Lindsay Lohan? Sweet!
It seemed almost criminal that I ran an East Coast fight site and have gotten this far without making the pilgrimage to Atlantic City. So I jumped at the chance to hit Fight City USA for New Breed Fighters 27. New Breed tends to fly under the radar, setting up in the Superstar Theater at Resorts Hotel & Casino on the Boardwalk. Getting there is simple, its only about three turns off the AC Expressway, and if you can fight the temptation to hit the craps tables, you just have to wander through the casino floor. The show is in the theater, with fighter prep areas and NBF traffic control are both set-up across the hall in the ballroom. Running the show is Scott Morgan, his brother in law John and their wives, along with a crew that has been with them for going on three years. All that experience has the back room running very smoothly and efficiently. I didn’t see any last minute running around at all.
The cage is set-up half on the theater’s stage, which allows for a very unique layout where VIP seatting is actually on the stage. The crew had tables set-up with name tags for us. Fightco and Angela & Ant from Jamie Varner’s school up in Long Island were up there with me. With the fighter prep area in the ballroom, fighters come down through the back on their walk-up to the cage.
The web video stream is handled in house with commentary provided by Alex Wilkie of Wilkie’s Warriors and Mike…I forget Mike’s last name (sorry, man) with a revolving door third seat. I was asked to call the first three fights, and I know Joe Abouata followed me. Mike and Alex have a really good timing with each other, and its tough to be the third man in that dance.
The matches were all strong. The match-ups were well put together, and each fight was an even match-up. None of the rookies looked overwhelmed, and nobody looked lost in the cage. I was disappointed to see the Dan Hughes x Vito Padulo fight end in DQ. Before Hughes dropped down for the single leg out of the clinch, the two were banging and throwing heavy, heavy fans. And to the dweebs who were heckling Hughes for not being able to continue, please, step in the cage. Evan Chmielski dropped Steve Sierra with a big right hand, and at the very least brown outed his power grid.
The title fights anchored a very strong show. Pat Sabatini and Jimbo Hoffman came to bang, and neither guy was able to gain a real dominant advantage. Good striking and sprawling from both, but Sabatini did earn the win. Victor Romero spent as much time showboating as he did fighting, and got outworked by Kyle Rigby.
In the main event, Aaron Sifflet and Frankie Perez both came in with belts won at KAPMMA to fight for the vacant Super Welterweight belt. A good first round led to a strong second with Perez winning the ground battle snatching a leg for a kneebar win, and another belt for his collection.
New Breed comes back with its first pro show on February 26 back at Resorts.
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