RIZIN 17 Results, Battlefield FC 2, ONE Championship and WADA

RIZIN 17 Results, Battlefield FC 2, ONE Championship and WADA

Before I get into Battlefield FC, and believe me that is going to be a big part of what we talk about today. 

Before that, though I want to talk about RIZIN 17! Oh man was that a hell of a card. I love what RIZIN is doing and the approach they take to the sport. Some great Asian MMA matchups going on over there, 

This was a big card, I want to talk about a few of the fights. One of the womens fights early in the card which all of a sudden has implications for the regional scene was ROAD FC Champ Seo Hee Ham in her debut absolutely destroying Tomo Maesawa with brutal knees in the first round. 

After the win she called out Miyuu Yamamoto, they had a little moment in the ring and that fight looks to be official for RIZIN 19 as a title eliminator.

In other woman's action on the card, Stephanie Egger came away with a Unanimous Decision win over King Reina. 

We also saw Jake Huen get the win over Vitaly Shemetov due to a cut in the 3rd round. 

Undefeated Russian Ivan Shtyrkov put everyone in his division on notice with a brutal second-round TKO finish of Hook Kim 

And in the main event, we had an absolute war between Mikuru Asakura and Yusuke Yachi that saw Asakura walk away with a unanimous decision. 

Before I get into the absolute shit show that was Battleground FC 2. Just a quick update on the whole ONE Championship and WADA testing situation. I know a lot of you might be aware of the defamation letter that ONE sent to Thailand based UFC vet Will Chope after he posted about ONEs testing policies and even after the ONE CEO Chatri Sityodtong replied to his post saying he agreed with a lot of what he said. 

I’ll actually be interviewing Will soon, that should be the next episode that drops later this week. So we will dive into all of that. 

But one of the interesting things that came out of all of this was that WADA pretty much came out and said they are not working with ONE in any way, and just using WADA labs does not mean you are doing WADA testing. 

It’s another really interesting development in the whole Asian MMA drug testing saga. 

Personally, in my opinion, I think ONE should have never brought it up. It was pretty much a well-known secret that a lot of fighters in Asia, in just about every promotion are on some type of PED and promoters don’t test for it. 

It’s not a ONE issues, it’s a sport issue. But if you don’t talk about it then no one really cares. 

Look, I’m not sure I’m on the right side of this argument, I know a lot of people disagree with me, but that’s where I stand. 

Ok, Let’s get into Battleground FC 2 and the absolute shitshow that it was. Or is turning out to be. The story is still developing.

I am also going to be linking in the show notes to articles from Bodylock MMA because they have done a fantastic job of covering it. 

So some of you guys might remember Battleground FC 1 that took place in Korea back in 2017. It had a pretty good lineup, much like Battleground FC 2 did, but was plag

RIZIN 17 Results, Battlefield FC 2, ONE Championship and WADA

Before I get into Battlefield FC, and believe me that is going to be a big part of what we talk about today. 

Before that, though I want to talk about RIZIN 17! Oh man was that a hell of a card. I love what RIZIN is doing and the approach they take to the sport. Some great Asian MMA matchups going on over there, 

This was a big card, I want to talk about a few of the fights. One of the womens fights early in the card which all of a sudden has implications for the regional scene was ROAD FC Champ Seo Hee Ham in her debut absolutely destroying Tomo Maesawa with brutal knees in the first round. 

After the win she called out Miyuu Yamamoto, they had a little moment in the ring and that fight looks to be official for RIZIN 19 as a title eliminator.

In other woman's action on the card, Stephanie Egger came away with a Unanimous Decision win over King Reina. 

We also saw Jake Huen get the win over Vitaly Shemetov due to a cut in the 3rd round. 

Undefeated Russian Ivan Shtyrkov put everyone in his division on notice with a brutal second-round TKO finish of Hook Kim 

And in the main event, we had an absolute war between Mikuru Asakura and Yusuke Yachi that saw Asakura walk away with a unanimous decision. 

Before I get into the absolute shit show that was Battleground FC 2. Just a quick update on the whole ONE Championship and WADA testing situation. I know a lot of you might be aware of the defamation letter that ONE sent to Thailand based UFC vet Will Chope after he posted about ONEs testing policies and even after the ONE CEO Chatri Sityodtong replied to his post saying he agreed with a lot of what he said. 

I’ll actually be interviewing Will soon, that should be the next episode that drops later this week. So we will dive into all of that. 

But one of the interesting things that came out of all of this was that WADA pretty much came out and said they are not working with ONE in any way, and just using WADA labs does not mean you are doing WADA testing. 

It’s another really interesting development in the whole Asian MMA drug testing saga. 

Personally, in my opinion, I think ONE should have never brought it up. It was pretty much a well-known secret that a lot of fighters in Asia, in just about every promotion are on some type of PED and promoters don’t test for it. 

It’s not a ONE issues, it’s a sport issue. But if you don’t talk about it then no one really cares. 

Look, I’m not sure I’m on the right side of this argument, I know a lot of people disagree with me, but that’s where I stand. 

Ok, Let’s get into Battleground FC 2 and the absolute shitshow that it was. Or is turning out to be. The story is still developing.

I am also going to be linking in the show notes to articles from Bodylock MMA because they have done a fantastic job of covering it. 

So some of you guys might remember Battleground FC 1 that took place in Korea back in 2017. It had a pretty good lineup, much like Battleground FC 2 did, but was plagued by poor refereeing and the promoters inability to pay the fighters, they actually issued them IOUs after the fight and then took over a year to make any payments. 

So two years go by, the same promoter decides that he has recovered, he learned his lesson and that he was going to hold another show, this time in Macau. And for those of you who don’t know, Macau is like the Vegas of Asia, but with better food. 

Anyway, long story short, everyone knows about the payment and officials issues from the first event, but I think a lot of people wanted to give the promoter the benefit of the doubt. And apparently, he was telling people that he had the money to front for the fighters and the show. 

He the promoter pulled together a great card, he had fighters like Will  Brooks and Gleison Tibau in the main event and fighters Shannon Ritch, Brayn Caraway and Jan Finney all on the card. 

This was a strong card. 

The real issues started early when the head official that Battlefield hired to bring a professional officials team together, Steven Perceval pulled his whole team from the event before they boarded the flight as the promoter had not paid. Obviously, he didn’t want to fly to Macau and not get paid. 

So the promoter pulled in a team of rank amateurs on a days notice to fill in as refs and judges. There is a video in one of the body lock posts I am going to link in the show notes that actually shows the fighters explaining the rules to the officials at the rules meeting. 

Not the way that's supposed to go

Not only did this put the safety of the fighters at risk, but it also ended up impacting the outcome of the main event. 

In the final contest of the night Will Brooks was caught in a tight guillotine choke, but working to get out. He relaxes his arms for a second, but they don’t go limp. The ref doesn’t check his arm to see if he's out, he doesn’t go in for a closer look, he just jumps in and stops the fight, Will pops right back up in protest, even his opponent gives the ref some side-eye before acknowledging the win. Even the commentary team were blown away by the horrible stoppage. 

If you remember the first Battlefield FC this same exact thing happened to Youssef Whebe in the first round of his fight. He was caught in a kimura from the mount but wasn’t in that horrible of a position. 

He didn’t look like he was about to tap, his opponent leaned over the arm but didn’t really seem to put it in any worse of an angel and the ref jumped in and stopped the fight despite Youssef having never tapped. 

It might be two years later but it seems that Battlefield has not learned their lesson, but we all should. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. 

Look, I feel bad for the fighters, they were put in the worst position of all, they fought on a card with inexperienced officials that put their safety at risk and then they were not compensated the agreed amount by the promoter. 

No one wants to see the fighters put in those positions, ever. Promoters, stop this shit. There are a lot of good promoters out there. Do your research before taking a fight. Don’t risk your health for someone who has no intention of taking care of you. 

I hope all the fighters get paid, but if history is any indicator, that might take a while. 

That is all I have for you guys today.

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Host: dana blouin

Producer: Emily Barner

Executive Producer: dana blouin

Steve Percevals FB post about Battlefield: https://www.facebook.com/1020290324/posts/10216974667091804/ 

 

Bodylock MMA coverage on Battlefield FC 2

https://thebodylockmma.com/battlefield-fc/battlefield-fc-reportedly-fails-to-pay-fighters-again/ 

https://thebodylockmma.com/battlefield-fc/referees-judges-no-show-for-battlefield-fc-2/