YAMMA PIT FIGHTING CROWNS TRAVIS WIUFF AS HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION
Inaugural Event Also Sees Victories by Oleg Taktarov and Pat Smith in ‘Masters Superfights’
Atlantic City, April 12, 2008 – On April 11, Travis “The Diesel” Wiuff was crowned the first YAMMA Heavyweight Champion, outlasting seven other competitors in an awe-inspiring tournament in YAMMA Pit Fighting's inaugural pay-per-view event. For the first time in over a decade, MMA returned to its origins by reviving the hugely popular tournament format, in which fighters participated in multiple fights in an attempt to capture the title of YAMMA Heavyweight Champion. Wiuff’s hard-earned victory included wins over Marcelo Pereira, Alexys Oleynik and Chris Tuscherer.
The event, held at the Trump Taj Mahal, was comprised of an eight-man tournament and two ‘Masters Superfights,’ in which Pat Smith defeated Eric “Butterbean” Esch and Oleg “The Russian Bear” Taktarov defeated Mark Kerr. The event also featured ring announcer Scott Ferrall and Olympic gold medal winner Jeff Blatnick commentating. YAMMA Pit Fighting is the brainchild of Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) founder Bob Meyrowitz.
The championship match got off to a raucous start in the first round when Wiuff delivered several devastating strikes to Tuscherer, sending him wobbling to the ground. The second round saw Wiuff continue to dominate with a relentless ground-and-pound attack and constantly getting the better of Tuchscherer while trading stand-up strikes. Tuscherer mounted a brief comeback in round three, delivering a flurry of blows to Wiuff in the final seconds, but the rally came too late, and Wiuff was awarded the win by decision.
“Chris is a tough guy, a guy who’s definitely on his way up. I’m glad I fought him now – he’s only going to get better,” said Wiuff. “But I didn’t train for one fight, I trained for three. I always planned to fight three fights, and that’s just what I did.”
"This was an unbelievable night for MMA," said Bob Meyrowitz, Rope Partners. “Between the unveiling of the YAMMA, the return of the tournament format and two phenomenal Masters Superfights, we showed the world tonight that YAMMA Pit Fighting truly is the evolution of MMA."
In the first ‘Masters Superfight,’ Oleg Taktrov used his Sambo prowess to quickly submit Mark Kerr with a kneebar. Crowd favorite Butterbean suffered a staggering loss to Pat Smith in the second ‘Masters Superfight,’ with Smith going toe-to-toe with Butterbean in what was arguably the most technical fight of Smith’s career. When Butterbean slipped and the fight went to the ground, Smith dominated with seemingly endless elbow strikes, until the fight was stopped by the referee.
“It was a tough fight – You’ve got to respect Butterbean. He nicked me a couple of times and I really felt the power behind those punches.” said Smith. “But in the end, I proved that I could stand up with him and win.”
The event witnessed the unveiling of the Yamma, an evolution of the traditional fighting structure designed to keep the fighting more explosive and continuous. The Yamma is a circular pit, shaped almost like a bowl, with a flat bottom that rises up with a three foot lip around the edge. In this ring, if a fighter is pushed backwards towards the fence, he moves up the lip, gaining both a height and leverage advantage over his opponent. From this position, the fighter on the lip can use gravity and leverage to reverse his opponent, and take the fight back into the center without a break in the action.
Complete results for the April 11th fight card are as follows:
Tournament Round 1
Alexy “Samurai” Oleynik def. Sherman “The Tank” Pendergarst
Chris Tuscherer def. Tony “The King” Sylvester
Travis “The Diesel” Wiuff def. Marcelo “Pato” Pereira
Ricco “Suave” Rodriguez def. George Bush III
Masters Superfight 1
Oleg Taktarov def. Mark Kerr
Tournament Round 2
Chris Tuscherer def. Alexy “Samurai” Oleynik
Travis “The Diesel” Wiuff def. Ricco “Suave” Rodriguez
Masters Superfight 2
Pat Smith def. Butterbean
Tournament Heavyweight Championship
Travis “The Diesel” Wiuff def. Chris Tuscherer
About Rope Partners
Rope Partners, formed by Bob Meyrowitz and Peter Kauff, have over a 20 year track record of pioneering successful ventures in the music, broadcasting and sports industries. This is illustrated by their successes with DIR Broadcasting (the largest independent radio syndication company), The College Television Network (the largest private television network in the United States), and Semaphore Entertainment Group (the originator and founder of the UFC).
"This was an unbelievable night for MMA," said Bob Meyrowitz, Rope Partners. “Between the unveiling of the YAMMA, the return of the tournament format and two phenomenal Masters Superfights, we showed the world tonight that YAMMA Pit Fighting truly is the evolution of MMA."
Yamma Pit Fighting made it's debut in Atlantic City last night. The "Yamma" is simply a cage with a 3 foot"warning track" that includes upward to a height of 19 inches. The idea is to prevent fighters from pressing each other against the fence. And for the most part, the Yamma did what it's supposed to do: There were only a couple of brief moments where the fighters were locked up against the fence. So on that score the Yamma was a big success.
Does this mean that the Yamma will replace the cage? The short answer has two letters. Fuck and no.
Because as much as it succeeds, the Yamma fails. Yes, it prevent lulls in the action by eliminating fence encounters. But the raised surface lends itself to closed guard positioning. Most of the fights had their share of moments of closed guard non-action. It looked to me like the incline made it really easy for fighters to use the closed guard to tie up their opponent's arms. But it appeared that it was difficult for them to work their hips from there to set up submission--it was like they were stuck in that position.
So for all it's technical benefits, the Yamma has as many or more drawbacks. I don't see it replacing the cage or the Octagon any time soon. In fact, never.
Now, that doesn't mean that the whole show was an abysmal failure. I don't know what kind of numbers they did and the crowd looked small, but it was the first time out. What I liked about the event (I watched it on PPV) was the old school feel. Jeff Blatnick and John Perritti threw out plenty of old school names, and Jeff even mentioned Jon Hess's SAFTA fighting system. SAFTA, as my good buddy Andy Anderson can painfully attest to, is all about illegal eye-gouging in UFC competition. Fortunately we didn't see any of that last night, but we did see some decent action. I'm a big fan of Oleg Taktarov, Mark Kerr, Pat Smith, all those guys. I loved the UFC back then, and I was glad to be able to pay to watch these guys fight again.
Back in the day, Oleg was like Big Nog. He'd get brutalized but somehow find a way to win. He showed that again last night, taking a huge right hand from Mark Kerr before coming back with--what else--the patented Oleg kneebar. Oleg explained after the fight that he likes to trick his opponents into thinking he's giving up his back. Then, when they go for the choke, he goes for the leg. Oleg went on to say that the Brazilian JJ guys he fights all know he does this, so they never try the RNC on him. He said if Kerr knew this he wouldn't have tried it either.
And Pat Smith. Wow. Granted, he was fighting a beached whale, but still it was fun watching him use that front kick we first saw against Rudy Moncayo all those years ago. Smith was landing at will, and Butterbean was only able to get off a few of his right hand bombs, but none even came close. There's no excuse for Butterbean coming in at 416 pounds. I guess he thought he could walk right through Pat Smith, but he obviously didn't realize that Smith is "the most strongest, powerfulest, craziest guy" in MMA.
So all in all some good nostalgia, some moments of good action, some dull moments. I think we'll at least one or two more Yammas. But the UFC doesn't have to worry about Yamma being the next big thing.
"Evolution" seems like the last thing Bob was going for.
" In this ring, if a fighter is pushed backwards towards the fence, he moves up the lip, gaining both a height and leverage advantage over his opponent trips and falls."
