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I’m not sure what, if any, factor the August loss to Ryan Harder had on Finneran. But a rematch, I’m told, won’t happen until after the new year. In the meantime, a rematch against Jeff Cressman has been rebuked. Of course, having watched the fight, there’s no reason for a rematch, Cressman won the fight cleanly, and hasn’t fought since. A rematch with Matt Rizzo was also mentioned, but Rizzo has been inactive since last July, and has not turned pro.

Personally, I like that Finneran is coming to Philly to train. There are plenty of proven gyms for him to work with. And as you can see on the calendar, there will be no shortage of cards for him to get on. But I think he should forget about the losses, focus on improving his game, and move on. New opponents, new challenges.

Related posts:

1. Ryan Harder and Joe Finneran Feud Set to Jump Off
2. Ryan Harder to Make Pro Debut at Locked in the Cage
3. Ryan Harder vs Joe Finneran Video Proves Inconclusive

Anyway, while I was updating the fight calendar, I noticed a few more bouts added to this October’s Matrix 3 card. The big one, I think, is Alexandre PoPo Bezerra (1-1) vs Marcos Loro Pereira (7-3).

PoPo is a black belt BJJ player, and a past Golden Gloves champion from Brazil. He’s fighting out of Philadelphia right now, and splits training time with Daddis and BJJ United. I watched him spar with Wilson Reis before his American debut at Locked in the Cage 4, and was pretty impressed. He showed his stellar jiu-jitsu technique in a submission victory over Will Martinez in that fight.

Bezerra will be facing a Shooto, Jungle Fight and WEC veteran and countryman Marcos Pereira, who holds a win over Fredson Paixao in Brazil. Pereira got dropped from the WEC after losses to Damacio Page and former WEC bantamweight champion Brian Bowles. His other loss, by the way, came to former Shooto champion Akitoshi Hokazono.

Bezerra has the skills to hang with Pereira, and if both fighters are feeling froggy on October 29th, we could be in store for one hell of a ground fight.

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Guedes (6-0) is coming out of The Armory in Jupiter FL, and works with Kurt Pellegrino with wins over Liam Kerrigan and John Salgado at Ring of Combat in his last two fights.

So far, all three fights on the Bellator 33 card have close Philly/South Jersey ties. Look for some more fights with local ties announced in the next couple days.

So far, all three bouts announced for the Bellator show in Philly have Philadelphia or South Jersey connections.

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And yes, we are talking about the same Shine Fights that completely imploded in May. This time, Shine is priming themselves for another gong show by planning an 8-man one night tournament, meaning that the two finalists will fight 3 times in one night.

Now, how did Dave Holland continue his grand tradition of gong? Well, as MMAFighting.com is reporting, Shine is moving the show to Oklahoma. The VDPOR (aka: Dave The People’s Enemy Holland) has decided to pull Shine’s license. He didn’t pull the promotion’s license because a 3 fight night for a fighter is dangerous, and against the rules as set in the Unified Rules of MMA. No, he pulled the show’s license because Shine was promoting a “Fans Pick the Matchups” gimmick. (I can’t believe this is the first time I’ve used the term “gimmick” in a post associated to Virginia or Shine Fights.)

The circus will move west to Oklahoma (no venue announced, as the show’s still listed as a Virginia event on MMA.tv. Presumably because Oklahoma’s commission is OK (see what I did there?) with both the 8-man tournament format and the “fan’s pick the match-ups” racket.

Now that all that’s out of the way; hey Dave. What the hell are you doing?

Its a one night tournament, no matter how the match-ups are in the first round, all 8 guys should be of equivalent talent so that no matter who wins in the first round, the second (and subsequent third…jesus, this show’s a bad idea) round match-ups are fair enough that the commission would approve them. So what’s the difference if the fans make the first round match-ups, or if the promoter makes the first round match-ups?

And, if this is such a horrible idea that you’re willing to pull the plug, which match-up would be so one sided as to not get approved by the commission?

Its not that I disagree with Holland squashing this show and yanking Shine’s promoter’s license. In fact, I think this is the first thing Dave Holland’s done in his capacity as executive director that I actually agree with. But come on, Dave. Cancel this fiasco for the right reasons, you numbskull.

Related posts:

1. Shine Fights and Virginia Voltron-Up For Ultimate Gong Show
2. UFO’s No Better than VDPOR in Virginia MMA (UPDATED)

I was a pretty passive observer to the whole process, the cage was set up before I got there early yesterday afternoon, and everything was pretty much set. Then someone hands me a timer and says “You’re the timekeeper.”

So, all my plans got washed out. Which is cool, I’m always up for a new experience in the fight game. And I’ve been to cage fights, so I couldn’t possibly be as bad as the numbskull they use in Virginia, right? I guess you’ll have to ask Big Dan how I did. He’ll tell you I didn’t know how to use the whistle for the “seconds out” call. But I blame the whistle. Good artist always blames his brush, no?

So with that said, I obviously missed some of the fights, because I was watching my time piece an expectant professionalism. But overall it was a really good show. Lancaster born Evan Marin popped his fight cherry with a really aggressive unanimous decision victory, showing some of those 717-honed wrestling skills with three or four big take downs. He hit his first takedown with so much momentum he floated over and gave up position. But he recovered, and scored some big punches and forearms out of the mount, and got himself a decisive win. Good way to start an amateur career. Marin is active Army, and is stationed at Ft Bragg, training out of The Gym in Fayetteville, NC. I’ll have an interview with Evan posted sometime tonight or tomorrow. Solid young kid, and I’m hoping some promoters up here look at bringing him home for a fight.

Johnny Pecyana was also on the show, representing Pits Pen MMA out of New Jersey. He picked up a win himself, and looked very good in doing so.

I have to admit, I was very pleasantly surprised with this show. Bringing fighters in from such disparate parts of the coast can cause a matchmaking nightmare. But with all the stops on the 9 fight card, there really were no mismatches. Some guys dominated their fights, some guys looked like soft cheddar cheese in winning, and some guys you hope to never see fight again, but for the vast majority of fights, the guys were evenly matched, and came to party. There was only one boring fight, the other ones didn’t show any striking technical prowess, but a lot of “You said what about my mom?” type exchanges.

King of the Casino is looking at doing shows up and down the coast, the promotion doesn’t have a website yet. But for those interested, I’ll keep you guys up to date on what’s going on.

But now, I’ve got to get ready to board my flight home. I’m in the middle of the row, god help me.

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