JEREMY WILLIAMS: "THEY NEED TO CREATE A SUPER HEAVYWEIGHT DIVISION"

Originally posted on FightHype.com


"I think now there is a scarce array of talent in the heavyweight division. These Europeans, these Eastern Block guys, they have really dominated. There really hasn't been an American in a while. We definately need an American champion in that respect...the heavyweight division needs to be broken up into two halves with one being above 240 and the other below 240 or maybe even 230 because you have guys cutting down from 260 to 240, you know? People are just getting bigger and the heavyweight division, well, let's see, if we look at the smaller weight classes, it's like 119, 122, 125, 130, 135, etc. and the heavyweight division is 200 to too many. It doesn't make a difference. You can weigh whatever. I mean 7', 300 lbs. and he can fight a guy that is 6', 200 lbs. I mean, people are just getting bigger. I think boxing needs to expand the heavyweight division. They need to create a Super Heavyweight division," stated former heavyweight contender Jeremy Williams as he shared his thoughts on the current state of the heavyweight division. Check it out!

NS: Jeremy, how have you been?

JW: Good man. Just relaxing in my life.

NS: Man, you've accomplished so much in your career. I don't even know where to start. How about Bully Beatdown. How is that project coming along?

JW: Sure man, Bully Beatdown should be starting filming in another week or so. Jason [Mayhem Miller] is cool to work with. From there, I've got my t-shirt line coming out and I am also working on a instructional Boxing and MMA stand-up DVD for Ringside magazine.

NS: How has your experience been with your TV projects? You've got Bully Beatdown now and you were also a coach on The Contender.

JW: Bully Beatdown has done a really, really good job and is a great show. It is done by the same people as The contender; that's actually how I got the job. You know, Bully Beatdown is for a diffenent audience. It's for a younger crowd. It's an MTV show. It's more fun than to find a great fighter.

Click here to read the entire article on FightHype.com

Jeremy Williams vs. Rick Rufus at WCA on May 8th

Originally posted on theGarv.com

Bombshell alert! The WCA has just put together an absolutely incredible match. They’ve got Jeremy “Half-Man, Half-Amazing” Williams going against Rick “The Jet” Rufus in the main event of their upcoming show on May 8th in Atlantic City.

This fight is obviously going to be a explosive slug-fest. Rufus is a former kickboxing champion and Williams is a former boxing champion. Can you say fireworks?

Gary Marino, the matchmaker for the WCA, is already legendary for putting together some historic MMA matches, including Kimbo’s debut against Ray Mercer. Now he’s done it again. Marino knows that pitting two pure strikers against each other with four ounce gloves is a recipe for nitroglycerin. And with Williams and Rufus, it’s not just pure strikers going at it, it’s championship level strikers. Can you say boom?

Click here to read the entire article at theGarv.com

Baroni Loses Tough Battle for Icon Belt

Originally posted by MMAjunkie.com Staff [mmajunkie-staff] on Mar 16, 2008 at 1:05 am in

- News -

Hawaii's popular ICON Sport promotion has a new middleweight champ as local slugger Kala Kolohe Hose (6-1) scored an upset of former UFC and PRIDE fighter Phil Baroni (10-9) at Saturday's "ICON: To Hell and Back" event.

The fifth-round TKO took place in the night's main event at the Blaisdell Center in Honolulu, Hawaii. The event was streamed live on ProElite.com.

Takedowns, followed by ground and pound, worked wonders for Baroni early in the fight, but Hose's endurance and conditioning proved the deciding factors. With Baroni bloodied, battered and winded, Hose forced the TKO stoppage 24 seconds into the fifth round.

With the victory, Hose earned the ICON middleweight belt. And it was a long time coming. The title was was stripped from former champ Robbie Lawler last month after three previously scheduled fights with Hose were scratched due to injuries suffered by Lawler.

Baroni dominated much of the first round thanks to double-leg takedowns with ground and pound from sidemount. He also did some damage early in the second round with stomps and soccer kicks. However, with each passing round, the shots became slower, and Hose began to set the pace. By the fourth round, he was on the prowl -- so much so that Baroni was deducted a point for trying to escape the ring to avoid Hose's blows.

Early in the fifth, Hose sent Baroni to the canvas with a big hook, and a barrage of kicks and punches forced the stoppage just seconds later.

With the loss, Baroni drops to 10-9 and has now lost three of his past four fights.

Meanwhile, the victory, undoubtedly the biggest of his career, gives Hose his sixth consecutive win -- all by way of
knockout.

The full results included:

Kala Kolohe Hose def. Phil Baroni via KO (strikes ) -- Round 5, 0:26
Jeremy Williams def. Augie Padekan via KO (strikes) -- Round 1, 2:18
Sadhu Bott vs. Bronson Pieper via submission (armbar) -- Round 1, 4:41
Russell Doane def. Tyson Nam via TKO (strikes) -- Round 1, 3:53
Koa Ramos def. Wayne Perrin III via submission (rear-naked choke) -- Round 1, 1:29
Ross Ebanez def. Brennan Kamaka via TKO (strikes) -- Round 1 :09
P.J. Dean def. Eddie Rincon via unanimous decision
Matt Comeau def Elias DeLos Reyes via TKO (strikes) -- Round 2, 2:35
Alan Lima def. David Padilla unanimous decision
Dwayne Haney def. Zack Rapal via submission (front choke) -- Round 1, 2:27
Ricky Wallace def. Brandon Pieper via submission (guillotine c) -- Round 1, 0:37
Jay Bolos def Nui Wheeler via submission (armbar) -- Round 2, 1:26
Kona Ke def. Micah Ige via submission (rear-naked choke) -- Round 1, 1:45

Phil Baroni to Headline Icon/ProElite Card

Originally posted by MMAjunkie.com Staff [mmajunkie-staff] on Mar 12, 2008 at 3:58 pm

- News -

Saturday's "ICON Sport: To Hell and Back" takes place Saturday at the Blaisdell Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, and the entire fight card will be available for free on ProElite.com.

The event features a headline bout between Phil Baroni (10-8) and Kala Kolohe Hose (5-1). The winner earns the ICON Sport world middleweight belt, which was stripped from former title-holder Robbie Lawler last month.

The live event -- the first for ICON in nearly a year -- begins at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.

Baroni, a former UFC and PRIDE fighter, will make his ICON debut at the show. The 31-year-old hasn't fought since loss to Frank Shamrock in the main event of a June 2007 Strikeforce/EliteXC show. Baroni failed a drug test after the fight, and though he maintained his innocence, the California State Athletic Commission upheld a suspension (though it was reduced from 12 months to six). That suspension ended just last week.

Hose, a Hawaiian, had been promised a title shot before, but three previously scheduled fights with Lawler were canceled due to injuries suffered by the champ. In the meantime, Hose has pieced together five consecutive victories, including a televised "ShoXC" knockout win over Frederic Belleton (5-2) in January.

Lawler, who also holds EliteXC's middleweight title, won the ICON Sport belt with a fourth-round TKO of Frank Trigg nearly a year ago. However, Lawler had to pull out of the three ICON Sport events for various health-related reasons. With the fighter unable to defend his title, ICON Sport President T. Jay Thompson stripped Lawler of the title in February. Lawler said he understood his decision and hopes to reclaim the title sometime in the future.

ICON Sport was recently acquired by ProElite, Inc., EliteXC's parent company.

Saturday's full fight card includes:

Phil Baroni vs. Kala Kolohe Hose (for vacant ICON word middleweight title)
Augie Padekan vs. Jeremy Williams
Sadhu Bott vs. Bronson Pieper (for ICON state featherweight title)
Russell Doane vs. Tyson Nam
Wayne Perrin vs. Koa Ramos
Ross Ebanez vs. Brennan Kamaka
P.J. Dean vs. Eddie Rincon
Matt Comeau vs. Elias Delos Reyes
Alan Lima vs. David Padilla
Dwayne Haney vs. Zack Rapal
Jay Bolos VS. Nui Wheeler
Colin Mackenzie vs. Ricky Wallace
Wade Ke vs. Ikaika Moreno

The Pav Says...

The Pav says…


The Pav says… I just got back from a weekend that saw me go from Hawaii for Icon Sport on Friday to Vancouver on Saturday for the Bodog fights… I’ll tell you, the Hawaiian fans are the best I’ve ever seen. The energy is great and they flip out whenever a punch lands. They also LOVE Miller… The Vancouver fans are new to the sport and were sober, with no alcohol permitted in the venue. While BoDog did not skimp on the production, the fans were in a coma for the first eight fights or so… Lesson learned: get them drunk, everyone always has a better time… As much as I fly, I still can’t figure out why the stewardesses wake me to make the seat erect for take off and landing, let a brother relax.

The Pav says… Mayhem, along with Baroni and Tito, are the most entertaining fighters when they are not slinging leather. But Jason edges them both with ring entrances. It wasn’t his night, but you know he won’t take Trigg lightly in the rematch. Mark my words, he will be back bigger and better… How the hell did Trigg make 170 pounds eight months ago? He weighed in at 186 JACKED for the Mayhem fight. He must have taken a ton of Gamma-O and consumed large quantities of something.

The Pav says… Jeremy “Half-Man, Half-Amazing” Williams will surprise you in MMA. He was 41-5 as a heavyweight boxer with 35 KO's. He cut to 205 to fight MMA. Twice, Fields had armbars deep on Williams in Hawaii and twice he got Rampage-slammed. I was sure the arm was going to pop. What surprised me even more was that Jeremy was ducking under punches and taking Fields down to show his diversity. Oh, and yes it is the same Williams that was the coach on The Contender.

The Pav says… Eric Pele showed a true warrior’s spirit. He could have folded the tent under the barrage from Silva but stayed in the game. Homie is 10-2 with some big W's. Kudos to the guy for peeling the shirt too. He is down 150lbs and plans on dropping 50 more to make heavyweight.

The Pav says… Trevor Prangley is the real deal. I would drop a dime on him if he was in against Franklin or A. Silva. He smashed Lutter, beat Stout and Sonnen, and was robbed against Horn. At BoDog, he beat a very good Semenov for a second time. You could hear Andrei wincing every time a body blow or a knee landed. He also has a caveman head. Trevor will wear a strap someday.

The Pav says… I booked eight fights today with four different organizations. This includes four UFC fights. Every fight outside the UFC, including the winner’s share but not sponsors, pays our guys over 20k. I make dreams come true...

The Pav says… My newest signing - Faliniko Vitale - is a BEAST. He’s a natural athlete and with the proper training he will be back on top of the mountain. Walking with him in Hawaii is like being with Brad Pitt in a female prison, or like being with Razor Rob in Huntington Beach. Check out http://www.myspace.com/robrazor

The Pav says… Put your seatbelt on because this web site is just getting started. Tune in for three exclusive stories every week, and look for our pictures section. Just like Reggie Bush, LeBron James, Sidney Crosby, Ryan Howard, Martin Kampmann, Jake O’Brien, and Mike Pyle, we are busting out!