Top 5 Fights Of The Week 23rd - 29th January

[GBK16]

MMA TYCOON

 

TOP 5 FIGHTS OF THE WEEK

 

Welcome everyone to a brand new series of write ups I will be doing that will hopefully last longer than 2 weeks. In this series I will be taking a look and previewing 5 of the top fights happening in the Tycoon world this week.

 

I have a couple of rules for this.

 

First, the fights do not necessarily have to be the highest hyped, although the hype involved will ultimately factor into deciding between potential fights.

 

Second, I will only be including 1 fight per org in any given week, unless there are exceptional circumstances, such as a possible down week for multiple orgs, although in those cases I will do my best to find the most interesting fights from different orgs to look at.

 

Third, the preview is purely my opinion and these previews are not solicited by any given org. They are free to use the previews to hype any fights in their org. I am not being paid for any of this as money is not the motivation for doing it. I feel the game requires fresh inputs and new aspects, and hopefully this can be something that people look forward to each week.

 

Last, the fights I am looking will be between Monday - Sunday of any given week. This week, since we start on the Thursday, I will be looking at fights happening from Friday - Sunday for this week only, with Monday - Sunday going from this weekend. So the schedule looks like:

 

27th January - 29th January

30th January - 5th February etc.

 

And just on a little note - I made up a colour scheme for the TOTT for the orgs based purely on their logos and what colours I associate with them. If any of the orgs would like different colours on it - Lemme know and I will adjust them! For this week, I am going to be adding them as I complete them, but the TOTT for each fight is available immediately. For subsequent weeks, I will likely be adding one per day from Monday - Friday, with the earlier fights each week obviously taking precedent over the weekend fights.

 

Now with all of that out of the way, let’s crack on with the Top 5 fights of the week!

 

FIGHT #1

CEC 497

27th January 8pm ET / 28th January 1am GMT

Grigori Rasputin vs Charles DeCoca

 

Our first fight of the week takes place at Claymore Elite Combat for the Heavyweight title as Grigori Rasputin, fresh off his Silver Medal in The Olympics and his award for Heavyweight Of The Year, defends his title for the fifth time against the challenger, Charles DaCoca!

 

Grigori Rasputin is a well accomplished fighter in the MMA world under his manager Bob Vendarra. “The Mad Monk” is a former MMA Helsinki Heavyweight champion. Following the closing of the org, he would sign with Ascension, and subsequently to CEC. His real breakthrough however would come when he signed up to take place in the 9th season of the EPL. He ran rampant in the tournament, going 11-2 as he finished top of the league standings, and eventually in 3rd place of the whole tournament. He would go back to CEC following this, defeating Bo Juggernaut upon his return to win the CEC Heavyweight title. He then took part in the Syn Supernova VI event, defeating Ashley Harrington, before moving on to MFN in another superfight, this time losing to Sellus Gravius. He would continue to defend his CEC title, defeating Juggernaut x2, Sawyer Hume and Cinder Smaug - While he also defeated Tevin Mangrove Jr and Randolph Turpin in superfights. Timur Rubin, the champion of the CEC Super Heavyweight division which had dissolved, returned to defend the title against Grigori Rasputin. Rasputin would be unsuccessful in this challenge as Rubin would win via KO in the 3rd round. Following that bout he would take part in The Olympics, defeating Mangrove Jr once again, before facing old EPL rival Gymer Alexandersson in the Semi Finals as he won via TKO (Cut) in the first round. He would suffer defeat in the finals however, losing to Itse Perkele via Unanimous Decision.

 

Charles DaCoca may not have the accolades that Rasputin has, but he is still a highly dangerous fighter that nobody should dare to underestimate. He is a former Soul Supremacy Fight Club Heavyweight champions and a former IMA Heavyweight champion. On top of that, 22 of his 23 wins have come by way of (T)KO, and although he has lost 7 times via (T)KO, only one of those have been a knockout, with the rest being doctor stoppages due to cuts. Since signing to CEC, DaCoca has defeated Vladislav Maslow and Matti Meikalainen before suffering back to back losses to Bo Juggernaut and TJ Heisman. He would recover with his sole decision win against Damian Hardacre, before another loss to Cinder Smaug. Since then however, he has knocked out both Jeremy Barrett and Marcus Dantes clean with Head Kicks, while also knocking out Jack Jones with Punches - All in the first round. He is a destructive force, and with his hard hitting style, can be more than a match for any opponent he comes up against.

 

Two of the hardest hitting Russian fighters on the planet collide here and regardless of the outcome, the odds of it hitting a decision are very slim. Both men have a live by the sword, die by the sword attitude when it comes to fighting which makes for a very intriguing fight. I’m gonna be picking Rasputin to retain his title in this bout. He is the more experienced fighter and has proven himself more on the big stage. The onus is on DaCoca to upset the apple cart, and I for one am highly looking forward to this encounter.

 

Prediction: Grigori Rasputin to win via (T)KO in Round 2

 

FIGHT #2

EVO 294

28th January 6pm GMT

Chief Tappenahomma vs Mordecai Sackett

 

Our second Fight Of The Week is a EVO Welterweight title fight as Chief Tappenahomma defends his title fresh off winning an Olympics Bronze medal against Mordecai Sackett, who won the Olympics Gold Medal in the division.

 

Chief Tappenahomma is the reigning Trinity and EVO dual Welterweight champion and recently added Olympic Bronze Medalist to his list of accomplishments. The pride of India has never been knocked out, in fact he hasn’t so much as been rocked in any of his fights so far showing tremendous durability. He has an impressive finishing rate also, with 16 of his 23 total wins coming by virtue of (T)KO with 2 of those earning KO Of The Night honours, along with 5 Fight Of The Night honours! He is working his way through some of the biggest names in the sport, with battles against the likes of Ricky Rocker, Pablo Alvado and Dean Duggan. He now finds himself in the role of veteran vs young prospect and it remains to be seen how he deals with the change in mentality.

 

Mordecai Sackett meanwhile has been on a tear since joining up with current manager David Brent. Going 15-2 under old manager Barnabas Sackett before his withdrawal from the MMA management scene, Brent has seemed to breathe new life into Mordecai. He won his first fight under Brent before defeating Moe Lester, who he lost the title to under Barnabas, to regain the title. As a result, he was chosen to represent CFC at the Tycoon Olympics. He would shock the MMA world, defeating Brandon Hale, Dean Duggan and Salosen Mara en route to claiming the Gold Medal. He is the final Legacy champion, the last CFC champion before their rebranding as a 309k org, and is the current Olympic champion. That is a fine pedigree for a fighter looking to reach the top, and capturing the EVO title could be the feather in the cap for him in his renaissance under Brent.

 

This is a high stakes battle between two fighters who could reign as champion for a long time. I see this fight going to a decision in what could really go either way. I am going to plump for a Sackett decision win, but I am not 100% sure whether I am trying too hard to not be biased towards my alliance mate in making that prediction. Both men certainly have their ways of winning, it’s simply a case of who shows up on the night.

Prediction: Mordecai Sackett to win via Unanimous Decision

 

FIGHT #3

GAMMA#609 Bryant vs Jordan

28th January 8pm ET / 29th January 1am GMT

Gerbert Bryant vs Joe Jordan

The Third fight we will be looking at now comes from GAMMA in a battle for their Super Heavyweight championship as the reigning champion Gerbert Bryant defends his title against Joe Jordan.

 

Gerbert Bryant started off his career in the GAMMA system, alternating fights between the QFC circuit and GAMMA Contenders for 3 fights before signing long term with Montreal Fight Nights. Coming in with a 4-1 record, and would start off impressively with wins over Thomas Bannon and Vladislav Munchkin. He would go on a slider following these results however, with losses to Matt Hunt, Kevin Krukowski and Samson Wade. He would build up his momentum again with 4 wins in a row, defeating Ole Solseng, Pookie Jackson, Pops Cama and Dr Schultz. As he neared his end to his MFN tenure, he would be disappointed, as he lost to Lucas Lodano and Andrei Kersikov. He managed to redeem himself to an extent with a victory over Bunny Anstey. He would return to GAMMA Contenders following the end of his MFN stay, and he would stop Mitch Mason which would position him as the number one contender. He defeated Ottis Toole with a second round KO to win the title, but would drop the title to Kylla Ei, a stablemate of his with both being managed by Gerbert Bryant, in his next bout. He would move up to GAMMA following that fight and is undefeated so far in the org. Victories over Tural Agaev, Thomas Bannon once more, El Pintos and Julien Touret would set him up as the #1 contender for the title. He would defeat Luis Torres for the title with a third round TKO to become the new Super Heavyweight champion. In his latest bout, he defeated Thomas Bannon for the third time in his career with a 4th round stoppage due to tapping from strikes.

 

Joe Jordan started out his career on the QFC circuit, going 4-1 before signing to his first org - Crucible Fights: St.Petersburg. Over his run in the org, he would go 6-2 before moving on to Dynamite where he would go 2-2. The org would change ownerships and change branding to Forbidden Violence and Jordan would go 3-0 under the new banner, bringing his total record to 15-5. He would win a sole fight in Banishment before signing to GAMMA: Contenders. He would go 1-2 in the org, losing his first fights to Zeus Leonidas and John Payne before defeating Big Hardon Jr. He would then sign to CFC, going 3-1 in the org before moving once more onto HMFL where he would go 1-1. Following that, he would sign to GAMMA and made an immediate impact by defeating Marcus Fenix and Ashley Harrington. He would hit a wall with back to back losses to Rau Utu and Jt Colossus. He then found his feet and would go on the best run of his career, kicking it off by avenging a previous defeat by beating Zeus Leonidas with a 3rd round TKO. With another win over Kieron Radebe, he would earn a shot at the Heavyweight title after his GAMMA run coming at Super Heavyweight thus far. He would win the title in spectacular fashion, defeating Patrick Bateman in the first round with a Flying Knee KO. He would make a run of successful defenses of his title with wins over Gunnar Steigelmann, Tony Slevin, Sam Snead and Julien Touret. He would then defeat Ashley Harrington in a superfight, before moving up to Super Heavyweight to challenge for the title. He would lose to Steigelmann, and subsequently Steigelmann would challenge him for the Heavyweight title, with Jordan losing his title via 2nd round TKO. He would suffer more losses, with Sebastiaan Rutten and Hannibal Lyons both finishing him via KO. More recently however, he has defeated Arthur Curry, Duke Nukem and Toni Eerkilaa to earn a shot once more at the Super Heavyweight championship.

 

This is an intriguing matchup between two very storied fighters. While Jordan succumbs more to strikes from his opponents, he has devastating power with 33 of his 34 wins coming via (T)KO. It’s a tricky match to call, do you take the man with more power? Or the man who appears to have a bit more durability? I am gonna be taking Gerbert Bryant to win this fight, but this is certainly a fight that has a lot of factors involved in the potential ending.

Prediction: Gerbert Bryant to win via (T)KO in Round 2

FIGHT #4

Ascension 0128

28th January 9pm ET / 29th January 2am GMT

Shogun Iron Tyson vs Bo Xiang Pao

 

Coming up next in our list of the Fights Of The Week is an Ascension Superfight pitting the Featherweight champion Shogun Iron Tyson against the Bantamweight champion Bo Xiang Pao.

 

Shogun Iron Tyson is one of the longest reigning Featherweight champions in Ascension history, having won the title on the 11th February 2016, he is coming up to his first full year of holding the title. He started off his career under the management of Alika Webb, and he signed to the BEEF organisation immediately. He would go 8-3 in the organisation, before parting ways with not only the org, but his manager also. He would be signed by Bradley Burns, who set him on a long path to future stardom. While he did not find immediate success, going 2-2 between the MAWC and SFC orgs, it would be at UNFC he started to find his feet. A win over David Johnson was followed by a loss to Akeen Coker. He would rattle off back to back victories over Peter Smith and Paul Newman to earn a rematch against Akeen Coker, this time for the Featherweight championship. He would defeat Coker via Split Decision to win the first title of his career. After defending his title with a Unanimous Decision win over Boxing Spar, he would then move up to challenge Coker for the Lightweight championship. He was unsuccessful, losing a unanimous decision to his rival before dropping his Featherweight title to Viktor Tsoi. Following UNFC’s closure, he would move on to the newly created Legacy! He defeated Booker McQuade in his debut, before moving to Ascension for one fight as he won the Featherweight championship in the org during it’s off season against Bad Idea. He returned to Legacy, going 1-1 as he defeated Andrzej Gajewski before losing to Pablo Alvado. He would move to the big leagues then, signing with CEC and he won his debut once more against Aribert Heim, moving his record in debut fights to 6-1. This would earn him a title shot against Titan Rain, but this would coincide with the poorest form of his career, as he would lose 3 straight for the first time against Titan Rain, Sergey Panikov and Euphegen Doubtfire - All of whom are world class competition we must add. At this point, Ascension was back up and running, and Shogun Iron Tyson returned to the org as champion. He has remained undefeated in Ascension, with highly impressive defences against Ichabod Crane, Ricardo Monteban, Dzuzaska Guzman and Edward Scissorhands bringing his record in the org to 5-0. As a result, he was chosen by the org to be their representative at the Tycoon Olympics. He defeated Death Squad’s rep Hiroshimo Sakamoto via Majority Decision, but would lose in the Semi Finals to the Evo rep, and eventual Gold Medalist Tuomari Hurmio. He would claim the Bronze Medal however with a victory over the CFC rep Henrique Ramos. He is now back in the org to defend his title, but before that remains the matter of the superfight with the Bantamweight champion. Shogun has certainly got a tough line of fights up ahead, and a win here would certainly stamp his authority down on the organisation.

 

Bo Xiang Pao, while not having maybe as much experience or big fight appearances, is an Ascension champion in his own right. He started his career with a loss, which resulted in him parting ways with his first manager Timmy !!. He would be signed up by Bwang Jong Sr, and while he lost his second fight also, Bwang would persevere with him, signing to the VCL organisation. He would only have 2 fights in the org, but would claim victory in both by defeating Jack Gold via Unanimous Decision, and Cassit Heiluu via TKO in the first round. A return to the QFC circuit was on the cards as VCL closed it’s doors, and he would defeat both Miura Guts and Daniel Bryan, once more alternating a decision and a finish. In his final appearance under Bwang’s management, he would lose his GAMMA Kids NY debut against Felipe Feltre. Following this, he would be released and his current manager Bjorn O’Donnel would sign him up. Another QFC bout would following, defeating Cassit Heiluu once again via TKO, this time in the second round. He would return to GKNY for one fight, as he defeated Ronald Griffin via Unanimous Decision. Following that, he would sign to Ascension’s Bantamweight division and wasted no time in working his way up to rankings as he defeated former Island fighter Wilson Wills via Unanimous Decision. This would earn him a shot against one of Shogun’s former opponents, Dzuzaska Guzman for the Bantamweight championship. Xiang Pao would win the bout via Unanimous Decision to claim the first championship of his career. He would then defend his title successfully against Vincent Oketch earlier this month, winning via Split Decision.

 

Following that, both men would agree to a superfight and a heated rivalry has built up in the Ascension Smack Talk thread. Both men claim to be the better fighter, and now it is not only their ranking on the line, but their personal pride also.

 

On paper, you see a few possibilities. Xiang Pao’s best bet it appears would be to grind Iron Tyson out to a decision with Shogun only losing once ever to a finish. Shogun meanwhile has a good record of finishes, but he finds his opponent has never been finished. I believe Shogun’s experience will be the factor which decides this fight, and with it being a 5 round fight, I expect him to drag Xiang Pao into the deep waters and finish him in the fourth.

Prediction: Shogun Iron Tyson to win via (T)KO in Round 4

 

FIGHT #5

Syn 502 - Gymer vs Golstein

29th January - 6pm GMT

Gymer Alexandersson vs Samson Goldstein

Our final entry into the Fights Of The Week is a Syn Heavyweight championship bout between the defending champion Gymer Alexandersson and the challenger Samson Goldstein.

Gymer Alexandersson is a former Destiny Heavyweight champion and is the current Synchronicity Heavyweight champion having won the title back in May 2016 and has held onto the title ever since. He started off his career under the management of Nicholas Tesla, going 2-1 in the QFC circuit as he displayed impressive KO Power. He signed to Ascension Amsterdam then, going 2-0 before leaving the org and moving on to Destiny FC in Tokyo. He would go 2-0 there also to earn a shot at the title, where he defeated Marcus Dantes to win the Heavyweight championship. A rematch for the title saw him crush Dantes with a 36 second KO. He would steamroll the remainder of his competition in Destiny, with all of them being finished within the first round. He then signed to Syn, and his fortunes would go on a downturn as he suffered losses to Chick Bowdrie and Hamish Kersikov. He bounced back with wins over Spartacus Halo and Ben Dobson, but a loss to Dmitry Borschev seemed to be the final straw for his manager Tesla as Alexandersson found himself looking for a new manager. Michael Knight picked him up and Alexandersson’s path to super stardom was set. He entered the EPL Season 9 and was set as a potential winner. He would defeat EPL legend James Bomb and Akamai Hoi, before losing to Ashley Harrington and Grigori Rasputin. He would go on a fantastic run then, defeating Kyle Carlton, Edward McLauglin, Ricardo Griezmann, Bobby Newmark, Arthur Curry twice, and finally avenging his loss to Grigori Rasputin in the Semi Finals of the EPL to make the finals. He would suffer another loss to Ashley Harrington however as he finished the season in 2nd place. He would return to Syn then, defeating Marko Hanttonen to earn the right to fight for the title. At Syn 445, he would avenge his loss to Chick Bowdrie from almost a year earlier to win the Heavyweight championship. He would defend his title successfully against Stu Grimson before winning the rubber match with Chick Bowdrie with a 48 second KO. He would move up to Super Heavyweight to challenge for the title there, but would lose to Randolph Turpin. Queue more successful defences against Dmitry Borschev, Diego Bustamante and Gun Slinga and he would be set up for a superfight with the Evo champion Slade Traylor. He would lose a majority decision to Traylor, but that would not deter him from his champion’s mentality as he defeated Marcus Dantes for the 3rd time in his career. Following that, he would enter The Olympics as the Syn representative. He would defeat CFC’s rep Jordi Joestar, before losing to another long rival in Grigori Rasputin in the Semi Finals. He would win Bronze however with a victory over Timur Rubin. An interest note with Gymer is that he is undefeated in Heavyweight title fights, with a perfect 12-0 record, with his sole title loss coming at Super Heavyweight. He will be hoping that run can continue with another dominant performance here.

Samson Goldstein meanwhile is competing in his first ever championship fight. The Israeli Heavyweight started off his career with a loss on the QFC circuit before signing to Hypnotic FC. He would go 3-0 in the org before moving on to sign for NYFN. An indifferent spell would follow with “The Golem” going 4-3 in the org. Following their closure, he would win a single fight on the QFC circuit before signing to Syn. An impressive 7-2 start to his Syn career would follow, before he moved to CFC briefly to help fill some cards, where he would go 1-1. A return to Syn would follow, and since then he has been building up momentum slowly. A win over Mookie Blaylock would be followed by a loss to Calm Like A Bomb. He would defeat Thomas Bannon, before then losing to Vikramditya Singh Ratore. He would defeat Shane Luger, before a loss to Derfel Cadarn - A result that would be overturned after it emerged Cadarn tested positive for P.E.D’s. Regardless of this, he would lose his next fight to Bull Hurley,before gaining back to back wins over Mookie Blaylock and Tel Britton. A defeat to Ji Lu would only seem to bring more motivation to Goldstein, and in his last two fights he would defeat Akamai Hoi and Farrokh Bulsara to earn his shot at the championship.

A contrast in careers with Alexandersson very much being in the lime light during his career while Goldstein has been quietly going about his business. Both men end up here in the Main Event of a Syn event however, and there is also a contract of styles. While Gymer is an explosive fighter who sometimes pays for it with his high (T)KO percentage losses, Samson is a durable fighter who might not pack as much explosiveness as his counterpart. I will be backing Alexandersson to get the win however, and cement himself as one of the most dangerous Heavyweights on the planet.

Prediction: Gymer Alexandersson to win via (T)KO in Round 2

[Mentor]

Nice write up and generally a very good idea as well.

[Slice]

Awesome idea; I hope that you can maintain it

[bjornmma1]

Cool idea, but will be really hard to keep up for you. I tried something similar in the past , ' fighter of the week', and ran out of time to keep up after a few weeks. I hope you can do better than me, good luck.

[Mentor]

Maybe keep it to the top 3 fights of the week, doing 5 is like doing 1/2 a card per week.

[aylib]

This is cool; hoping to get on one of these. Also hoping you won't burn out quickly.

[itakebrides]

Maybe keep it to the top 3 fights of the week, doing 5 is like doing 1/2 a card per week.

good idea 5 will burn him out 3 a better number even i settle for one .I like to read about really big fights and if he can do one of then a week i be happy

[Mentor]

Yeah, even 1 is enough i think, cover just the biggest fight of the week based upon rank/hype, that wont be so time consuming. Maybe do a review of last weeks big one and and a preview of the main fight this week.

[gwad12345]

Much respect to David Brent.

People may have misunderstood my comments during the manager of the year nominations to think I was hating on Brent but far from it. In the past couple months hes proven himself to be one of the best managers.

Nothing I like more than going up against top managers, so good fight. May we meet again soon.

[stpierrecanada]

Awesome stuff!!!! Great job.

[bjornmma1]

Awesome stuff!!!! Great job.

Altough it seeems he might run out of time to do the preview for our fight.

 

Edit: he pulled it off, awesome!

[GBK16]

We have 2 fights to look forward to tonight.

 

Firstly in just over 3 hours - Gerbert Bryant and Joe Jordan will be facing off in GAMMA for the Super Heavyweight championship

 

An hour later, we have an Ascension Superfight with Bantamweight champion Bo Xiang Pao facing off against Featherweight champion Shogun Iron Tyson!

 

Both fight previews have been added above.

 

 

The final bout of Gymer Alexandersson vs Samson Goldstein will be done and posted later tonight hopefully, if not early tomorrow morning.

 

 

As for comments on the amount of fights, I do agree that 5 fights a week could lead to possible burnout pretty quick. Odds are, it will be adjusted to the top 3 Fights, but it all depends on the workload. I felt quite comfortable with it this week, but some weeks might be less motivating than others. My aim will be 5 fights each week, but I will notify people if it will be less than that each week.

[stpierrecanada]

Thanks GBK for getting that in!!!!! Can't wait for the fight.

[GBK16]

The fifth and final preview is now up for the Syn Heavyweight title bout between Gymer Alexandersson and Samson Goldstein

[bjornmma1]

Thanks GBK for getting that in!!!!! Can't wait for the fight.

Well done. I was close but just too long.