Line-up:

CWFC Heavyweight title: Jeff Monson vs. Emmanuel Marc
CWFC Light Heavyweight title: Mike Bisping vs. Ross Pointon
CWFC Middleweight title: Martin Kampmann vs. Damien Riccio
CWFC Vacant Welterweight title: Dan Hardy vs. Matt Thorpe
CWFC Lightweight title: Alexandre Izidro vs. Thomas Hytten
CWFC Featherweight title: Danny Batten vs. Augusto Frota
CWFC Bantamweight title: Paul McVeigh vs. Phil Harris
CWFC Women’s title: Rosi Sexton vs. Dina Van Den Hooven
Christian Smith vs. Alex Martin Wocjik

CWFC Heavyweight title: Jeff Monson vs. Emmanuel Marc

Elite US heavyweight grappler ‘the Snowman’ Monson (18-5), American Top Team member and several time ADCC veteran faces oversized French puncher Marc (3-3) in a match where the defending champion will be heavily favored. Monson has been a dominant CWFC titleholder and is riding a 12-fight winning streak that goes back to June 2002 but most importantly, has the submission skills to take this fight in style. Marc is certainly dangerous though. His last CWFC: Strike Force appearance saw him unexpectedly spark out local favorite Barrington Patterson in May. Since then, he has fought just once, losing with a choke earlier this month in St. Petersburg, Russia to Ramaz Ahadulaev. The Russian fighter is a pretty good competitor, holding a decision win over noted striker Rodney Faverus and earlier this year went the distance with Travis Wiuff, although the UFC veteran did dominate much of that fight. But Ahadulaev isn’t in Monson’s class, and nor is Marc. The Frenchman’s other two losses came against Dutch veterans Valentijn Overeem and Remco Pardoel and his wins over Patterson, Ed de Kruijf and Sander Thonhauser, while good victories, will not have prepared him for Monson. True, Marc will have a hefty size advantage but Monson is so much more skilled that when the fight inevitably goes to the mat, it shouldn’t take too long for him to take the win by submission. He’s scored 8 of his last 12 wins with submission holds, 7 of them with chokes, including a pair of quick wins over fearsomely aggressive wrestler Tengiz Tedoradze. Monson’s only losses since the late 1990s have come against highly talented fighters as well – Forrest Griffin and Chuck Liddell both decisioned him and Ricco Rodriguez controlled him at UFC 35 before eventually finishing him with punches late in the third round. Marc just isn’t as good as those fighters and Monson has improved over the last few years. Look for the champion to retain his title and earn the shiny new belt by submission.

PREDICTION: Monson by submission late in the first round.

CWFC Light Heavyweight title: Mike Bisping vs. Ross Pointon

This is a curious one. Defending champion Bisping (9-0) takes on Pointon (4-5) in a fight that few people will reasonably expect Pointon to win, but which should nonetheless be very, very entertaining. Aggressive, popular, entertaining and constantly going all-out for the, win both men are exactly the kind of fighters a promotion needs. And this fight could be very explosive. The undefeated Bisping has been a pro fighter for less than 2 years and is the UK’s rising star. Pointon on the other hand has been a pro for just over 14 months and has only just bounced back from a 5 fight losing streak. Pointon started out well, scoring 3 wins in just 3 months before being recklessly matched up with the gifted but erratic Valentijn Overeem in a fight that lasted less than a minute. Four more losses followed, including a pair of gutsy performances in defeat against Gregory Bouchelaghem and Thomas Valentin, before the man from Stoke-on-Trent (a grim industrial town in the midlands for those unaware of its delights) bounced back. At Strike Force 3, Pointon met French grappler Jerome Laulan and needed just 36 seconds to score the submission win. Dropping Laulan after a pair of heavy punches Pointon swiftly worked his way into a guillotine for a very impressive win.

Strike Force 3 was a big night for Bisping too as he added Jakob Lovstad to the seemingly ever-growing list of fighters he’s bludgeoned to defeat inside the first round. Few of Bisping’s fights make it into the second round, and even when they do, the action never lets up. Bisping’s wars with Mark Epstein at Cage Rage 7 and 9 really signalled his arrival on the scene and since then he’s annihilated everyone he’s faced. In his last two fights, he’s battered Lovstad and Miika Mehmet in style and I expect him to do the same here. Pointon is a good wrestler and a highly aggressive striker on the ground but Bisping is faster and seems to have more powerful, more accurate stand-up skills. Bisping’s ground skills have been highlighted as a possible weakness before but his full time training at the Wolfslair Academy seems to have brought rapid improvement. In the Mehmet fight he was bundled onto his back early but stayed calm and worked his way out of trouble to unleash some vicious shots and a highly impressive TKO win. Pointon certainly won’t be afraid to stand and trade with Bisping but his best chance will be to take him down and start firing away. If he can keep the pressure up he might just be able to pull off the big upset but the most likely outcome is Bisping retaining his title after a couple of minutes of truly furious action.

PREDICTION: Bisping by KO late in the first.

CWFC Middleweight title: Martin Kampmann vs. Damien Riccio

CWFC Middleweight titleholder Kampmann (10-2) is perhaps Denmark’s best fighter. At Strike Force 4 he defends the belt he won from Mark Weir’s top student Matt Ewin against Ewin’s bitter rival Riccio (8-10). Kampmann has looked excellent in his last two fights, sparking out KOTC regular Brendan Seguin with a stunning high kick in June and quickly battering a submission out of Ewin at Strike Force 2 to win the belt. Still only 23 years old, Kampmann is fast maturing into one of Europe’s brightest prospects. A good all-rounder with particularly strong stand-up skills, ‘the Hitman’ also stopped Ewin earlier in the year and holds a win over French striker Xavier Foupa-Pokam. Kampmann has only lost twice, a decision in his professional debut and a loss to the far more experienced Andrei Semenov (on a cut) in the first round of last year’s M-1 MFC Middleweight Grand Prix. Semenov went on to win the tournament. Frenchman Riccio will give Kampmann a tough fight but the short, powerful brawler has lost his last 3 matches and Kampmann should be favoured to inflict a fourth defeat on him here.

A very experienced fighter, Riccio is a regular on the UK scene and has also fought in Shooto (losing to Seichi Ikemoto). He’s also dropped decisions to Italian boxer/MMA fighter Alessio Sakara and Japanese legend Hayato Sakurai and lost to the much bigger, and very talented Finnish fighter Mikko Rupponen. Those three straight losses have all come against quality opposition – rising US star Joey Villasenor, GCM regular Yushin Okami and Russian striker Amar Suloev. Riccio does have some notable wins but he tends to lose against quality fighters (Ross Mason and Jean Francois Lenogue have beaten him as well) and Kampmann is certainly a quality fighter. He will also have a significant height and reach advantage over Riccio who has been plagued with injuries in the last year or so. Riccio is an awkward, aggressive fighter with a good ground game but Kampmann is bigger, younger and has looked much better in the last few months. Look for him to score a stoppage win and retain his title.

PREDICTION: Kampmann by TKO late in the second.

CWFC Vacant Welterweight title: Dan Hardy vs. Matt Thorpe

Rough House entertainer Hardy (9-4) may have lost his last fight (more on that in a moment) but he’s more than earned a shot at the vacant title and this fight against ’12 Gauge’ Thorpe (5-3) could be a real war. Hardy seems incapable of a boring fight. A high-energy striker with good submission defense he’s always value for money. Northern Cartel member Thorpe is a tall, long-limbed submission specialist with a very different style. In his last fight at the KOTC UK show in June he was rocked early by a couple of big left hooks but came back with an uppercut that floored his opponent, bashed him with a few hammerfists and finished the fight with a slick triangle choke. All in the space of 60 seconds. His opponent was the powerful Aaron Barrow, a man Hardy KO’ed in 13 seconds last December. Four of Thorpe’s wins have come by submission and while he has fast, accurate hands he’d be far better trying to take Hardy down than trading with him. Though with his size, (he’s incredibly tall for a welterweight) he could cause Hardy some problems on his feet. Thorpe clearly has confidence in his ground game as in his last loss he choose to go to the mat with the talented Ollie Ellis and came agonisingly close to an armbar win before being hit with some heavy shots and eventually caught with a choke. Training with one of Britain’s most respected teams, Thorpe has clearly improved since that fight and is good enough to pull off an upset here.

Until his controversial loss to Diego Gonzales at Strike Force 3 in October, Hardy was riding a 5-fight winning streak highlighted by an impressive decision win over Alexandre Izidro, a war with Lautaro Arborelo and a long, vicious beating of internet nemesis Sami Berik. Gonzales immediately took Hardy down, and I mean immediately. He did it as Hardy was trying to touch gloves at the very beginning of the fight. A totally unsportsmanlike action that gave him a huge advantage from the outset. Hardy never really recovered from Gonzales’ dominant start and tapped to a choke in the second round. Hardy’s last loss had been (what else?) a war with unbeaten French grappler David Baron where ‘the Outlaw’ avoided continual submission attempts until eventually being caught with a triangle. For many on the British scene, this is the most anticipated fight on the show and its easy to see why. An evenly matched fight between two young, exciting well-rounded fighters that just has “war” written all over it. Picking a winner is difficult here (more so than any fight on the show) and conditioning will be vital but I’m going for Hardy to avoid some submissions and use his fast hands, feet and knees to score a stoppage win and take the vacant belt.

PREDICTION: Hardy by TKO midway through the third round.

CWFC Lightweight title: Alexandre Izidro vs. Thomas Hytten

‘Xandinho’ Izidro (3-4) makes the first defence of the title he so shockingly beat Jani Lax for, against Norwegian veteran Hytten (14-3-1) in what could be a very interesting fight. London based Brazilian Izidro has been extremely active lately and this will be his fourth fight in less than 3 months. He’s lost two of those, both by decision to Afghan wrestler and Ian Freeman protégé Abdul Mohamed. The first of these was very controversial loss at Cage Rage 13 where most observers felt Izidro’s wrestling, submission attempts and more effective striking on the ground had earned him a win and the vacant CR British Lightweight belt. The judges thought differently though and gave the win to Mohamed. In their most recent meeting, Mohamed again scored the decision but this time earned it, at FX3 in October. Just two weeks before the Mohamed rematch Izidro, a huge betting underdog, tapped the monstrous Lax out with a rear naked choke to claim the vacant CWFC Lightweight title at Strike Force 3. Clearly, Izidro has real talent. He showed off some excellent BJJ skills in losing a decision to the much bigger Dan Hardy in June’s KOTC UK event but against Mohamed he showed he was a much more well-rounded fighter than many had thought.

Izidro will need all of those skills to beat the Scandinavian veteran. 32 year-old Hytten has been a professional since late 2000 and has fought in the UK, Japan, Russia and all over Scandinavia. A skilled fighter capable of winning with strikes and submissions, Hytten has a huge experience edge over the champion. He’s beaten some pretty good fighters too. Including the much bigger Ronaldo Campos and French striker Bendy Casimir. Notably, his only losses have come to quality fighters as well. Most recently he was tapped out by up-and-coming Team Quest fighter and Sportfight regular Dennis Davis (May 2004) as well as dropping decisions to Shooto veteran Takaharu Murahama (March 2003) and British submission artist Robbie Olivier (February 2003). Hytten has won his last 3 fights by submission or TKO and will need to relentlessly pressure the slick Izidro. As he showed in the losses to Hardy and Mohamed and the win over Lax, Izidro is one of those BJJ fighters constantly moving, always looking for a submission opening. Hytten is good and will likely land some shots but eventually Izidro should be able to trap him and for the tapout victory.

PREDICTION: Izidro by submission early in the third.

CWFC Featherweight title: Danny Batten vs. Augusto Frota

Defending champion Batten (7-6-2) has been around the UK scene for a long time. Batten’s mediocre record somewhat hides the fact he’s a very talented fighter coming off the two biggest wins of his career. He was given a shot at then-undefeated French grappler Emmanuel Fernandez CWFC title in May despite having lost 3 fights in a row. Admittedly, those fights were against high quality opposition (Masakazu Imanari, Jean Silva and Mohamed El-Aouji) but few expected him to beat Fernandez. Particularly as Batten’s greatest strength (his submission game) was widely seen as inferior to that of Fernandez. Also, the Frenchman was coming off wins over some of Britain’s best talent in Robbie Olivier, Peter Tiarks, Ian Butlin and Leigh Remedios. So it was a major upset when Batten tapped him out with, of all things, a triangle choke. He then followed this up in his first title defence at Strike Force 2 by grinding out a clear, well-earned decision over Finland’s highly touted Tom Niinimaki. Batten survived a hellish first round to dominate the fight standing, and made a real mess of his opponents thigh with leg kicks. After those two performances, few would bet against the resurgent Batten in this one.

A Swiss based Brazilian, Frota (5-1) is certainly a talented fighter. His only loss came to Caol Uno protégé Kenji Osawa two years ago and he’s won his last 4 fights by submission. Most recently, he guillotined Paul McVeigh in August. Can Batten match his BJJ skills? Well, on paper he couldn’t match Fernandez’ and look what happened there. The champion may have the edge in standing and as his fight with Niinimkai showed, he certainly has plenty of stamina. Frota is an excellent challenger but something tells me Batten will find a way to win again. It may take a while and conditioning and experience may be the key factors but I’m confident he will pull off another successful title defense.

PREDICTION: Batten by TKO late in the fourth round.

CWFC Bantamweight title: Paul McVeigh vs. Phil Harris

Champion McVeigh (4-3) makes the first defence of the title he won back in September 2004 against the busy and talented Harris (9-4) in what looks likely to be a hard, technical fight that either man has a great chance of winning. McVeigh, from Scotland’s Dinky Ninjas team, has only fought once since grinding out a fourth round win over Chin Weakasingh for the belt. And that was a submission loss to Augusto Frota in August. In his title win though, McVeigh used a patient, efficient ground game to wear down his opponent with strikes until eventually forcing him to tap after some heavy hammer fists and elbows. McVeigh is a talented, smart fighter and Harris will have a tough time taking his belt.

While the champion has been fairly inactive, the challenger has been fighting often, and against good opposition. He’s gone 3-1 this year, losing only to the impressive and unbeaten Jose Aldo on cuts, and beaten the experienced Ricky Moore by submission. Seven of his wins have come by submission and it seems almost inevitable this fight will be decided on the mat. Both men have lost by submission before and somebody’s probably tapping in this one. I’m going for the McVeigh to be the one doing it. Harris has just been busier, seems more explosive and the night could end with a new Bantamweight Champion.

PREDICTION: Harris by submission late in the third round.

CWFC Women’s title: Rosi Sexton vs. Dina Van Den Hooven

It’s likely been a frustrating couple of years career-wise for Manchester based Sexton (4-0). With taking time off to have a baby, the small size of the UK’s female fight scene, and fights falling through, she’s fought just once since dominating Carla O’ Sullivan at a CWFC show way back in March 2003. A talented BJJ stylist, Sexton has won all of her fights with submissions. Now, after twice being lined up to defend her belt against Sabrina Cohen (who has twice pulled out and since given some, um, fairly unusual reasons to do with her private life) she finally faces Holland’s Dina Van Den Hooven (2-0) after Cohen’s replacement Tevi Say also pulled out.

Both women have fought and beaten Mark Weir student Kelli Salone, Sexton finishing her with an armbar and Van Den Hooven winning a majority decision in a close, hard fought battle. The challenger will probably have the edge in striking (she scored a KO in her last fight) and showed off some good striking skills against Salone, but Sexton is a better grappler. Van Den Hooven is very active on the ground but sexton has much better technique. Look for her to use it well and retain her title.

PREDICTION: Sexton by submission late in the first round.

Christian Smith vs. Martin Wocjik

In the night’s only non-title fight Smith (2-0) faces Wolfslair debutant Wocjik at light-heavyweight. Smith has looked pretty impressive so far and will have plenty of supporters in the audience (he’s from nearby Derby) but Wocjik reportedly has a strong Judo background and of course has the advantage of training with the highly respected Wolfslair team. Both will be looking to impress the promotion and the crowd so expect a fast, hard fight. I’m going for Smith’s slight edge in experience and hometown support to help him to a close win.

PREDICTION: Smith by decision after three rounds.

Predictions Re-cap:

Jeff Monson SUB1 Emmanuel Marc
Mike Bisping KO1 Ross Pointon
Martin Kampmann TKO2 Damien Riccio
Dan Hardy TKO3 Matt Thorpe
Alexandre Izidro SUB3 Thomas Hytten
Danny Batten TKO4 Augusto Frota
Phil Harris SUB3 Paul McVeigh
Rosi Sexton SUB1 Dina Van Den Hooven
Christian Smith DEC3 Martin Wocjik