivera, Keith Walsh and guest trainer Trevor Stone. Seacoast trainer and co-owner, Northwood, N.H.'s Pickering, a 32-year-old police officer with an extensive martial arts background in catch wrestling and Pancrase fighting, believes his team of trainers will serve his five fighters well. "Each of the instructors offers something different," said Pickering. "Keith Walsh is probably the best muay thai specialist I have ever trained with; Adam Rivera is a great MMA fighter with strong striking skills, and I am a former Pancrase fighter with a focus on submissions — so each of us brings something different to the table. "Our goal is to figure out what their strengths are and focus on what they need to improve upon," said Pickering, who currently trains four MMA fighters: Cody Lightfoot, Dan Curry, Trevor Stone and Bob Caverly. "We don't have enough time to turn them into well-rounded fighters, but the idea is to accentuate their strengths and minimize their weaknesses, and hopefully, we come out on top." The episodes will eventually be aired on two Web sites: gflmma.com and bostonbrawler.com. The training episodes will last 22 minutes, whereas elimination episodes — where contestants will fight — will be doubled to 44 minutes. The GFL set, alongside its cast of trainers, producers and crew, is highly impressive. The gym is an MMA spectacle of vibrant colors, old and upcoming promos, punching bags, shelved Tokkyo Nutrition supplements (the GFL's official sponsor) and the exact 24-foot GFL caged ring that is featured in their local events. Team Seacoast was on hand last night for their initial training session, and each of the participants, palms sweaty and adrenaline flowing, was eager to begin what they all coined "a once in a lifetime experience." An intern doing design work as a mechanical engineer, 22-year-old Joe Leverone, a Rumney, N.H., native, is a hockey player who has always enjoyed the thrill of contact sports. "I've always seen it, and I thought, "Wow, I could do that,'" said Leverone, who initially heard about the show on the radio, "and when this opportunity came up, I just figured that this could be my chance." Employed for a collection agency, 27-year-old Metheun native Juan Guillermo Maldonado has wrestling experience throughout the Greater Lawrence area, and has always fancied himself an MMA fan. "My friend told me it was a great opportunity, and I've always wanted to try my hand at this," said Maldonado. "I've been to the past two GFLs and I thought they were great. When I heard about this and how they were going to train you, it seemed like I couldn't pass it up." A landscaper under Salisbury's Dan Greene — the head trainer for the Cagestrikers — 25-year-old Hampton, N.H., resident Justin Wear, father to 18-month-old Molly, was struggling to find time to train in MMA. "I've been around the GFL and its fighters for a little bit now, and though I've never had the opportunity to get in shape and actually train because of my young daughter and my girlfriend's work schedule," said Wear, who wrestled at Ithaca College and has served as an assistant coach at Philips-Exeter Academy for the past two years, "the seas have kind of parted and things have aligned. I'm just glad that they liked me enough to give me the opportunity." A full-time student at the University of New Hampshire-Manchester (a health science major) and an active reserve in the United States Marine Corps, 29-year-old Manchester, N.H., resident Aaron Keller believes he has the necessary background to become a successful MMA fighter. "I have a slight background in martial arts thanks to the Marine Corps, but really, I just figured it was an opportunity of a lifetime, so I took it," said Keller, who played hockey at the National Sports Academy and at Plymouth State University. "I always wanted to get into something cool like this. One of my platoon commanders who I was in Iraq with is in the Ultimate Fighting Championship right now, Brian Stann." Haverhill resident, 28-year-old Kevin Teague, is a bridge construction worker who is unsure whether his physically draining job will couple well with his newest endeavor. "It's kind of nerve-racking. I'm killing myself all day with a jackhammer and then coming here to train, but hey, it's a once in a lifetime experience. Gotta live it up," said Teague, who boxed and wrestled when he was young, and did some Marine combat training with the Coast Guard. "I'm here because I want to prove to myself that I can do it. You watch these guys make it look so easy, but you don't see behind the scenes and how hard they actually work at it. So I'd like to put myself in that situation to see if I have what it takes to train, and then go on and fight someone." Millette's debut within the booming world of MMA has already presented a trio of successful shows, but his latest outing, he explained, is something he's always wanted to do. "For me, as far as the GFL is concerned, this is my dream; we're living it now," he said. "We started off doing events, and we're excited about those, and the last event was probably one of the proudest nights of my life. But something that I've always wanted to do was to produce a television show, and MMA and the GFL have given me the perfect platform." Millette hopes that, akin to the UFC's Spike television show, the GFL may uncover a diamond in the rough. "What I hope to get from this is to find new athletes and individuals that are ready to be the next great MMA fighter," said Millette. "We're giving guys that opportunity to be the next Forrest Griffin or Stephan Bonnar, and that's what we're all hoping for."

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UFC NEWS

Official UFC 106 Weigh-In Results

Click below for the official weigh-in results for Saturday's UFC 106 event. UFC 106, which is headlined by the light heavyweight rematch between Tito Ortiz and Forrest Griffin and the welterweight showdown between Anthony Johnson and Josh Koscheck airs live on pay-per-view from the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas beginning at 10pm ET / 7pm PT. Fans can also tune in to Spike TV at 9pm ET / 6pm PT to see live UFC 106 preliminary bouts.

Tito Ortiz New Beginning

Thomas Gerbasi, UFC - The UFC 59 fight poster read "Reality Check", and for five minutes, it certainly was for Forrest Griffin, who was battered for much of the opening stanza of his 2006 bout on the card by a man who had reigned over the light heavyweight division longer than anyone else in UFC history, Tito Ortiz.

Forrest Griffin The Quest to Get That Winning Feeling Back

Thomas Gerbasi, UFC - "Where's Forrest?" Missing in action for a few days last month, Forrest Griffin was suddenly a wanted man when Mark Coleman got injured and was forced to withdraw from his UFC 106 bout with Tito Ortiz. But the former UFC light heavyweight champion was nowhere to be found.

Parisyan is out of UFC 106; Bout with Hazelett Off

Karo Parisyan is out of Saturday's UFC 106 event at the Mandalay Bay Events Center. His bout with Dustin Hazelett has been canceled.

Kos and Effect

Mike Russell, UFC - If confidence were currency, Josh Koscheck would be Donald Trump and if the 31-year-old's worth is as high as he feels it is, he believes a win over highly-touted knockout artist Anthony "Rumble" Johnson at UFC 106 November 24 could very well outbid all potential UFC welterweight title shot claimants.

The best bartender/mattress salesman/rock star/cage fighter in Portsmouth

Meet Cyrus Clark, an undefeated mixed martial arts champion ... after one fight

Cyrus Clark is not a fighter.

Sure, he's had a few scraps in his life (10 by his count). But he claims he's never started one. And with his laid-back, skater-dude demeanor, he's the last guy you'd expect to see throwing down.But there he was earlier this year, moments before his mixed martial arts debut, hopping up and down like a madman, ready to rip his opponent's head off.

"It was pretty sudden for all of us," said Ted Roberts, Clark's friend from Portsmouth High School. "He wasn't a wimp, but he wasn't the kind of guy going around picking fights."

"Starting his career at 32, I think, was pretty funny," said Jay Krecklow, another longtime friend.

Clark, a lifelong Portsmouth resident and drummer for the band The Han Solos, used to watch mixed martial arts on TV at the Daniel Street Tavern, where he has bartended for the past 2½ years. But it wasn't until he and Krecklow attended a fight at the Ioka Theater in Exeter last year that he came up with his crazy idea.

"Immediately after that, that's all I kept talking about — how I wanted to do it," Clark said. "I had watched UFC, but then once I saw it in real life, it was way better, and I wanted to do it."

So Clark got a hold of Scott Millette of Hampton, who runs the 8-month-old Global Fight League, and told him he wanted to fight at the group's February show at the Capitol Center in Concord .

"He was like, 'No, no, the card's lined up,' and there was really no room for me." Then, suddenly, there was an opening. One of the fighters scheduled for the show had to pull out after losing by technical knockout in another fight.

Millette called Clark. "Here's your chance," he said.

As they approach their mid-30s, it's not unusual for men to try out extreme activities like sky diving or bungee jumping in an attempt to cling to their fading youth. But that's not Clark. He did it for the fun of it, and because, as his friend Roberts noted, it would give him a great story to tell to every girl he meets.

But in order to have a story to tell, Clark had to win the fight. And it wasn't going to be easy, as he only had two weeks to get ready, and no experience as an MMA fighter. He scarcely had time to get the required medical paperwork together, let alone train.

Cyrus had worked briefly as a bouncer, but dealing with drunks isn't much of a challenge.

("It's like handling a 6 year old," he said.) Other than that, his only physical training was running regularly, and carting around mattresses for his day job at National Discount Mattress on Islington Street.

What he did have, though, is a lot of what his friend Krecklow calls "pent-up aggression." And some experience getting beaten up as a kid by his older brother.

To get Clark ready for the fight, Millette took him to a gym in Haverhill, Mass.

"They beat the crap out of Cyrus for three weeks," Millette said.

"He gave me a crash course in stand-up boxing," Clark said. This entailed how to stand, where to hold his hands, and how to protect himself. "There's definitely an art to that."

When Clark broke a rib sparring just four days before his fight, he kept his mouth shut, afraid he might lose his chance to fight.

"I didn't realize at first I had broken a rib," he said. "Then it started to hurt. I definitely knew I was still gonna fight, though. I wanted to bad enough. I was afraid I wouldn't get another chance." For his corner team, Clark hooked up with Team Burgess at the weigh-in on Friday, the night before the fight. Then he worked his regular shift at the mattress store.

Saturday morning, a few hours before the bout, Team Burgess gave him his game plan for the fight. That helped him stay calm. It also helped that he had experience playing in a band.

"I know what it's like stepping out onto the stage," he said. "It was just a different event." The night of the fight, a group of friends showed up to support Clark.

"He was pretty pumped up," said Jason Stiles, his boss at the Daniel Street Tavern. "He was in the zone. He walked right past us." Physically, Clark seemed to match up pretty well against his opponent — at 6 feet tall, he had a 3-inch height advantage, and they both weighed in the neighborhood of 175 pounds.

Still, "Me and pretty much the rest of my friends all thought he was going to get his a** kicked," Roberts said.

When the fight started, it flashed through Clark's mind that he was going to have to try to kill the other guy, or be killed himself.

His plan had been to box, but the punches he was throwing kept missing. His opponent, on the other hand, had little difficulty landing a number of strong punches. Eventually, Clark grabbed the guy around the waist and pulled him to the ground.

Once on the mat, Clark managed to get his opponent in a full nelson. His cornermen started screaming, "Choke him out, baby" — a legal MMA move in which one fighter wraps his arm around the other's throat and chokes him into submission.

A minute and 20 seconds into the fight, Clark's opponent tapped-out, signaling that he was giving up.

Clark leapt into the air. As the referee raised his hands in victory, he pointed to his supporters in the crowd.

Despite his easy win, Clark said he has no plans to fight again.

"I'm already working 55 hours a week," he pointed out. "To really do MMA, you need to give 20 to 40 hours a week. There's no way. I'm officially retired, undefeated." Millette said he'd love to see Clark fight again. In fact, the GFL is building a new campaign, "So you want to be a Global Fighter?" around Clark's sudden success.

Still, Millette figures it's unlikely that he'll lure Clark back into the ring.

"He just wanted to do it once," he said. "He pretty much likened it to the top three experiences in his life, next to losing his virginity — he couldn't think of the third one."


By Marc Fortier

May 03, 2009 6:00 AM


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