Blood, Sweat, and Cheers!
GFL 7 Dover Arena May 8th Fisette Vs. Brito
After an impressive first round TKO over Tony Woodman at GFL 6. Southern NH's Eddie Brito steps up to fight the GFL's most notorious fighter Chris "The Ego" Fisette, after a two fight Hiatus "The Ego" is back and cockier than ever looking for the win over Brito might mean more than backing up some shit talk as he looks to for his second win in row- in hopes for a rematch with Jay "Mr. Nasty" Fortier. For More info: Log onto: www.gflmma.com or call the box office for tickets at (603) 516 - 6060
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'Strikeforce: Heavyweight Grand Prix Final' results: Cormier downs Barnett for tourney win
SAN JOSE, Calif. - Daniel Cormier is no Steve Jennum.An alternate to begin Strikeforce's ambitious heavyweight grand prix, Cormier on Saturday completed his unforeseen run to a tournament win with a one-sided shellacking of Josh Barnett.
And unlike the infamous winner of UFC 3, Cormier's wins over Barnett, Antonio Silva, Jeff Monson and Devin Cole left little doubt as to his validity as a tourney champion.
'Strikeforce: Heavyweight Grand Prix Final' results: Gilbert Melendez survives Josh Thomson
SAN JOSE, Calif. - It may not find itself as one of the most historic
trilogies in MMA lore, but Gilbert Melendez and Josh Thomson
certainly provided one of the more entertaining 15-round matchups in
recent memory.But in a best-of-three series, there must always be a winner, and Strikeforce lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez on Saturday earned that honor by topping Josh Thomson via split decision.
The lightweight title bout, which took place at HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif., aired on Showtime and served as the co-main event of the "Strikeforce: Heavyweight Grand Prix Final."
'Strikeforce: Heavyweight Grand Prix Final' results: 'Feijao' taps Kyle in 33 seconds
SAN JOSE, Calif. - Maybe it was a fluke.Former Strikeforce light heavyweight champion Rafael "Feijao" Cavalcante needed just 33 seconds to earn a submission win over the man that beat him in 2009, Mike Kyle.
The bout, which took place Saturday at HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif., aired on Showtime and served as the second of four "Strikeforce: Heavyweight Grand Prix Finale" main-card matchups.
'Strikeforce: Heavyweight Grand Prix Final' results: Spang stops Burrell in first
SAN JOSE, Calif. - Prospect Chris Spang on Saturday made a mark on Strikeforce's
welterweight division, earning an impressive first-round stoppage of
Nah-Shon Burrell.The bout, which took place Saturday at HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif., aired on Showtime and served as the first of four "Strikeforce: Heavyweight Grand Prix Final" main-card matchups.
The action followed the evening's preliminary card, which aired on Showtime Extreme.
'Strikeforce: Heavyweight Grand Prix Final' results: Vallie-Flagg earns split over Cavalcante
SAN JOSE, Calif. - Gesias "JZ" Cavalcante looked in vintage form to open
his Saturday bout with Isaac Vallie-Flagg, but it was the Greg Jackson product
who used a strong final 10 minutes to earn a decision win.The bout, which took place at HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif., aired on Showtime Extreme and served as the featured "Strikeforce: Heavyweight Grand Prix Final" preliminary matchup.
The four-bout preliminary broadcast preceded the evening's main card, which aired on Showtime.
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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