From the refs to the fighters, Enoch put on an almost perfect MMA display Friday night.
While the majority of eyes watching MFC 22 Friday night were focused on the fights, I couldn't help but notice that I have probably missed the boat on how amazing the Enoch, Alta., MMA scene truly is. I believe it is now the gold standard in Canada.
While watching the event, I was obviously impressed with the overall production and commentary throughout the broadcast as well as the overall matchmaking. Great match-ups that produced a few surprising results.
Thoughts on bouts
Jason MacDonald's late surge in the third round was not enough for him to earn a decision over Travis Lutter. He lost the first two rounds and was forced to win round three by a 10-8 score to at least squeak out a draw. He did dominate that third round but not enough to get the score he wanted. Lutter wins, likely sending J-Mac back to do some soul searching and find out what went wrong.
The co-main event saw Antonio McKee defeat Carlo Prater, who showed up solely in the third round after being fairly dormant in the first two rounds. McKee keeps on winning, but for some consistently strange reason, refuses to finish off an opponent.
One of the shocking results was John Alessio's KO victory over Luigi Fioravanti - all signs pointed to Fioravanti inching closer to the KO, but with a left cross and right bomb, Alessio dropped him in stunning fashion. Like J-Mac, Fioravanti is going to have to take stock of what went wrong and really figure out what needs to get done to keep his MMA career from continuing to fade away.
The Mike Nickels vs. David Heath wasn't the most technical bout but might actually be considered for fight of the year. These two went at each other from the onset, putting together a barn barner that saw a variety of highlights, including Heath dropping his hands and taking a multitude of punches from Nickels before responding with his own attack. In the end, Nickels pulled off the victory via rear-naked choke sending Heath back home with a look of confusion and distain about his own performance.
Ryan Jimmo's split-decision victory over Marvin Eastman, could have went either way. If I was scoring that fight, it would have gone to Eastman. I felt he won rounds 2 and 3, but good for the Canadian Jimmo, who continues to defeat names that are hovering on the UFC radar.
Thunder Bay native Nathan Gunn's loss at MFC 22 vs. Pete Spratt was a tough one to watch - he was doing everything right until Spratt rocked him, sending the Canadian into a virtual dreamland. Gunn was able to recover, but you could just tell his timing was slightly off after he was rocked. He was unable to control Spratt who eventually landed more punches until the KO blow at 4:19 of the second round. Gunn loses for the first time, falling to 7-1, while Spratt improves to 20-15.
River Cree Athletic Commission sets Canadian standard
It was great to see officials Verne Gorman and John Braak take control of their bouts considering the circumstances they were under. I had the pleasure of getting to know Verne and John during my own visit to Enoch, Ala, when the three of us were classmates during Big John's C.O.M.M.A.N.D. course certification. Both guys displayed stellar positioning, excellent control of the various circumstances that occur during an MMA bout and letting the fighters know that they needed to keep working, even after they have secured a dominant position.
This all stems from what we learned during the three-day intensive with Big John. All of this was put together by Dale Kliparchuk and the River Cree Athletic Commision. As it stands right now, this commission is setting the standard for all other commissions in Canada (and heck, even North America) to follow.
They work closely with promoters and only licence fully-trained, well-educated officials, and make sure the Unified Rules of MMA are enforced. There is not another commission in this country that is even remotely close to how this one does business. They take accountability to make sure MMA is safe for the fighters, and not try and take control of fabricated situations, while making other promoters and fighters pay the price.
As we have seen by the glorified (and recent) history of the Quebec and Moncton commissions, some are professional, well-oiled machines, while others, well... they have a lot to learn.
