Griifin Den Presents: "Seasons Beatings 2"

On Saturday December, 18 at Griffins Den Presents: "Seasons Beatings 2" in Mt. Vernon, Illinois

Jessica Philippus (4-1-0) will battle Leslie Lockwood (2-2-0) in a 105-pound Tournament Championship match.

Jessica Philippus fights out of Marshall, Missouri and trains in Sedalia, Missouri with Jose Vega, she also trains in Kansas City, Missouri at Grindhouse with Deryck Ripley, she also is cornered and coached by her husband Robb Philippus.

Leslie trains at Griffins Den in Mt. Vernon, Illinois where she is coached by Henry Griffin and April Penrod.

Amber Ayers (1-0-0) will face Heather Martin (6-3-0) for the second time in a 175-pound amateur MMA match.

Amber defeated Heather by submission (armbar) in the first round of thier last fight.

Amber Ayers trains with Team Artillery in Clinton, Illinois where she is coached by her brother Adam Ayers.

This will be one of Heather's last fights as a amateur as she is planning on going professional in early 2011.

Heather is from Jackson, Tennessee and trains with Team Bellicose where she is cornered by Lacie Jackson and  Johnny 'LAW' Jackson.

Lacie Jackson (4-2-0) will battle Crystal Bentley (1-1-0) in a 150-pound amateur MMA match.

Lacie is fresh off her submission victory against Penny Hammond on November, 27th.

Lacie lives and trains in Jackson, Tennessee where she is coached by her father Johnny Jackson.

Crystal Bentley lives in Dix, Illinois and trains at Griffins Den in Mt. Vernon, Illinois where she is coached by April Penrod and Henry Griffin.

Crystal is sponsored by 618 MMA

Misaki Takimoto vs. Amy Davis

On Thursday December, 30 at World Victory Road's: Sengoku 15 "Soul of Fight" in Tokyo, Japan at The Ariake Coliseum.

#5 Ranked 105-pound fighter Misaki Takimoto (12-11-4) will battle #12 ranked 105-pound fighter Amy "Lil Dynamite" Davis (1-1-0) in a 105-pound professional MMA match.

Misaki Takimoto is a very experienced Japanese fighter and although she has defeated many good fighters she is best known for her four part fight series with Miku "Supernova" Matsumoto,

Misaki won the first two matches but "Supernova" came back and won the latter two matches to even up the series, unfortunately there will not be a fifth and deciding match since "Supernova" has retired.  

Amy Davis is coming off of a submission loss against Jessica Pene at Cage Inc: "Battle at the Border 7" on November 19th. Before that she defeated Jennifer Berg in July of 2010.

The event is to feature around 10 MMA fights, 10 stand-up rules fights, 4-5 women's fights as well as three mixed martial arts fights between traditional martial artists. Dubbed "Soul of Fight", the event is planned to be  family friendly and festival-like.

HDNet is said to covering nine straight hours of the event live.

Danielle West vs. Nives Radic

On Saturday January, 22 at the Croatian Event Split in Croatia

#18 145-pound fighter Danielle West (3-1-0) will battle Nives Radic (2-0-1) in a professional 145-pound Championship match.

Danielle West is an American fighter originally from Boston, Massachusetts who now resides in London, England. She trains with Fuzion MMA in London where she is coached by Matt Chapman and James Evans Nicholle.

In her last fight she defeated Maria Hougaard for a second time by unanimous decision.

To find out more about Danielle check out this exclusive interview I did with her a little over two months ago.

Danielle West: Interview

Nives is a Croatian who has fought all of her fights in her native country of Croatia. I have however seen video on Nives and  she is a great stand-up fighter with devastating kicks.

Non Stops Weekend Picks

I went 2-2 last week, so first I must apologize for picking against Cat Zingano, I doubt after that performance, that I will be picking against her in her next fight, whoever it may be.

I also picked Cindy Dandois who lost a controversial match to Yana Kunitskaya.

Let's start with,

Julie Kedzie (14-8-0) vs. Sarah D'Alelio (4-0-0)

Sarah D'Alelio: She has finished all four of her fights by TKO or submission.

April Bowling vs. Norma Rueda

On Saturday January, 15 at AAMMA: 9 "Nations Collide" in Florence, Kentucky

April Bowling (3-1-0) will face Norma Rueda (1-0-0) in a 135-pound amateur MMA match.

April trains at ACC Fight Club in Bright, Indiana. She is coached by her husband Jim Bowling and Caleb Shelton.

 Norma Rueda is from El Paso, Texas but currently lives in Dayton, Ohio. and train at Son of Siam where she is coached by Nathan Fitch.

Norma's last fight was a very impressive victory over the formerly undefeated Diane Hooper (3-1-0) at AAMMA: "Battle Against Breast Cancer" on October 2nd.

Amy Cadwell vs. Reagen Benedetti

On Saturday January, 29 at Ax Fighting Championships in Edmunds, Washington

Amy Cadwell (3-0-0) will square off against Reagen Benedetti (1-0-0) in a 120-pound amateur MMA match

Amy trains at Charlies Combat Club in Everett, Washington. where she is coached by Chris Garcia. Her background is in Muay Thai. 

The last time that Amy fought on November 13th, she defeated Hadley Griffith by TKO. In her very first fight she defeated Maria Alvarez

Reagen trains at Alderwood Mixed Martial Arts in Lynwood, Washington under "Team Wise" She is coached by coach is Aric Wiseman.

Leah Kripp vs. Sarah Cook

On Saturday January, 15 at AAMMA 9: "Nations Collide" in Florence, Kentucky

  Leah Kripp (4-0-0) will battle Sarah Cook (1-1-0) for Leah's AAMMA amateur 135-pound Women's Championship.

Leah lives and trains in Cincinnati, Ohio with team Vision. Her trainers are Rod Barker, Rod Housley, and Aaron Thomas. She is sponsored by Bangtown Fightwear.

 Sarah Cook lives in Hamilton, Ohio and trains at Team Prodigy in Springboro, Ohio, where she is coached by Kenny Warrix.

The last time Sarah fought on December 10th she defeated Amy Lack, in her only loss which was her debut fight at AAMMA "Battle Against Breast Cancer" she was defeated by Erica Ellington.

Lylna Thao vs. Brittany Anic

On Saturday December, 18 at Shamrock Promotions: "Xtreme Fight Party" in St. Louis, Missouri

 Lylna Thao (6-3-0) will go up against Brittany Anic (4-0-0) in a 120-pound amateur MMA match.

Lylna Thao trains at TCB Fight Factory in Rogers, Arkansas where she is coached by Aaron Kimball.

Brittany trains out of Finney's MMA in St. Louis, Missouri where she is coached by Jesse Finney. 

Brittany's Sponsors:

Finney's MMA, All N 1 Fitness, Shamrock Promotions, Elite MMA Management, Vinyl Images, Supplement Superstore, Sole Control, Europe Night Club, Tan Company, I Scream Cakes 

Mia Hayes defeats Jacqlin Boyle

On Sunday December, 12 at King of The Cage at the Soboba Casino in San Jacinto, California

Mia Hayes (3-0-0) defeated Jacqlin Boyle (0-1-0) by submission (guillotine choke) in the second round of their 165-pound amateur MMA match.

Mia trains at Universal Grappling Academy in Victorville, California where she is trained by Tyson Johnson.

She is also the focus of a upcoming documentary by Lars Ulbeg that centers around her battle with breast cancer and focuses on her being a survivor of stage four cancer. Mia is a very devout christian who with the power of prayer is fighting breast cancer without any chemical treatments.

Mia is a very inspirational lady, not only does she work and train MMA she is also a mother. She has three children of her own and she also has four adopted children, seven children in total.

The last time we saw Mia Hayes she defeated Brittany Griffin by submission (guillotine choke) in the first round. She looked very impressive in that fight she out struck her opponent, then caught her in a standing guillotine.

Michele Tyler: Interview

On Saturday 4th December, UCMMA hosted its first female fight featuring  Michelle Tyler  (London Shootfighters) against  Vicky Watts (Modern Day Martial Arts). Michelle made an impressive and unnervingly relaxed entrance in "Iron Fist" heeled boots and a dashing black trilby before embarking on an all out war.

Vickie was known to be a strong wrestler and while she was courageous in relentlessly pushing forward for the take-down, Michelle unconventionally bobbed and weaved around the cage amateur-boxing-style, dominating Vickie with short, tight combinations.  Michelle slammed Vickie down in the first round and again in the second moving into a tirade of ground n pound until the bell. The final round saw Michelle lick Vickie with a blow that saw her stumble before falling down to have the fight stopped by the referee. The fight can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IdbHiuDB54

CQ:  How do you feel on winning your debut MMA fight?

Amazing.  Everything from the beginning went well and according to plan, from the weigh in, to training before the fight and warming up. Everything went smoothly. It’s an amazing feeling to win that fight.

To read the entire Interview click here

Lalani Malley-Mancao defeats Nikita Netjes

On Saturday December, 11 at NAAFS "Proving Ground MMA Series" in Cleveland, Ohio,

Lalani Malley-Mancao (3-0-0) defeated Nikita Netjes (1-4-0) by TKO (ref stoppage) with ground and pound in the first round of their 150-pound amateur MMA match.

Lalani is coming off of a submission victory (rear-naked choke) against Lindsey Smith in August at NAAFS: "Eve of Destruction"

Sheila Gaff vs. Milana Dudieva

On Friday December, 17 at ProFC 22 in Rostow Am Don, Russia

#8 ranked 145-pound fighter Sheila "The German Tank" Gaff (7-3-1) will go head to head against #11 ranked 145-pound fighter Milana Dudieva (5-1-0) in a 145-pound professional MMA match.

Sheila is coming off of her May loss to Cindy Dandois, in which she hurt Cindy, knocking her down several times. she ended up losing the fight that many thought she was winning by hitting Cindy with an illegal knee to the head of a downed opponent. She was disqualified after it was determined that Cindy could no longer continue to fight.

Milana Dudieva who is from The Republic of North Ossetia-Alania, Russia is coming off of a TKO victory over Ludmila Delicheban in April.

Jessica Eastwood defeats Dianaya Nidorse

On Saturday December, 11 at FCF in Shawnee, Oklahoma at the Firelake Grand Casino

Jessica Eastwood (1-0-0) defeated Dianaya Nidorse (0-1-0) by unanimous decision in a 140-pound amateur MMA match.

Jessica Eastwood lives and trains out of Ada, Oklahoma at BodyTech MMA where she is coached by Blake Welch and Sarah Maloy

Sarah Maloy defeats Charline Smith

On Saturday December, 11 at FCF in Shawnee, Oklahoma at the Firelake Grand Casino

Sarah Maloy (2-0-0) defeated Charline Smith (0-1-0) by submission (armbar) in the second round of their 125-pound professional MMA match.

Sarah Maloy last fought and defeated Rosa Columbo in September of 2009. She trains and coaches at BodyTech MMA in Ada, Oklahoma

Sarah McLeod defeats Summer Artherton

On Saturday December, 11 at VFC 33 in Omaha, Nebraska at the Mid-American Center in Council Bluffs.

Sarah "TNT" McLeod (2-2-1) defeated Summer Artherton (2-2-0) by unanimous decision in a 115-pound amateur MMA match.

Sarah McLeod is a Canadian fighter who is self trained. She was coming off of a loss against Emily Whitmire on November, 6th, that fight however was at 125-pound, this was Sarah's first fight at her natural weight class of 115-pounds.

Sarah is a very big and strong fighter for this weight division, I expect big things in her future at 115-pounds.

Lacie Jackson vs. Crystal Bentley

On Saturday December, 18 at Griffins Den Presents: "Seasons Beatings 2" in Mt. Vernon, Illinois

Lacie Jackson (4-2-0) will battle Crystal Bentley (1-1-0) in a 150-pound amateur MMA match.

Lacie is fresh off her submission victory against Penny Hammond on November, 27th.

Lacie lives and trains in Jackson, Tennessee where she is coached by her father Johnny Jackson.

Crystal Bentley lives in Dix, Illinois and trains at Griffins Den in Mt. Vernon, Illinois where she is coached by April Penrod and Henry Griffin.

Crystal is sponsored by 618 MMA.

Jocelyn Lybarger defeats Kathryn Davis

On Friday December, 10 at Reno Ultimate Combat in Reno, Nevada 

Jocelyn Lybarger (2-0-0) defeated Kathryn Davis (1-1-0) by unanimous decision in their 115-pound amateur MMA match.

Jocelyn is the twin sister of Jillian Lybarger. Jocelyn trains at L.A. Boxing in Irvine, California where she is coached by Jeff Morgan. 

Jocelyn as well as her sister are both proud members of "The 5 Star Fight Wear Team."

Sarah Cook defeats Amy Lack

On Friday December, 10 at Absolute Action MMA 8: "A Night to Give Back" in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky

Sarah Cook (1-1-0) defeated Amy Wear Lack (0-2-0) by submission (rear-naked choke) in the second round of their 135-pound amateur MMA match.

Sarah last fought before this fight at the October, 2nd :"Battle Against Breast Cancer" event losing to Erica Ellington by submission (strikes)

Cat Zingano vs. Carina Damm: Fight Video

Summer Atherton vs. Sarah McLeod: Weigh-in Results & Photos

On Saturday December, 11 at VFC 33 Summer Artherton will battle Sarah Mcleod in a 115-pound amateur MMA match.

Summer weighed in at 116-pounds

Sarah  weighed in at 116-pounds

Carla Esparza vs. Nina Ansaroff: Fight Video

Cat Zingano defeats Carina Damm

On December, 10 at Crowbar MMA: "Winter Brawl" in North Dakota

#6 ranked 125-pound fighter Cat "Alpha" Zingano (5-0-0) defeated #4 ranked 125-pound fighter Carina "Beauty but the Beast" Damm ( 15-5-0)by TKO in the second round of their 125-pound professional MMA match.

Cat Zingano remained undefeated by totally dominated this fight both standing and on the ground she lalnded at will and took Carina down at will, once on the mat Cat would mount Carina and ground her out for the TKO. 

This was a very impressive showing and sends a very clear message to the rest of the 125-pound division, Watch out!

Lacey Schuckman vs. Diana Rael

On Friday January, 21 at RMBB "Bad Girlz Gone Wild" in Sheridan, Colorado

#19 ranked 125-pound fighter Lacey "The Ladie" Schuckman (5-3-0) will battle #8 ranked 105-pound fighter Diana "Dynamite" Rael (2-0-0) in a 110-pound professional MMA match.

Lacey trains with team Rugburn in Lakewood, Colorado she is coming off of a submission loss to Carla Esparza at 125-pounds at RMBB: "Clash of the Titans 8" 

Lacey is coached by her husband Randall Schuckman.

Diana trains at Serial Boxe in Arvada, Colorado she is undefeated as a professional MMA fighter and is coming off a victory against Stephanie Skinner she has won both her fights by TKO.

This will be Lacey's first time dropping down to 110-pounds

Carla Esparza defeats Nina Ansaroff

On Friday December, 10 at Crowbar MMA: "Winter Brawl" in North Dakota

#18 ranked 125-pound fighter Carla Esparza (4-1-0) defeated Nina Ansaroff (1-1-0) by split decision in a 125-pound professional MMA match.

 Carla definitely won this fight with her takedowns and her control of her opponent.

This was Carla's return to the 125-pound division after filling in as a late replacement to face #2 ranked 115-pound fighter Megumi Fujii on August, 12 in the first round of the Bellator 115-pound women's tournament.

It was a very good showing for Carla as she out struck Megumi but after numerous takedown attempts Megumi finally got Carla to the ground and submitted her with an armbar.

Carina Damm vs. Cat Zingano: Weigh-In Pictures

On Saturday December 10 at Crowbar MMA: "Winter Brawl"

Carina Damm will face Cat Zingano and here are the weigh-in pictures. Both fighters made the 125-pound weight limit.

Hiroko Yamanaka vs. Molly Helsel

On Friday December, 17 at Jewels 11th Ring in Tokyo, Japan

#2 Ranked 145-pound fighter Hiroko Yamanaka (10-1-1) will go head to head against Molly Helsel (8-10-0) in a 143-pound professional MMA match.

Hiroko was originally scheduled to face Randi Miller at this event but Randi had to pull out due to personal reasons a little over a week ago.

Hiroko Yamanaka is coming off of an August submission victory over Sandy Furner. She holds victories over  ranked fighters Hitomi Akano and Yoko Takahashi.

Molly is coming off of her fight of the night performance at Cage Warriors where she lost a unanimous decision to #5 ranked 125-pound fighter Aisling Daly.

Yana Kunitskaya vs. Cindy Dandois: Fight Video

Yana Kunitskaya defeats Cindy Dandois

 

On Saturday December, 10 Druzhba Multipurpose Arena in Moscow.

#22 ranked 145-pound fighter Yana Kunitskaya (3-1-0) defeated #3 ranked 145-pound fighter Cindy Dandois by KO in the first round for the M-1 Womens 145-pound Championship. 

It was a quick KO 34 seconds into the match. Cindy did not look comfortable on her feet at all and tried to come inside for the take down but Yana just kept landing shot after shot until finally dropping her with a beautiful right hand, as Yana moved in for the finish the referee stepped in and put a stop to the fight before any further damage could be done.

My opinion is that Cindy even though she was hit hard and seemed to be knocked out after the punch, actually hit the ground and woke back up as evidence by her attempting to defend from the bottom.

This is the first time many of us have seen Yana fight and she looked very impressive with her striking especially for someone who's base is Russian Sambo.

Carla Esparza: Audio Interview

Join Rammy and Marq as they interview Carla Esparza about her upcoming fight with Nina Ansaroff and her last fight against Megumi Fujii. Not to mention she talks about her pet pigs and she even mentions Non Stop WMMA and the Top 25 Women's World Rankings. :))

Carina Damm: Interview

This past August was supposed to the breakthrough American performance for top women’s fighter Carina Damm.
An early favorite in the Strikeforce women’s 135-pound tournament, Damm had a surprisingly disappointing performance against Hitomi Akano, losing the bout via submission in the second round, derailing her comeback run.
Eager to prove her loss to Akano was only a temporary setback, Damm now moves down to 125-pounds to take on Colorado rising star Cat Albert at Winter Brawl in Grand Forks, N.D.

“I believe that I lost a bit of focus on the second round and fell into Hitomi’s game,” Damm told MMAWeekly.com of her August loss. “For this next fight I’m training twice as much as before so it doesn’t happen again.”


T o read the entire Interview click here

Miesha Tate: Video Interview

Cindy Dandois vs. Yana Kunitskaya: Weigh-In Results & Photo's

On Friday December, 10 Cindy Dandois will face Yana Kunitskaya in a 145-pound Championship match and here are the weigh-in results:

Cindy Dandois weighed in at 144-pounds

Yana Kunitskaya weighed in at 145-pounds

Rin Nakai vs. Mika Harigai

On Thursday December, 30 at Sengoku Raiden Championship's: Sengoku 15 "Soul of Fight" in Tokyo, Japan at The Ariake Coliseum.

Valkyrie Open Weight Champion #13 ranked 145-pound fighter Rin Nakai (9-0-0) will be facing Mika "Hari" Harigai (6-22-1) in a open weight professional MMA match.

Rin Nakai the Japanese sensation last fought and defeated  Mizuho Sato on November, 28 to win her Valkyrie open weight Championship. Rin trains at Shooto Shikoku. She is currently the only open weight champion in WMMA.

"Hari" as she is known trains at Fight Chix, in her last fight she lost to Chisa Yonezawa at the Nov. 28 Valkyrie show.

Non Stops Weekend Picks

I hate to do it, but I love to do it, betting is just too much fun, so sorry fighters if I pick against you it's not that I don't believe in you, it's just that I believe in her a little more and I am the expert so here are my picks and if I am wrong and choose against you feel free to let me know it  :)

Cindy Dandois vs. Yana Kunitskaya

Cindy Dandois: She is ranked #3 at 145 for A reason!


Carla Esparza vs. Nina Ansaroff

Carla Esparza: Two words; Megumi Fujii


Carina Damm vs. Cat Zingano

Carina Damm: One word; Experience


Sarah Maloy vs. Sharline Smith

Sarah Maloy: I just don't know anything about Sharline. Sarah is a trainer, that means she is good.