EXMMA: Extreme Mixed Martial Arts Promotions Presents a brand new UKMMA event; Extreme Cage Championships, who will host their first ever MMA event on Saturday, October 12th, 2013, entitled ‘ECC Banned I’.
Just less than 24-hours after ECC announced their unified amateur rules undercard, the promotion have now announced the professional main card, which will take place from the Norbreck Castle in Blackpool, England.
The Extreme Cage Championship’s first promotional event will be headlined by two top-fifteen ranked light heavyweights, with Tony Moran (9-5-0) formerly of Wolfslair MMA, taking on Team Kaobon’s Iain “Badman” Martell (9-1-0).
Tony Moran, who fights out of Sapphire MMA in Huyton, Liverpool, has a professional MMA record of 9-5-0, with five wins coming via way of TKO/KO, three by submission and one via decision. Moran was a former member of the world famous Wolfslair MMA Academy in Widnes, England, and once was a regular sparring partner of former UFC light heavyweight champion, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and former UFC heavyweight Cheick Kongo.
Moran was also a professional Boxer who fought in the UK cruiserweight division, and held a Boxing record of 14-6-0, with five of those fourteen wins coming by KO.
Iain “Badman” Martell, who fights out of Team Kaobon in Liverpool, has a professional MMA record of 9-1-0, with six of his wins by TKO/KO, two via submission and just one by decision. The “Badman” has finished all but two of his opponents within the first round and was recently crowned the UCMMA UK-1 champion after standing in last minute to defeat Marc Navarro to the title.
Martell has been making his way up the UK light heavyweight rankings ladder over the past two years. This main event promises to be an exciting and thrilling fight between Moran and Martell, you just won’t be able to risk blinking.
“It’s a real pleasure for myself, my co-promoter and the whole ECC team to have two guys like Tony and Iain fighting on our fight show” said ECC Promoter Robert Riley. “Myself and Lee (co-promoter and matchmaker) have worked night and day for a long time now to put together not just what we feel is going to be a well-run and professional MMA promotion, but also the best professional and amateur fight card for our first event.
“We had so many different main events over the past few months, but one thing and another stopped us from making announcements and getting our original targets. But now we have Tony Moran and Iain Martell as the ECC Banned I main event, we are very happy and hope the fans will be too”.
The ECC Banned I co-main event hosts a rematch between two of the North-West’s top middleweights, when Manchester Predators Avi Jack comes back from a short retirement to take on “The Lion Paw”, Andrew De-Vent.
This is a fight that everyone in Manchester and the North-West has been crying out to see since their previous fight back in May 2011, and ECC appear keen to give fans what they want.
Avi Jack, who holds a professional MMA record of 6-2-0, retired from MMA after his last fight back in December of 2012. But Jack could not stay away from the sport and wanted to make his return and decided to do this at the very first ECC: Extreme Cage Championship promotional event.
Jack fights out of Predators Manchester and rubs shoulders day-to-day with the likes of former BAMMA lightweight champion and current Bellator lightweight Rob “C-4” Sinclair, UK veteran Mick Sinclair and BAMMA veteran Carl Noon, all former members of Team Kaobon in Liverpool.
Andrew “The Lions Paw” De-Vent, who holds a professional MMA record of 7-8-0 also hasn’t fought since December 2012. De-Vent has wanted a rematch against Jack for some time now and hasn’t been shy in letting everyone know this. De-Vent put out a wish list on his social media page Facebook saying the fight he wanted next was Jack, which would be a rematch from their Fight Ikon 7 fight that took place back in May of 2011.
This was a fight that many promotions around the UK and North-West were looking to stage, but fortunately for ECC, this fight will now finally take place on October 12th at ECC Banned I.
“This fight between Avi and Andrew came around so quick, we got wind that Andrew wanted a rematch with Avi before it went public online” said Riley. “So myself and Lee (co-promoter and matchmaker) contacted Andrews manager and Avi’s manager and set the wheels in motion.
“We then heard there were many other promotions interested in this fight too which we can understand why, but we were always confidant that if this fight was to happen, then it would be on the first ECC event in October.
“We are so glad and privileged to have this top North-West middleweight battle on our event and believe along with the unified amateur undercard, the professional feature bouts and the main event, there is little more that any UK MMA fan could ask for. Tickets start at just £25, you will pay for the whole seat, but you’ll only need the edge”.
Also on the card will be a welterweight battle between two BAMMA veteran’s, when Manchester’s Leigh “The Boom” Cohoon takes on Newport’s David “One More” Round, plus MMA Academy’s Anthony Davies will take on Liverpool’s James Bray, and Wolfslair’s lightweight prospect Jack McGann returns for his third professional MMA bout.
Three more top UK professional bouts are expected to be announced later this week.
Here is the official pro and amateur ECC Banned I: Martell vs. Moran fight card:
Main Event – Light Heavyweight: Tony Moran vs. Iain “Badman” Martell
Co-Main Event – Middleweight: Avi Jack vs. Andrew De-Vent
Lightweight: Leigh Cohoon vs. David Round
Welterweight: Anthony Davies vs. James Bray
Lightweight: Jack McGann vs. TBC
Unified Amateur Rules (UAR):
Heavyweight Title: Rob Beach vs. Tom Bankevic
Lightweight Title: “Dirty” Harry Marple vs. Joe Nazokatov
Bantamweight Title: Carl Burton vs. Ben Dearden
Middleweight: Mitchell Richards vs. TBC
Middleweight: Tarro Gragon vs. Kingsley Carter
Welterweight: Alex Cossey vs. Tony Morgan
Welterweight: Lloyd Gellatly vs. Alex Walsh
Welterweight: Adam Kaminski vs. Jason Murphy
Lightweight: Liam Dooley vs. Mark Carter
Lightweight: Joe Naraynsingh vs. Ricky Clarke
Featherweight: Sarah White vs. Liana Tunmer
Featherweight: Jack Cartwright vs. TBC
Featherweight: Josh Connor vs. Liam Shaw
Flyweight: Bryony Tyrell vs. Jemma Jacques.
Flyweight: James Hillman vs. Jack Eaton
Flyweight: Karl Fowler vs. Jake Bond
Flyweight: Rob McNee vs. Scott Johnson
ECC: Extreme Cage Championships – ECC Banned I: Martell vs. Moran takes place on Saturday, October 12th, 2013, from the Norbreck Castle in Blackpool, Lancashire, England.
Tickets for ECC Banned I go on sale soon. So stay tuned to the ECC Facebook page at: www.facebook.com/extremecagechampionships or on Twitter at: @ecc_mma.
