MARQUEE Event Preview
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Credit: Glenn Rocket
A&E's MARQUEE 5
2020-08-29
Helsinki "The Wild Bear" Ivan Sergeev (4-2-0) vs. Marcelo "San" Lopez (1-0-0)
Heavyweight - 265lbs
This week, we have the ultimate heavyweight showdown as our main event. But we also start with an appetizing heavyweight fight that is sure to get the juices flowing for what's to come. For Marcelo Lopez, it's an A&E debut on the biggest stage of all at the young age of 17. For Ivan Sergeev, it's a chance to bounce back from a 10 second devastating knockout loss. These are two fighters that have taken two very different paths up to this point but share something in common. They submit their opponents. Nothing but submission wins. Two RNCs and two kimuras for Sergeev and an armbar for Lopez. What's even more impressive about the latter's submission is that Marcelo Lopez...is a white belt! Yet he still only needed 72 seconds to make his 2-0-0 opponent tap. It makes sense then, why this teenager is on a MARQUEE card and not A&E: Rising Stars. Because this is no ordinary teenager. The talent is there. The only problem is...is his manager? Reports out of Lopez' camp is that morale is very low. He hasn't been training. He looks bad. And he's in financial trouble. Allegedly. A win here would give him $7500 but more importantly, something to be happy about. It's a tall Russian mountain to climb.
"The Wild Bear" Ivan Sergeev has had his own fair share of ups and downs in his career. Just look at his last two fights. A 2:38 submission win that was good enough for the Sub of the Night award. Followed by that 10 second knockout loss to one of the hardest hitters in the division. There's no shame in that. But losing to a dysfunctional teenager? Questions will be asked. Does the Judo and Greco-Roman practitioner from Siberia, have the answers?
#5 Sergei "Ultrabear" Ivanov (1-0-0) vs. #4 Big "Iheartcarrots" Chungus (1-0-0)
Super Heavyweight - 265+lbs
The Super Heavyweight division has come alive. And these are two of the fighters that helped wake it up. The bad news for the big guys is that sometimes they are offered a fight that is more dangerous than it should be because of the lack of depth at 265+. The good news for the big guys is that winning a fight like this, puts you right into the title picture.
This is about as explosive as it gets. Big Chungus won his A&E debut in 29 seconds. It only took three punches before the referee stepped in. Sergei Ivanov won HIS A&E debut in 20 seconds. It was a monster hook that knocked his opponent out cold before he even hit the floor. Ivanov has the cardio should this one go longer. But that big right hand of Chungus' might not allow it. It may be a case of who lands first. It's definitely a case of don't blink.
#5 Conan "The Celt" Kennedy (2-0-0) vs. #2 Ricky Youngblood (3-0-0)
Lightweight - 155lbs
Look at how good this card is! We're just getting started and yet here we are with two lightweights that are two of the best. For now they're on the outside looking in but they find themselves right on the cusp of title town. Two teenagers that have been training at two of the best gyms out there for over a year now. Both undefeated. Can they make the leap to the next level? They find out by accepting fights like these. These two aren't hiding. This is a good tough fight between two up-and-comers that take on all comers. You love to see it. A far cry from the early days of A&E when well renowned managers wanted to pick their fights. But we digress...
Whereas Ricky Youngblood has fought all of his fights under the A&E banner, this is Conan Kennedy's first time here. There's a sub plot for this one. Given all the talk about rankings and A&E vs. QFC fights, it'll be even more interesting to see this one unfold. Youngblood is A&E through and through. Three fights. Three wins. From Rising Stars to MARQUEE. The A&E feel good story. Conan Kennedy has fought in the QFC and fought for another organisation, albeit briefly. He looks a real prospect. His 37 second TKO win last time out had a lot of people talking and we couldn't be happier he chose to make A&E his next destination. If he continues down this same road of winning, he may soon arrive at Our Champion's wall. Too premature? We don't think so. Beating the #2 ranked fighter on Saturday is a good way to about it.
#4 Oluwadare Kwande (3-0-0) vs. #5 Richard "The Lost Cousin" Betts (2-0-0)
Featherweight - 145lbs
"Give me Betts". That was the message from Oluwadare Kwande to Dave Ashbourne. Calling out a much older ground based fighter is a ballsy move, there's no denying that. Calling out such a fighter in your first A&E fight?! Even more ballsy. The pair are neck and neck in the latest rankings, surrounded by fellow undefeated fighters. A loss will hurt in the short run. A win would be enormous in such a brutal division. Some of these featherweights are going to have to lose at some point.
Kwande has gone the distance twice during his three outings. Those fights were not even close. Both had 10-8 rounds. Kwande dominated. But now he takes on a different beast in Betts. The brown belt has two finishes in two fights. He won't be testing Kwande's granite chin. That much is obvious. But he will be testing Kwande's mixed martial arts. The Uganda native has stopped many takedowns before. He stopped six from seven but that was against a fighter who ended his career 0-8-0. He stopped 15 from 18 against a better fighter in his last fight. Betts on the other hand, only needed one takedown attempt in his last fight. It was over in 2:59 of the very first round. But the real x-factor here? Oluwadare Kwande is no slouch on the ground. We believe he can hang with the best. He even won his first fight via submission! As a blue belt.
Sitting in the middle of the featherweight rankings, someone's going to separate themselves from the pack.
Boleslav Makarenko (2-2-0) vs. #1 Mickey "The Mouse" Fernandez (4-0-0)
Featherweight - 145lbs
Boleslav Makarenko's career up to this point is a story of two halves. He lost his debut in a fight where it seemed like his opponent wanted to hug him more than fight him. Following that decision loss, he then moved up in weight for a one three-minute round fight that didn't allow him enough time to showcase his talent. After that? A 15 second knockout win and a 10 second TKO victory. Talk about turning it around! What's going to happen next? It's anyone's guess and that's what makes it essential viewing.
Mickey "The Mouse" Fernandez got next. He was a little unlucky that this fight got made long before the champion Joe Biden dealt with his next challenger. That leaves Fernandez needing to win this fight to secure that title shot against Biden. One more fight. Can he do it? Or will he fall at the very last hurdle? It will be his third MARQUEE event in a row. The man means business. The man is good for business. Four fights. All first round submissions. His last fight was a sure step up in competition too, as he became the first fighter to beat Ogum Jung Min. It was a seriously impressive performance that was very worthy of the Sub of the Night award it won. We've seen these kind of fights before though. A fighter being one win away from their title shot. Most of the time, the pressure gets to them and for lack of a better word, they choke. But Fernandez is built different. Let's see if he can impress once again or if Boleslav Makarenko can spoil the party.
"Million" Marco Paris (3-0-0) vs. Fried Slobberknacker (3-1-0)
Welterweight - 170lbs
In case you've been living under a rock, there's a welterweight tournament going on. The A&E Welterweight Grand Prix 2020. Rolls off the tongue. But life goes on for the welterweights not involved. And there are some very good ones. Exhibit A. This fight.
The Paris family has a long and successful lineage. Marco is the latest Paris looking to breakthrough under the stewardship of MMA manager Milo, who is back and better than ever. No one's figured out how to deal with Paris' exceptional wrestling yet. No one has even come close. He takes you down. And he beats the living crap out of you. It's a simple yet very effective tactic. Even when you know it's coming, you can't stop it. Slobberknacker's wrestling is respectable. It's the best that Marco Paris has gone up against so far in his career. Could it be the difference in this fight?
Slobberknacker does have a solid chin. He's going to need it if he gets taken down. A solid chin is the very least you need when Marco Paris is pummeling you from on top. That ground and pound is nasty. Fried is going to have to pick his shots very well in order to survive the onslaught that is coming for him. The welterweight rankings have not been released yet, as we wait for the end of the tournament. But we have no doubt that Marco Paris is one of the best in the division. Not that he needs to, but he can prove it once again here.
John "Stahley" PG (4-0-0) vs. "Sir" Knife Face (2-0-0)
Welterweight - 170lbs
John PG. John. P. G. What more can we say about this guy that hasn't already been said? Nothing. And I mean nothing, gets us more excited than a John PG fight. We would pay to watch him fight anyone anywhere anytime. And that's exactly what he does. If you need to jog your memory, PG burst onto the A&E scene with a 10 second knockout in his debut. Then a 36 second knockout two weeks later. "Oh but he's not fighting elite competition". Then he became the first man to beat 4-1-0 Best Best in the first round. Not even Ethan Hawk - another one of our favourite's - managed to do that. And THEN...he became the first man to beat Phin Phorreal in an absolute WAR. What a fight that was! Can he become the first person to beat Knife Face? We wouldn't put anything past John PG. We need to get to work on some John PG merch.
"I need big fights. I don't want to prey on the easy fights, but I'll smash whoever is put in front." That's the message from Knife Face. We respect the hustle. There is absolutely nothing easy about a John PG fight. Face does have a tendency to cut. John PG does have a tendency to punch you in the face. Hard. John PG will most definitely punch Face in the face. Hard. Will cuts be the determining factor here? Let's be honest. John PG will be the determining factor.
Interestingly though, John has had no trouble in the clinch. He can hold his own there for sure. But he's never been taken down. Not once. No one's even tried. No one's even had the chance. They lose before they can shoot. They don't know what's hit them. Because John PG did. Knife Face has a 100% takedown success rate. 5 from 5. Could it be? Can he take John down and fight HIS fight? Surely not.
#9 Ricky Conway (4-1-0) vs. #8 Fran Griggs (5-1-0)
Middleweight - 185lbs
Fran Griggs lost for the first time against Nario Gwan back in June. He talked a lot of talk before the fight but has been relatively quiet since then. Gwan has been far more active, taking on some of the best middleweights and coming up short. He fought and lost to the Middleweight Champion Principo Adam. And he lost to Ricky Conway. Griggs has had one fight since the Gwan fight and that was against a fighter towards the bottom of the division. Why does this matter? Because there are many people, including this writer, that think Gwan has been harshly punished in the rankings for taking on such difficult fights and losing them. I would go one step further and suggest Griggs does not warrant his #8 ranking. He can shut me up with a victory over Ricky Conway, something Gwan was unable to do. We know that styles make fights. So it's entirely possible that Fighter A who lost to Fighter B can beat Fighter C who beat Fighter B. Sounds messy? This is a messy division. It's fair and right to say that Principo Adam is the best middleweight. He is. But anything else is open for debate right now. It's going to be very fun seeing all the middleweight fights happen...all the cards fall where they may...and seeing who is for real and who is not. There are rumours that this is Rick Conway's retirement fight. He hasn't been able to push past white belt in training and that may prevent him from ever challenging at the top end of the division. It certainly didn't help his case when he lost to title challenger Wilhelm Bar, his only loss. He has some great wins on his resume, like the Nario Gwan fight but also that Fight of the Night performance and win against the talented Spencer Wright. He threw 54 head punches that night and connected on an incredible half of them. It's been great watching Conway in action. If this is indeed his last fight, we will savour every second of it.
© Liam Ghambe (3-0-0) vs. #1 Chris "Chrissy" Leopoldo (4-0-0)
A&E Super Heavyweight Championship - 265+lbs
And so we come to the co-main event of the evening. The biggest fight of the evening. In terms of size for sure. A combined 591lbs going head to head. Toe to toe. Punch for punch.
Liam Ghambe won the title in spectacular fashion when he knocked Jan Nycz out cold, landing the perfect shot on the Poles' jaw. He knocked him down THREE times before finally putting him out in 83 seconds. It was brutal. It was like watching a train run over...another train. But the winning train was made up of steel. And the losing train was made up of hype. We mean no disrespect. But there are levels to this. And Liam Ghambe is on a whole new level. Critics might point to the fact that he was unable to put away Bob Sap in his debut. Sure he didn't get the finish. But every round was a 10-8 round. Total domination from beginning to end.
Chris Leopoldo wants nothing more than this chance at the title. He believes he deserves it. We believe he deserves it. The only thing left to do is to get it. There were some question marks. He was 3-0-0 but all of the wins came against the same fighter. We already spoke about that in a previous preview. The opponent stayed the same but the finishes got more and more impressive, ending in a 29 second knockout. So we wondered, could he do that at A&E too? Leopoldo must have been trolling us when he did the EXACT SAME THING in his A&E debut - a 29 second knockout!!!! Ridiculous. That's back-to-back 29 second KOs. That's unheard of. And that's why we think he belongs at the top.
© Denis White (3-0-0) vs. #3 Sylvester "The Cat" Coltrane (2-0-0)
A&E Heavyweight Championship - 265lbs
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Denis White beat Tyrone Tyson so bad, that the former champ was dropped by his manager, completely changed his appearance and even changed his name. That's a beating. It was a performance that shocked nearly everyone. We knew White was good. But THAT good? Beat the face of the heavyweight division in 81 seconds good???? No way. It was a remarkable night and maybe the start of a remarkable reign. A sign of things to come.
Coltrane is jumping into the deep end. He doesn't turn down fights. Especially championship fights. He's two wins from two fights, both in A&E. The last one was good enough to win the KO of the Night award. His opponent was bobbing and weaving with some impressive striking defense. But it didn't matter. Coltrane found the money shot. Right on the button. Good night! Sleep tight!
These are two fighters that can box their way to victory. But they are so much more than that. White's wrestling is truly wonderful to watch. Unless you're his opponent. Coltrane can roll with the best of them. He has the advantage there, being a blue belt to the champion's white belt. It feels like a fight where the better gameplan will make all the difference. Or are those hands of White's too heavy? The equalizer. Who knows! All we know is that we're glad it's not us stepping into the cage on a night full of the biggest and baddest fighters in the 360k era. It's going to be great to watch, from a safe distance. It's going to be extremely violent. This fight may be the most violent of them all.
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Happy betting! And don't forget...
A&E's MARQUEE. It's the place to be.
