First off, promoter Bruce Abramski, Jr., canceled all 14 pro bouts after everyone arrive and weighed in because he didn’t sell enough tickets and didn’t want to take a financial loss. That is entirely unacceptable. These fighters did their job in preparing for weeks ahead of time. Why should they not be able to fight because the promoter didn’t do his job and PROMOTE the fight??
So instead, he only had the amateurs fight because he doesn’t have to pay them. Sadly, in Virginia, the only difference between pro and amateur bouts is amateurs don’t get paid. You have a bunch of kids getting kneed in the head and taking elbows to the mouth for nothing. Hell, Virginia does not even require a blood test or a pre-fight physical. As a coach, there is no way I’d allow any of my up-and-coming fighters to participate in an event in Virginia. Personally, I think the entire MMA community needs to boycott such unregulated events for fear that it will endanger the legality of all MMA fights, but maybe that’s another thread for another time.
Secondly, it seems that Bruce Abramski flat out lied about having an opponent for Mica Goehner, who was set to make her amateur debut. Goehner not only trained for weeks, but also drove 6 hours each way for the fight. At weigh-ins, Abramski told her that her opponent, Brittany Doss, pulled a no-show and her fight was canceled.
As you can imagine, Goehner was very disappointed. Although she is not a member of my school, I have trained a bit with Goehner and consider her and all her teammates to be close friends. So because I’m a loud-mouthed, opinioned asshole, I sent a scathing Facebook message to her opponent, Doss, and called her out on the no-show.
To my surprise, I received a puzzled email from Doss who had no idea what I was talking about. Doss is claiming that she never agreed to fight for Elite Warrior Challenge 3 and when she called Abramski the following day he said her former coach, whom she has not trained with for several months, said she would fight. Still confused, Doss contacted her former coach at Team Generation, who also denied ever telling Abramski she would fight.
I have a screenshot of Team Generation’s denial here:
At this point, I think Bruce Abramski owes Mica Goehner, Brittany Doss, Team Generation and the entire MMA community an explanation.