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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief On Saturday night in St. Paul, Minnesota, Ambition Promotions unveiled their first in a series of events dubbed "The Crucible," an eight man tournament with the winner getting a contract with Strikeforce.
Ambition Promotions is the promoting arm of Ambition Training Academy, home to Strikeforce's Brett Rogers. This card on Saturday was their first ever event, and as raucous crowd throughout the night could attest, the first event was a success.
"We met our expectations," said Joey Clark, Co-Owner of the Ambition Training Academy. "This is the beginning of something way bigger. As long as we can get a certain amount of activity this thing can springboard even further."
The Academy just opened their doors in Eagan this May, and many were surprised by the speed in which this event was put together with a Strikeforce contract on the line, no less. But as Clark stated, "it's because this has been in the works for a long time." Clark said the idea for the tournament has gone back a ways, and the gathering of minds that they put together at Ambition helped bring it to fruition.
The fights themselves on Saturday night were all exciting, albeit quick. Only one fight on the card went past the first round, but most fights were competitive while they lasted.
The event got off to a hot start on the undercard with a pair of featherweight bouts. In the first fight of the night, Pat Schilling got Dusty Burford to the ground and pounded Burford into giving up his back, allowing him to get the rear naked choke and take the submission victory.
The second fight of the night saw the only blood on this card, as Randy Kittleson threw a number of elbows to Nick Tolsma as Tolsma lifted him up and slammed him to the ground. Though it was Tolsma bleeding, it was also him above Kittleson landing a number of shots as Kittleson could only cover up, forcing the ref to step in and stop the fight.
The third fight of the night was over really quickly, as Brandon Rossback locked in a standing guillotine on Sean Williams and dropped to guard to lock it in immediately, choking Williams out cold. There was a bit of a scary scene as Williams twitched and finally came to, but he recovered and was alright to walk out of the cage.
Perhaps the most dominating performance of the night came from lightweight Cody Pasquale on the final undercard bout, as he dropped his opponent Matt Eason with a flurry off the bat and punished him with elbows and punches from top position until the ref stepped in.
The final bout before the tournament saw another one-sided fight as Jeremy Hamilton unleashed a vicious assault of knees in the clinch and against the cage before the stoppage. It was Silva vs. Franklin-esque with the knees in the clinch and Hamilton took home the win.
The Crucible tournament was then set to get underway. The first round match-ups saw Gabe Walbridge against John Case, Dan Coop against Brandon Bergeron, Dustin Petron against Dane Smith, and Derrick Getzel against Mike Richman.
John Case became the first fighter to move on to the semifinals in the tournament in one of the better back and forth fights of the night. Case got a takedown and moved to mount, but Walbridge countered and got into Case's guard. Once there, however, Case grabbed hold of a guillotine and choked Walbridge out.
The best fight of the night was also the only one to make it out of the first round. Dan Coop and Brandon Bergeron put on a very good show in the first round, a close one that was extremely hard to score. But in the second, Bergeron took over and picked up the TKO victory to move to the semifinals himself.
The third quarterfinal bout saw another submission victory on the card, as Dustin Petron made quick work of Dane Smith. Smith got caught with his head down as he shot in and Petron locked the guillotine in. Smith tried to hold on but Petron rolled over him and forced the tap.
The main event of the evening was an exciting three minutes of action, with the crowd at their loudest for the bout's entirety. Mike Richman came out the uber-aggressor in this one, throwing bomb after bomb to a resilient Derrick Getzel. Getzel took the punishment and got in for a takedown and nearly got to mount before Richman countered and got back to his feet. Getzel again went for a takedown, but this time Richman sprawled nicely, locked on a choke and rolled through with it to finish off Getzel and take the final spot in the semifinals.
After a great first night of action, Ambition Co-Owner Lonnie Markwell laid out the plan for the next set of events. Coming in late October/early November will be the semifinals at event number two, with the finals to take place in late December/early January.
Minnesota fans can catch an airing of these events on the CW network the Friday after the events. For more information on Ambition MMA, check out www.AmbitionMMA.com and/or text "MMA" to 95495 for updates and discounts on future Ambition events.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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