News and Notes from Canada
Andy Cotterill Sep 3, 2007
Maximum Fighting Championship president Mark Pavelich took time
from his schedule to fill in Sherdog.com on the latest happenings
from his Edmonton-based organization.
Pavelich said his most recent event, MFC 13, was not only a complete sell-out of the River Cree Resort and Casino, but that they had to turn away 1,000 fans at the door. This especially excited him as this card was, as he put it, "pure MMA" with no professional football players on the card.
MFC 13 saw Halifax's Roger
Hollett (Pictures) take the organization's light
heavyweight championship from Victor Valimaki (Pictures).
"I'm extremely proud that Roger Hollett (Pictures) is my light heavyweight champion," said Pavelich. "I've been telling every body, Roger is the best fighter on the planet at 205 that's not fought in the UFC."
"He has an enormous amount of talent, but the problem with Victor always has been that he decides when he wants to train, and he decides when he wants to do things," said the promoter. "I've lost that loving feeling, and that was prior to the fight with Roger Hollett (Pictures), so it's not like I'm jumping off the bandwagon. He trained hard for this fight, but not like you would train to get ready for a title defense, especially against a caliber guy like Roger Hollett (Pictures)."
When asked about where Valimaki stands now with Pavelich's Pro Camp Sports Management, he replied, "What's his status? I don't know. We're going to sit down and revaluate stuff, but I really have zero interest anymore to have him in any training camps with us -- I'm really disinterested."
Pavelich then spoke about some of his other Pro Camp fighters: Ryan Ford, Jason MacDonald (Pictures), and Ryan McGillivray.
Ford, whom Pavelich calls a 170-pound Quinton Jackson (Pictures), is coming off a nice TKO win over Randy Valette at MFC 13, and he'll be making the trip east to Halifax to fight in the next ECC on Oct. 20.
Before he gets there however, Jason MacDonald (Pictures) will have come and gone, as he'll be holding his pre-UFC 77 training camp at Roger Hollett (Pictures)'s home club, Titans BJJ & Muay Thai.
"The Athlete" fights Yushin Okami (Pictures) Oct. 20 in Cincinnati.
Although he felt his first defeat against Carlos Condit (Pictures) training partner Donald Sanchez (Pictures), Ryan McGillivray is still doing alright according to Pavelich.
"He's extremely disappointed. He took it so hard losing that fight, and that's how I want my fighters to take it. I want them to take it like death. I want them to cry. I want them to roll around on the floor, and get back in there and pound the shit out of the next guy they fight. That's what's going to happen with Ryan McGillivray, I'm not really worried about his character at all."
Finally, Pavelich commented that his planned MFC event in Vancouver this fall has to be delayed due to the civic strike that has been ongoing since July.
Jason Mackay eager for Absolute Fighting Championship
As holder of the Extreme Cage Combat lightweight belt Jason MacKay (Pictures) knows what it takes to fight in a cage. But these days the native of Pictou County, Nova Scotia is trying on a different hat -- promoter for the Absolute Fighting Championship, set for Sept. 15 in the Trenton Arena in Trenton, Nova Scotia.
MacKay told Sherdog.com that even though he had seen some of the background work done to get ECC up and running, he had no idea how much work actually had to be done to organize an event.
"I had no idea I was going to be going that deeply into debt," he chuckled.
MacKay said that he's hoping for between 10 and 12 fights on his inaugural card, but he likely won't be in one of them. He said that the offer had been made to quite a few potential opponents, with no acceptance.
Another reason to smile for Cote
Not only did Patrick Cote (Pictures) land a highlight reel right hook on Kendall Grove (Pictures) to garner the victory at UFC 74, but according to wrestlingobserver.com, Cote has also been awarded the Knockout of the Night award, and a $35,000 check from the UFC.
This is great news for Cote, as it now seems that his fortunes in the UFC are taking a turn for the better after starting out with an 0-4 record.
Alessio fights Brito at WEC 30
This Wednesday night on Versus British Columbia's John Alessio (Pictures) will have his fifth match in the WEC, this time against up-and-coming Brazilian Marcelo Brito (Pictures).
Alessio's last fight was an impressive submission victory over Alex Serdyukov (Pictures) just 1:17 into round one.
Kultar Gill (Pictures) out of K-1 Hero's Tourney
According to a report from the Fight Network, Vancouver's "Black Mamba," Kultar Gill (Pictures), has unfortunately sustained an injury that will prevent him from continuing to the next round of the K-1 HERO'S lightweight tournament. Gill had earned a match against Caol Uno (Pictures) by beating Hideo Tokoro (Pictures) in the opening round of their bout in July.
Bodog Fight coming soon to Canadian TV
Bodog Fight and Score Media Inc. announced that Bodog Fight will be televised on the Score Television Network on Tuesday and Thursday nights starting Sept. 4.
"We are thrilled to be partnering up with The Score," said Calvin Ayre, the billionaire founder of Bodog Entertainment.
"As a Canadian myself, I know first hand how passionate the country's fight fans are, so I am especially pleased to be able to bring them Bodog Fight from coast to coast."
The first episodes on The Score will be from Bodog Fight: Costa Rica Combat, and will include Canadians Tyler Jackson (Pictures) and Todd Gouwenberg (Pictures).
Pavelich said his most recent event, MFC 13, was not only a complete sell-out of the River Cree Resort and Casino, but that they had to turn away 1,000 fans at the door. This especially excited him as this card was, as he put it, "pure MMA" with no professional football players on the card.
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"I'm extremely proud that Roger Hollett (Pictures) is my light heavyweight champion," said Pavelich. "I've been telling every body, Roger is the best fighter on the planet at 205 that's not fought in the UFC."
However, kind words weren't in the cards for Valimaki, as Pavelich
claimed that the UFC veteran didn't train as well as he could have
for his title defense.
"He has an enormous amount of talent, but the problem with Victor always has been that he decides when he wants to train, and he decides when he wants to do things," said the promoter. "I've lost that loving feeling, and that was prior to the fight with Roger Hollett (Pictures), so it's not like I'm jumping off the bandwagon. He trained hard for this fight, but not like you would train to get ready for a title defense, especially against a caliber guy like Roger Hollett (Pictures)."
When asked about where Valimaki stands now with Pavelich's Pro Camp Sports Management, he replied, "What's his status? I don't know. We're going to sit down and revaluate stuff, but I really have zero interest anymore to have him in any training camps with us -- I'm really disinterested."
Pavelich then spoke about some of his other Pro Camp fighters: Ryan Ford, Jason MacDonald (Pictures), and Ryan McGillivray.
Ford, whom Pavelich calls a 170-pound Quinton Jackson (Pictures), is coming off a nice TKO win over Randy Valette at MFC 13, and he'll be making the trip east to Halifax to fight in the next ECC on Oct. 20.
Before he gets there however, Jason MacDonald (Pictures) will have come and gone, as he'll be holding his pre-UFC 77 training camp at Roger Hollett (Pictures)'s home club, Titans BJJ & Muay Thai.
"The Athlete" fights Yushin Okami (Pictures) Oct. 20 in Cincinnati.
Although he felt his first defeat against Carlos Condit (Pictures) training partner Donald Sanchez (Pictures), Ryan McGillivray is still doing alright according to Pavelich.
"He's extremely disappointed. He took it so hard losing that fight, and that's how I want my fighters to take it. I want them to take it like death. I want them to cry. I want them to roll around on the floor, and get back in there and pound the shit out of the next guy they fight. That's what's going to happen with Ryan McGillivray, I'm not really worried about his character at all."
Finally, Pavelich commented that his planned MFC event in Vancouver this fall has to be delayed due to the civic strike that has been ongoing since July.
Jason Mackay eager for Absolute Fighting Championship
As holder of the Extreme Cage Combat lightweight belt Jason MacKay (Pictures) knows what it takes to fight in a cage. But these days the native of Pictou County, Nova Scotia is trying on a different hat -- promoter for the Absolute Fighting Championship, set for Sept. 15 in the Trenton Arena in Trenton, Nova Scotia.
MacKay told Sherdog.com that even though he had seen some of the background work done to get ECC up and running, he had no idea how much work actually had to be done to organize an event.
"I had no idea I was going to be going that deeply into debt," he chuckled.
MacKay said that he's hoping for between 10 and 12 fights on his inaugural card, but he likely won't be in one of them. He said that the offer had been made to quite a few potential opponents, with no acceptance.
Another reason to smile for Cote
Not only did Patrick Cote (Pictures) land a highlight reel right hook on Kendall Grove (Pictures) to garner the victory at UFC 74, but according to wrestlingobserver.com, Cote has also been awarded the Knockout of the Night award, and a $35,000 check from the UFC.
This is great news for Cote, as it now seems that his fortunes in the UFC are taking a turn for the better after starting out with an 0-4 record.
Alessio fights Brito at WEC 30
This Wednesday night on Versus British Columbia's John Alessio (Pictures) will have his fifth match in the WEC, this time against up-and-coming Brazilian Marcelo Brito (Pictures).
Alessio's last fight was an impressive submission victory over Alex Serdyukov (Pictures) just 1:17 into round one.
Kultar Gill (Pictures) out of K-1 Hero's Tourney
According to a report from the Fight Network, Vancouver's "Black Mamba," Kultar Gill (Pictures), has unfortunately sustained an injury that will prevent him from continuing to the next round of the K-1 HERO'S lightweight tournament. Gill had earned a match against Caol Uno (Pictures) by beating Hideo Tokoro (Pictures) in the opening round of their bout in July.
Bodog Fight coming soon to Canadian TV
Bodog Fight and Score Media Inc. announced that Bodog Fight will be televised on the Score Television Network on Tuesday and Thursday nights starting Sept. 4.
"We are thrilled to be partnering up with The Score," said Calvin Ayre, the billionaire founder of Bodog Entertainment.
"As a Canadian myself, I know first hand how passionate the country's fight fans are, so I am especially pleased to be able to bring them Bodog Fight from coast to coast."
The first episodes on The Score will be from Bodog Fight: Costa Rica Combat, and will include Canadians Tyler Jackson (Pictures) and Todd Gouwenberg (Pictures).
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