Cage Titans “United” Review
What a great weekend at Cage Titans "United!" We must start by saying, the venue sure lived up to the hype. Walking around to every seat location further proved to us that there wasn't a bad seat in the house. Either the crew did an amazing job filling the arena, or it was a lot more "personal" than it looked when you saw it cage-less and empty in videos. The cage was very visible from all seats, and by far close enough to see every movement inside.
For those that needed reassurance while watching the bouts, Cage Titans had a big screen up, extremely visible as well, which enabled fans to see even the blood falling from cuts and noses. Cage Titans also hooked media up with a great cage-side area, which enabled us to broadcast to our fans well.
The fighters entered from up on the stage, similar to how WWE would do it, although not many fighters took advantage of that because they were in a zone. They were in a zone for a good reason though: their opponents were hungry BEASTS!
The fights were great! Many amateur fighters, like Adam Gordon, proved they belong in the MMA cage. A couple pre-mature stoppages from a new referee proved dissapointing, but that's the State of MA's fault. Unfortunately (but with good reason) promotions can't pick their own referee's. The fights that come to mind for early stoppages were Connor Matthews vs. Shannon Soares and Eddie Lee vs. Cory Pickering, although, Pickering had Lee in a ton of trouble from the beginning. Fernando Perez vs. Keegan Hornstra ended up an even match, with Fernando coming out with the "W." Keegan had quite a few good takedowns. "Sloppy" Joe Lamoureux is craaaazyyy. When he came out to fight Josh Mellon, he had his nutty "act" on. After the fight, it was quite apparent, this guy is nutty by nature. It's no act. Forget the nickname "Sloppy," this guy needs to takeover Heath Ledger and Stephen Langlais' role as "The Joker." Joe Pingitore vs. Brandon Flemming won fight of the night for good reason...man was it a brawl!!
Robby Slade vs. Andre Soukhamthath was fricken amazing. Andre's stand-up is like watching a gazelle who knows how to punch and kick. I swear he's straight out of an arcade game, which is why he gets so many "quarters" for tickets. Robby Slade turned leopard on this gazelle though, and pulled out a victory. If Barrington Douse wasn't too big for his weight class, I'd say him vs. Andre would be amazing, but Robby would definitely get first dibs.
Jimmy Davidson took care of Joe Dechaves quickly with a takedown and barrage of unanswered blows.
Frank Sforza. If you don't know the name after Saturday night, you don't know MMA. Defeating no-joke former champion Bill Jones puts him at a 6-0 winning streak, 3-0 as a pro, and a wrestler you do not want to roll around with.
All in all the night was spectacular! After the show, as Mike Polvere (owner of Cage Titans) was taking care of business, he said something which hit home for us. "My boss, everyone at work, they are all mad at me. They say I focus on this stuff too much." Fans, this is one promoter who isn't in it for the power, fame, or fortune. Not once, not twice, but every show he puts pleasing the fans before pleasing himself, and sometimes sacrifices a ton for it. This is one fan of MMA, and one promoter, who belongs in the local MMA scene. This show marked one-year for Cage Titans as a promotion. "This is very similar to [insert larger promotion here]," said one experienced local MMA fan. That statement impressed us even more, because Cage Titans has in one year reached an unbelievable height...who knows what's in store for the years to come!
"United" gets an A in our grading scale, feel free to weigh-in with yours below!