UK MMA LEAGUE

The finals Round 4 report- 2^nd June 2012

As soon as the league announced that it had purchased title belts for its season champions, entries flooded in. The finals, held at Seni 2012, is the leagues main finale event of the year, which crowns its season champions.  With 8 titles on the line and title belts up for grabs, the leagues finals are a big draw for the crowds at the Seni expo.

The cage was centre of the Seni expo, and after 3 pervious events to find league champion contenders, there’s no better setting to crown the future stars of mma. The Seni organisers have helped grow the continuing movement of mma in the UK, and this year’s event boasted a MMA weekender, with something for everyone.

The featherweight division was headed by Laurence Cox, Total Dojo and he wasn’t going let his awaiting title slip away. And chasing Cox was Lloyd Ju-jitsu/Skillen mma fighter Nixon Ramsdale, Nixon was slightly lighter at the weighing in at 62.1 kg and Cox weighed in at 64.1 kg. Both men wasted no time in pleasing the crowd, using everything at his disposal Nixon had to try and spoil Cox’s game plan. But Cox showed that his training proved too fruitful and winning over Ramsdale in 1.27 sec with a rear naked choke.  This was too much for any other fighter to catch and Cox went on to win his second fight beating new comer  Tom Harris, Lloyd ju-jitsu/Skillen mma in only 14 sec by way of guillotine. Cox takes back the new featherweight title back to Milton Keynes.

Another fighter assured of a title win was Poole based lightweight division fighter Rod Phelps, Poole cage academy; Phelps has dominated the welterweight division all season winning all but 1 of his fighters in the league, Phelps only had to fight once to at Seni to secure the lightweight division. Phelps made short work of his opponent beating new comer Matt Wilson, BTK mma in 1.01 sec by a guillotine. Phelps was presented with the Lightweight title belt by the category sponsors JAG mma. Phelps also went on to win the national open event on Sunday at Seni also, picking up more silverware.

The female division was a close run battle with Susy Hannaby, Exeter MMA sharing top spot with Nottingham fighter Emma Kemp, Lloyd ju-jits/Skillen mma. Hannaby drew her first match against team mate Jenny May, Lloyd ju-jitsu/Skillen mma. And Emma won his first bout putting her ahead of Hannaby. The two girls squared up with Hannaby knowing she had to beat Kemp with having any chance of lifting the title. Kemp only had to draw to win the female division. The fight was one sided with Hannaby forcing kemp in to defend every second and nearly pulled off an arm bar near the end of the bout, so how Kemp hung on and Hannaby was force to settle for the draw, which handed the title to Kemp. Both girls showed great sportsmanship throughout the season’s campaign, and proved that female fighters in mma do have a place.

Success does come at a price and welterweight Peter Robson, Exeter mma was force to pull out with an injury which left third place Celab Fitzpatrick, Lloyd ju-jitsu/Skillen mma to help his team mate win the biggest division in the league. 18 yr old Luke Skillen, Lloyd ju-jitsu/Skillen mma won his first bout against Exeter fighter, Liam Clatworthy in 0.46 sec by a rear naked choke.

Middleweight fighter Chris Risley, Exeter mma was chasing the top spot behind Harry Brereton, Blackdog mma.

Risley had to win his respective fighter and hope that Brereton either lost or only managed to draw his bouts in having any chance of winning the middleweight title. Both men have not squared up this season and final Brereton and Risley squared up knowing that this was going to be one of the toughest battles of the day. Risley was pushing the pace but Brereton hung on to secure his win taking the middleweight title. These guys have become good friends and Risley told senior promoter Andy Walker that he might be back next season to win either at Middleweight or drop to Welterweight.

The Light heavyweight two horse race between Jacob Kamper, Exeter mma & Jon Ferguson, Blackdog mma have previously met

In Leicester Ferguson beat rival Kamper, in 3.56 by way of an Armbar. Kamper won his first bout of the day at Seni beating Adrian Kawa, M1 Jc 14 Combat team in 1.18 sec with a text book Armbar. Both light heavyweight guys knew there would meet again and Kamper had to win to finish on equal points, which would of force an overtime bout to settle the difference. Ferguson narrowly managed to hold on to a draw and managed to win by two points.

Micheal Younis, K-star gym fighter, only needed to fight once to secure the HW crown. Micheal fought new comer Jermaine Cunningham, Harrow martial arts in 1.02 sec by a guillotine. Poole based fighter Connor Blendell did his some and new he need two wins in any chance of taken on Younis. Blendell managed only 1 win and a draw, which wasn’t enough to take on Younis to snatch the title away, so Blendell had to be satisfied with finishing second in the HW tables. Younis wasn’t just picking his HW title belt up. A first for the league, Younis got down on one knee and asked his long time girlfriend to marry him in the cage at Seni in front of the packed crowd. League promoter Walker, asked his girlfriend what the answer was, a very nervous Younis then got the answer he was waiting for a definite yes.

Top league mma club of 2012 goes to Lloyd ju-jitsu/Skillen mma with 20 fighter wins this season. Jubilant Coaches Lloyd Clarkson & John Skillen were ecstatic with winning the top mma club award.  Having pushed their stable of fighters to the limits in a gruelling season, this has seen them fight some of the best amateur fighters in the country. The Nottingham based gym did there home work on the other gyms, focusing on other senior club coaches and their experiences and skills. This brought them the defence skills against individual fighters to secure wins or an automatic draw. Finishing the season with 19 fighter wins, and just missing out was Exeter mma. Senior Exeter coach Richard Cattrick had 7 fighters’ wins at Seni, which just missed the top spot. Exeter mma will be back again next year to stamp their authority on league.

Norway’s Bergan cage fighting team made the trip to London to give there team an outing, again testing the skills of the British fighters. Bergan coach Matt turner, originally form Bournemouth, and has brought a team of fighters to the finals since the league started in 2008.

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