ONRA:April8th,2009

 

 

 

 

Hafa Adai,

“Baby” Joe Taimanglo opted to fight Deep’s 145-pound champion April 16 in Japan instead of competing for the Fearless 145-pound championship title April 4 in the Philippines.

Frank Camacho is fighting in the Ultimate Warrior Challenge April 25 in Maryland, and Patrick Ayuyu will be fighting in Kokoro on April 29 in Niigata, Japan.

Shortly after a successful event with Guerrilla Warfare 2, Saipan mixed martial arts has already set the date for their next event, Rites of Passage 7: Fist of Furies. It will be May 23.

It is a very busy time in MMA right now. Local talent is being sought from overseas, our fighter athletes and local clothing labels are on national television, MMA celebrities make their way through Guam and we have almost 100 successful, live MMA events to our resume –and counting. We should all be happy for these great things that have happened for the island since Guam’s introduction to revolutionized martial arts in the early ’90s.

Without even adding all the benefits professional and amateur combat athletes have given us inside and outside of sport and martial arts, we can be proud of an archive of notable accomplishments from Guam’s venture into competitive martial arts since the earlier days of rough-and-tough, no-holds-barred fighting, to the highly evolved and polished MMA.

Here are some of those accomplishments:

John Calvo fought the at-the-time UFC World Champion Dan Severn in SuperBrawl 7.

Japan MMA and street-fashion, super-celebrity Kid Yamamoto competed against Guam’s Ryan Urquizu in his pre-stardom days in Jungle Rules 1.

Melchor Manibusan advanced to the semifinals at the Abu Dhabi Combat Club and went the distance with Royler Gracie.

John Calvo and Melchor Manibusan received invitations to compete in the ADCC the following year after impressive performances in Japan.

Spirit MC hosted a television special in Korea broadcasting to over 3 million viewers with 30 minutes of coverage on Korea’s participation in Fury 6.

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UFC President Dana White wore a Guam T-shirt on national TV during the first season of “The Ultimate Fighter.” Afterward, Anthony Torres made the second season of “The Ultimate Fighter” and became the Marianas’ first venture into the UFC.

 

Tetsuji Kato fought Gilbert Melendez in front of a celebrity audience for the main event in the first Strike Force at the Playboy Mansion.

Patrick Ayuyu represented the United States in 2007′s K-1 World Max 155-pound tournament. An Ayuyu highlight reel supported with a Chamoru chant by Jay Pascua played for 2 minutes on K1′s big screens in front of thousands of fans.

Kelvin Fitial received a last-minute call from the Philippines to represent the Royce Gracie Team and fought against former UFC world heavyweight champion Ricco Rodriguez on eight hours notice for Platinum Productions’ Ring of Fire.

Fight commentators announced Guam repeatedly for millions of online viewers over the course of Mike Fowler’s last-minute invitation to a debut and stellar performance in the ADCC. Fowler defeated Brazilian Jiu Jitsu legends Renzo Gracie and Saulo Ribeiro.Though I’ve left out quite a few, these are some pretty massive things from this tiny dot in the Pacific.

Bright future

Now that momentum is flowing from our neighboring islands, the future is sure to give us more than a handful of encore performances.

We also are taking steps forward, not only to materialize trophies and championship belts, but also to create catapults for future generations into new ventures.

Thanks for dropping by.

Roman Dela Cruz is a mixed martial arts super-fan, and a representative for Fury MMA.