In the interests of checking out the MMA scene , some friends. my
girlfriend, and myself headed down to Calgary and took in the recent KOTC -
FIRESTORM, The event was held in the Corral, which as a venue has seen
better days. Well my report:
To start things off, when a promoter says an event starts at 6:30 please
have the decency to start on time and not an hour later. Apparently from
talking to others, fighters hadn't even finished a rules meeting in the
back, or had begun getting dressed yet by 6:30. I'm not sure if this is a
promoter problem, or a commission problem or both, however please correct
it.
The show producers put some good pyrotechnics in with the event. A lot of
fireworks, and other fireblasts, were pretty impressive. The use of the
ring girls both inside and outside the cage was a really good idea, and
there was a lot of variety of eye candy. They had pretty good video
coverage as well with the use of TV screens showing the action inside the
cage, which helped if you didn't happen to be close to cageside.
Chuck Liddell and Rich Franklin made appearances briefly, and helped sell
the card. It seems KOTC is using the celebrity appearance at events as part
of their promotions which seems to work pretty well. In Edmonton they used
Royce Gracie.
The fights were pretty good, but there were some obvious uneven match-ups,
and some refereeing concerns. The fact that there were quite a few bouts on
the card, probably helped offset anything really bad. The best fight of the
night had to belong to Blake Frederickson and Chris Ade. That fight alone
was worth the price of admission. The main event was really good with Joe
Doerkson putting on an impressive show of stand-up. His business is handing
out pain..and it seems business is good.
I thought Keith Crawford did a good job as an announcer, and took the time
to give interviews to the fighters after the matches. I think that might
have had to do for some future TSN coverage though.
The event was marred by way too many fights in the crowd. At one point
there were like 12 people going at it with chairs etc. I think this is what
happens when you start fights late, and people have been drinking too long.
I mean I like to bring a girlfriend to these shows, and not have to worry
about retards trying to prove how tough they are in the stands. If you guys
feel like fighting give your name to a promoter and go at it. Bashing
someone with a chair isn't going to help our sport grow, and may in the
future keep away fans.
The one highlight had to have been some chick who was constantly removing
her top, and showing off her boobs, much to the delight of the fans. Her
performance although enjoyable was cut short due to security.
Anyways that's it in a nutshell
Hurse.