We held our press conference today for the feature fighters in this Saturday's Icon Sport: HARD TIMES event.
175lbs: Phil Baroni vs Ron Verdadero
- Verdadero started fighting for Icon back in 1999, when our show was still called "Super Brawl." Ron is a workhorse with an iron chin. Baroni will have his hands full with the blue-collar vet.
140lb North American Title:
Bao Quach vs Mark The Shark Oshiro
- Cant wait for this one. This fight will absolutely affect the bantamweight world rankings as both Oshiro and Quach are each one fight away from considered among the world's best.
180lb: Rolando Dominique vs Kala Kolohe Hose
- Dominique is 1-0 pro, but has a huge amateur record with all wins coming via KO or TKO. Dominique is the brother of NFL safety Reggie Tongue. Kala Kolohe is the Icon MW champ, known for his KO power. This non-title fight will be really fun for the fans.
TTT
Ugh, I hate non-title fights, if you're the champ the title should always be on the line if you're throwing down.
And lol @ Ron's shirt - ridiculous name for a fight team and a horrible design to boot!
ttt
ttt for cageside live
what time does the event start
Icon Sport is back with one of its biggest cards of the year. Two title bouts will headline the August 2nd card which will have 15 fights in all.
All of the following fights have been confirmed as of today:
Kala Kolohe vs. Rolando Dominique (non-title fight)
Mark Oshiro vs. Bao Quach for the 140-pound North American title
Phil Baroni vs. Ron Verdadero
Ross Ebanez vs. Keoni Bryant for the 170-pound state title
Sydney Silva vs. Hideto Kondo
Ed Newalu vs. Ricky “Hoku” Wallace
Sadhu Bott vs. Kurrent Cockett
Alan Lima vs. Chris Tennis
Jose Diaz vs. Mario Miranda
Eddie Rincon vs. Dean Lista
Maui Wolfgram vs. Richard Desforge
Lolohea Mahe vs. Eric Edwards
Kyle Miyahana vs. Brewski Lewis
Ian Dela Cuesta vs. Ola Silva
Brad Taveres vs. Devin Kauwe
Mark Tajon vs. Alan Lima
Couple of quick notes on the event:
Icon is changing its weight classes, so Oshiro’s 135-pound state title has been retired as he goes for the 140-pound belt against Bao Quach in probably the biggest fight of the night. Quach (14-8) has won eight fights in a row, including two in ShoXC.
Rolando Dominique, who fights Kala Kolohe in a non-title match, is the brother of former NFL safety Reggie Tongue. Sherdog lists Dominique as 1-0, but Icon Sport promoter Patrick Freitas says he’s been in many amateur fights in Canada and owns at least six KO victories.
Sydney Silva was scheduled to compete in a title fight against Bryson Kamaka, but Kamaka had to pull out of the fight due to injury so now he’s facing Hideto Kondo in a non-title match. Kondo is 2-0 in his young career and trains with Japanese legend Hayato “Mach” Sakurai.
Also, it’s good to see Phil Baroni back in Hawaii. It was a tough start in 2008 for Baroni, who lost to Kala Kolohe in the Icon Sport middleweight title fight in March and then lost by TKO to Joey Villasenor on the CBS show at the end of May. He came back with a win last weekend in Cage Rage against Ryan Jensen with a monster first-round knockout and will look to continue his climb back up the ranks with a fight against tough local fighter Ron Verdadero.
Tickets for the event are already on sale. The first fight on Saturday, Aug. 2 begins at 5 p.m.
~~ from Fighting Words - Star Bulletin~~
Baroni's keeping busy. He has a few other fights lined up, right?
Best thing for him. Get a buncha wins on his record, get it looking spiffy again.
Can u watch this fight online?
Answering questions...
-fight starts 5pm HST (8pm PST/11pm EST)
- 13 Fights
- sorry...event is NOT on proelite.com..and too bad because even the undercard has great talent.
- re Kala Kolohe at 180 and not 185 for title: Well before Kala fought Baroni for the title at 185, we were trying to get Kala to drop to 170. He's kinda built like Baroni...short and thick. Problem is that at 185 he's got face all these giants who are 6'+ and walk at 205+. Kala is 5'9" and walks at 193. Every weigh-in he's way under the limit. Since he just came off a loss at EliteXC we thought 'nows the time to test the waters below 185.' And now that Phil was able to cut to 170 for Cage Rage, we especially think Kala should start aiming for a smaller weight class. This event seemed like a perfect opportunity. Good news is that he will likely defend the MW belt in Nov...an event that will also see the first round of a 16-man 185lb Icon Grand Prix. We will also do our first ever LHW world title between boxer-turned-mma-fighter Jeremy Williams and BJ Penn protege Po'ai Suganuma.
starving fighters make me hungry. patrick, aki no no?
kala is fighting a lot of tall motherfuckers
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