THE CANADIAN PRESS
WINDSOR, Ont. — Maximum Fighting Championship president Mark Pavelich rated the card a C-minus, the fighters disagreed in their assessment of the Ontario Athletics Commission and one of the two featured title fights was a bust.
Mixed martial arts may be here in Ontario, but the sport remains a work in progress.
Still, "MFC 29: Conquer" was further proof of MMA’s popularity as 5,000 people filled the Colosseum at Caesars Windsor on Friday night.
Welterweight champion Douglas (The Phenom) Lima made short work of Terry Martin in the main event. The 23-year-old Brazilian who now calls Atlanta home is a big, promising 170-pounder who bears watching in the future.
Edmonton light-heavyweight title-holder Ryan (The Big Deal) Jimmo doesn’t, at least judging from a lacklustre five-round decision over Zak Cummings that sucked the life out of the card.
"There are great expectations on someone like Jimmo," said Pavelich. "He just doesn’t do what he’s supposed to sometimes. And it kills the momentum. It’s like watching a great movie with a very bad plot."
"The Jimmo fight just killed the whole audience," he added.
Pavelich was delighted with the venue and audience. But he acknowledged some of the card did not work out as planned on paper.
"You can build it all nice and pretty, and put lights in and this nice cage and the rest of it. But if the fighters aren’t going to live up to that expectation. Like I said, it’s a C-minus at best."
Still he expects to be back in the border city, perhaps in September.
Meanwhile, the Ontario Athletics Commission, the provincial body that oversees MMA and other combat sports, continues to develop a reputation in the MMA world as an exacting taskmaster. Fighters were split on the commission.
"Oh my God, it was unbelievable. Unbelievable," said veteran lightweight Marcus (The Irish Hand Grenade) Davis.
"In 20 years of being a professional fighter, I’ve never gone through so many hoops, so many everything to be able to fight. Doing medicals over and over again, crunch time, it was crazy."
Davis complained commission officials told them as they wrapped their hands that they could only use one roll of tape for both hands.
"I’ve never heard that ever in 20 years that I have fought, I have never heard such a thing. They could break your hands. My hands right now are killing me."
Davis said he would typically use one roll per hand. And he wondered how a supersized fighter like former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar, who wears a quadruple-extra-large glove, would manage with one roll of tape.
He also said the tape provided was "horrible."
"They need to make those adjustments. It’s about keeping us safe and being able to make sure that we’re going to be OK. And I understand with the medicals and stuff that you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do and this was their first time (second, actually). They just need to iron some things out.
"Maybe I’m spoiled because I’ve had 14 appearances with the UFC, but still some things have got to change."
But Hermes Franca, another former UFC veteran, lavished praise on the commission.
"The commission was A-plus," he said. "They treated us really well … They’re really straight here. They ask for the medicals, the paperwork. It was perfect. Really professional.
"I’m really surprised. When I say surprised, (it’s because) I do believe it’s the second show in Ontario. It was like they’ve been doing this for like 20 years."
Said Pavelich: "I found them very easy to deal with. I found them very professional. The difference is they have a certain protocol. My company has always been run like that so it’s very easy to deal with them."
As in Rama, media were not positioned cage-side, as per commission orders.
Pavelich did not like how his product looked in a cage, after being showcased in a ring in Alberta.
"I hate it, I hate the cage. My event was never made to be in a cage. I can’t stand it. But like I said that’s the protocol of the Ontario commission and I’ll follow it but the MFC’s always made to be in a ring."
Ontario regulates MMA using the provincial Athletics Control Act, which is administered by the Ontario Ministry of Consumer Services. The act already sanctions pro boxing and kickboxing.
Ontario takes its MMA seriously. One local hospital cautioned staff in case over-exuberant fans tried some of the MMA moves on each other after the show.
Davis, 37, won a split decision (30-27, 29-28, 28-29) over Curtis Demarce of Brandon, Man., in a spirited lightweight bout that saw both men covered in blood.
Franca, 36, stopped Robert (The Beast) Washington by second-round TKO in a bout fought at a catchweight of 160 pounds.
Lima stopped Martin with a flurry of blows to his stunned opponent, prompting Montreal referee Yves Lavigne to step in one minute 14 seconds into the fight.
Lima (18-4) clubbed him down with a right and followed up with five rapid-fire blows. Martin (21-9) could hardly keep his balance when he staggered to his feet.
The six-foot-one Lima said he came into the fight with a goal of finishing the fight in the first round with his hands. He achieved both, earning knockout of the night honours.
"He looked great," said Pavelich. "And that’s what I expect from him, thank God."
In the co-main event, Jimmo’s win drew scattered boos. The judges scored it 50-45, 49-46, 50-45 for Jimmo, who posted his 15th straight win after a long 25 minutes in the cage.
Jimmo (15-1) celebrated by doing his trademark robot dance, which was about as entertaining as the fight that preceded it.
Lima’s younger brother Dhiego (5-0) was also a winner on the night, choking out local favourite Josh Taveirne (2-2) at 3:35 of the third round on the undercard.
Cummings (13-3) was a late injury replacement for Emanuel Newton and looked it. He was soft and pudgy but proved hard to dispose of. And he managed to cut Jimmo in the first round via an accidental clash of heads.
It was a measure of the entertainment factor of the fight when the two ring girls got out of their seats to work the crowd during the third round.
Pavelich was happy with Lima, Davis, Demarce and local middleweight Ali (The Monster) Mokdad who won submission of the night honours for stopping Andreas (The Sweet Swede) Spang. But he said he expected more of Jimmo, Washington and Spang.
"I’m going to stop being a little bit nice to certain fighters in my organization," he said. "I don’t need to do that any more, right?
"We’re one of the top organizations in the world now and for people to be fighting looking like it’s a point karate tournament disturbs me," he said in a clear reference to Jimmo.
The Windsor show was the second officially sanctioned in Ontario, following on the heels of "MMA: The Reckoning" last Saturday at Casino Rama.
Like the Rama show, it featured top-drawer referees in Josh Rosenthal and Lavigne.
Based in Edmonton and formed in 1999, the MFC has held shows at the River Cree Resort & Casino in suburban Enoch in recent years. But once the Ontario government agreed to sanction mixed martial arts, the MFC joined forces with promoter S.L. Feldman & Associates to put on the show in Windsor.
Toronto gets the next major show as 55,000 descend on the Rogers Centre for UFC 129 on April 30.
