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MMA

Spirit Mountain Casino Delivers a Knock Out to Sportfight

Tyson Jefferies in Defeat Sportfight 25
Tyson Jefferies in Defeat Sportfight 25

“I knew we should have left earlier”, I said as I was gritting my teeth in bumper to bumper traffic on the 99W. I was on my way to Sportfight at the Spirit Mountain Casino and a supposed hour and forty five minute drive was looking to be a much longer and harder trip.

Sportfight previously held their events at the Rose Garden, a mere five minutes away from my home. I was now schlepping all the way to Grand Ronde, Oregon to catch the Mixed Martial Arts action. Would it be worth the trip?  As the traffic started thinning out around Sherwood my optimism began to return. All be told, the trip down to Spirit Mountain Casino wasn’t all that awful; a few tunes from a friend’s iPod and a sunny afternoon made sitting in the car a lot more bearable.

It had been a while since I had been to the Spirit Mountain Casino. Since my last trip they’ve expanded quite a bit, adding a hotel, gas station and event center. After the last Sportfight there were rumors that fans would have to wait until September for the next event. This April event at Spirit Mountain Casino was announced only a few weeks prior and almost everyone I spoke to indicated that it was pulled together fast.

As I jockeyed around trying to get access to the event I discovered a very clear fact: Spirit Mountain Casino was running the show. Almost every aspect of the event aside from the guys in the ring had the touch of the casino.  In Las Vegas this would be a good thing, but here in Oregon it is something all together different. As I walked through the casino floor I was struck by two very clear realities: the room was smokier than hell, and not a single person had a drink in their hand. Spirit Mountain Casino is run more like a huge video poker and slot machine gallery than a casino. Casinos make their name on service and entertainment, two qualities unfortunately missing from Spirit Mountain.

As I met with James Buxman, PR manager for Spirit Mountain Casino, I asked him to give me the run down of the Casino. He look at me doe-eyed and said he had to run to take care of the fights. In an email exchange he explained that the casino was working to try to attract more people under 40. With a new sports bar planned for May, and night club, they hope to hip up their image. Unfortunately, their ambitions won’t be realized until they can genuinely understand their new target audience. A prime example of their cluelessness is apparent in the selection of bands for their big unveiling party for the new nightclub and sports bar: Kool and The Gang, a band  more likely to attract the parents of their target audience than the audience itself.

As fight time approached I was lead to my seat at the back of the arena. I realized then that the story of trying to get the story at Sportfight was going to be more interesting than the event itself. The press row was so far back from the action that trying to get a story, any sort of story, was going to be extremely difficult, if not impossible.  How do you talk about a fighter’s ground game when you can’t really see the mat?  As I was bemoaning this fact to Matt Lindland, owner and founder of Sportfight, he threw up his arms and said “The casino is handling everything, you have to talk to them”.  My photographer, David Lawrence, opened up his camera bag and handed me his spare camera. “Geoff, you’re a photographer. Shoot this next to me at ringside.” As the announcer entered the ring a security guard came around and told all the photographers that they must kneel during the fights. This meant shooting the fights from a position which probably is now banned right next to water boarding in terrorist interrogations.

Press Sits in the Back at Sportfight 25
Press Sits in the Back at Sportfight 25

The event started with very little fanfair except for one of the most painful renditions of the Star Spangled Banner that I’ve heard in years.  Would a Las Vegas casino have a sixty year old dude in a bad toupee ham up the Star Spangled Banner? I doubt it. The first bout was notable because it featured Colt Toombs, son of professional wrestler Rowdy Roddy Piper. Toombs fought at the previous Sportfight and his father proudly cheered him on from ringside. This time around, despite the promotion from the casino that he’d be there, he was seemingly absent. This first bout set the tone for the evening: a lightening quick fight with one fighter clearly dominating another. It wasn’t even close.  I barely had time to comment on this fact when Toombs smacked Shrout across the face right in the corner where I was taking photos showering me with blood spatter. Yeah, it was going to be that kind of night.

The first four bouts each lasted no longer than two or three minutes a piece. After the fifth round I realized that there was a distinct pattern to the evening –  ‘stand ’em up and knock him out’ with the winner of each fight belonging to Team Quest. Sportfight has long fought criticism that it rarely breaks out of being nothing more than a showcase for Team Quest. The last Sportfight seemed to be a solid step away from that with a strong presence from other rival gyms like Braveheart. This time around Team Quest owned the evening, even to the point of promoter Matt Lindlan cornering for at least one of the fights (something odd for a promoter to be doing). I spoke to one of the commissioners from the Oregon Athletic Commission and they commented that the event had come together “extremely fast”, and it really felt that way. One of the things I really value in MMA is how strong match ups often are, and here most of them weren’t very competitive.

Of the eleven fights of the evening only two made it past the first round (Tom Shrout v Colt Tombs went mere moments into round two and Marlo Meiranda and Tyson Jefferies went the longest – three full rounds). The only fight of the evening that felt like any sort of real competition was the Main Event between Meiranda and Jefferies, but even that bout was plagued with issues.  After a second kick to the groin in round two, Jeffries huddled in the corner where we were shooting.  “What the fuck!” he yelled as he held his groin. Lindland, who was also cornering Jefferies, advised him to take his time and clear his head; instead, Jefferies made the amateur move of winding himself up and then going to hard and too fast at Meiranda, who answered with one of the most punishing knees to the head that I’ve seen in a long time. This kind of bush league move isn’t something you’d expect from the main event of a professional fight, but none of the fights really had the mark of top caliber Mixed Martial Arts.

Line Them up and Then Knock Them Out - Sportfight 25
Line Them up and Then Knock Them Out - Sportfight 25

Even mediocre fights can be enjoyable with a good crowd, and even though the Spirit Mountain Casino event center was filled to capacity (at just over 2000 seats), there wasn’t much energy to the crowd.  Rather than cheering I often heard people yell obscenities at the fighter they were rooting against or even a spattering of boos if they didn’t think the action was moving fast enough (insane considering how short the bouts were).

After the fights were over we tried to find somewhere to crash and decompress for a little bit before driving back to Portland. After kneeling for two and a half hours my entire body ached. The only lounge in the casino had a line out the door and there was no casual place to go and just sit with a beer. I grabbed a bottled juice from one of the ‘food’ stands at the casino and then we were on our way back to Portland.

I’m a big fan of Mixed Martial Arts and I really think that an event like Sportfight in Oregon could get some real traction and be something significant, but there are no short cuts. Throwing together an event run by a casino who knows nothing about MMA or really entertainment isn’t going to further the cause. If Sportfight is ever going to be relevant they’ll need good match ups with fighters beyond Team Quest and put together an evening of real entertainment (there’s no excuse to not even having fighter intro music). Although it’s on a much smaller scale I think the Rumble at The Roseland, which is considered amateur MMA, is much more successful and relevant. Next time around I’ll save myself the long drive and just head down the street to the Roseland because I can’t see how anything at Spirit Mountain is going to be worth the trip.

Here’s a video of the bout between Tom Shrout and Colt Toombs, it gives you an idea of how one sided most of the evening was:

More Sportfight Info:

Categories
MMA Movies

Two Upcoming Portland Films – Fighting Politics and The Waiting List

  • As luck would have it, I got two emails this week almost back-to-back announcing new films with Portland roots. The first one Fighting Politics is a documentary on Matt “The Law” Lindland. Lindland, a former championship UFC Cagefighter, is the founder of Sport Fight (one of Portland’s biggest MMA Events). This year Lindland made a run at the Oregon House of Representatives where he was nearly defeated in the general election. Fighting Politics looks at the life of Matt Lindland, his MMA career and his epic battle with the UFC and owner Dan White.The trailer for Fighting Politics looks phenomenal, and as soon as we get word on when it’ll be playing in Portland we’ll let you know!

    More info on Fighting Politics and Matt “The Law” Lindland:

    Another film with Portland roots is The Waiting List, a film about parents who spend the night in a preschool in order to get their kids enrolled (based on a real experience). The Waiting List was shot this summer at Springwater Environmental School in Oregon City, as well as at Voodoo Doughnuts II. It is currently in contention for spots at a number of film festivals nationwide. We’ll let you know when The Waiting List has its first Portland showing!

    More info on The Waiting List:

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    MMA

    Sportfight 24 – Blood on the Canvas

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    It’s beyond me why the Rose Garden Arena isn’t completely packed for SportFight 24. For four and a half hours fighters pounded it out in an evening filled with action, sport and blood. What more could you ask for from a Friday night out!? It’s hard to imagine what kept the Rose Garden from being as full as a match up between the Winterhawks and The Seattle Thunderbirds. Is it the expensive $8 a cup Rose Garden beer that kept people away? The 7pm Friday night early start time? Or the fact that it was broadcast live on HDNet? Whatever the reason, many Portlanders missed out on a fantastic, unmediated top class sporting event that can be experienced by watching it on TV. Fans who opted to watch the matches at home on HDNet missed some of the best action of the night as the untelevised under card fights proved to be stronger and more exciting than some of the main bouts.

    Sportfight 24 started with a bang with two extremely strong under card fights. Marques Daniels made quick work out of Joshuah Lagrange with a rain of punches that caused the ref to jump in and stop the fight (one of the few fights of the night stopped this way). That fight was followed by the much hyped Colt Toombs and Colin Porter bout. Toombs is “Rowdy” Roddy Piper’s son and he clearly had the support of the crowd (who chanted “Piper, Piper”). Early on in the fight Toombs got into trouble, taking a number of hard shots, his face began to well early. Toombs then got caught in a rear naked choke that looked it was going to end the match and put a damper on some of the the hype surrounding Toombs. Choke well set Toombs gave the ref a thumbs up and then proceeded to find his way out of the choke, he then reverse it into a dramatic choke of his own to win the fight. It was one of the more explosive moments of the evening and it kept the buzz turned way up for Toombs.

    After the first two solid fights things stayed on the ground for several of the middle matches. After an arm bar win by crowd favorite Tyson Jeffries, four of the next bouts went the full three rounds and almost all of them ended by decision. It wasn’t until the fight between DJ Linderman and Mychael Clark that things started to heat up. Clark displayed flamboyant martial arts styling with spin kicks, supermans and other ‘showy’ moves, but it was Linderman’s consistent strength both on his feet and on the ground that made him a clear contender for the win. Linderman looks pudgy, but after three rounds he barley seemed winded. Taking a solid unanimous decision Linderman showed he’s a fighter not to be underestimated.

    My favorite fight of the evening was the Mark Miller, Mike Pierce bout. Mike Pierce, who fights out of the Braveheart Gym didn’t find much support in the pro Team Quest crowd, but even his harshest critics couldn’t help but notice the absolute precision in Pierce’s fight. I saw Pierce fight in a previous Sportfight and it’s clear he’s put his time in training and refining his skills. Like a surgeon Pierce took Miller apart. One blow opened a huge cut on the top of Miller’s head and blood streamed out in a flow that made Miller look like something out of a Rob Zombie movie. The fight was stopped so that they could assess Miller’s injury and much to the surprise and delight of the crowd they let the fight continue. Step by step Pierce pushed the fight in the direction he wanted it to go, with control of almost every position on the mat Pierce showed that he was clearly the better trained fighter. In the end Pierce won by TKO and Miller’s cuts became too severe for him to continue. Of all the fighters who fought at SportFight 24, it’s Pierce who showed the most promise and his fight was worth the price of admission.

    The feature title bout between Enoch Wilson and Brian Gearahty wasn’t as exciting as the Pierce/Miller bout. Gearahty gave Wilson a lot to handle for four rounds, locking him up and pressing submission attempt after submission attempt. Four rounds into the fight it was clear that Gearahty had done just enough to win a few rounds but not enough to take Wilson’s title away from him. Ultimately Wilson prevailed with an earth shattering, late fourth round, punch that left Wilson dazed in the corner. Wilson gave a gladiator roar as he pounced around the ring, sticking around long after the bout was finished to celebrate.

    It’s exceptional to live in an area with such easy access to high quality Mixed Martial Arts and a shame more people aren’t taking advantage of it. The athletes fighting out of Team Quest and Braveheart gyms have the foundation to carry them to national attention, and for just a few bucks you can catch them live and in person.