Tap or Snap: King of the Hill

Tap or Snap: King of the Hill
It’s time to add another name to the short list of local fighters that are primed for breaking out big.
Let me introduce James Funny.
First of all, his opponent, Jeff Ford, has the credentials that no doubt caused worry for Funny's supporters. Two time ISKA champion; two time USKA champion; two time Muay Thai champion; golden gloves champion. This man is a legitimate fighter. No, make that a serious threat to anyone coming inside the ring. Throw in that he is a personal trainer at LA Boxing and you are left with the image of a lean-mean-fighting-machine with a past history of proven success.
James Funny isn't any slouch either. With a fantastic record of 15-1, Funny brings a local reputation as a heavy hitter who enjoys trading leather. The son of a Tae Kwon Do instructor, this Widefield high graduate entered the U.S. Marine Corp out of high school and served his country as an infantryman. For some reason, Semper Fi, just seems to fit him. Now at age 30, he finds himself the underdog at his biggest fight of his career.
We have one world class kick-boxer (Ford) vs. one local heavy hitter (Funny). The bell rings, the crowd stands, and Funny moves around the ring quickly. He is ultra aggressive and doesn’t let Ford set anything up. Ford wants some space to strike and Funny takes it away. If you saw the infamous UFC fight -- CroCop vs Gonzaga, same idea, same fight. Funny gets inside and uppercuts, Funny takes him down and introduces his elbow to Ford's face over and over again. Here is the critical part: Funny doesn’t stop hitting Ford even when his hits are non-effectual, he just constantly pounds Ford's head. Eventually Ford stops protecting himself and the referee calls the fight at 3:28 in the first round.
Add to Funny's resume – this is one smart fighter. He tells us after the fight that he watched tapes of Ford and had a plan of attack on how to beat him. He knows Ford’s game is standing up. He knows Ford is one dangerous man face to face. So the plan is Ground and Pound. Funny had his game-plan and stuck with it. For those that don’t know what Semper Fi means, the Marine credo translates to: Always Faithful. He was faithful to his plan and it worked.
Funny, when he isn't upsetting fighters, works as a heavy equipment operator outside the town of Security (S. of Colorado Springs). Married with one child, this former high school wrestler and football player trains 6 days a week. His night-before ritual is always watching either ‘Gladiator’ or (lately) ‘300’ before his fights to prepare himself. It gets him in the right state of mind, "It’s what we do, were modern-day Gladiators."
Before the fight started, Ford shared, "on paper, I should win but I've learned everyone has a puncher's chance." When this Kansas City native was growing up, he found out that because of his mixed race heritage, he never seemed to be in the right place at the right time. Fights came to him whether he wanted it or not. "Not black enough or too black, not white enough or too white. I started fighting early and often." At the end of 7th grade, Ford had been in numerous fights and suspended multiple times. That is when his first mentor found him and helped him channel that energy into the ring. A champion fighter was born. After winning a golden gloves championship, someone told him about MMA. "He said, you can punch, knee, kick, elbow to win, and I said, seriously? Sign me up!"
The Tap or Snap promoters, Steve Valdez and Brian Lee, are expanding their area of comfort with this latest event held at Douglas County Fairgrounds. Usually promoting out of Pueblo and Colorado Springs, the Douglas County Fairgrounds gives them their first 'toe in the water' for the Denver metro area – bringing the Colorado Springs and Denver crowds together. Each promotion has it’s own vibe and Tap and Snap seems to have more of a small town feel to it. It reminds me of the state high school wrestling championship judging by the customers.
The promoters have a few good new ideas we haven’t seen at other local venues. First of all, they had a Pride-like walkway for the fighters. Fighters enter on this elevated walkway to music, lights and even smoke. If the walkway was longer, the fighters might have more of their song to enter to instead of just 10 seconds but it was a good idea nonetheless. They also had a large, catered VIP section to view the fights from. With a good number of vendor tables at the event, including a Marine Corp table offering prizes for the most chin-ups, the event seemed like a great success. They have never had a single serious injury in the Tap and Snap career (28 events in 2 years). Unlike some promotions, they relied heavily on radio ads featured on the Fox (103.5 Denver) and Kilo (94.3 Colorado Springs) instead of pre-booking tickets through gyms or fighters. This impressive show-down sold out 2,000 tickets without a website or much on-line presence. This is proof the MMA is gaining in popularity and appeal. Families, couples on dates, tough-guys and even ladies’ night out – Tap or Snap is doing a great job of bringing MMA out of the back alleys and into the mainstream.
Bill Chamberlin / Misha Schryer
bchamberlin@coloradofightevents.com
bill@mma-colorado.com

Colorado Fight Events: Kickdown 39

When I watched Lawrence Gaytan walk towards the ring, blasting out Jimi Hendrix's Along the Watchtower, surrounded by his family and friends, I smiled. As fighters have done thoughout time, that walk, that long walk from our normal world to their ring, they make that walk with their family and friends, shoulder to shoulder. This, ladies and gentlemen, this is MMA.
His challenger, Prentice Ingram, entered to soft hip hop. Jaw forward and head twitching side to side, he cut an imposing presence for Gaytan. Gaytan comes in with a reputation for his excellent striking and strong Brazilian Ju-Jitsu skills. Ingram, in his professional debut, looks like the real deal. Lean and muscular, he is known for his hand speed and relentlessness. If Gaytan trades punches and decides he doesn't like the deal so far, he will want to take the fight to the mat.
After a beautiful staredown, neither fighter took a step back. The sold out crowd cheered as they watched this war. Ingram begins with a flying knee. He pushes the action nonstop, while the veteren Gaytan weathers the storm. Gaytan doesnt like what he is seeing and takes Ingram down to the mat only to have Ingram stand up. With a flurry of uppercuts and a right roundhouse punch, Gaytan's legs give out and Ingram gains his first professional knockout 2:54 in the first round. Afterwards, Ingram showed true concern for his opponent and thanked him for the opportunity.
The main event, the Kick Down Featherweight Title, is a fight that sometimes never happens but always should. We have two fighters at the top of their class, both known for their striking yet both well rounded. Tom Johnson, who seems more like a coporporate IT Manager than a top contender, and Pete Vandervort also a 'regular sort of guy' - neither men you really expect to see fighting in the Main Event in the MMA. Tom Johnson is the majority owner of Innovative Martial Arts. This Littleton High School Grad is happy to be where he is and says things about his opponent such as "Pete is a true profesional and peer and I have a lot of respect for the man. We are hard-core atheletes who train year-round." Pete Vandervort of Loveland explained to me before the fight, "This is not about violence, this is total sport. We all train hard, we treat each other with respect. These Fighters, Steve (the promoter), this is my extended family." Vandervort lost in the first round to a lighting
fast
armbar at 1:20.
The atmosphere of Kick Down 39 was similiar to that of a cocktail party. Many of the women wore dresses, drinking wine or microbrews, however the biggest difference I note is this cocktail party is one with a more than average amount of bulging muscles, wide shoulders and tattoos. This is a classy group of people here to cheer on these warriers. It's not your father's 'Tough-Man' contest. Promoter Steve Alley has really made an effort to bring a level of class and taste and even promoting family values. It is a far cry from the image most people may have when thinking of the MMA. It's not all blood, vengence, and anger, it's more athleticism, respect, and honor (well yeah... and there still is the blood..).
In fact, there is nothing here like those long ago days. Words like tough man are an affront to fighters such as huge local favorite, Joey Welch, aka The Brighton Badboy.
Steve Alley, hugs his fighters, slaps people on the back and dispenses information such as the history of the Muay Thai head pieces that are worn. "We've never had a serious injury here, never had an insurance claim, we really care about our fighers and I hope it shows," said Steve. When he is not promoting his Kick Down shows, he is training fighters at Mahany's Gym.
Says Welch, "the coolest part of this sport is how big this is getting and being a part of it. Just good people and we're all here for fun."


by Bill Chamberlin
writer, mma-colorado.com
720-936-2510

This interviewer had the good fortune to accompany Localfightevents.com Founder and President, Dan Magnie, to an evening with Steve Alley at the Mahany Gym in Aurora, Co on June 6, 2007.

Interviewing Steve Alley, Denver’s premier dynamic local MMA promoter and ring announcer is like being in the presence of raw energy. His eyes dance and his arms wave as he expresses his passion for this sport that captured his interest in 1994.

Steve had found himself parked outside of Innovative Martial Arts gym in Aurora on his way to a local health food store. He noticed that the gym was offering a Special and found himself gravitated to the front door. Once inside, he was introduced to Sensei, Tom Johnson who encouraged Steve to become a participant rather than just an observer. It ultimately took three visits before the hook was set and 3 years 3 months later, Steve had his black belt.

As this reporter spent an evening with Steve Alley in interview and observation, it became clear that a career in sports and broadcasting has been his birthright. Steve’s father had been involved in radio sales which opened the door for young Steve to be used in several radio spots. He was mesmerized by listening to his father describe the excitement of the play-by-play radio announcing of a Joe Lewis fight. As a young man, he would turn down the volume on the TV to announce his own play-by-play action of televised football and baseball games in the same spirit of how David Stern made the games come alive for his radio listeners in the 1920s.

During the years Steve spent with Tom Johnson at Innovative Martial Arts, he got his first opportunities to ring announce at two of Tom’s events. In 1999 Steve also made application to the UFC for media credentials to ring announce for their events as well. Some of his early announcing highlights included the 1st Gladiator Challenge that came out of California, 4 Ring of Fires and 6 Rocky Mountain Bad Boys competitions. Steve estimates that he has ring announced 90 – 100 fights since his first two opportunities at Tom Johnson’s gym where Steve had started.

Also, in 1999, just five short years after entering his first martial arts gym, Steve launched his own radio program that aired Sunday evenings on clear channel KTLK. His time slot unfortunately clashed with the Broncos weekend update so Steve then moved his broadcast to his current web-site of MartialArtsRadio.com where the listening audience was greater even than that on clear channel.

During the course of our interview, we were joined briefly by Steve’s original Sensei, Tom Johnson. It will be exciting to watch Tom fighting again at the up-coming Kick Down 38, being produced and ring-announced by Steve on June 29, 2007 at the Red Lion Hotel in Denver. Tom was awarded his first professional win at Kick Down 37 in just 1 minute 16 seconds into the first round!

Steve invited us to stay after the interview to watch one of his training sessions with Anthony Sanchez Jr. Anthony will be matched against Kyle Johnson on June 29th at Kick Down 38 for the Kick Down amateur welter-weight championship.

As animated as Steve was in our interview, that same energy was now poured into his training session with Anthony. Steve had Anthony performing punches, jabs, knee-lifts and calisthenics in rapid change-ups. Steve also enlisted feedback from another of his fighters, Jack Johnson, the current and recently crowned (5-12-07) ISKA amateur Muay Thai World Champion. Together they coached the smiling, sweating and totally focused Anthony Sanchez Jr. in strategies that could help him wrest the Kick Down welter-weight championship from Kyle Johnson.

The fighter that has been with Steve the longest, is the exciting Colby Snyder who has been a friend and participant for the past 5 ½ years. Unfortunately Colby Snyder will not be fighting at Kick Down 38 on June 29th at the Red Lion due to a broken thumb that occurred at Kick Down 37 on May 12 of this year in Loveland, Co.

When Steve first started coaching fighters, he worked out of his home basement that had been entitled: The House of Martial Arts. When “accidental” damage occurred to the very small home where Steve lived with his wife Sherry and their infant daughter, Sherry lovingly encouraged Steve to find a new facility to work with his fighters! It was at this time that Steve followed his excellent business instincts and found space at his current gym-home of Mahany’s Gym in Aurora, Co. Tom Johnson joined him and this successful MMA duo continues their encouragement, support and promotion of young fighters.

In order to make ends meet, Steve relies on his events such as his Kick Downs and on his continuing income from his original career path as that of a mortgage banker. Although there is money to be made once a fighter, trainer or promoter makes it to the UFC, local fighters still struggle to make ends meet. As Steve so eloquently describes it: “Martial Arts folks are so broke they can’t pay attention much less pay for gym time to train.”

As we left the gym, LocalFightEvents.com President Dan Magnie used the expression “electrifying” when describing the hours we had just spent with Steve Alley.

The Denver and Colorado fight scene is very fortunate to have Steve Alley producing and ring announcing for us locally. Don’t miss an opportunity to attend one of his events while they remain relatively accessible. This interviewer predicts that within the next few years, Steve Alley will have moved onto become a presence on the larger MMA circuit.


Ann Dain
June 2007 This interviewer had the good fortune to accompany Localfightevents.com Founder and President, Dan Magnie, to an evening with Steve Alley at the Mahany Gym in Aurora, Co on June 6, 2007.

Interviewing Steve Alley, Denver’s premier dynamic local MMA promoter and ring announcer is like being in the presence of raw energy. His eyes dance and his arms wave as he expresses his passion for this sport that captured his interest in 1994.

Steve had found himself parked outside of Innovative Martial Arts gym in Aurora on his way to a local health food store. He noticed that the gym was offering a Special and found himself gravitated to the front door. Once inside, he was introduced to Sensei, Tom Johnson who encouraged Steve to become a participant rather than just an observer. It ultimately took three visits before the hook was set and 3 years 3 months later, Steve had his black belt.

As this reporter spent an evening with Steve Alley in interview and observation, it became clear that a career in sports and broadcasting has been his birthright. Steve’s father had been involved in radio sales which opened the door for young Steve to be used in several radio spots. He was mesmerized by listening to his father describe the excitement of the play-by-play radio announcing of a Joe Lewis fight. As a young man, he would turn down the volume on the TV to announce his own play-by-play action of televised football and baseball games in the same spirit of how David Stern made the games come alive for his radio listeners in the 1920s.

During the years Steve spent with Tom Johnson at Innovative Martial Arts, he got his first opportunities to ring announce at two of Tom’s events. In 1999 Steve also made application to the UFC for media credentials to ring announce for their events as well. Some of his early announcing highlights included the 1st Gladiator Challenge that came out of California, 4 Ring of Fires and 6 Rocky Mountain Bad Boys competitions. Steve estimates that he has ring announced 90 – 100 fights since his first two opportunities at Tom Johnson’s gym where Steve had started.

Also, in 1999, just five short years after entering his first martial arts gym, Steve launched his own radio program that aired Sunday evenings on clear channel KTLK. His time slot unfortunately clashed with the Broncos weekend update so Steve then moved his broadcast to his current web-site of MartialArtsRadio.com where the listening audience was greater even than that on clear channel.

During the course of our interview, we were joined briefly by Steve’s original Sensei, Tom Johnson. It will be exciting to watch Tom fighting again at the up-coming Kick Down 38, being produced and ring-announced by Steve on June 29, 2007 at the Red Lion Hotel in Denver. Tom was awarded his first professional win at Kick Down 37 in just 1 minute 16 seconds into the first round!

Steve invited us to stay after the interview to watch one of his training sessions with Anthony Sanchez Jr. Anthony will be matched against Kyle Johnson on June 29th at Kick Down 38 for the Kick Down amateur welter-weight championship.

As animated as Steve was in our interview, that same energy was now poured into his training session with Anthony. Steve had Anthony performing punches, jabs, knee-lifts and calisthenics in rapid change-ups. Steve also enlisted feedback from another of his fighters, Jack Johnson, the current and recently crowned (5-12-07) ISKA amateur Muay Thai World Champion. Together they coached the smiling, sweating and totally focused Anthony Sanchez Jr. in strategies that could help him wrest the Kick Down welter-weight championship from Kyle Johnson.

The fighter that has been with Steve the longest, is the exciting Colby Snyder who has been a friend and participant for the past 5 ½ years. Unfortunately Colby Snyder will not be fighting at Kick Down 38 on June 29th at the Red Lion due to a broken thumb that occurred at Kick Down 37 on May 12 of this year in Loveland, Co.

When Steve first started coaching fighters, he worked out of his home basement that had been entitled: The House of Martial Arts. When “accidental” damage occurred to the very small home where Steve lived with his wife Sherry and their infant daughter, Sherry lovingly encouraged Steve to find a new facility to work with his fighters! It was at this time that Steve followed his excellent business instincts and found space at his current gym-home of Mahany’s Gym in Aurora, Co. Tom Johnson joined him and this successful MMA duo continues their encouragement, support and promotion of young fighters.

In order to make ends meet, Steve relies on his events such as his Kick Downs and on his continuing income from his original career path as that of a mortgage banker. Although there is money to be made once a fighter, trainer or promoter makes it to the UFC, local fighters still struggle to make ends meet. As Steve so eloquently describes it: “Martial Arts folks are so broke they can’t pay attention much less pay for gym time to train.”

As we left the gym, LocalFightEvents.com President Dan Magnie used the expression “electrifying” when describing the hours we had just spent with Steve Alley.

The Denver and Colorado fight scene is very fortunate to have Steve Alley producing and ring announcing for us locally. Don’t miss an opportunity to attend one of his events while they remain relatively accessible. This interviewer predicts that within the next few years, Steve Alley will have moved onto become a presence on the larger MMA circuit.


Ann Dain
June 2007

This interviewer had the good fortune to accompany Localfightevents.com Founder and President, Dan Magnie, to an evening with Steve Alley at the Mahany Gym in Aurora, Co on June 6, 2007.

Interviewing Steve Alley, Denver’s premier dynamic local MMA promoter and ring announcer is like being in the presence of raw energy. His eyes dance and his arms wave as he expresses his passion for this sport that captured his interest in 1994.

Steve had found himself parked outside of Innovative Martial Arts gym in Aurora on his way to a local health food store. He noticed that the gym was offering a Special and found himself gravitated to the front door. Once inside, he was introduced to Sensei, Tom Johnson who encouraged Steve to become a participant rather than just an observer. It ultimately took three visits before the hook was set and 3 years 3 months later, Steve had his black belt.

As this reporter spent an evening with Steve Alley in interview and observation, it became clear that a career in sports and broadcasting has been his birthright. Steve’s father had been involved in radio sales which opened the door for young Steve to be used in several radio spots. He was mesmerized by listening to his father describe the excitement of the play-by-play radio announcing of a Joe Lewis fight. As a young man, he would turn down the volume on the TV to announce his own play-by-play action of televised football and baseball games in the same spirit of how David Stern made the games come alive for his radio listeners in the 1920s.

During the years Steve spent with Tom Johnson at Innovative Martial Arts, he got his first opportunities to ring announce at two of Tom’s events. In 1999 Steve also made application to the UFC for media credentials to ring announce for their events as well. Some of his early announcing highlights included the 1^st Gladiator Challenge that came out of California, 4 Ring of Fires and 6 Rocky Mountain Bad Boys competitions. Steve estimates that he has ring announced 90 – 100 fights since his first two opportunities at Tom Johnson’s gym where Steve had started.

Also, in 1999, just five short years after entering his first martial arts gym, Steve launched his own radio program that aired Sunday evenings on clear channel KTLK. His time slot unfortunately clashed with the Broncos weekend update so Steve then moved his broadcast to his current web-site of MartialArtsRadio.com where the listening audience was greater even than that on clear channel.

During the course of our interview, we were joined briefly by Steve’s original Sensei, Tom Johnson. It will be exciting to watch Tom fighting again at the up-coming Kick Down 38, being produced and ring-announced by Steve on June 29, 2007 at the Red Lion Hotel in Denver. Tom was awarded his first professional win at Kick Down 37 in just 1 minute 16 seconds into the first round!

Steve invited us to stay after the interview to watch one of his training sessions with Anthony Sanchez Jr. Anthony will be matched against Kyle Johnson on June 29^th at Kick Down 38 for the Kick Down amateur welter-weight championship.

As animated as Steve was in our interview, that same energy was now poured into his training session with Anthony. Steve had Anthony performing punches, jabs, knee-lifts and calisthenics in rapid change-ups. Steve also enlisted feedback from another of his fighters, Jack Johnson, the current and recently crowned (5-12-07) ISKA amateur Muay Thai World Champion. Together they coached the smiling, sweating and totally focused Anthony Sanchez Jr. in strategies that could help him wrest the Kick Down welter-weight championship from Kyle Johnson.

The fighter that has been with Steve the longest, is the exciting Colby Snyder who has been a friend and participant for the past 5 ½ years. Unfortunately Colby Snyder will not be fighting at Kick Down 38 on June 29^th at the Red Lion due to a broken thumb that occurred at Kick Down 37 on May 12 of this year in Loveland, Co.

When Steve first started coaching fighters, he worked out of his home basement that had been entitled: The House of Martial Arts. When “accidental” damage occurred to the very small home where Steve lived with his wife Sherry and their infant daughter, Sherry lovingly encouraged Steve to find a new facility to work with his fighters! It was at this time that Steve followed his excellent business instincts and found space at his current gym-home of Mahany’s Gym in Aurora, Co. Tom Johnson joined him and this successful MMA duo continues their encouragement, support and promotion of young fighters.

In order to make ends meet, Steve relies on his events such as his Kick Downs and on his continuing income from his original career path as that of a mortgage banker. Although there is money to be made once a fighter, trainer or promoter makes it to the UFC, local fighters still struggle to make ends meet. As Steve so eloquently describes it: “Martial Arts folks are so broke they can’t pay attention much less pay for gym time to train.”

As we left the gym, LocalFightEvents.com President Dan Magnie used the expression “electrifying” when describing the hours we had just spent with Steve Alley.

The Denver and Colorado fight scene is very fortunate to have Steve Alley producing and ring announcing for us locally. Don’t miss an opportunity to attend one of his events while they remain relatively accessible. This interviewer predicts that within the next few years, Steve Alley will have moved onto become a presence on the larger MMA circuit.

Ann Dain

June 2007

And . . . now from Iowa

As they become aware of the ferocity of MMA, many states are considering legislation to control what they perceive as a gap in their legal role of protector of their citizens.

KETV.com
Iowa Considers Deregulating Extreme Fighting
POSTED: 3:52 pm CST February 8, 2006
UPDATED: 4:05 pm CST February 8, 2006
OMAHA, Neb. -- The state of Iowa is considering a plan to end regulation of extreme -- or ultimate -- fighting.
Iowa's athletic commissioner said he fears it can't provide adequate oversight to these fights, and if someone gets hurt, the state of Iowa could face a steep lawsuit.
The plan under consideration in the Iowa Statehouse would stop the state from sanctioning the fights.
Supporters of the sport fear that without the state's approval, promoters would be reluctant to sponsor fights themselves.

boxing / wrestling / submission / coloradofightevents.com / ultimate fighting / kick-boxing

Although many states have already regulated ultimate fighting, here is a new story from Nebraska:


Lawmakers Want To Regulate Ultimate Fighting
POSTED: 4:52 pm CDT April 23, 2007
UPDATED: 5:03 pm CDT April 23, 2007
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LINCOLN, Neb. -- State lawmakers moved Monday to regulate a popular new type of fighting some view as more dangerous than boxing.

It's called mixed martial arts, and it includes fighting methods including wrestling and martial arts such as karate. The sport is sometimes called ultimate fighting and has caught on with a national audience that can now view the fights on cable television.
The fighting would be regulated by the state athletic commissioner under a bill -- LB 471 -- that got first-round approval on Monday.

Most states regulate mixed martial arts. Under the bill from Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha, the sport would be regulated like boxing so that matches would have referees and could only last a certain amount of time. Contestants also would have to pass physical exams, among other regulations.

mma / boxing / wrestling / fighting / kick-boxing / local fight events / coloradofightevents.com

MMA striking vs. boxing

Nice article on MMA striking vs. boxing

http://www.insidefighting.com/betweenRoundsDisp.aspx?uid=3534

Dan Magnie

www.ColoraroFightEvents.com

www.LocalFightEvents.com