Warriors Quest 4**1 Match Added**
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From the event’s promoter: Warriors Quest 4 **1 Match Added** Hawaii’s David "Kawika" Pa’aluhi will take on Pride Veteran and IFC Lightweight Champion Bobby Southworth.Warriors Quest are very excited in starting this year with a real BLAST! |
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AFC: Amateur Fighting Competition Blaisdell Arena, Honolulu, Hawaii February 2, 2002 By Chris Onzuka – Chris@Onzuka.com  This event started off a little more interesting for me than usual because I had just flew in from Guam, where I spent a week working (at my real job) and came to the arena straight from the airport. I quickly rushed into a telephone booth, where I tore open my formal button shirt and changed into my Full Contact Fighter uniform right before I went into the arena. Alright, I actually changed shirts in the parking lot of the arena, but that sounded a lot more exciting than reality. There are a lot of submission grappling tournaments to help build MMA fighters’ ground game, but there were not any venues for the MMA competitor to gain experience with their stand up skills, so the AFC was born. The AFC is the brainchild of Jesus Is Lord’s Ray "Bradda" Cooper. From speaking with Ray and his partner and wife, Monica, they have been wanting to put on an event like this for a long time. The AFC is basically a modified Toughman contest. The modification being the addition of one takedown per round. Everything else is basically the same as the Toughman; 3 – 1 minute rounds with a 1minute rest, 16 ounce gloves and boxing headgear. The takedown added an interesting dynamic to primarily a Toughman competition. It allowed fighters who got stunned or were in trouble to take their opponent to the ground and hopefully get a chance to shake the cobwebs. As the name states, this is an amateur competition so there was a mix of competitor’s experience and cardiovascular conditioning. There were a few bouts that slowed down because of the fighter’s conditioning, however there were a surprising number of matches that went the distance with both fighters throwing everything they had INCLUDING the kitchen sink. There were two 8-man single elimination tournaments. One 200lbs and over tournament and one under 200lbs tournament. The winners of each tournament could choose either a $1,000 cash prize and not be invited back to defend their title or they could choose to receive a $1,000 Home Depot gift certificate and be invited to defend their title in the next event. This was definitely an interesting choice of awards for the champions. The crowd enjoyed the big and wide punches. Some punches being thrown from New Jersey. The crowd that attended seemed to love the hard hitting action and I would not be surprised if the crowds got larger and larger for the next events because Hawaiian fans love two fighters "dukin’ it out." After the event, both Ray Cooper and Bozo Paling (whose brother fought, as well as some fighters that he trained) said that they much rather be in the ring than on the outside of it.
Over 200lbs 8-man Tournament: Under 200lbs 8-man Tournament: Over 200lbs 8-man Tournament: Under 200lbs 8-man Tournament: Over 200lbs 8-man Tournament: Under 200lbs 8-man Tournament: Over 200lbs 8-man Tournament: Semi-Finals: Over 200lbs 8-man Tournament: Under 200lbs 8-man Tournament: Over 200lbs 8-man Tournament: Finals: Over 200lbs 8-man Tournament: |
