Saturday night May 9th, 2015 provided the final round of the three day spectacular event which was the UMMAF Amateur National Championships. On this night, the organization crowned multiple champions in front of a packed house. It’s without question that we must give the proper credit to all these athletes for enduring this format and really finishing the three days with a stellar finale. While some fighters dealt with a quick turnaround of either 24 or 48 hours some had to wait all the way to last day for their debut. That was mostly in part to the lack of athletes who participated in this event which this writer has already addressed in the writing and the subsequent podcasts that follow. As some of the fighters now look to International fight week in Las Vegas, winners and losers should hold their head high for providing a memorable weekend. We were also assured that next year there will be more promotion for the event and with oncoming sponsors in the works the platform for the event will be bigger as well. It is also worth mentioning that many thanks should be given to Robert Hulett from Midwest Fighting League for running the event and making it a success, even though there were unlikely circumstances that presented themselves.

The third night of the UMMAF tournament also featured a qualifying kickboxing section that would provide some fighters another opportunity to head to the World Championships which could be held in possible locations like Cuba. That ordeal is still getting finalized and there should be announcements soon on the location. In regards to the mixed martial arts matches, there was never a doubt that these amateurs are truly some of the best in the States. Similar to the year before we will have some great representation in the worlds with some pure threats to bring home gold.

The night started with two kickboxing events that saw Damir Ferhatbegovic and Jeff Newson win two well fought battles. The first MMA event was a hard fought war for the men's flyweight (125) title between Carlos Hernandez and Charles Johnson. After three rounds, the judges showed favor to Hernandez with a poorly scored unanimous decision. How the match was not at least a split was baffling but both athletes laid it on the line to give us a great performance. That was followed quickly by bantamweight (135) championship between Jose Torres and Carl Rogers. Similar to Hernandez in the last match, Torres is a defending world champion and will look to capture the title once again. Torres withstood the early assault of Rogers to put on a well rounded performance that gave him two dominate finals rounds. Both he and Hernandez will do a fine job representing our country once again as they go for their second world titles.

The wake up moment of the night belonged to ATT Evolution athlete David Evans who never allowed us to tweet that the fight was starting. He scorched Charles Spoolstra with a devastating blow that he never recovered from. We don’t even think the ring card girl was fully out of the cage before he unleashed his fury on featherweight competitor. We then returned to cage to see two more kickboxing matches that provided great wins for Drew Gigax and Danielle Newsome. Drew comes from local cage fighter icon Andre’s MMA in O'fallon, Mo and Danielle was able to stop Nicole Brown after two rounds.

Returning to MMA, the UMMAF crowned champions in the 155, 175 and 185 divisions. In lightweight, Sam Agushi finished off a great triangle submission over Bobby Turner. Possible FOTN between to game competitors in Lucas Clay and William Starks. The Columbia, MO prospect Starks was able to edge out the feisty Clay in route to an unanimous decision. Brendan Allen fought off a fierce Benjamin Bennett in the 185 division. Allen may have submitted Bennett but the Fairbanks Alaska prospect would have none of that.  Brendan would just have to settle for an unanimous decision.

Brandon Raymer and Adrian Hernandez won the last two kickboxing matches of night and Julius Anglickas had an impressive victory over Daniel McClendon. The ladies once again ended the night as we witnessed two first round finishes by Kimberly DeFiori and Lindsey Lawrence. These two ladies are a force to be reckon with in the bantamweight and featherweight divisions and looked like pros from the onset.  

In conclusion it was a special three night event that we were proud to cover. We have intentions on relaying announcements for the upcoming World Championships so look for those soon. We would like to thank the UMMAF, Midwest Fight League and all the athletes who participated. These are the sports of the future and with the hope of getting MMA in the Olympics we should see many eyes turn attention to events such as this.

All photos courtesy of Elaine Ousley Curtis.

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About the author
Travis Brown
Travis has been covering the sport of mixed martial arts for the past three years. He has been a fan of combat sports all of his life and looks to bring his bettors perspective to the Vavel family. Mixed Martial Arts is a global sports and there is no better place for it than Vavel.