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 This preview has been hell for me to get through but it was absolutely necessary due to the magnitude of this event. Every single title on the line and an incredible line up of competitors, I have never been more excited about an event. We started as a small time org that had no chance, and now look at us, on top of the world. Thanks for sticking with us all this time, and let’s make this event one of the greats.
Heavyweight
Chiyono Fuji (12-6) (8-5 HG) Vs Keijo Virtanen (12-5) (8-4 HG)
Fuji debuted on Highland Games 1 as a 25 year old with no mixed martial arts experience but a lot of will and determination. That helped him exponentially, as he disposed of Rashid Kurmally in just 5 seconds, picking up the first ever Highland Games Knockout of the Night bonus. When he faced Mib Louie at HG 7, we discovered that Fuji has a susceptibility to cuts. Many fighters would have called it a day then and there, but Fuji did not. He would go on to have an incredible career, littered with massive knockouts but plagued by nasty gashes around his eyes. Fuji remains today as one of the most devastating strikers in Highland Games history, and to add to that he’s fighting a guy he disposed of during the Island tournament.
One thing to note is that Keijo Virtanen lasted almost an entire round longer than anyone else has against Fuji, and at times in the fight it appeared as though it was only a atter of time before Keijo managed to slap on a submission. Keijo is once of those guys who gets to the top, losses, gets to the top and loses again. With wins over Mitchel Thompson, Benny Askren and Pedro Lazaro, we know he has what it takes to be championship calibre. Keijo’s main weakness is a weakness in his chin. Big punchers Fuji and Juralev have knocked him out while he was battered in the clinch in a rematch with Askren. Keijo’s confidence also took a massive hit when he was submitted for the first time against Christopher Wilt last time out, so we’re unsure which Keijo is going to turn up to fight.
Middleweight
Massa Hurmaaja (18-6) (9-4 HG) Vs Itshak Rabinovitch (9-4) (2-1 HG)
It doesn’t get too much longer and more decorated than the career of Massa Hurmaaja. A former Highland Games Middleweight Champion who’s been in 5 title fights throughout his career, the most recent of which being against Massimo Benvenuti at HG 92. Massa is as good as it gets. He’s beat some incredible names throughout his career. Piotr Wyspianski, Grant Morrison, Jonah Sorentino, Arnavut Sevket, Aleksandar Mihaylov, Rodrigo Rojas, Jon Askren and two wins over Massimo, Massa really is one of the most dangerous athletes to ever enter the cage. 11 of his victories come by way of submission and 5 by TKO. The fact that he’s submitted some of the best jiu jitsu practitioners around is a credit to the Finn fighter’s grappling ability.
Going to the ground with him is a recipe for disaster, but his opponent tonight has no intentions of doing that. Rabinovitch spent some time perfecting his craft in Last Man Standing and REZDOG before entering the HG cage where he made an immediate impact with wins over Marcus Warring and Rodrigo Rojas. He took a fight of the night loss to Razor MuayThai in his last fight but you don’t get to the big show without being incredibly talented. Itshak can compete in the clinch or at range with his kickboxing, but he’s going to be absolutely desperate to stay on his feet to allow him to get the opportunity to display his entire skillset.
Light Heavyweight
Jake Theodorou (16-6-1) (10-5-1 HG) Vs Juhani Tuomiola (7-0) (4-0 HG)
At Highland Games 1, Jake Theodorou entered with an impressive 2-0 record and got into the co-main event where he took on Jaymz Hetfield. Hetfield would pull guard, sealing his own fate, as Theodorou unleashed with what now has become routine ground and pound from him to secure the victory. It’s been a tough time for Theodorou over these last hundred events. In his earlier times, Jake seemed to be absolutely indestructible…unless you’re LightHeavy Weight. But going 3-3-1, losing to Louis Gordon, James Helm and Ludko Struja, we’ve started to see a few cracks appearing in Jake’s gameplan. Honestly, I thought maybe it was time for Jake to start looking over his career and to decide if it was still the right decision for him to continue competing. Then, then he fought Renato Gracie and man was he pissed. He walked out there like an absolute killer, taking Gracie down instantly and smashing him with some huge shots. This is Jake’s bread and butter and that’s why he’s had such incredible success to this stage.
You just have to sit and wonder how far Juhani Tuomiola’s career would have went had he been active this entire time. He signed for Highland Games in December 2014, but didn’t fight for 2 months. After going 2-0 in HG, he took 4 months off to deal with some personal problems, but he came back with authority when he destroyed Joe Castillo and Roan Jenkinson. While I can talk all I want about what could have been, let’s talk about what still might be. With a win over Jake Theodorou, an 8-0 undefeated record and 5 of those being in Highland Games, how can you say this guy isn’t right up there in contention? This is Juhani’s time to shine, but he is facing an absolute killer in Jake and will need to bring his A game for this one.
Heavyweight
Barney Gumble (21-5) (12-3 HG) Vs Alexey Juralev (13-5) (10-4 HG)
Barney fucking Gumble. That’s all you need to say. Highland Games Hall of Famer, a countless amount of title defences with the Heavyweight belt, a history of beating a whos who of amazing 265ers in Highland Games. Barney Gumble is that damn good, but we have to talk about some of the inconsistencies in his later career. From 18-0 to 3-5, it’s been a difficult few fights. Mase Force gave has given him some problems, Pedro Lazaro has given him some problems, and Clinton Offley slapped on a kimura to score the upset recently. Gumble just can’t be counted out though. Even against these guys, he holds a 1-2 record with the champ, 2-2 with Lazaro and 2-1 over Clinton Offley, Barney can beat the best of them even if they may have a slight stylistic advantage over him. Gumble is fantastic inside the clinch but we’ve also seen him work his long game and knock people out with straight punches from distance.
How has this fight never happened? Alexey Juralev have been so close so many times but something always stood in his way. He could have waiting for a title shot but instead he took on Mase Force in a losing effort and yet again he was kept from the title. Alexey Juralev is probably the scariest striker we’ve seen in Highland Games. Massive power and the explosive technique to get his fist on his opponents shin, you know you’re in for a hard night of fighting when you take on this Russian phenom. This is a fight Juralev has been waiting for his entire career. Gumble is the only man Juralev hasn’t fought against and both of them have been in the organisation, fighting at the absolute highest level of the game, for a very long time. This would be the biggest win of Alexey Juralev’s career and would propel him towards that ever elusive title shot.
Lightweight
Tony Bullard (21-3) (1-0 HG) Vs George Moshington (12-4) (8-3 HG)
For a long time, Bullard was the greatest former Island fighter not in Highland Games. He fought for a long time in AFL, achieving great success right up until the end, and then he had a run in Executioner where he did much the same. Now he’s here, and a rapid stoppage of Shoddy Body brought him into the fold perfectly. Bullard is a championship calibre fighter, but he has to prove himself in HG and he’s poised to do that completely. We have a former AFL and Executioner champion clashing against a former Highland Games Lightweight Champion and Bullard couldn’t be more excited. Tony is known for working his boxing from inside the clinch and with power to spare, he’s had little other than success in that respect. One or two upsets have been scattered through his run but Tony has been a picture of quality and it doesn’t look like stopping any time soon.
And that brings us to George Moshington. George has knockout power and the ability to submit anyone in the world. He’s coming off of one of his biggest wins, a triangle over Mustafa Shabazz, so he’s coming into this fight with bags of confidence. When he reigned as the champion, Moshington looked like he’d never be stopped. How do you defeat a guy who can outbox you and submit you? Well Bullard feels that by taking the fight into the clinch he can do just that. I feel that the difference in this fight will be whether or not Moshington can pull guard, because if he can Bullard might get caught by one of those tremendous submissions.
Bantamweight Championship
John Pinaglabanan (10-2) (4-2 HG) Vs Darth Vader (19-4) (6-0 HG)
Just like that, we’re into the championship fights. I want to start by mentioning the first fight between these two. John Pinalabanan joined Highland Games as a 6-0 Bantamweight who had recently split from his manager. John was heavily overmatched in being given Vader as his first fight, but you wouldn’t have thought it. Darth had just joined HG and was coming off a decision win against Renato Laranja so he was fairly the huge favourite. Vader came in full of confidence, but he was instantly taken to the ground. The fans were stunned as John went out there and took the round. Vader made the adjustments and managed to work his kickboxing for the remaining 2 rounds, but if John could take a round then, I wonder what he can do now. John held his own against two great veterans of HG when he first joined, earning Fight of the Night in both contests, but since then he’s put together a 4 fight win streak, even beating Bobby Bob Bob in under 3 minutes. That’s such an important mention because Bobby holds a win over our champion so John really went out and made a statement with that victory. If John can get this to the floor once again, expect him to unload with big ground and pound shots which will likely wear Darth down. Vader has the advantage in being the stand-up fighter, so at the start of each round he’s going to look to land his kicks quick and clean, sapping the energy of the challenger before he gets a chance to engage in a grappling exchange. John is absolutely a better fighter than he was in their first fight, but Vader’s wins since then have been his most impressive to date, so it’s just a case of waiting to see who brings the most to the table this time around.
Middleweight Championship
Pyotr Korobeikin (11-5) (3-0 HG) Vs Massimo Benvenuti (20-4) (12-3 HG)
Pyotr has made an incredible statement in Highland Games since joining. A onetime contender for the European Fighting League Light Heavyweight title, since dropping down a weight class we’ve seen Pyotr be extremely impressive here in the HG Middleweight division. His debut was an uninspiring but dominant victory over Clark Kent. More impressively were his dominant wins over Marcus Warring and Ty Semerad, both of which ended by way of submission. 9 of his 10 wins have come by way of submission so you know he’ll be confident if the fit hits the mat, but he’s got some tight and compact boxing skills that can’t be overlooked by the champion.
Massimo’s career has been one big and historic book. His rivalries with Grant Morrison, Massa Hurmaaja and Arnavut Sevket are things of legend and it’s been a pleasure to call them for the duration of his career. Massimo has the ability to outbox people and score a knockout, but his main focus is on scoring clean and accurate punches and he doesn’t have any problem with going the duration. His one submission loss, which was to Massa Hurmaaja, is overshadowed by how impressive he has been all around the cage. While he has wins over Massa, Rodrigo Rojas and Massimo Paterno, we haven’t actually seen Massimo clash against too many submission guys in his career so that’s definitely something to watch out for if this one hits the floor.
Lightweight Championship
Rama Udo (11-1) (4-0 HG) Vs Zoran Jolevi (20-1) (8-0 HG)
Udo was a champion at Welterweight and Lightweight in Choke but was defeated in his final fight of the promotion by Taisto Anttila. Taisto was recently defeated by Jolevi, so that’s an interesting build to this contest. Since joining HG, Udo has defeated John Smith, JJ Lycka, Warren Parker and Jason Smith, four very capable competitors which have put up little to no resistance. Udo isn’t the biggest puncher you’re ever going to see but his combination of accuracy and volume has the ability to overwhelm his opponents and crumble them to the floor. His hands are really as good as it gets in MMA, but the same could be said about the champ. Zoran started his career as a submission specialist who has worked on his striking to the point where he doesn’t even need to take the fight to the mat. He’s knocked out 6 of his last 7 opponents, and when you factor in who some of those guys were its insane that he’s able to improve in this aspect so much. In fact, in his first 10 fights Zoran only had one TKO victory, now in the next 11 he’s had 8. Jolevi is an incredible boxer, an even better submission expert, and might be too experienced for his challenger in this fight. In the striking, neither of these guys likes to throw wild hooks. They both like to work their straight down the pipe shots, aiming more for jabs and straights than hooks and uppercuts. Whoever is the faster and sharper striker will be walking away with a belt around their waist, but you have to favour the current champ.
Heavyweight Championship
Benny Askren (13-5) (11-4 HG) Vs Mase Force (18-5) (9-3 HG)
Phew, this preview is really taking it out of me but we’re an hour away from the event so I’m determined to get it done. I’m so happy Benny Askren has finally earned himself a championship fight because he always seemed just that little bit away from the upper echelon. His clinch game has always been superb but we didn’t really know the full extent of his game until his recent run which has seen him stop guys like Keijo Virtanen, Sailele Lealofi, Thresh Whiteman and Chiyono Fuji. He’s really come into his own in these last few fights and it couldn’t be a better time for him to get this championship fight.
Talking about fighters who have really come in their own, how about Mase Force? Always a top fighter but he didn’t even join Highland Games on a winning record, nor did he win his debut fight. Next thing you know this guy is knocking out 5 guys, including Benny Askren, and earning a shot at Barney Gumble, only to be defeated over the course of an epic 5 round fight. They’d next clash in the tournament where Force became the first man ever to beat Gumble. He would then go on to have an interesting rivalry with Pedro Lazaro and now the two time champ is eager to make the first successful defence of his title.
Benny Askren is probably in a bit too deep here, as their first fight showed, but if anyone can pull off an upset victory and employ their gameplan, it’s Benny Askren. Force’s losses to Lazaro and Gumble were inside the clinch, and that’s Askren’s bread and butter, so the opportunity is certainly still there.
Light Heavyweight Championship
James Helm (14-5) (11-3 HG) Vs LightHeavy Weight (23-2) (18-1 HG)
I want to talk a little bit about Highland Games 1 again. Second on the card was a 0-0 fight called LightHeavy Weight who was taking on Billy Benson. Fast forward, and LHW is the second Hall of Famer who has been beating guys with his untested clinch skills for a long long time now. James Helm got an opportunity at the champ, pretty recently actually, but even since that fight Helm has four wins over absolute top fighters so he definitely deserves yet another shot. Like I talked about the last time, LHW has been dropped by Helm’s former training partner Scott Mcginty, dropped y Dieter Von Sprockets and knocked out by Eirikur Adalsteinn and Matt Couture. Helm has proven himself to be a better boxer and harder hitter than the other 4 several times, so if he can hit the target he could be walking away as our new champion. LHW is no slouch at distance either. He is a technical boxer with KO power but his home is certainly on the inside where he absolutely destroys people with his razor sharp slicing elbows, either knocking them out or getting the fight stopped by way of cuts. Helm has his work cut out for him in challenging an up and comer but he’s probably the most unphasable fighter we have on the roster, and he wants to prove it.
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