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 Well what can I say? Does it get any bigger than this? I’m expecting to write for like 10 years for this card because it’s really that special.
Our double header main events are spectacular, and all throughout the card we have fights that reflect the occasion
. In our biggest ever arena, we welcome you to tune in and witness what will be a card that goes down in the history books for eternity. Welcome to Highland Games 71.
Ray Dinkledorff (2-0) Vs Michael Kamara (5-5) – Heavyweight
Kicking off this ground breaking event is Ray Dinkledorff and Michael Kamara. Kamara competed in the first fight of Highland Games 3 as well, so it’s pretty cool to journey back.
This is the first time we’re going to see Ray fight in London after winning two straight fights in the Hilo independent fighting leagues.
We’re going to see Ray try a bit of everything in this fight, falling back on his striking, while Kamara will search to overcome his submission loss in his last outing with a knockout finish.
Peter Green (4-0) Vs Pat Rachi (2-0) – Middleweight
The middleweight division welcomes two new additions in this second fight of the night.
Peter is very small for the weight class, being closer to Lightweight than Middleweight, but with 4 first round TKOs and an incredible ground game, Green is the real deal and wants to show it tonight.
Pat’s seen a little less cage time, but also is yet to go beyond the opener.
With the power to score a knockout on the feet combined with the slick transitions to stick in a submission,
expect Pat to emulate the former Lightweight Champion George Moshington in his approach.
Rimario Gracie (4-2) Vs Danny Knuckles (4-0) – Light Heavyweight
Gracie is part of an experienced team of ground fighters, including Alfonso Bebeto, Renato Gracie and former 135 title contender Dominance Zelditeez.
Despite a long period in the organisation, this is just his second fight in Highland Games, so Gracie will want to make up for lost time with a second submission win.
Trying to thwart these plans is Danny Knuckles who is fresh off a unanimous decision victory over Marcelo Strazas.
Danny wants to keep the fight standing and do a bit of everything, and if he can do just that he will likely come out of this fight with his undefeated record in tact.
Ty Semerad (8-1) Vs Jack Sock (9-6) – Middleweight
What an exciting one we’ve got here. Ty joins us after an extremely impressive record to date, including an independent 4 day tournament victory and a onetime challenge for the Coyotile Middleweight Championship.
His career kicked off with 8 straight submission wins, this BJJ brown belt brings a lot of fans with him to the Highland Games cage and we couldn’t be more excited.
If you want to make a good debut however, Jack Sock’s not the easiest guy to fight against. Krusty Jack has recent wins over top fighters in Rodrigo Rojas and Billy Tinkl, but slipped to a two fight losing streak since then.
His welcoming of another top ranked prospect, Jon Askren, didn’t go as planned so this is his second opportunity to complete the deal.
Louis Gordon (10-5) Vs Gaius Octavius (5-3) – Light Heavyweight
We were all delighted to see Louis Gordon pick up his first promotional victory at Highland Games 67 when he easily disposed of Alfonso Bebeto.
As a talented muay thai clinch competitor, we’ve only ever seen Gordon fall against some of the best in the world.
Now he’s taking a step back from the days when he challenged for the AFL title, focused on rising the ranks at a steadier pace and gaining some highly valuable experience along the way.
Although he’s far from as experienced in the cage as his opponent, Gaius hasn’t tasted defeat in his last three contests.
A very high level submission artist, we’ve seen him lock in holds in some impressive ground exchanges and that’s where he’ll want the fight to play out when he takes this big step up to compete with Louis Gordon.
Keijo Virtanen (10-3) Vs Benny Askren (9-4) – Heavyweight
Now being managed by Callum McGregor, it will be interested to see the change to Virtanen’s training and gameplan.
He has recently hit his first two fight skid, being knocked out by massive strikers Chiyono Fuji and Alexey Juralev.
Previous to this however, the Japanese fighter was on a 6 fight winning streak, defeating the likes of Sailele Lealofi, Mitchel Thompson and our current heavyweight champion Pedro Lazaro along the way. When these two fought last, it was a quick night’s work for Keijo.
While Askren quickly got his trademark clinch, he was taken to the floor instantly and was submitted just before the 2 minute mark.
Keijo walked away with Submission of the Night honours and it was a hard fall to the bottom for Benny.
The fighter named “Funky” has revenge on his mind here tonight, and in recent times has really shown some great improvements in his game.
Debuting at Highland Games 2, Benny Askren is a veteran of the promotion but has yet to face the top level. After a 3 fight win streak, he had an opportunity to rise to the top against Mase Force but unfortunately was defeated.
This would likely be the biggest win of Askren’s career and I know personally that he couldn’t be more focused on the task at hand.
Mustafa Shabazz (8-4) Vs Jason Smith (11-5) – Lightweight
The night was Highland Games 48. Don Killuminati was everyone’s favourite fighter and he had risen to the top of the Lightweight division.
Mustafa Shabazz had put on a clinic against everyone he had faced, all with the exception of Don who stopped him previously.
Shabazz was a considerable underdog and some felt that he hadn’t fully earned the title shot just yet. In round one, Don Killuminati was able to work inside the clinch, beating Shabazz down with body punches to take it on all 3 of the judge’s scorecards.
Just 30 seconds into the second round, things changed. Mustafa got the takedown, using it to eventually lock in an incredible armbar. He had done it.
Mustafa Shabazz was the Highland Games Lightweight Champion.
Fast forward to now, that was the greatest night of Shabazz’ professional life. He dropped the title to Gottlieb in his next outing and was submitted by Calvin Brooks afterwards. He would again lose to Brooks in the tournament, so it has been a hard turnaround for the former champion.
In his last fight he managed to submit JJ Lycka, which is probably his second best victory to date. With the bulk of our Lightweight division being quite new to the organisation, there’s a good chance this fight will be a title match for whoever wins, and capturing the belt once again is Mustafa’s dream.
Jason Smith took a different route in his career. He was a veteran of Attack Fight League whom for many months was the premier Lightweight fighting division on The Island.
During his time, Smith battled against JJ Lycka, Calvin Brooks, Dick Castle, Papa Shango and Gottlieb Hiebknecht, the latter of two he was victorious in.
Although it was disappointing that Smith lost his Highland Games debut to Ryan Beltshazar, an up and comer, he came back strong by defeating Don Killuminati in the end of season tournament.
When he dropped in the third round to yet another up and comer in Einar Enkeltmann, it was difficult to envision him getting himself in title contention.
He broke this thought process by earning Submission of the Night honours with a guillotine choke over Calvin Brooks.
Beating a former champion on the back of this would be absolutely huge for Jason Smith, and with this being a submission fighter Vs a submission fighter you really have to think that either man could pull a victory off here tonight.
Rodrigo Gracie (14-5) Vs Jake Theodorou (14-4) – Light Heavyweight
This rematch was put together at fairly late notice, but with the talent level of both of these competitors, it completely deserves to be on the main card in the position that it is.
We’ll start with Rodrigo Gracie. Rodrigo has always looked like one of the best submission specialists the Island has ever seen.
He joined Highland Games at 6-1, submitting fellow jiu jitsu ace Alfonso Beboto in his debut. His second loss however came to his very opponent tonight; Jake Theodorou.
The loss was crushing for Rodrigo, so much so that he split from his manager Ben Frankham, choosing instead of partner with Reggie Thistleton. He would win his next two HG fights against top guys before shocking everyone and switching to Attack Fight League.
He would soon compete for the title, submitting Michael Coleman and bringing the belt home. It was a spectacular win but the question on everyone’s mind; did he duck LightHeavy Weight?
After AFL went down, Gracie proved everyone wrong by accepting the fight against the reigning champion. Unfortunately for Gracie, the fight never hit the mat so his elite level jiu jitsu didn’t come into play.
He bounced back by stopping a former title contender in Eirkur Adalsteinn however. Coming off of an upset loss to Ludko Struja here tonight, avenging his loss to Jake would mean everything for Gracie and would signal that he’s not done being a top contender just yet.
Of course, Jake Theodorou never looked like he could ever stop being a top contender. Although he was another victim to the upset machine of Struja,
Jake has always looked like he was the second best in the division; behind his current training partner LHW (whom he has lost to three times).
Jake has absolutely dominated all he has faced outside of the two men to have basted him and has never looked like that could change.
Arguably his best win to date took place in his last fight when he competed against Matt Couture, winning the fight in the very first round and earning KO of the night.
Now that he’s joined Ivan Drago’s team, it’s kind of hard to say what the future holds for Jake. Will his manager ever allow him to fight for the title against the champ, or will he be his personal body guard, holding back all future contenders with his incredible wrestling?
It’s hard to say, but Rodrigo Gracie is going to have hell on earth on his hands when he faces HG’s most devastating ground and pound master.
James Helm (10-4) Vs LightHeavy Weight (20-2) – Light Heavyweight Championship
I just want to point out, how often have I spoke about LHW tonight?
That’s how incredible his run has been, and having avenged his only two losses, he faces a new challenge here tonight.
James has fists of thunder and he has used them to knock out Highland Game’s middle of the road contenders for quite some time.
Names like Eduardo Alcantara, Saintly Fish, Bunaidi Pakpahan, Bison Bowden, Chocolate Mousse and Handjong McVetrol are the type of opponents he has excelled against, and with this being his 10th fight inside Highland Games, knows what a big fight feels like.
With this being said, Helm has co main evented twice before and has lost both times. This is his fight time fighting for the title and although it’s called co-main event
, essentially that term actually means what it says as this is a double headline event.
Helm brings some insane power to his opponent’s chins and we’ve seen LHW fall to two hard punchers in the past.
While you can call this a punchers chance for James Helm, that chance is still pretty big when your boxing is at the level of his.
The longest reigning Highland Games champion and Hall of Famer LightHeavy Weight returns to action here at the Knight’s Court in London.
Really, where do you start with LHW?
He started off so low on the card at Highland Games 1 and has risen to become the most popular fighter in the world today.
He’s defeated absolutely everyone, and with only two blemishes on his record which he avenged in dominant fashion, we could really call him an undefeated fighter as he walks to the cage.
When you look through the history of the Highland Games LHW division, there are few fighters with the longevity of James Helm that hasn’t butted heads with the champion, but there are even fewer who tasted success.
You can think back to when Dieter Von Sprockets dropped the champion with a head kick, or in the tournament when Scott Mcginty, Helm’s former training partner, almost won by KO, but does any of that matter?
Breaking LHW’s championship streak seems like a goliath task for anyone, and James Helm will be praying to the gods that this is his night to do it
.
LHW will be looking in the mirror expecting to do what he does best, retain his title and burst his opponent’s face wide opened.
Barney Gumble (19-2) Vs Pedro Lazaro (18-3) – Heavyweight Championship
In our final fight of the evening, we see something that we never thought we’d see before. Barney Gumble fights Pedro Lazaro for the Highland Games Heavyweight Championship…as the challenger?
Few thought this would ever happen but a bizarre series of events has led us to this day. We’ll have a quick rundown of how this has come about.
Gumble was easily the greatest ever Island fighter. He was 18-0 and has essentially only ever been challenged once; by Mase Force.
Along the way, he even managed to dominate Lazaro with relative ease, just showing the skill he was holding. In the Island tournament’s semi final, Gumble would again clash with Mase Force.
The fight would only last one round, with Force stopping Gumble on cuts. The world stood still as the 1 emerged next to the 18.
Gumble had been stopped, and no one could believe it.
Pedro Lazaro on the other hand had also made it to the tournament final. He was always one of the top contenders but had just came off of a loss to Keijo Virtanen as we entered the tournament.
He would avenge his loss to Mib Louie along the way in addition to defeating top fighters like Magnus Cross and San Terra. The final was scheduled. Mase Force Vs Pedro Lazaro.
The fight was an epic encounter with Force seeming to be the aggressor early. As the fight progressed, Lazaro would go from strength to strength, eventually winning the fight in the later stages and walking out as the tournament champion.
In a surprising twist, he would sign with World Combat, which Gumble was the champion of, while Gumble was still content to fight under his home banner of Highland Games.
So the obvious fight to be made was the rubber match; Barney Gumble Vs Mase Force with Gumble’s title on the line.
It was probably the best fight I’ve ever seen. It lasted one second before the end of the fourth round, and man was it close
. Mase Force’s boxing was the difference and he was able to counter Gumble and avoid the clinch several times.
Gumble was again cut badly and in a fight Force was winning, it was called off. Gumble had not only lost, but lost back to back fights, both to the same man.
Lazaro beat Mib Louie in WC but quickly returned to Highland Games. It was always his dream to become Highland Games champion and with his biggest opponent out of his way, he could set his sights on beating Mase Force again and becoming champion.
He did just that. It was a 5 round war with Lazaro controlling most of the action inside the clinch. He was the brand new champion and we’d seen the title be held by three different people in three different fights, a big contrast to the long term domination by the only champion Barney Gumble.
So that leads us to this. Barney Gumble is the World Combat Champion (recently defending it against Skunk Asap) and Pedro Lazaro is the Highland Games Champion. Essentially, Pedro is a World Combat fighter,
while Barney is a Highland Games fighter. So how do we solve this? Back to back fights. They will fight in Highland Games for the belt, then in World Combat for the other belt.
It’s a pretty amazing run of events. Gumble’s title was taken from him, but not by Lazaro. He has dominated Pedro before, but Pedro has dominated the only man to ever beat Gumble, signalling his insane improvement.
I can’t even speak any more about this. It’s one hour until the fight and I could write all the way up until then.
The fight will go down in an 18 thousand person arena, by a long shot our largest event ever held. W
e have two of the greatest ever Highland Games fighters in title fights, and a whos who of top contenders littered throughout the card.
I can’t wait for this revolutionary event to go down, and you better not either.
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