Jackson MMA event nearly a complete success March 8, 2009
Posted by Shane in Uncategorized.
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Doors opened at 6. My entourage arrived at about 6:20 and the place was half full. By fight time, the very large convention center room was packed. Standing room only. Every seat was packed and people were standing around the perimeter of the seating areas. So far so good.
Fight time. Somebody is speaking excitedly into a mic, but I can’t tell what they’re saying. The audio system is loud enough, but far too boomy & muffled to understand whoever it talking. This proved to be a bit frustrating throughout the night.
Then another guy steps into the ring and offers a prayer. Nice touch of class. I remember when college football was allowed to do this back in the day. Somewhere between political correctness and “Go to hell Ole Miss”, that ended.
Next up, a guy with an electric guitar playing the Star Spangled Banner. Jimmy Hendrix style. Very cool.
J-Rock in the house! What fight wouldn’t be complete without a celebrity cameo appearance. Brandon, Mississipip’s own Jerious Norwood of Atlanta Falcons fame sat ringside and mingled with fans.
Then came the fights. Would these guys bring skill, passion, and entertainment or sloppy amateurish stuff? Let me tell you these guys brought plenty of fight.
For the most part, I don’t know who I saw. There was no fight card or programs passed out and the microphone was unintelligible. During a fight intro, I heard “with a record of 0 and 3″ as one fighter shrugged with embarrassment – that guy later won so good for him.
A few fights later, some really young smallish guy with decent muscle definition was fighting against…some other guy. Right at the open the smallish guy charged in throwing bombs left and right – most of them connecting. This little guy was throwing some of the hardest punches we saw all night. Impressive. He won in about 30 seconds.
I need to give a shout out to Chris White, a light-heavyweight looking dude who I’ve seen many times at Anytime Fitness on Lakeland. Had no idea he was a fighter. And congratulations on an impressive knockout win. White delivered the only knockout of the night, winning quickly in the 1st round with an elbow to the head and a flurry of haymakers after that, sending his opponent falling flat on his face and groggy for the next several minutes.
Later in the night, my friend who takes jujitsu at Gracie South, pointed out who Trey Brown was. Brown trains at Grace South. He fought in the first title fight of the night and lived up to his reputation as a big striker. Sporting the first dreadlock mohawk I’ve ever seen, Brown threw some big hits and won his fight quickly.
The next title fight between Tony “Babalu” Godbold and Kelly Leo was entertaining. Babalu, who may or may not have ring fingers on his hands, sported Andrei Arlovski style fangs in his mouthpiece. Babalu was clearly the crowd favorite and spent most of the fight in the guard of Kelly Leo. But Leo managed to do more damage from the ground than Babalu could do from on top. Leo won that fight.
The main event with Wes Shivers wasn’t much of an event. His headline opponent had been injured and Wes fought a replacement fighter in Jerry Carrol. Carrol put in a good effort, taking Shivers to the ground and giving Shivers a few fits before Shivers won by submission with some kind of arm triangle around Carol’s neck.
But the Capitol City Throwdown turned out not needing a main event spectacle to be a success. There were 15 fights on the card and almost all of them were very competitive. I was pleasantly surprised at the skills and entertainment value these fights brought. I will definitely watch the next fight that rolls around. Maybe even drive out of town for it.
Dear Psychout Promotions,
Congratulations on the success of the Capitol City Throwdown. I hope the fun and excitement from this event generates more of them. That’s said, here’s what I saw as good and bad in the event:
The good: Fights – 15 of them and most were very good. The large venue was just the right size for the crowd. Large video screens in the room provided good visibility when seating could not.
The bad: Poor visibiilty of the ring floor from seating more than 15-20 rows out from the ring. Maybe the ring should be on a high platform. Maybe the convention center needs some kind of modular bleecher light seating or risers for several rows of seats. A fight clock would have been nice too. Fight cards or a program would provide a little extra revenue and allow fans to better keep up with the night’s goings on.
The ugly: The audio. It appears all the speakers were in one side or one corner of the room. At least half of the convention center could understand a word that was being said into the microphones.
