MMA Returns to Rose Garden for HDNet Fights Presents Sportfight XXII: Re-Awakening
Posted on | February 27, 2008 | 1 Comment
Tickets On Sale This Sat, Mar 1st at 11a
Who: Sportfight XXII: Re-Awakening
When: Fri, Apr 18, 2008 ? 7:30p
Where: Rose Quarter – Rose Garden
Portland, Oregon
Tickets: Tickets are priced at $48.00, $32.00, and $25.00 (call for VIP prices) and can be purchased at the Rose Quarter Box Office (M-F 10a-5p), all participating Safeway/ Tickets West outlets, by calling 877.789.ROSE (7673), or at ComcastTIX.com. For Groups of 10+ please call 503.963.4400. For more information please visit RoseQuarter.com. Prices do not include service charges. To receive event notices, pre-sale opportunities, discounts and prizes join our free Rose Quarter CyberClub at RoseQuarter.com.
What: SportFight founder and MMA superstar Matt “The Law” Lindland has teamed up with Mark Cuban and HDNet to deliver yet another adrenaline-pumping night of mixed martial arts action at the Rose Garden on Friday, April 18 at 7:30pm. SportFight XXII: Re-Awakening will offer up a stacked fight card featuring some of the most skilled and exciting athletes from both the Northwest and beyond, and will be broadcasted live across the country in crystal-clear 1080i high definition.
“We are excited to show the rest of the world what Portland already knows. There is great MMA action in SportFight and we are proud to partner with Matt on this awesome fight card,” said Andrew Simon, CEO of HDNet Fights.
Local fight fans and a national TV audience will be treated a total of 12 stellar matchups, culminating in two main-event battles that will feature the quick and explosive athletes of the featherweight and lightweight divisions.
“We’re going to give the crowd the action-packed lightweights, but we’re also going to have some of the big boys going at it too,” said Lindland, President of SportFight, LLC., referring to the three bruising heavyweight fights scheduled. “This fight card has a little bit of everything.”
In the Main Event: SportFight veteran Enoch Wilson will put his belt and two-year reign as featherweight champion on the line when he takes on Mike Joy, a talented newcomer who earned his top contender status after an impressive unanimous decision victory over Zach George at SportFight XXI. Both men have shown that they are equally comfortable standing and trading blows or taking the fight to the ground, which should make for an entertaining and strategic battle of wills.
In the Co-Main Event: Cam Ward and Dave Jansen will face off for the number one contender spot and a shot at lightweight champion Travis Bush. Ward, a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu technician and former SportFight lightweight champion, is no stranger to the bright lights of professional MMA competition. But he will have his hands full with Jansen, an up-and-comer who submitted his last opponent at SportFight XXI with an anaconda choke just 41 seconds into the first round.
Other Fights of Interest: Perhaps the most intriguing fight of the evening will feature the MMA debut of Jason Ellis, a pro skateboarder who has competed in the X-Games and currently hosts a show on Sirius satellite radio. Ellis will trade the familiar confines of the skate vert ramp for the hostile environment of the SportFight ring when he takes on another first-time competitor in local product Jeff Churchill.
Main event
Featherweight
Enoch Wilson, Sportfight Champion (13-4) Team Quest/OJJ /Beaverton, OR vs. Mike Joy, (17-3) Alonso BJJ/ Johnson KB /Olympia, WA
Co-Main Event
Lightweight
Cam Ward Former SF Champion (7-3) OJJ /Beaverton, OR vs. Dave Jansen (6-0) Team Quest /Corbett, OR.
Lightweight
Ed Nuno Former SF Champion (3-1) Team Quest /Gresham, OR vs Tommy Truex (2-1), Greg Jackson’s MMA/Albuquerque, NM
Heavyweight
Eric Smith, (3-0), /Boise, ID vs. Andrew Pedersen, (3-1), /Vancouver, BC
Heavyweight
Sunia Filikitonga, (3-0), /Huston, TX vs. Thomas Naylor, (4-0), /Dallas, TX
Featherweight
Brian Caraway, (8-2) Yakama MMA /Yakama, WA. vs. Jeff Houland, (8-4) fight Control/ Modesto, CA.
Middleweight
Tyson Jefferies, (5-3) Team Quest /Portland, OR. vs. John Clift milwaukie, OR. (3-1)
Heavyweight
Nathan Rice, (5-0) Bully Gang /Eugene, OR. vs. Daniel Krug , (5-1), Impact BJJ /Beaverton, OR
Middleweight
Jason Ellis, (0-0) Team Tony Hawk, Murrieta CA. vs. John Clift Milwaukie, OR. (0-0)
*subject to change
About SportFight
Founded in 2003 by Matt Lindland and Randy Couture, SportFight is the leading mixed martial arts promotion in the northwestern United States. Together with its subsidiary brands, “Proving Grounds” and “Clash at the Casino,” SportFight has produced more than 30 live MMA events in Oregon, Nevada and Colorado.
SportFight was Oregon’s first sanctioned mixed martial arts promotion and has served as a showcase for many of the sport’s emerging stars and best-known veterans, such as Sean Sherk, Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou, Jeff Monson, Chris Leben, Ed Herman, Gesias “JZ” Calvancanti, Paul Daley, Chael Sonnen and Dennis Hallman. Furthermore, SportFight has graduated fighters to every major MMA organization, including the Ultimate Fighting Championship, Pride FC, K-1, the International Fight League, BodogFIGHT and Elite XC.
Check out SportFight TV every Saturday at 10 pm on Comcast SportsNet. SportFight has an extensive library of event footage and highlight compilations that are available on DVD at Wal-Mart, Hollywood Video and many other retail locations. For more information, visit www.sportfight.tv.
About HDNet
HDNet (www.hd.net) provides viewers with the best in original comedy, drama, news, sports and music programming.
HDNet is your exclusive, high definition home for popular, critically acclaimed original programming, including television’s only HD news feature program “HDNet World Report”, “Dan Rather Reports” featuring legendary journalist Dan Rather and “NASA on HDNet” (presenting live shuttle launches through 2010). HDNet presents championship sports coverage featuring the National Hockey League, Major League Soccer, NASCAR Grand National Division, NASCAR NEXTEL Cup re-broadcasts, boxing and Mixed Martial Arts through its new HDNet Fights initiative; groundbreaking music programming with the HDNet Concert Series featuring leading artists and bands including U2, Coldplay, Gwen Stefani and more; entertaining and irreverent lifestyle programming including “Deadline!”, “Art Mann Presents”, and “Get Out!” HDNet is also the exclusive high definition home to critically acclaimed and award winning programs such as the Emmy Award winning “Arrested Development”, “The Black Donnellys”, “Blade: The Series”, “Star Trek: Enterprise”, “Smallville”, ”Joan of Arcadia”, “Boomtown” and “Andy Richter Controls the Universe”.
Rose Quarter
The Rose Quarter in Portland, OR is owned by an affiliate of the Portland Trail Blazers and managed by Global Spectrum. The Rose Quarter includes 20,000-seat Rose Garden, 12,000-seat Memorial Coliseum, 6,500-seat Theater of the Clouds, 40,000-square foot Exhibit Hall and the Rose Quarter Commons. Home to the NBA Portland Trail Blazers and the NLL Portland LumberJax, the Rose Garden is a $262 million multi-purpose arena that opened in the fall of 1995. The WHL Winter Hawks play in Memorial Coliseum, which opened in 1961 and served as the original home of the Trail Blazers. Memorial Coliseum is attached to 40,000-square foot Exhibit Hall and seven meeting rooms. The Commons, Portland’s largest outdoor public plaza, connects the Rose Garden and the Memorial Coliseum and can accommodate up to 5,000 people for outdoor events. Ovations Food Services is the official food and beverage concessionaire for the Rose Quarter.
Rose Quarter Ranked #1 in Number of Shows, #3 in Attendance and #8 in Total Gross
In the December 2006 issue of Venues Today, the Rose Quarter not only was ranked eighth in the world for venues with a capacity of 15,001-30,000 for the year, it also won the 2006 Hall of Headlines Booking title. The Rose Quarter has had more events (not including Trail Blazers games, Winter Hawks games, and other select events) than any other venue in its category with 191 and boasts the third largest attendance with 872,208.
Global Spectrum
Global Spectrum (global-spectrum.com) is the fastest growing firm in the public assembly facility management field with more than 65 facilities throughout the United States and Canada. The Philadelphia-based company is part of one of the world’s largest sports and entertainment companies, Comcast-Spectacor, which also owns the Philadelphia Flyers of the National Hockey League, the Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association, the Philadelphia Phantoms of the American Hockey League, Flyers Skate Zone, a series of community ice skating rinks, Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia, a regional sports programming network, Ovations Food Services, a food and beverage services provider, New Era Tickets, a full-service ticketing and marketing product for public assembly facilities, and Front Row Marketing Services, a commercial rights sales company and 3601 Creative Group, a full-service in-house advertising agency. In a partnership with Disson Skating, Comcast-Spectacor annually produces 10 nationally televised figure skating spectaculars on NBC.