French
Evolution : Part 1
French
Evolution - Part 1 - Who's Who.
By
Droc 14 January 2004
When I first saw
a french fighter in MMA on a UK show he was beaten in 11 seconds by James Zikic.
No one had heard of him or any other French fighter for that matter. As far as
the UK and the MMA world was concerned France didn't exist. A short while later
the same promoter brought some French fighters to take on some of the UK's top
fighters and while they all put up good fights the English came away with a clean
sweep.
When I moved to Paris I set out
to find an MMA club, what I found was that there's no shortage of talent or enthusiasm
in France but what was lacking was organisation. There were too few MMA or grappling
events in France and none of them with professional rules.
That
was little over 2 years ago and since then the French MMA scene has gone from
strength to strength and is beginning to impose itself as one of the powerhouses
of MMA in Europe and potentially the world. Lets take a look at some of the things
that have happened:
The French Konnexion
Some
of Frances best fighters and coaches decided to get together and start a team.
In the beginning, based in Paris there was World Muay Thai Champion Cyrille Diabaté,
World kickboxing champion Jean Louis Alberch, 2Hot2Handle veteran Moise Rimbon
and Loic Pora. In Avignon and Perpignan were the Schiavo brothers and the Riccio
brothers respectively. The French Konnexion had been established
When
Cyrille made the change to MMA and took on Josh Dempsey in Cage Wars almost 2
years ago he was a world-class striker who was learning submissions. He still
took boxer and wrestler Dempsey to a controversial decision over 3 rounds and
his skills have visibly improved in every fight since. He has fought twice in
2hot 2 Handle beating Dave Vader by submission to a triangle choke in the first
round, and Bob Schreiber where he stopped many of the wrestlers takedown attempts
and punished him on the floor to take the decision.
Then
he beat James Zikic by a decision in Extreme Force 1and although the Light Heavy
Weight was an all round fighter, during the course of the match Cyrille broke
Zikics ribs, picked him up for a huge slam, reversed him to almost sub him and
even laid down some Ground N Pound, all of this with a broken hand from midway
through Round 1. Diabaté is ready to take on the best in the world and
this February he's going to step up and prove it as he faces Alistair Overeem
in 2hot2Handle.
Don't think that the
rest of the team have been hiding in Cyrilles Shadow. After an armbar win over
Gaz Roriston and a controversial decision loss to Hayato Sakurai in the Golden
Trophy Jean Louis went 3 – 0 in Marrakech and the Netherlands with a tournament
win in the European Mixfight championships. (Jean Louis is expected to fight in
the UK at the end of February).
Since
losing to Amar Suloev in the finals of the 8 Man tournament because of a broken
ankle picked up in the semis, Moise Rimbon has fought some of the best in both
grappling and MMA. He took Abu Dhabi stand out Fabrizio Werdum to a decision in
the Bruxelles International Grappling before travelling to Finland and taking
Local favourite Mikka Rupponen to a decision. His most recent fight was a win
against UCC regular Stephane Potvin in WAFF 2. Moise has proven that he can hang
with some of the best in the world in either grappling or MMA, so expect to hear
big things from both of these fighters in the future.
Loic
Pora came back this year from a serious injury and lead teams to the UK and to
Holland to walk away victorious in UKMMAC and tournament champions in the M1 Holland.
He's due to fight Mark Epstein for the European Light Heavyweight championship
at the end of February.
In 2003 the
French Konnexion took on new members including young Prospect Johnny Frachey and
Shooto Holland and Japan veteran Kassim Annan. Johnny was one of the 6 fighters
who went with Loic to UKMMAC where he made his debut against Pat Carr and was
winning convincingly until his inexperience let him down. Carr caught him flush
with a spinning backfist and Johnny crumbled under the veterans’ pressure.
He has since gone on to win twice in Total Fight Hungary in Budapest and will
be fighting again in the UK soon. Johnny is only 21 years old so he has all the
time in the world to make his mistakes and learn his trade now.
Kassim
had fought and won 2 amateur tournaments in Holland before anyone even knew there
was such a thing as a French fighter. After losing a match to a very experienced
Japanese fighter where he gave up over 10Kgs in weight, the BJJ purple belt went
on to beat Koen Hulzinga and Evert Fyeet in Shooto Holland. He made his UK debut
in XFC 2 in November when, along with 5 other French fighters on the show, he
won, beating Mustapha Al Turk by armbar within 2 minutes while giving away almost
20Kgs in weight. A week later he became European Mix fight champion at 95kg beating
Olafin t'Veld in just over a minute by Triangle. Another week went by and he became
M1 Champion again winning by submission, this time in Russia.
The
Snake Team
As well as heading the
French Konnexion, Cyrille runs his own school in the Paris suburbs. The fighters
coming out of this gym are known as the Snake Team. Over the last few years they
have been establishing themselves all across Europe with Cyrilles cousin Fred
Dutriat who despite getting off to a slow start with 2 losses, went on to beat
Paul Jenkins in Total fight Hungary before drawing with Wrestler Abdul Mohammed
in XFC 2 and winning in Mixfight Holland in November.
Team
Mate Xavier Foupa-Pokam, after impressing UK fans in UKMMAC was invited to face
Matt Ewin for the European Championship and won in under 4 minutes. In their rematch
just over a month later Xavier dominated early proceedings before giving up position
and losing to a rear naked choke. Xavier KO'd his opponent in Totalfight Budapest
2 on 11 January and is lined up to face Alex Evans in Cage Rage in February but
already people are talking about a rubber match against Matt.
I
also expect to see a lot more from this team in the future.
The
Bushido Academie
In the small town
of Avignon in the south of France over 10 years ago 2 brothers with a TaeKwondo
and Kickboxing background went searching for a Groundfighting instructor after
seeing some UFC and Pride tapes, what they found was a 50+ year old man who came
from what he called Judo JuJitsu. What this turned out to be was a grappling art
coming from Japanese JuJutsu origins but developing into what has now become sport
Judo. The beauty of this art was that while adopting the modern, effective training
methods of Judo, it kept the neck cranks, leg locks and takedowns that have become
illegal in the Olympic sport.
The 2
Brothers, Samy and James Schiavo, started training with the Jujutsu master everyday
and began competing in any and every Mixed Martial Event they could find in France
and elsewhere.
After defeating all
active competitors in the Pancrase association (and being banned by a corrupt
president in an attempt to keep his club on top) and winning numerous time in
both the Ceinture D'or and the Golden Trophy they looked to Japan and the UK.
After outings for their students in Daido Juku in Japan and successful UK debuts
for both brothers in Cage Wars 1 Samy came back in Cage Warriors 2: Fists of Fury
to take on Jean Silva who was, and still is, tearing up the UK Lightweight division.
Samy took the fight on 2 weeks notice and visibly gassed just minutes into the
fight. Despite his obvious fatigue Samy battered Jean for 2 rounds, leaving his
face unrecognisable, until Jean managed to take his back and submit him with a
rear naked choke. The fight is widely considered the fight of the year for 2002.
Samy hasn't fought since that match
nor has he been idle. When not coaching his students, Samy traveled to the Brazil
Dojo to train with Wallid Ismael and the rest of the team. He has tightened his
ground game immensely so expect to see a brand new Samy Schiavo against Paul Sutherland
in Cage Rage and keep an eye out for possible fights in Brazil.
James
has been a little more active than Samy, after a second victory in the UK against
Andy walker, this time by Armbar, James earned a shot in the big show when he
took on Alex Evans in Extreme Force. James came out hard and took Alex down almost
at will to inflict some ground N pound on Alex. Near the end of the round James
decided to give up the mount and try to finish the fight with an armbar. For his
effort he got heel kicked in the face, an illegal technique just as the round
ended. James came up in weight to take this fight and in the second round it showed,
his cardio suffered dreadfully and added to the accidental groin shot plus the
heel kicks James was exhausted. Alex defended James takedowns and punished him
standing until James could fight no more. The Referee stepped in, seeing that
James was exhausted, and stopped the fight.
In
the meantime Samy and James' students had started to impress the UK Crowds, Benoit
Derot tapped MMA veteran Chin Weerasingh with a Heelhook then had to take some
time out after suffering a fatigue fracture in Vale Tudo in France. Laurent Bonnafoux
gave Shain Tovell a hell of a fight until getting caught with a triangle in the
same night as a new young Phenom hit the scene.
Mohamed
'Sako' Kacha made his UK debut against Paul Jenkins in UKMMAC2 and the unthinkable
happened. This 18-year-old kid with puppy fat and about a years training flew
out of his corner and battered the old warhorse for all of 56 seconds until Fred
Rado had to stop the match. Most of the crowd was impressed, some of them shouted
fluke but Sako became an immediate legend. In Cage Warriors 3 Mohamed silenced
his critics by repeating his UKMMA performance, this time against Brazillian Jiu
Jitsu Brown Belt Alex DeSouza. The scene was set for another French fighter to
have the fight of the year.
Impressed
with the French fighters skills and willingness to fight Dougie Truman promoted
the UK V France at Cage Warriors 5 in Portsmouth. 5 fighters from France and 3
fighters from the Bushido Academie performed that night, including Sako. Guillaume
Monod opened the France V UK matches with a win over Ricky Moore in the first
round. Guillaume, known as Zen, was visibly outclassed standing but took the fight
to the ground where he's always comfortable and methodically wore away at Ricky
until he finished him with a triangle late in the first. He didn't have it all
his own way and after the match Guillaume decided to stick to his first love,
grappling. After dominating the first few minutes with takedowns and ground Control
Laurent Bonnafoux ate a huge knee from Andy Lagden and lost by KO.
On
the same night, in a much-anticipated match between 2 KO artists, Mohamed took
on Andy Cooper. Predictions were flying, it was a real case of the Eager young
gun coming after the wily veteran with some 20 years between the 2 fighters. Everyone
expected a standup war but Sako surprised everyone by shooting immediately for
Andys legs proving not only that he can grapple but that he's an intelligent fighter
who's able to use the right tactic against the right opponent. For almost the
whole 5 minutes of the first round Mohamed switched from mount to rear mount,
from Ground N Pound to submission attempt giving everything he had to try to finish
Andy off. The crowd was loving it, Andy showed incredible toughness and heart,
not to mention amazing skill to avoid the relentless blows and submission attempts
that just kept on coming. Then came the end of the round and an almighty shift
in momentum.
As round 2 started Sako
went for Andy’s legs again but this time Andy was ready for him and managed
to hold off the takedown. The fight still went to the ground but this time the
tough Northerner took top position and took his turn at beating on his opponent.
Andy controlled Sako beautifully, taking his time to stabilize his position and
beat on Sako until he had back mount. Once there he beat him some more, all the
time working in the rear naked choke. Sako did what he could to fight off the
choke, but he was a beaten man. He gave all he could but at around the 4 minute
mark Andy got the tap.
In his loss,
Sako concreted his position as one of the best 77Kg fighters active in the UK
and Andy proved to everyone how tough and skilled he is. That defeat changed Mohamed.
Before losing he was blasé, he came to training, he got in the ring and
he always won. After facing Andy Cooper he realised that he's playing with the
big boys and if he wanted to continue to be competitive he'd have to run and lift
weights. So that's exactly what he did and it showed when he TKO'd BJJ Blackbelt
Nilson Lopez in the last UKMMAC.
Bugei
France
won the Cage Warriors UK V France Event 3 fights to 2. The 2 other French fighters
in the cage that night represented the Bugei Fighting System. Florentin Amorim
took on Explosive Middleweight Paul Daley and when Daley Slipped throwing a low
kick Florentin took advantage taking Daleys back immediately and finishing him
in the first round with a Rear Naked Choke.
The
second Bugei representative was Emmanuel Fernandez, Emmanuel and his brother Frederic
hold Brown and Purple belts under Ricardo de la Riva and are 2 of Frances most
decorated grapplers with wins in BJJ and Grappling events from all over Europe
including Open Category wins despite only weighing only 65Kg each.
Emmanuel
came up in weight to take on one of the UK's best 70Kg fighters in Robbie Oliver
in his MMA Debut. The fight surprised a lot of people as Emmanuel showed his willingness
to strike with Oliver despite being outweighed and being predominantly a ground
fighter. As was expected though, the fight ended up on the ground. Once there
Emmanuel fought hard to keep the fight on the floor and worked his way to a triangle
which he finished 4 minutes into the fight.
After
an impressive performance Cage Warriors Promoter Dougie Truman invited Emmanuel
back to take on Pete Tiarks in what was essentially thought of as a Number 1 contenders
position match to fight the winner of the McVeigh V Butlin title match which was
due to happen that same night. Emmanuel controlled the fight almost from the start
winning again by triangle less than 2 minutes in.
The
McVeigh V Butlin fight didn't happen that night due to both men being unable to
compete and Paul McVeigh has decided to take some time off, so Emmanuels next
UK MMA appearance will be in a 4 Man Feather Weight tournament due to begin at
Cage Warriors 6 in March. In the meantime he's going to Sweden to compete in the
Scandinavian Abu Dhabi Submission Wrestling championships.
Emmanuel
is not only a great fighter but also an excellent coach, leading his BJJ team
to the podium over and over again at this year's BJJ championships just outside
Paris. His MMA Team, Fernandez Vale Tudo, is preparing to take the UK by storm
as proven by Mickael Slomczynski's impressive performance expect to see Mickael
again along with the UK debut of Emmanuels brother Frederic and another of his
students in Extreme Brawl in March.
The
other fighter to represent the Bugei system is Cyril Rousseau. This 5'7" bull
of a man with multiple Grappling titles, 4 French San Shou championships and a
runner up in the French kickboxing championships under his belt brings a well-rounded
game to the ring. In his Professional MMA debut Cyril took on XFUK fighter James
Taylor at XFC2 and dominated the wrestling and standup on his way to a draw. (There
were no judges’ decisions).
