Congratulations to AJ Stuyvenberg for becoming The Cellar’s newest Brazilian Jiu Jitsu blue belt. AJ was promoted by The Cellar’s head Jiu Jitsu instructor and Pedro Sauer Black Belt, Tom Schmitz. Congratulations AJ!
Posted in Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu | No Comments »
Kickboxing returned to the Hyatt Regency in Minneapolis with a huge bang as Team USA hosted Team Ireland. The event was a huge success and fans were treated to some incredible fights as Team USA’s Chris Cichon won by first round KO, “Speedy” Swenson won a 5 round decision, and Jamie McDermid lost a back and forth decision in one of the best fights ever! Thanks to our many supporters who attended the event.
In front of a packed house and some sections with standing room only, several types of martial artists and competitors took to the ring. Spectators were treated to exciting forms and tricks demonstrations from National Karate’s Alex Dingman, Jake Boone, and Joe Boone. They also witnessed a 3-man team point fighting competition between National Karate (B.J. Carnahan, Alex Dingman, and Joe Boone) and a mixed team from The Edge and Metro Karate (Nate Thorn, Donald Brady, and Scott Smith). But the night was headlined by some of the most action packed kickboxing fights Minneapolis has ever seen, including a 3 international bouts between fighters from the United States and Ireland. Results from the night are below:
Team USA vs Irealand
To purchase pictures from the nights event, please visit www.SnapLocally.com
DVDs will be available soon from One Light Collective
Posted in Anthony Bendjebar, Jamie McDermid, Team USA Kickboxing, Cellar Kickboxing, Chris Cichon | 4 Comments »
Today the fight poster for the February 20th kickboxing event at the Hyatt was released. Check it out and let us know what you think. To recap, the event takes place in downtown Minneapolis at the Hyatt Regency on February 20th, 2010. The main event features 3 fights between Team USA and Team Ireland:
Other featured fights on the card include the full contact kickboxing debut of National Karate’s Greg Betlach at 170lbs, and a great battle of young prospects as Anthony Bendjebar (0-0, The Cellar) makes his kickboxing debut against Josiah Lorsong (0-1, North Branch Kickboxing). There will also be a 3-man team karate challenge featuring the top point karate fighters from the Twin Cities. This will be a very exciting, all ages event you won’t want to miss.
Posted in Jamie McDermid, Team USA Kickboxing, Chris Cichon, Fights | No Comments »
All Stand-up…All Action!
The most exciting fight sport to see live is returning to the Hyatt Regency in Minneapolis on February 20th. The top strikers in the Midwest will enter the ring to compete in Full Contact Kickboxing and Muay Thai fights that guarantee to entertain.
In the main event, 3 fighters from the U.S. National Kickboxing Team will challenge the top fighters from Ireland in an international slugfest.
Tickets go on sale February 4th at The Cellar Gym in Minneapolis and you save money when you buy in advance. Don’t wait, this will be an action packed event you don’t want to miss!
MAIN EVENT FIGHTS:
Aaron Swenson (Chicago, IL, USA) vs. Wilson Snoddy (Ireland)
Jamie McDermid (Duluth, MN, USA) vs. Sean O’Neill (Ireland)
Chris Cichon (St. Paul, MN, USA) vs. Ronan McSweeney (Ireland)
TICKET PREICES:
General Admission - $25 in advance ($35 at the door)
VIP Seating (Rows 2-3) - $35 in advance ($45 at the door)
Ringside Tables - $75 in advance ($85 at the door)
Posted in Jamie McDermid, Team USA Kickboxing, Chris Cichon, Fights | No Comments »
The Cellar Fight Team’s Eric Ortiz and Brandon Buchholz were both victorious Saturday night at the Fearless Fighting Championships 3. Both fighters finished their fights in the first round; Ortiz by TKO from strikes on the ground and Buccholz by submission. Congratulations guys and thanks to all our Cellar fans for their support.
Eric Ortiz was the first pro fight on the card against Wisconsin’s Joel Allard. Both fighters started out cautious and testing their range, but it only took one mistake from Allard and Ortiz pounced on top and began unloading his vicious ground n’ pound attack. After taking Allard’s back, Ortiz increased his intensity and forced the referee to stop the bout by technical knockout. Ortiz moves to 2-0 with one win by TKO and one by submission.
Brandon Buchholz’s originally scheduled opponent pulled out of the fight the morning before weigh-ins and left the Fearless Fighting Championship’s promoter scrambling to find a new challenger at the last minute. Randy Ronchi eventually stepped up to the plate and Buchholz was back on the fight card. After spending much time working on his standup game, Buchholz was hoping to put his hands to the test in the cage, but the fight quickly turned to the ground with Buchholz turning to his guard instead. Buchholz executed a smooth sweep and began looking to finish with a guillotine choke. Ronchi attempted to defend the attack by rolling out of it, but was forced to tap shortly later. A lot of respect goes out to Ronchi and his camp for taking this fight on just one days notice.
Congratulations goes out to both Cellar fighters and we look forward to seeing them both in the cage again soon.
Posted in Brandon Buchholz, Eric Ortiz, MMA | No Comments »
I apologize for the delay between updates, the internet went down at the Sports Hall and the rest of Lignano was a ghost town (closed for the season) so it was hard to get info back home.
To start off I want to describe the scoring system they used here. If anyone watched any boxing during the 2008 olympic games in Beijing, it’s very similar (makes sense too because WAKO is trying real hard to make kickboxing an olympic sport). Basically each judge has clicker type device (looks like a computer mouse with one red button and one blue button). Everytime a clean, effective shot is landed, the judge clicks the color for that fighter.
Two things make this system very interesting:
Ok back to the updates:
On Friday we were expecting to have 5 fighters in the ring, but for some reason when the fight order came out, they stopped the day with Simon’s weight class meaning Adam and Mike were pushed back to fighting on Saturday. This wasn’t a big deal for Mike as he is a heavyweight and doesn’t have a weight limit, but it sucked for Adam because he had to make weight each day of the tournament and to cut weight on Friday, but not fight really sucks.
FRIDAY FIGHTS
Jim Klauba took the ring first fighting against a tough fighter from Turkey. Jim looked good in the ring, but his opponnent was an akward and dirty fighter (holding and hitting, catching kicks and punching, etc). I think it took Jim a little off his game and got him looking too much for that one big shot to end the fight. Jim bounced off the ropes in the 2nd round and ate a big kick that ended the fight.
Nathan Key’s second fight was against a phenomenal fighter from Norway (I believe he is the current European Champion). Nathan started off the fight looking sharp and landing great kicks. He moved well and had the lead after the first two rounds, but ran out of gas in the 3rd round and the Norweigan fighter began to outscore him. Had they fought with a 10-9 must system, Nathan would have won the fight, but the accumulative system put him behind in the end.
Simon Buttener fought a Ukranian in his next fight. The Ukranian fighter was obviously intimidated by Simon’s :12 second KO in his previous fight because he did not want to exchange with Simon. Instead he fought a very smart/safe fight, moving constantly and using some very effective foot sweeps to avoid Simon’s power. Simon caught him a few times, but the ref was quick to jump in and stop the bout because of headgear malfunctions with the Ukranian so Simon was unable to put any real combos together.
SATURDAY FIGHTS
Adam started the day off fighting against a fighter from Slovenia. We had seen the fighter in his first bout and thought Adam had good chances against him. Unfortunately Adam was exhausted after cutting weight on Tues, Fri, and Saturday. He hadn’t eaten very much the entire week while trying to keep his weight low and he wasnt well hydrated either. Adam started the fight off well landing great kicks and keeping the Slovenian flustered with his movement. Adam won the first and second rounds on points, but he too lost gas in the 3rd round and the Slovenian came back on all cylinders to win the fight. Another loss due to the accumulative scoring system.
Mike Dean faced off against a huge French fighter next. Mike was the last fighter from the U.S. still alive in the tournament and our last hope for a medal. You could see how much he wanted to win this fight for the team and for the USA. He gave his all in this fight and didn’t stop after taking two huge shots (one to the head and one to the body) both giving him 8-counts. Mike pushed hard, but the much taller Frenchman just controlled the distance better in the fight and kept away from Mike’s power to get the unanimous decision win.
FINAL THOUGHTS
It was a tough tournament for the U.S. team, but we did get 2 big wins in the tournament and several of the fights that we lost would have been won if using a 10-9 scoring system. We also had much harder draws in the tournament than previously thought: Every fighter a U.S. Team member lost to ended up moving on to medal in the tournament (3 or 4 of them fought for the gold).
We definitely have things to work on, but we’re confident we belong here and you can expect an even better showing two years from now at the next World Championships.
Posted in Team USA Kickboxing, Adam McDermid, Chris Cichon, WAKO | 2 Comments »
Adam lost by a close decision. Mike got knocked down with an overhand right in the first 20 seconds of the first round but got up and finished the fight losing by decision. Team USA ended up 2 and 7 with one knock out in the tournament. Much better than last time when everyone went out in the first fight. Simon got the fastest knock out of the tournament. Thank you Ronnie Copeland for the results.
Posted in Team USA Kickboxing, Adam McDermid, Chris Cichon | No Comments »
Chris started the day off against a strong Brazilian fighter. After two rounds it was even with one judge scoring Chris ahead one judge for Brazilian and one having it even. In the third round Chris believes he stood in front of him too much and was out scored in the third. Tough fight and the Brazilian was strong as an ox. Chris fought well but it wasn’t his day. Chris also said he couldn’t get points for strikes from one judge to save his life.John was up right after againsst new caldonia. He looked real crisp landing great hands and was up on two score cards with one even at end of round one. With 20 seconds left he got caught with a head round kick and was dropped. Jon beat the count but was still a little shaky on his feet. Ref called the bout with about 10 sec left. Real bummer to cause jon was beating the kid and was looking sharp in the ring.Simon took the ring next against chech fighter. This was a quick one as Simon landed a beautiful left hook on the chin knocking the chech out silly just 20 sec into rd one. USA finally gets a win and we have great momentum back on our side.Nathan key won by unamious decision and by a huge point spread against the French fighter. After the fight a bit of drama occurred as the French team believed the tape and guaze on nathan hands were illeagle and this called for a dq. There was a huge pow wow outside the ring. But the decision was not overturned. Nathan advances tomorow to face Norway.Tomorrows fighters include jim nathan Simon Adam and mike
Posted in Team USA Kickboxing, Adam McDermid, Chris Cichon, Uncategorized | 5 Comments »
Full brackets were posted this afternoon, we got some pretty good draws. Tomorows fights include john gruebel vs fighter from new caldonia. Chris Cichon vs Brazil. And Simon Buttener will fight Czechoslovakia. If John and Chris win they will fight once more tomorrow.Adam McDermid got bye and will fight on Friday vs Ireland or Slovenia. Jim Klauba got bye and will fight Friday vs Poland or Turkey. Mike Dean also got bye and will fight France or Kazakstan.Openining ceremonies were today along with march of countries and flags. This was very cool to see.
Posted in Adam McDermid, Chris Cichon | 6 Comments »
Chris, Adam, Justin, and the rest of Team USA have all arrived safely in Italy. We hope to have more photos up soon, but we curently have poor internet access. Everyone from USA made weight. It has been amazing to see all the different countries here, each in a unique warmup suit :Russia brazil Ireland Poland kZakhatan Bulgaria new Zealand and many many more.Full brackets should be posted tonight. Simon is in a huge division so their first round will start tonight but Simon got a bye and will fight tonights winner of Canada and Czechoslovakia tomorrow sometime. Will know more after all brackets are up.
Posted in Team USA Kickboxing, Adam McDermid, Chris Cichon, WAKO, Fights | 1 Comment »