CLAN WARS 3
Last August I reported on Clan Wars 2 and was overly impressed by the display of MMA I witnessed that night. The next in the series, Clan Wars 3, on the 12th Feb 2010 at the new Sense Nightclub at the Glenavon House Hotel in Cookstown, Co. Tyrone, certainly had a lot to live up to.
I knew Clan Wars 3 was going to be an improvement to the last show and speaking to Paul Mc Laughlin and Chris Tweed the Clan Wars promoters I knew they had put in a lot of time and effort into planning. Yet again the Clan Wars team comes up trumps on the professionalism and quality of the show, it’s no wonder they are getting the recognition with many of the top flight UK MMA magazines and have guys from all over Europe looking to get involved with this top event.
I will firstly start on the venue. The Glenavon House Hotel has done a great job on the refurbishment of the old nightclub. They have opened two levels and installed a top of the range sound and lighting system and have fully modernized the club. The new open levels makes the nightclub a perfect venue for MMA event as it has a cauldron effect with spectators looking onto the cage watching the competitors do battle. The venue have also installed a large state of the art LED screen over the dance floor which had a live mix from the four video cameras positioned around the cage operated by the professional P4TV filming crew who where flown in from England to record the show for the airing on LA muscle TV, sky Channel 281 where you will see some of the best MMA events on their Monday and Thursday Fight Night features from 9pm.
The large screen and professional mixing looked fantastic coupled with the fighters walk way which had the walk in arch, lights, smokes machines and flame effect blowers which wouldn’t have looked out of place on any of the bigger shows in the USA, the quality and small details Clan Wars put into their shows is what makes the show so special and its no surprise they have been approached by some of the UK’s top MMA magazines and fighters from all over Europe looking to compete at the show.
As well as the filming crew the Clan Wars promoters invited over the UK’s leading sports photography team Fighterpics headed by Sean Keating. Sean spends most of his time traveling to shows up and down the country covering the professional photo shoots for some of the UK ’s biggest events. He has also been to America to cover shows in Madison Square Gardens, MGM Arena and many of the UFC shows. He is freshly home from his tour with no other than Mike Tyson to whom he was doing the photography for in November 2009. I got a chance at the show to speak to Sean and ask him what he thought of the show, he replied ‘Marc to be honest I am speechless about the high standard I have witnessed here tonight, I have covered hundreds of MMA, Boxing and Muay Thai events in my time but this is one of the best shows I have ever had the privilege of working on, very few shows leave me gob smacked or lost for words but these guys have put on a hell of a show! From the excellently matched fights to the productions value and to the down to earth attitude of the promoters these guys are going to go far!” This is a huge complement for the Clan Wars team coming from one of the most respected figures in the UK’s MMA / Muay Thai /Boxing scene!
The fights themselves where fantastic, it was good to see some of the amateurs getting a run out at the start of the night to get the chance to fight in front of a capacity crowd. The headline Amateur fight was for the featherweight ISKA Amateur Irish Title between Joe Fry from the IFS gym in Antrim and Ryan Martin from the IMMA gym in Ballymena run by Rodney Moore. Ryan had done his homework and knew Joe was a fast submission fighter so tied the fight up well, Joe was unable to show his submission skills but put his Judo and wrestling to good use by controlling the fight in a dominant position and racking up the points with striking from side control.
Also invited as special guests to the show was the multiple BJJ World Champion Leo Negao and head instructor of the Urban Krav Maga street defence system and Senior BCA instructor Stewart Mc Gill. Leo and Stewart were called to the cage to present the title belt to Joe Fry with a load eruption of applause and cheering, the fans definitely appreciated the achievements of these two Martial Artists.
The C-class fights seen a step up in action with some excellent battles that went back and forward with excellent displays of well rounded MMA from good striking to great submissions.
After the C-class fights it was the chance for the Pro fighters to step up to the cage and show their skills, the Pro fighters were fighting with full pro rules which includes elbows on the ground. The first fight was the semi-final for the welterweight title between Richard Gorey from Kilkenny Top Pro and Mike Reid from Gracie Barra in Belfast. Richard Gorey was the favorite for this fight and probably the favorite to take the ISKA Pro Welterweight title with a perfect 4-0 record. This fight turned out to be fight of the night with it going back and forward with both striking and grappling, Mike Reid pulled off one of the best armbar reversals seen in a long time and managed to get back to his feet. This was a true battle although in the end Mike was able to capitalize from the mount and finish Gorey with Ground and pound!
The second semi-finals was between Mervyn Muholland from Juku Ryu Ju Jitsu in Larne against Mark Gibson from Elite 400 in Craigavon. This fight had all the markings for another war with the two fighters well up for it. The fight started with a flying knee from Mervyn to which Mark was able to dodge and secure a good takedown. Mark is a well-conditioned fighter and has strong wrestling but Mervyn is a strong grappler with slick submissions and caught Mark In an armbar to secure his place in the welterweight finals.
The final bout of the night seen the rematch between light weight fighters Alan Hannon from Combat Sports Centre Limerick against Darren Hughes from Sudden Impact in Magherafelt, this was a rematch for these two lads after a previous war a few years ago so both fighters were hungry for the win. This fight lived up to expectations also with it going back and forward with some awesome striking and ground skills, both guys were battered and bruised by the end of the contest. Darren Hughes hailed victor with a unanimous decision.
I mentioned before in the Clan Wars 2 report about the professionalism and high quality of the shows and asked Paul Mc Laughlin about this to which he replied “ We want to provide a professionally run event to promote Irish and UK MMA. We wanted to take it a step further and offer the highest standards in safety and quality, which we found through the ISKA. The ISKA have been doing Martial Arts events for decades and are world recognized. They have extremely tight health and safety regulations put in place for the safety of the fighters and for the quality of their shows – this is the major factor that made us want to work along with the ISKA and the partnership has been working fantastic!’
The Clan Wars MMA event seems to have fantastic momentum and drive to keep improving and each event just keeps getting bigger and better. I’m looking forward to Clan Wars 4 already– something tells me its going to be the best so far!!
By Marc Turbitt, Daily Mirror.
15 February 2010
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