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K-1’s “Mayhem At The Mirage” Reserve Bouts Announced
Like any other professional sport, K-1 uses a methodical approach to recruiting and breaking in new talent for its competitive circuit.
Its “reserve bouts,” the series of three-round contests it presents during each of its events in order to have at its disposal replacement competitors for those who become injured during tournament action, have served as a trial stage for those seeking a more permanent career in “The New Fighting Sport.”
On Saturday, a handful of new faces will realize their long-standing dreams during “Mayhem At The Mirage” tournament reserve matchups at Las Vegas, Nevada’s Mirage Hotel and Casino. Here is a look at the new class of American martial arts fighters coming to Sin City.
Patrick Barry:
Height: 5’11” Weight: 230 lbs. Discipline: Muay Thai and Kung-Fu
On April 30th, undefeated prospect Patrick Barry was granted his first shot at becoming a member of the world’s premiere fighting organization. The magic that the stocky knockout artist had displayed during his previous appearances in the ring, however, did not follow him to Las Vegas for his tournament reserve bout matchup with fellow rising star Scott Lighty. Over the course of their three-round matchup, Lighty repeatedly beat Barry to the punch and outscored him considerably over the course of three rounds before handing Barry his first loss.
Undaunted by his initial showing, the 26-year-old will return to Las Vegas for another reserve fight start. To prepare himself adequately for the challenge that can be as taxing psychologically as it is physically, Barry sought help from an individual who has experienced the same ups and downs that comes with life in the martial arts fight world. Six-time K-1 veteran and four-time world Muay Thai champion, Jeff “Duke” Roufus, spent several weeks fine-tuning Barry’s game for the big-time.
“I’m way more advanced this time,” said Barry. “I’ve got guidance now from someone who’s been in the game for 20 years and knows the ropes. I have a support team – training partners, sparring partners, and all of the other things that I didn’t have before.”
Imani Lee:
Height: 6’5” Weight: 295 lbs. Discipline: Boxing and Kickboxing
Two years ago, Virginia native Imani Lee aspired to be boxing’s next great heavyweight. His ambition drove him to Los Angeles, California where he quickly befriended and became a training partner of two-time world champion, James “Lights Out” Toney, as well as former heavyweight champion Michael Moorer and Lamon Brewster.
As Lee’s visibility soared, opportunities, including an appearance on ESPN’s Friday Night Fights, followed in suit. Along the way, however, he became disillusioned by the politics for which boxing is all too well-known.
Around the same time that he was becoming frustrated with the hurdles involved in the business of the “sweet science,” Lee made the acquaintance of K-1 superstar Bob Sapp and martial arts trainer Eddy Millis and felt a sudden inspiration after seeing Sapp’s life story documented on the HBO series, “Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel.”
“Watching Bob Sapp and seeing what he came from was what really made me want to become a part of K-1,” said Lee, who has since become a Millis protégé. Lee’s association with Millis’s California-based Shark Tank camp has allowed the fighter to train with K-1 “Battle at Bellagio III” tournament winner, “Mighty Mo” Siligia. “The opportunity to fight in K-1 is like a dream come true. I’ve wanted to for a while because it’s boxing and kickboxing at the same time and I felt like it was the only sport that really wasn’t tainted by the promoters and the managers involved.”
Since making a transformation from puncher to martial arts fighter, Lee has tested his newfound skills in tournament format competition on a few occasions and has enjoyed significant success. “My kicking was kind of questionable, but my hand speed and my hands were great,” noted Lee about his first experience in martial arts style combat. “So the first time I fought, I knocked the guy out with one punch. From that point on, they were calling me the Muhammed Ali of kickboxing.”
Rick Cheek:
Height: 6’4” Weight: 270 lbs. Discipline: Kickboxing
Word has spread quickly about the dangerous capabilities of 27-year-old Rick Cheek. With an unblemished record of 14-0 (12 KO’s) and three North American amateur tournament championships under his belt, it is no wonder why.
Aside from his experience in single-elimination format competition, Cheek brings to K-1 the kind of physical power that wins Grand Prix tournaments. In stopping 12 of his first 14 opponents, he has rightfully earned the nickname “Savage.”
Cheek is trained by world class kickboxer, Billy Olson of the Nor/Cal Fighting Alliance.
Mike Sheppard:
Height: 6’2” Weight: 217 lbs. Discipline: Boxing and Kickboxing
Since his childhood in which he studied the art of Karate, Sheppard has devoted his life to combat sports. From boxing to mixed martial arts to kickboxing, the West Virginian’s life has been consumed with battles in the squared circle and, at 30 years of age, he feels he is ripe for a prosperous career in K-1.
“Most of the guys I’ve kickboxed don’t have the experience that I’ve had with their hands,” said Sheppard, a veteran of 15 professional boxing bouts. Over the last three years, he has applied his western boxing skills to competition under kickboxing rules. “I don’t get excited and I don’t get nervous. I’ve been in there with some of the best boxers and I’ve seen just about everything there is to see.”
Last November, Sheppard caught the eyes of K-1 recruiters when he defeated three straight opponents to capture the eight-man, single-elimination “Heavyweight Gladiators” tournament championship in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Lighty was amongst his three victims.
Azem Maksutaj: Heir Hopeful
In 1994, a 30-year-old Andy Hug became an inspiration to European fighters after he emerged one of the first superstars in the sport of K-1 that was, at the time, still in its infancy. Since his tragic, leukemia-related death seven years ago, however, there has not yet emerged an individual from Hug’s native Switzerland to carry the torch once held by the fallen champion.
At 30 years of age, five-time world Muay Thai champion Azem Maksutaj is aiming to fill Hug’s shoes. A former training partner of Hug, the Swiss Muay Thai stylist has devoted the last six years of his career to feeling out the ranks in K-1’s worldwide competitive circuit.
Next Saturday, August 13th, Maksutaj will have another opportunity to earn his first K-1 tournament crown and bring himself one step closer to attaining his ultimate goal of becoming an icon. The eight-man, single-elimination “Mayhem At The Mirage” affair will also provide him with a chance to avenge a defeat that he suffered at the hands of three-time Las Vegas K-1 tournament champion, Michael McDonald (pictures), in Sweden on May 21st. Maksutaj fought McDonald to a three-round draw, but was handed a loss after K-1’s customary, “sudden death” round was added to the fight in order to determine a winner.
Speaking from a hotel room in Croatia where he spent one week of his ten week training camp with martial arts fighting superstar, Mirko Filipovic (pictures), Maksutaj makes it clear that he feels his time to shine has come.
Q: Can you tell me a little bit about your experience training with Mirko?
A: Listen, I am preparing now for around eight weeks. In Switzerland, since Andy Hug died, we haven’t had a team and top fight partners. I thought where can I go for sparring and I saw Cro Cop when I went to fight in K-1 three years ago in Zagreb. I did sparring with him then. He liked my style and he asked me when he was preparing for a fight if I could come train for a week with him. It’s good for me to spar with him because I can see where I am with power and everything.
Q: How has working with him helped you improve as a fighter?
A: I mean, he is the best. Nobody can help you much like him. I need only one week (with him). My training is in Switzerland. I have boxing trainers there and Thai boxing trainers there. The problem in Switzerland is that you don’t have enough sparring partners so I thought it would help to go to Croatia for a week.
Q: What is your training in Switzerland like?
A: I started in Muay Thai when I was young. Now I am older and heavier and I’m trying to do K-1 more. I was training also with Andy Hug. Now, I also have a boxing license.
Q: So, you were a part of “Team Andy” back in the 90’s (Hug formed Team Andy, a squad of up and coming martial arts fighters, while living and training in Japan)?
A: No. Team Andy – we don’t have this team anymore because of Japan. We can’t use this name anymore. You know, Team Andy was just (in existence) about three, four, or five years. Andy was always in Japan. He (would) come (back) one or two months to Switzerland. I have my own gym (Wing Thai gym) now for 11 years. I train by myself with my own trainers and my own team.
Q: So, when you trained with Andy, it was only in Switzerland, not Japan?
A: Only in Switzerland. Yes.
Q: What was the experience of training with Andy like?
A: He was helping everybody. He was helping me very much. He was asking me one year before he died if I wanted to come to Japan. But, I had a gym in Switzerland and I didn’t want to leave my gym and my family. But, Andy was Andy – always perfect. His last five years, he was the best. When he was changing from Karate to Thai boxing, which was around 1992, he didn’t have so good a chance. But, after 1995, he was good again.
Q: Your first round opponent in Las Vegas will be Michael McDonald (pictures), whom you fought earlier this year. How do you feel you will match up with him this time?
A: Oh, you know, Michael McDonald (pictures) is good. But, I think he is now too old. (During the fight), he was on the floor two times. I was on the floor one time. But, he has big name and (the judges) called it a draw. In the extra round, we both were tired. But, now let’s see. I don’t want to talk too much. You will see, though.
Q: Is there anything else you would like to tell people?
A: In 1997, I was in Las Vegas and I liked it. It will be nice to be there again. I just want to show people the spirit I have. Everybody thinks that Swiss guys aren’t so strong. I don’t know why, but I will show them true fighting spirit.
Marquardt Decisions Salaverry in “Ultimate Fight Night” Debut
LAS VEGAS, Aug. 6 — Presuming UFC president Dana White hoped tonight for a replay of the successful “Ultimate Fighter” season finale, which was viewed by 3.3 million people when it aired live on Spike TV in April, he’s probably not very happy right now.
Saturday’s first ever basic cable telecast of the UFC on Spike TV’s “Ultimate Fight Night” offered a lesson for a company that is manic about control: “As Real As it Gets” can be both a good and bad thing.
Headlined by a middleweight non-title bout between veterans Ivan Salaverry (pictures) and Nathan Marquardt (pictures), the eight-fight card, packed with young UFC fighters and season one cast members from TUF, left most of the sold-out Cox Pavilion crowd grumbling its displeasure as they exited the building.
Odds are, fans watching at home weren’t ecstatic either.
In the main event, Marquardt fought a technical, tactical battle against Salaverry, earning a unanimous decision victory (30-27 on each judge’s card). Sherdog.com agreed with the scoring.
Both Marquardt, a Denver, Colo. product making his UFC debut after 20 professional bouts in Japan’s Pancrase organization, and Salaverry employed a defensive tact, neither willing to offer an uneducated flurry often seen among less experienced fighters.
“It was really strategic, I believe,” Salaverry said after the fight. “I would believe that a lot of MMA enthusiasts would enjoy it. The crowd itself I don’t think did. All in all, it was weird. It was like fighting my shadow.”
Coming into the bout it was thought that Marquardt and Salaverry were evenly matched middleweights, their fighting styles and tactics near identical. And in many ways that bore out during their 15 minutes in the Octagon.
(Though many will call this bout boring, it was a contest between two pros. Fights like this demand five rounds, not the three currently proscribed for non-championship bouts.)
The difference in the fight came from their physical tools, as Marquardt was the more athletic fighter. His quickness edge was clear in the fight’s first minutes and he scored to Salaverry’s front leg with blistering Thai kicks. Their effects paid dividends and soon Salaverry only circled and offered pedestrian strikes.
Marquardt simply blocked and countered, and after two periods was in clear control of the fight.
“I think how he got me basically was when I committed to the low-kick, mid-kick or high-kick, then he was able to get a takedown off of it,” Salaverry said. “Basically there wasn’t anything on the ground that he did to me. He tried to take my back and even then it didn’t work.”
For Salaverry to have had a shot, he needed to come out aggressively in round three. But it turned out to be the least compelling round for the Seattle, Wash.-based fighter.
As Marquardt continued his effort, stopping each of Salaverry’s takedown attempts, tactically countering the UFC veteran in every department, the frustration mounted — both for Salaverry and fans in the arena.
Marquardt is no stranger to competitive bouts that go the distance, and he was content with the pace of the fight. Salaverry presented no danger and he knew the decision was his if he couldn’t finish before time ran out.
“It feels great, mainly because I trained so hard,” Marquardt said. “It feels real good.”
“Hopefully next time it’s going to be a more exciting fight.”
The victory sets up a possible UFC middleweight title shot for Marquardt, a three-time King of Pancrase. “I’m here for the belt,” he said. “I’m here to be the champion. God’s given me all the gifts to be champion.”