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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."
Comment by Joseph Anthony Wenckus III on March 3, 2010 at 11:47am 
Comment by Willmann R. on February 4, 2010 at 7:15pm 
Comment by Justin Marcotte on August 23, 2009 at 7:23pm 
Comment by aaron p keller on August 19, 2009 at 4:23pm 
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