For those unfamiliar with the British tabloid press, they never have, and never will forget the Second World War.  And with the English soccer team in action in Germany just a couple of weeks later, patriotism will be running rampant throughout the country.  And those who fancy seeing their countrymen (or more accurately, their countrymen and a few Brazilians) take on the Germans at a more manly sport should be treated to a typically high quality Cage Warriors show.  Two CWFC title fights, the very intriguing debut of a Brazilian Top Team black belt and a handful of fascinating, evenly matched fights that showcase some of Europe’s best talent, should guarantee the usual evening of high quality sporting violence.  Look out in particular for the Mason-Siver, Wallhead-Angerer and Isaksson-Gonzales fights since those match ups almost guarantee fast-paced, crowd-pleasing action.

Line-up: UK vs. Germany:
CWFC Lightweight title: Alexandre Izidro vs. Mario Stapel
Jose Figueria Rodrigues vs. Andre Balschmieter
Ross Mason vs. Dennis Siver
Josenildo Ramarho vs. Daniel Weichel
Jim Wallhead vs. Peter Angerer
TBA vs. Cengiz Dana
Mark Spencer vs. Franco de Leonardis

Other fights:
Arni Isaksson vs. Diego Gonzales
Chris Rice vs. Paul Kelly
Bruce Davis vs. Ben Walker
Mick Sinclair vs. Jay Gilbey

NB: Due to time restrictions caused by my going on holiday, coincidentally enough to Germany, this preview was written much earlier than usual and is based on the line-up posted at www.cagewarriors.com on May 10th.  Apologies for any inaccuracies caused by later changes to the card.

May 27th
Skydome Arena, Coventry, England

UK vs. Germany: CWFC Lightweight title: Alexandre Izidro vs. Mario Stapel

CWFC Lightweight champion Alexandre ‘Xandinho’ Izidro (4-4) can be an incredibly frustrating fighter, both for his opponents, and for the audience.  A BJJ black belt under 'Ze Marcello’, Izidro has some truly excellent ground skills, as he showed in his upset win over Jani Lax last October to claim the vacant title.  Lax, with his Shooto background and reputation as one of Europe’s best lightweights came in as an overwhelming favourite but fell victim to a first round guillotine.  Izidro can also absorb and come back from serious punishment.  He showed that in his first title defence, taking a ferocious first round beating from respected Norwegian Thomas Hytten in the first round before coming back to score a clear decision win.  He also took some heavy shots from Dan Hardy last summer at the King of the Cage UK event, and held on to last the distance, losing by decision.  In fact, Izidro has never been stopped or submitted and all 4 of his losses have gone to the judges.

Unfortunately, being extremely durable and having an excellent BJJ pedigree are not always enough.  Izidro’s main weakness is not, unlike many BJJ stylists, his striking.  He’s not a bad striker at all, hardly anything special but he is at least competent.  Izidro’s main problems seem to be his tendency towards passivity that can degenerate into being downright boring and his sometimes-suspect conditioning.  Widely regarded as robbed of a decision win over Abdul Mohamed at Cage Rage 13, ‘Xandinho’ should have had plenty of motivation for their rematch a month later at an FX3 event.  Instead, he came in out of shape and disinterested and his lack of stamina cost him the fight as Mohamed again took the decision, but this time deservedly so.  Against Hytten, his conditioning was far better but at times he was horribly negative, even continually backing away from his exhausted opponent.  He almost seems to lose all interest in fighting at times and that can be very costly, particularly against a difficult challenger like Stapel.

Stapel (11-6), making his second appearance in the UK is a well-travelled, in-form fighter.  He’s gone 7-1 since the beginning of 2004 and over the course of a nearly six year career, competed in Holland, Italy, Japan, Sweden, Germany and the USA.  Unlike Izidro, Stapel has tapped out in MMA competition, one of them by the hugely talented Sauli Heilimo and will need to be very careful on the mat with ‘Xandinho’.  Stapel has faced Hytten in the past too, dropping a split decision in a European Vale Tudo war in 2003.  Stapel has beaten some strong opposition like American veteran John Cronk and the only man to beat him since the start of 2004 was the highly rated Mattias Awad, one of Europe’s very best fighters.  Stapel broke both hands along the way in that one and had trouble defending against Awad’s takedowns.  Not as good a grappler as Izidro, but certainly a better striker, Stapel will likely try to keep this on their feet.  That may not work though.  Izidro surprisingly but thoroughly outwrestled Mohamed in their first match and he can do the same with Stapel.  Look for Izidro to use all of his grappling advantages to the fullest in what will likely be a long, technical fight.  Izidro may catch Stapel with a late submission but it seems more likely he’ll pick up another decision win over five rounds.

PREDICTION: Izidro by decision after five rounds.

UK vs. Germany: Jose Figueria Rodrigues vs. Andre Balschmieter

UK based Brazilian Jose Figueria Rodrigues, much better known as ‘Ze Marcello’ makes his much anticipated MMA debut against the experienced Balschmieter (9-8).  A massively respected instructor and black belt from the Brazilian Top Team, ‘Ze Marcello’ quite obviously will have a huge advantage on the mat in this middleweight fight.  Already an established instructor at 3 BTT UK clubs in the south of England, teams which have produced CWFC champions in Alexandre Izidro and Danny Batten, he moved to the UK permanently earlier this year.  Balschmieter has been fighting since 2003 and amassed an average record during a career that has generally seen him lose to quality fighters.  Lars Besand, Fabricio Monteiro and Damien Riccio have all finished him in the first round and if ‘Ze Marcello’ can take him down quickly its unlikely this one will go five minutes.  A World and Pan American BJJ champion, ‘Ze Marcello’ also has years of training with the elite fighters of the Brazilian Top Team behind him.  Look for the British based Brazilian to finish this one quickly and impressively with a submission and a win for the UK team.

PREDICTION: ‘Ze Marcello’ by submission early in the first.

UK vs. Germany: Ross Mason vs. Dennis Siver

Popular Midlander Ross ‘the Boss’ Mason (7-4) and Germany’s Siver (7-3) are both very dangerous fighters.  Short and heavily muscled with no discernible neck, Siver looks like a cross between Sean Sherk and a young Mike Tyson.  If he was German.  Anyway, Siver fought, and went to the finals of the ‘Enter the Wolfslair’ welterweight tournament in March, losing in his third fight of the night against Arni Isaksson.  Siver just brutalised his first round opponent in 35 seconds.  Siver looked impressive in his second round match against Adrian Degorski, throwing a great suplex, working for submissions and laying out some punishment on the ground.  He had to take some nasty punches but showed good defensive instincts and a strong chin to survive before winning with an armbar.  Looking very weary in the final, Siver still floored Isaksson early and scored a couple of takedowns.  Both men exploded into action at the start of the second but Isaksson had more in reserve and, after some very good punching and positional work on the ground, slapped on an armbar.  But Siver’s performance in those three matches made his name in the UK and all but guaranteed him a place on this show.  He’s been busy since then too.  He fought, and lost Daniel Weichel earlier this month, tapping out to a rear naked choke and was scheduled for a fight in Slovenia against Welsh nutter Paul Jenkins on May 20th.  If he comes through that fight injury free, and Siver should beat Jenkins, this fight with Mason could be something special.

Mason is one of Britain’s most talented, and entertaining, strikers.  An aggressive kickboxer who relies on a tight defence to keep him out of trouble on the ground, Mason has had plenty of impressive, entertaining wins.  Comprehensively dismantled by Chris Lytle at Cage Rage 15, Mason was facing one of the most talented and consistently underrated welterweights in the entire sport.  Mason simply was not ready for a fight with Lytle and submitted in the second round of a very one-sided match.  Mason was then lined up for another fascinating match with the frightening David Bielkheden at CW: Strike Force 5 but pulled out injured.  Healthy again, Mason will be looking for the kind of slick, technically composed and clinical performance he had at Cage Rage 14 when he completely outclassed a raw, aggressive Darren Guisha.  Very effective in the clinch and good with elbows on the ground (he stopped Damien Riccio at Cage Rage 11 with a single elbow that cut the Frenchman open), Mason is always dangerous and even those who have beaten him, such as Nelson Semedo and Nathan Schouteren, have usually had to survive some real punishment along the way.

Both Siver and Mason have weaknesses in their ground game (Siver tapped to a Fabricio Nascimento Kimura just 47 seconds into their October 2005 fight) but both also like to keep a fight standing.  If they do go to the mat, and Siver’s monstrous suplexes can take them there, Mason could be in trouble with somebody as aggressive as Siver pounding away on him.  But at the same time, Mason is very effective from a similar position.  Much depends on who gets the initial advantage, as they are both fast and heavy-handed.  Whoever wins, this is unlikely to need a judges verdict and I have a feeling Siver, more active of late and with those big takedowns, has a better chance of putting Mason into a bad position before unleashing some of those nasty punches on the ground.  Expect an unrelentingly competitive first couple of rounds before Siver eventually puts him away with punches on the ground.

PREDICTION: Siver by TKO late in the third.

UK vs. Germany: Josenildo Ramarho vs. Daniel Weichel

Mario Stapel’s top student Weichel (11-2) was originally set for a great looking fight with Dan Hardy until injury problems led to the Nottingham striker pulling out and Wolfslair member ‘Luquinha’ Ramarho (7-4).  Ramarho was last seen in the CWFC octagon taking on the fearsome David Bielkheden as a late, late substitute.  With little time to specifically prepare and giving up significant weight in that middleweight match, Ramarho got an immediate double leg takedown, pulled himself free of a lightning fast armbar attempt before using some unorthodox guard work and nice head movement to evade the worst of Bielkheden’s violent ground n’ pound attack.  At least for a couple of minutes.  Soon Bielkheden’s brutal right hands were getting through more frequently and he used that to slip into sidemount, and from there, finish a tiring Ramarho with a choke late in the first round.  The word from the Wolfslair is that Ramarho is far better than he looked against Bielkheden and with the right preparation, at his natural weight, will be able to show that.  Since then he’s gone 3-0, all of them first round armbar wins but Weichel also has something to prove to the UK audience and is one of Germany’s most talked about fighters.

Weichel made his UK debut during that talent laden ‘Enter the Wolfslair’ tournament and came in as one of the favourites.  Unfortunately the 21-year-old German prodigy was a huge disappointment, doing little but posture and threaten before being caught and finished with a guillotine late in his frustrating fight with Thiago Tavares.  Hyped as almost a German Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua with a similarly non-stop, all-action striking style, Weichel looked more like any kickboxer with a decent sprawl who was terrified of going to the ground with a BJJ expert.  But that seemed to be a rare off-night for Weichel since he actually has some good wrestling, decent BJJ, is usually very active from his back and has picked up 6 wins by submission.  Most recently, he finished Dennis Siver with a rear naked choke and he scored a pair of submission victories in winning a high quality 4-man tournament last October at European Vale Tudo 5.  Boasting a more varied offense than Ramarho (Weichel has also picked up high kick and flying knee knockouts), the German will be best served keeping this one standing.  He should not try matching BJJ with Ramarho too much but with a good sprawl and firing off constant knees, kicks and punches he add Ramarho to a list of victims that already includes ‘J-Taro’ Takita from Shooto, Abdul Mohamed, Boris Jonstomp and Siver.

PREDICTION: Weichel by KO early in the second.

UK vs. Germany: Jim Wallhead vs. Peter Angerer

This fight has the words “ferocious”, “knockout” and yes, tacky is it is for this show, “war” written all over it.  Both Nottingham’s Roughouse fighter ‘Judo’ Jim (5-2) and German Top Team veteran Angerer (9-8) are fast, aggressive fighters who tend to come looking for blood at the opening bell.  Wallhead is a Strike Force regular, going 2-1 on the Coventry showcase events.  He’s absolutely hammered game late substitute Henning Svendsen and destroyed local kickboxer Steve Singh-Sidhu on previous shows.  He’s also riding a 4-fight winning streak that includes a patient, efficient five round decision win over Welsh veteran Paul Jenkins.  His losses came at middleweight against more experienced competition too.  Chris Rice and Boris Jonstomp both defeated Wallhead inside the distance but since dropping down to the same weight as teammates Paul Daley and Dan Hardy, Wallhead has looked very, very good.  A former member of the national Judo team, Wallhead is far more than just an over-aggressive puncher and kicker too.

The 38-year-old Angerer is much more experienced, entering his sixth year as a professional and has lost 6 of his last 8 fights, including a pair of first round TKO losses to two of Europe’s brightest young prospects – Wallhead’s training partner Daley and Ireland based Icelandic Arni Isaksson.  Daley gave him a real beating while the Isaksson fight, in the first round of ‘Enter the Wolfslair’ welterweight tournament in March, saw a fast and furious battle that ended when the referee stepped in with Angerer taken some great shots.  Blighted by injuries of late, Angerer’s recent record does not reflect his talent.  His strengths are his fast, accurate strikes, good chin and unrelenting stubbornness.  You have to be pretty stubborn to take the Enson Inoue inspired nickname of ‘Yamato Damashii’ and Angerer lives up to it, willing to fight anyone, and do so for every second of the fight.  He’s been in with some very good fighters and went the distance with travel-happy American veteran Shonie Carter 3 years ago.  Like Wallhead, Angerer has a more than competent ground game and caught slippery veteran Paul Jenkins with a heel hook in June 2005.

While Wallhead and Angerer can certainly handle themselves on the ground, this will eventually be decided standing, and with their fists and feet.  Wallhead seems to have picked up a few Dan Hardy traits, whipping in some hard, lightning fast kicks against Svendsen and throwing fast, varied combinations.  A big man at this weight, he also has the physical strength and grappling technique to force his opponent’s backs against the cage and then unleash the kind of furious barrage that traps them there.  Angerer lost the Isaksson fight like that and the finish of this could look similar.  Look for Angerer to give Wallhead his toughest fight this year in what could be the most exiting fight on the show, but expect the tattooed Nottingham man to finish him inside the distance.

PREDICTION: Wallhead by TKO midway through the second.

UK vs. Germany: TBA vs. Cengiz Dana

This lightweight fight was originally meant to feature the long, long awaited return to the CWFC of Ian ‘M16’ Butlin.  Unfortunately, the seemingly cursed Butlin picked up yet another injury that cost him both a TKO loss earlier this month (in his first match since September 2004) and what looked to be an intriguing fight with German based Turk, Dana.  At the time of writing no opponent had been officially announced but the 25-year-old Dana (7-5) has faced good opposition before.  In his only previous UK fight, ‘the Mosquito’ faced American Top Team member Gesias ‘JZ’ Calvancanti.  That fight was hardly a rousing success with ‘JZ’ continually taking Dana down but being unable to do much of anything on the mat.  Eventually, after boring much of the audience for so long, Calvancanti finally guillotined Dana with just five seconds left in the fight.  Lasting so long with a fighter as good as Calvancanti, though admittedly that was hardly his finest performance, means Dana deserves some credit despite his mixed successes, mostly on the German MMA scene.  Dana has gone 1-1 since that fight with Calvancanti but has notably lost by submission in all five of his defeats.  Whoever TBA ends up being, he should have been working on his BJJ skills as that is clearly Dana’s weakness.

UK vs. Germany: Mark Spencer vs. Franco de Leonardis

Mark ‘Spenna’ Spencer (4-4) is a well-regarded figure on the UK MMA scene but this fight with Leonardis (6-1) could be a tough one.  Spencer is from Team Fulinkazan, one of Northern England’s top teams and has previously brought over Hiroyuki Abe and Megumi Fuji for seminars.  Coming off 3 straight losses, Spencer is skilled with submissions but has been finished with strikes in two of those losses.  In the other one, he dropped a decision to Ollie Ellis that saw Ellis control things and hand out some punishment on the mat while Spencer was doing very well on his feet before tiring.  Those two are set for a long awaited rematch in July for the FX3 promotion but first, Spencer has to worry about Leonardis.  A regular for the old Ultimate Combat promotion based on the UK’s south coast, German Top Team member de Leonardis is an accomplished grappler but has not fought since a September 2004 submission loss to a very impressive Marcelo ‘Bocao’ Ferreira.  De Leonardis also boasts some crisp and varied striking skills and this could be a very entertaining fight that features a wide range of MMA skills.  De Leonardis has never gone past the first round while Spencer will have learned from the loss to Ellis and should have plenty of endurance for late in the fight.  That could make the difference in this one.  Spencer by a late TKO after a difficult first couple of rounds.

PREDICTION: Spencer by TKO midway through the third.

Other Fights:

Arni Isaksson vs. Diego Gonzales

Mention ‘Iceland’ to the average Englishman and they will immediately think of four things: the name of a cheap frozen food store where poor people like me buy cheap pizzas, irritating singer Bjork, expensive city breaks and Icelandic businessmen buying third rate soccer teams like Stoke City.  Well, now MMA fans can add a fifth element – Arni ‘the Ice Viking’ Isaksson (4-1).  Coming into the ‘Enter the Wolfslair’ tournament with a 1-1 record, Isaksson, Icelandic but fighting out of Ireland, was the least experienced of the 8 fighters.  And he won it.  Finishing all three opponents inside the distance.  First was the furious barrage that stopped Germany’s Peter Angerer 3:30 into a very entertaining first fight.  Then he bashed KOTC veteran Jeff Cox with a right hand KO 3:28 into their match.  Isaksson had a much tougher time in the final with Dennis Siver.  Recovering from a heavy first round knockdown, Isaksson used some excellent defensive skills and good reversals to neutralise the German fighter.  Isaksson also looked good during a wild exchange of punches early in the second before stuffing a takedown attempt before taking side control, landing some nice elbows and eventually securing an armbar for the submission win late in the second.  That theoretically earned Isaksson a shot at Dan Hardy’s CWFC Welterweight title on this show but Hardy’s April title defence/unification match with Forrest Petz, holder of the Ohio based FightFest did not go according to plan.  Hardy lost by a controversial decision but left Petz too battered to defend the unified CWFC/FightFest belt here.  So instead, Isaksson gets a major test against Hardy’s former nemesis and latest victim.

Gonzales (5-3) is a gifted fighter on the mat.  A success in plenty of grappling competitions he also went 4-0 under MMA rules in 2005, winning every fight by submission.  Unfortunately for Gonzales, the last of those fights, against Dan Hardy, was marred by controversy and later ruled a No Contest.  The Hardy rematch in March was a great fight with both men exchanging hard, accurate shots and Gonzales going for repeated submissions utilising his slick mat skills.  The fight continued in that way until late in the second when Hardy’s ground n’ pound started to really bother Gonzales and then just 19 seconds into the third round, it was over.  A Hardy high kick floored Gonzales and opened up a huge cut over his right eye, ending the fight.  It was Gonzales’ first defeat since a surprising April 2004 TKO loss to Kenneth Rosfort in a fight where Gonzales appeared out of shape, slow and disinterested.  Gonzales at his best is a dangerous fighter and he fared surprisingly well with Hardy on his feet.

This will be a very difficult test for Isaksson.  That Siver knockdown showed a disciplined striker can hurt him and Gonzales is probably more well rounded than Siver.  Gonzales is more experienced and while Isaksson has showed some impressive submission skills, Gonzales could simply be too good for him on the mat.  At times Gonzales seemed to have real trouble with Hardy’s all-action, never-ending attacks and Isaksson can use a similar style to keep him from settling into a rhythm.  If he can keep the pressure on and remain vigilant for the ever-dangerous armbars from the bottom, Isaksson can grind out a big win that keeps him as a top contender for the welterweight title.  But it will certainly not be easy.

PREDICTION: Isaksson by decision after three rounds.

Chris Rice vs. Paul Kelly

This middleweight fight between Rice (8-4) and Wolfslair prodigy Kelly (2-0) could be a good one.  Kelly impressed at last year’s TUF trials and was considered for a spot on the current series.  An aggressive, exciting fighter with a pair of first round TKO wins on his record, Kelly emerged as one of 2005’s most promising British newcomers.  Kelly hammered Nigel Whitear (victorious on the undercard at Cage Rage 14) in just 54 seconds in his last fight but Rice is more than capable of giving him a serious test.  He took on Kelly’s teammate Alex Cook in March, going the distance but dropping the decision in a very exciting stand up battle and was back for more just three weeks later at CW: Strike Force 5.  Rice scored a decision win over the inexperienced Dorian Lapaj there but the fight itself was awful.  Neither man did much apart from posture and threaten and Rice needs to be more active here and use his effective low kicks and long limbs to pick off his opponent at a distance rather than just stand around.  Hopefully he will do just that and the fans will be treated to some fast paced action since Kelly will likely want to brawl with him.  Rice has the experience edge and some good wins on the UK circuit (most notably against Michael Holmes and Jim Wallhead) and that may help to sneak a win, but Kelly is definitely a fighter to watch and I’m going for him to take this one by TKO stoppage in the second round.

Bruce Davis vs. Ben Walker

Here’s an odd one, Davis (3-3) meets debutant Walker over five rounds for the vacant House of Pain (HOP) British Middleweight title.  House of Pain is a Welsh promotion that works with CWFC which helps explain why one of its belts is being contested on this show.  Davis has faced some good fighters, going 1-1 in a pair of fights with Chris Rice and has lost to Wolfslair wrestler and former Ian Freeman protégé Hassan Muridi.  The 29-year-old Walker has a Muay Thai background and was due to fight for this title on a HOP event in Swansea last month.  That was called off due to injury and so the Manchester based Walker gets his chance at a minor title belt on a bigger stage.  Putting a debutant in a title fight is certainly different and not something that should really be happening these days but Walker is apparently a dangerous striker while Davis likes to brawl.  This could be a short and explosive match but Davis should take this one, based on experience alone.

Mick Sinclair vs. Jay Gilbey

Sinclair, a trainee of Michael Bisping and member of the Wolfslair, faces fighter/promoter Gilbey (1-1) at lightweight in the opening match.  Sinclair has emerged from the Cage Warriors: Quest semi-professional series and trains with one of the UK’s very best teams.  Any protégé of Bisping has a lot to live up to but Sinclair definitely has talent.  Gilbey’s slight experience edge under professional rules will likely make little difference and should be matched by Sinclair’s high quality training.  Gilbey has experience as a kickboxer too, even stepping in to fight under those rules on his own event earlier this year (he runs Intense Fighting that features MMA and Muay Thai in Cambridge) to replace a no-show.  Look for Sinclair to take this one, possibly by submission.

Predictions:

Alexandre Izidro DEC5 Mario Stapel
Jose Figueria Rodrigues SUB1 Andre Balschmieter
Dennis Siver TKO3 Ross Mason
Daniel Weichel KO2 Josenildo Ramarho
Jim Wallhead TKO2 Peter Angerer
Mark Spencer TKO3 Francis de Leonardis
Arni Isaksson DEC3 Diego Gonzales
Paul Kelly TKO2 Chris Rice
Bruce Davis TKO1 Ben Walker
Mick Sinclair SUB2 Jay Gilbey