Penticton's "King Of The Cage: Fearless" To Feature Two Title Fights and MMA Legend Dan Severn

King Of The Cage's Canadian president, Ken Kapusch, recently confirmed details about Penticton, B.C.'s upcoming King Of The Cage: Fearless scheduled for April, 24th at the South Okanagan Events Centre. Ticket information will be available soon, but the event will include two title fights and an appearance by one of the UFC's five Hall-Of-Fame inductees.

The show will be headlined by King Of The Cage Canada's newly-crowned middleweight champion, Ryan Chiappe (5-5) who trains with Langley's Revolution Fight Team. He recently earned thebelt by defeating Jason Volpe (5-3) via first-round submission at Vernon, B.C.'s KOTC: Catalyst in November, 2009. Chiappe's opponent at the Penticton show will be Jarid Bussemakers (3-2) who also holds a KOTC win over Volpe.

The co-main event will feature MMA legend Dan "The Beast" Severn (91-16-7 [pictured left]) who continues to fight regularly at over fifty-five years old, making Randy Couture look like a fresh-faced newcomer. Severn was the tournament winner at UFC 5 and has fought a virtual who's who of the sport's heavier divisions over his fifteen year career. More recently, "The Beast" has been content to fight scrappy up-and-comers like his KOTC: Fearless opponent Sam Flood (1-0), and who could blame him? With a rare opportunity to watch an original titan of the sport fight live, Okanagan MMA fans are in for a real treat come April, 24th.

In yet another featured bout, the KOTC Canada light heavyweight champion Bill "The Butcher" Mahood (17-7), a UFC veteran who runs B.C.'s Revolution Gym, will face a challenger who has not yet been named.For Mahood, who is getting up there himself at forty-three years old, this will be his first title defense since winning the belt at KOTC: Capitol Excalibur last July.

King Of The Cage Announces Main Event For Nanaimo Show

King of The Cage has confirmed for B.C. MMA Fan that the main event at Nanaimo, B.C.'s upcoming show will be Adam Gabel (1-1) vs. Darcy James (3-1). That fight, scheduled for March 12th, is a potential five-rounder that will be contested for the KOTC lightweight title, which used to belong to B.C.'s MMA golden boy Rory MacDonald (10-0, 1-0 UFC).

Regardless of the fight's outcome, the KOTC Canadian lightweight champion will soon be a British Columbia native as Adam Gabel trains at Victoria's Peterec's Kickboxing, while Darcy James trains at Impact MMA in Nanaimo.

I had the good fortune of witnessing James' most recent fight at Vernon, B.C.'s King of The Cage: Catalyst. It was a short, thrilling, back-and-forth fight in which Darcy gutted out an early armbar attempt by is opponent, Chad Bellwood. James eventually finished the fight in the first round with knees from the clinch. You can read my full review of that event right HERE.

Meanwhile, Adam Gabel should be very well-known to Nanaimo's MMA faithful. His last fight was a second-round TKO stoppage over Adzin Nedzic at last April's KOTC: Island Pride event at Nanaimo's 3000+ capacity Frank Crane Arena.

This title match between Adam Gabel and Darcy James should be one of the evening's best fights at KOTC in Nanaimo on March, 12th.

Congratulations, guys, on earning the title shot.

Of course, B.C. MMA Fan intends to be there once again to cover all the action!

KOTC Catalyst: Review

In several ways, King Of The Cage: Catalyst was a long night for Vernon B.C.'s MMA fans. The card itself, which featured thirteen fights, didn't end until nearly midnight. On top of that, local amateur fighter Tyson Veitch, who had many vocal supporters in attendance, tapped to a rear naked choke, giving CJ Bagg a second-round victory. Other amateur winners included Kamryn Winter and Cam Deleume

The professional card that followed featured a surprising number of come from behind victories, which caused a thrilling roller coaster effect that seemed to wear the crowd's nerves a bit thin.

First, after controlling much of the first round, Leif Optland was forced to quit in the second due to a cut caused by an elbow from Nanaimo's Ryan Billingal. After that, Graham Spencer, who also hails from Nanaimo, bounced back from a tough opening round to win a unanimous decision over Wesley Neil. Other notable comebacks winners included Joe Verbeetan, who locked in a second-round submission on Rakan Khatib, and Kelowna's Brendan Frost who started a bit slow, but used powerful overhand punches to crumple his opponent, Unpeet Rai, in the third round.

Alongside these unpredictable fights, Vernon's frazzled fight fans also enjoyed some of Catalyst's devastating finishes.

First,Trail B.C.'s Darcy James sent Chad Bellwood of Kamloops to the mat with some well-timed knees from the clinch. James had also impressed fans by escaping a fully-locked-in arm bar mere moments earlier. A short time later, Revolution Fight Team's Colin Daynes enjoyed a dominant first round TKO over Kelowna's Mike Reid. The finish was set up by a textbook belly-to-belly suplex. Daynes' Revolution teammate, Matt Baker, wasn't so lucky. Despite opening up an early cut on his opponent Clay Davidson, Baker succumbed to a first-round rear naked choke, set up by a barrage of strikes from back-mount. Finally, Trail's Del Melnyk stunned Brian Coldwell, as well as his numerous vocal supporters, when he finished the Westbank, B.C. brawler via K.O. in the final seconds of the second round.

That left just two fights on the card.

The night's co-main event was billed as in International Super-Fight between Brazil's Vinicius Lemos and South Korea's Chang Hyun "Arm Bar" Kim (pictured above). Both men boasted connections to major MMA stars with Lemos having trained extensively with UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva, while "Arm Bar" Kim is a longtime training partner of undefeated UFC welterweight Dong Hyun "Stun Gun" Kim. Lemos opened up an early cut on the bridge of Kim's nose, but that didn't stop the feisty Korean from edging out a clear-cut unanimous decision victory. Both fighters demonstrated amazing resilience, with Kim's powerful slams and pin-point striking tilting the judges cards in his favour. Kim has made it known that he hopes to continue fighting in Canada. He built the bulk of his 15-5 record in Japan and South Korea and now dreams of becoming a well-known MMA name in North American. Lemos, who fought well even in defeat, will return to Brazil in early December, which was his plan going into the fight.

It was past 11:30 pm when the main event fighters finally took their places inside the cage. Those fan who remained in attendance were treated to a quick, one-sided drubbing of Jason Volpe at the hands of Revolution Fight Team's Ryan Chiappe. After a lengthy feeling out period, Chiappe scored a takedown, which led to the Revolution fighter taking Volpe's back. Soon after, Volpe tapped to the fifth rear naked choke of the night. The victory must have been a relief for Chiappe and his team who came close to obtaining the very same "KOTC Canadian Middleweight Title" in July before Chiappe lost his first fight with Volpe by DQ, due to an eye-poke. There were no such controversies four months later in Saturday's rematch.

When it finally concluded, King Of The Cage: Catalyst at Vernon's Wesbild Centre featured a satisfying mix of dominant finishes and impressive come-from-behind wins. Fans who stayed put for the entire card undeniably received their money's worth of MMA action.

King Of The Cage: Catalyst Quick Results

Amateur Card

Kamryn Winter def. Aamon Judge by Submission (Rear Naked Choke), Rd. 1

Cam Deleume def. Curran Allen by Unanimous Decision

CJ Bagg def. Tyson Veitch by Submission (Rear Naked Choke), Rd. 2

Professional Card

Ryan Billingal def. Leith Optland by TKO (Cut Stoppage), Rd. 2

Graham Spencer def. Wesley Neil by Unanimous Decision

Darcy James def. Chad Bellwood by KO (Knees from Clinch), Rd. 1

Brendan Frost def. Upneet Rai by Submission (Strikes), Rd. 3

Joe Verbeetan def. Rakan Khatib by Submission (Rear Naked Choke), Rd. 2

Colin Daynes def. Mike Reid by TKO, Rd. 1

Clay Davisdon def. Matt Baker by Submission (Rear Naked Choke), Rd. 1

Del Melnyk def. Brian Coldwell by KO, Rd. 2

Chang Hyun Kim def. Vinicius Lemos by Unanimous Decision

Ryan Chiappe def. Jason Volpe by Submission (Rear Naked Choke), Rd. 1

***Ryan Chiappe (Pictured Above) Claims Vacant "King Of The Cage: Canada Middleweight Title"***

Weigh In Results For King Of The Cage: Catalyst

Weigh-In Results:

Main Event (Picture: Volpe On Left, Chiappe on Right)

Ryan Chiappe (185 lbs.) vs Jason Volpe (184 lbs.)
*** for KOTC Canada Middleweight title***

Main Card

Chang Hyun Kim (157 lbs.) vs. Vinicius Lemos (154 lbs.)

Clay Davisdon (205 lbs.) vs. Matt Baker (204.5 lbs.)

Brian Coldwell (184 lbs.) vs. Del Melnyk (185 lbs.)

Mike Reid (170 lbs.) vs. Colin Daynes (170 lbs.)

Rakan Khatib (170 lbs.) vs. Joe Verbeetan (170 lbs.)

Chad Bellwood (158.5 lbs***) vs. Darcy James (155.5 lbs.)

Brendan Frost (150) vs. Upneet Rai (150)

Graham Spencer (145) vs. Wesley Neil (146.5)

Leith Optland (185) vs. Ryan Billingal (184.5)

Amateur Card

Tyson Veitch (151.5 lbs.) vs. CJ Bagg (151)

Curran Allen (145 lbs.) vs. Cam Deleume (146)

Kyam Winter (125) vs. Aamon Judge (125.5)

Notes:

***Main card fighter Chad Bellwood failed to make weight for his 155 lb. contest against Darcy James. According to the Vernon Athletic Commission's Vice Chairman, Saleem Taj, both fighters have agreed to fight as scheduled, but that Bellwood will surrender %20 of his purse to his opponent.

Ethan Owusa has pulled out of his fight due to illness. Owusa was set to make his professional debut against Ryan Billingal. He will be replaced by Leith Optland (1-1) who impressed Vernon fans at EFC 8 in October by pulling off a submission victory over a bigger, stronger opponent in Jules Russel.

Amateur fighter Cam Deleume initially weighed in at 150 lbs. for his 145 lb. contest against Curran Allen. After sweating off the remaining pounds, Deleume eventually weighted in at an acceptable 146 lbs.

South Korean co-main event fighter Chang Hyun "Armbar" Kim (14-5) also had some difficulty making weight, which he blamed on the fact that the weight classes are different in his homeland and in Japan. This being his first fight in Canada, he was forced to drop several more pounds than he is accustomed to. He did, however, eventually make it to an acceptable 157 lbs.

B.C. Biography: Tyson Veitch

Citizens of Vernon have another great reason to arrive on time for King Of The Cage: Catalyst this Saturday-- his name is Tyson Veitch, he's a local high school student, and he'll be appearing in his second amateur fight at the top of the under card.

Competing in such an established and respected promotion is a fantastic opportunity for this dedicated young fighter. He'll get to experience the thrill of fighting in front of the 3000-strong hometown crowd at the Westbild Centre, and Tyson's friends and family will have their first chance to see him fight live.

I caught up with Tyson to ask him some questions about training, future plans, his feelings about his upcoming fight, and, perhaps surprisingly, his budding rap career.

One of the first topics we covered was the scare he had less than a week ago when he learned that his intended opponent had pulled out of the fight with a torn ACL. Soon after, Tyson was relieved to learn, via Facebook, that a replacement fight had been found for him. According to Tyson,"His name is C.J. Bragg and he was supposed to fight another guy, but the other guy got the swine flu. So they just scrapped us together." Now that he has a new opponent, there's very little on Tyson's mind besides training.

There's been some change on that front too, though. The gym where Tyson has been training for some time, Alliance MMA in Vernon, recently relocated. Okay, so it's more like it became subsumed into another gym-- namely,the Avatar Self Defense in Kelowna, B.C. As a result, Tyson has joined with Team HaVoK MMA who make their home there. Still, not everything about Tyson's new training facility is unfamiliar, "Yeah for a while now I've been training with Jason St. Louis at Alliance and he's known the guys at HaVoK for a while. His gym wasn't doing so good so we decided to start going out there and, yeah, they're a really good team. Jason's teaching BJJ out there now; he's their new BJJ coach."

In the end, it sounds like the change was for the best. After all, training at a bigger, better equipped facility, especially in a larger centre like Kelowna, also means an increase in the quantity and quality of training partners. That sort of challenging environment can only help a developing fighter. According to Tyson, who considers himself a well-rounded fighter, he trains "probably between six and ten [hours per week], but that's not including running and doing other stuff." That number has only gone up in recent weeks with his fight at KOTC: Catalyst looming.

One thing is clear, he spends a lot of time training for a guy who's still in high school. Of course, with MMA having become such a priority for Tyson, school isn't the first thing on his mind. When asked how he balances his studies with his MMA training, Tyson responds, "Ugh! Yeah, I try." When pressed for his opinion of high school, he explained that, as it was for so many of us, he considers getting his diploma a necessary challenge to be overcome, "Naw, I don't like it. So I'm just trying to get that done." The candor was appreciated and, certainly, we all must sometimes do things we don't truly enjoy.

Luckily for Tyson Veitch, he has more than enough passions in life to keep him inspired.

One of them is the dream of turning pro one day in mixed martial arts. When asked if such a move is in the cards, he revealed, "I actually wanted to turn pro right away, but my trainers told me to get like five or ten amateur fights to get some experience. So yeah, I'm just doing that." Again, that's probably for the best. It gives him time to wrap up that school thing, right Tyson? "Yeah, so I'll keep doing amateur fights for another year or two or something."

Another of Tyson's passions is his a rap group called CreativeBloodline. He's one of the group's three members along with with his brother and their good friend, "We just have fun in my brother's basement. He has a beat-making program." As you might have guessed, Tyson is being extremely modest here. In fact, CreativeBloodline has numerous slickly-produced tracks available on their myspace account. A quick glance at the page reveals them to be a top notch local group. They've opened for major acts like Sweatshop Union and won numerous group and individual awards. Tyson goes by the stage-name "Ora," wile his brother is known as "MC Leverage" and their good friend is "Killimatic." I'm generally not the type to lavish praise, but I can honestly say that CreativeBloodline has created some of the tightest raps I've heard in some time.

Given the importance of a great walk out song, it's not surprising that Tyson Veitch intends to bring CreativeBloodline with him to the Westbild Centre this Saturday, "We're going to be performing at the King Of The Cage. I'm going to perform first-- sing a song-- and then walk out."

Unsurprisingly, Tyson is also passionate about putting on great fights for MMA fans, "That's what it's all about-- giving the crowd a show." He's so excited, in fact, that he's not even nervous about his upcoming fight, "I'm anxious more than anything. I just want to get in there, close up the gate, and and start throwing down." Of course, there's no reason for Tyson to doubt his skills. He's fresh off a decision win in his first amateur fight, which took place in Lethbridge, Alberta. It was on the undercard of the Rage In The Ring 13 show on October, 17th. On that night, Tyson fought against a young, local fighter named Kolton Menzak, " I just went in there and did my gameplan. I did exactly what I wanted to do. I took it to the ground. "

Obviously, Tyson hopes to be victorious in front of his own hometown crowd at King Of The Cage: Catalyst and he's dong everything he can to ensure that happens, "I'm feeling good. I was in really good shape for my last fight and that was only like a month ago. So my cardio base is already up. I just needed to keep it up. I've just been doing some runs, doing shark bait [numerous rounds with fresh opponents], and I've been training lots. I feel good and I'm ready to go."

As if there weren't enough good reasons for MMA fans to check out King Of The Cage:Catalyst this Saturday (Nov. 28th), Tyson Veitch will open the night with a live musical performance, a great local sports story, and all the fighting fury he can muster.If you're in the area, and you've got $38 to spare, how can you possibly resist?

Ticket information is available at www.ticketseller.ca, or by calling (1-250) 549-7469.

Additional information available at the King Of The Cage Canada's official site.

CreativeBloodline's myspace page can be accessed at:
http://www.myspace.com/creativebloodline

Here are the sites for Avatar Self Defense: http://avatarselfdefense.com/
and Team HaVoK: http://havokfighting.com/

KOTC Catalyst: Main Event Primer For Vernon Fights

On their official website, King Of The Cage Canada has posted a great preview of the main event for their Catalyst show, which goes down in Vernon this Saturday, Nov. 28th. It's a rematch between Ryan Chiappe (4-5), who trains at the highly-respected Team Revolution that's based out of B.C.'s lower mainland, and his opponent, Jason Volpe (5-2). Their fight on Saturday will be for the KOTC Canada middleweight title and is a do-over of their July title fight, which was awarded to Volpe after he received an unintentional eye-poke from Chiappe and was unable to continue. In an extremely classy move, Volpe then refused to accept the belt, opting instead to settle the score at a later date.

The KOTC Article gives a lot more background information and I highly recommend a read to anyone who may be attending the show in Vernon or who is interested in B.C. MMA. Here's a quote from Chiappe that's found in the article:

"I'm not a rule maker, judge or a ref, but all I know I was that I was in complete control of the fight," said Chiappe, when asked recently to comment on his first bout with Volpe. "I thought it was close to being finished, but I guess the complaint was that he got poked in the eye. We got stood up and he was given the choice to continue or go on. I think he took the easy way out. That's not really for me to say though. I'm looking to the future now not the past."

Poster For 'King Of The Cage: Catalyst" In Vernon

I'll be focusing on UFC 106: Ortiz vs. Griffin for the next two days or so, but please let the nifty poster on the left stand as evidence that I haven't forgotten about the upcoming King Of The Cage show in Vernon.

The show, which has recently been dubbed "Catalyst," takes place at Vernon's +3000 capacity Westbild Centre and tickets are now available in various locations around town. I already wrote a short post on the main event between Jason Volpe (5-2) and Ryan Chiappe (4-5) that you can check out right here.

The rest of the card is as follows, but is, of course, subject to change:

Main Event
Ryan Chiappe vs Jason Volpe
*** for KOTC Canada Middleweight title

Main Card

Chang Hyun Kim vs Vinicius Lemos

Graham Spencer vs Wesley Neil

Brian Coldwell vs Del Melnyk

Mike Adams vs TBA

Matt Bagshaw vs Brad Causley

Clay Davidson vs TBA

Rakan Khatib vs Joe Verbeetan

Mike Reid vs Travis Phang

Sam Flood vs Jeremy Smerek

Jordan Kippelberg vs Darcy James

Brendan Frost vs Upneet Rai

Ethan Owusa vs Ryan Billingal

Amateur MMA

Nick Ghaeni vs CJ Bragg

Curran Allen vs Cam Deleurme

Tyson Vietch vs Jason Clements

Also, check out this video, which, if a bit lacking in specifics, at least proves these fights are real:

I'll be covering this event six ways from Sunday starting, well... this Sunday. So buckle up for that.

Main Event Booked For KOTC In Vernon, B.C.

According to The Vernon Morning Star, King Of The Cage (KOTC) has officially confirmed that they'll be putting on a show in Vernon on November 28th. The as yet unnamed show will take place at Vernon's 3000+ capacity Wesbild Centre and will be headlined by a KOTC Canadian middleweight championship fight between Jason Volpe (5-2) versus Ryan Chiappe (4-5).

This fight is actually a rematch of a title fight between these two KOTC veterans that went down at KOTC - Excalibur on July 18th, 2009 in Edmonton, Alberta. Their previous fight ended disasterously in the first round as a disqualification victory for Volpe due to an eye poke.

The KOTC show in Vernon is the only major MMA card scheduled anywhere in British Columbia in the near future. So you can bet that B.C. MMA Fan will feature detailed coverage in the weeks leading up to the show.

Rory MacDonald Defeats Nick Hinchliffe by K.O., Rd. 2

So far, there are no official descriptions of the fight, but King Of The Cage Canada is reporting on their facebook.com site that Kelowna's own Rory Macdonald (9-0) has successfully defeated Nick Hincliffe (11-5) by knock-out. The finish came during the second round in the main event of the KOTC: Disturbed card, which was held in Edmonton, Alberta on Friday, September 25th.

What's most impressive about this win is that, while MacDonald is just moving up from lightweight, his opponent has fought as high as light-heavyweight in the past. What's more, despite the fact that the majority of Hinchliff'e's wins have been (T)K.O.'s, while most of MacDonald's victories have come by tapout, it was the younger, smaller, MacDonald who finished their fight with strikes.

Clearly, my confidence in Rory MacDonald was not misplaced. I expect big, big things from him and believe that he'll break into one of the big shows in the near future, possibly even the UFC.

Rory MacDonald Is The Real Deal

For those out there who don't already know, Kelowna's Rory MacDonald (8-O) is B.C.'s brightest up-and-coming MMA star.

He's been competing since 2005 and has already captured a lightweight belt for King Of The Cage. These days, the 20-year-old submissions specialist fights at welterweight, where he expects to remain for the foreseeable future.

As you can see above, Rory has a fight this Friday in Edmonton on the KOTC: Destruction card. Realistically, my blog is so new that no one is likely to read this in time to make it to the show, but I'll post again after the fight with the result. For us B.C.'ers the outcome will be acceptable either way, because Rory's opponent is Nanaimo-based fighter, Nick Hinchliffe (11-4).

Seriously though, regardless of tomorrow's result, look for big things from Rory MacDonald in the future. He's the real deal.