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Hardcore Canadian
By Zach Arnold | September 16, 2007
Keith Crawford is preparing for his October 19th, Hardcore Championship Fighting show at the Stampede Corral in Calgary. Alberta. Crawford has a wealth of promoting experience with King of the Cage, but the HCF endeavor has taken Canadian MMA promoting to the next level.
The signings of superstars Aleksander Emilianenko and Gegard Mousasi to fight for the fledgling promotions 2nd event has sent shockwaves throughout the Canadian MMA scene.
Hardcore Championship Fighting started as a weekly MMA television program on The Score, a sports television network in Canada, featuring taped bouts from events like APEX, King of the Cage, Rumble in the Cage and Jungle Fight.
While the show proved popular, quality fight content proved hard to find as APEX seemed to have closed shop and the network was left scrambling to secure high quality bouts.
So Crawford went to work. With the knowledge that alone they would be unable to finance the type of fight cards that he envisioned for the network, Crawford found a partner in Paragon Gaming to help share the costs of the first show. Afterwards, Dave Houshiar became the President and backer of HCF, allowing the promotion to sign the top level talent Crawford craved.
With their new financial backing HCF has signed multi-fight, exclusive contracts with talented fighters: Marcus Vinicios, Sarah Kaufman, Andrew Buckland, Ariel Sexton, and Len Tam.
The future looks bright for this upstart Canadian promotion, with both venue and television backing, they have been able assemble a roster of fighters to rival any Canadian organization.
Crawford has stated previously that he would like to hold an event every 6 weeks giving MMA fans much to cheer about.
One beef with HCF so far has been the complete lack of information of when these new cards will air on The Score. The first HCF self promoted event took place on July 21st, in Edmonton Alberta but searching the HCF or The Score network websites gave no clue as to when one might catch the show. Their schedule gives dates and times to tune in but no hint as to whether it will be to catch HCF’s new show or a KOTC rerun from 2004. Hopefully some coordination and improved website information can quickly remedy this problem.
Hardcore Fighting Championship 2: Title Wave – October 19th, 2007 (Stampede Corral in Calgary, Alberta)
- Wesley Correira vs. Aleksander Emilianenko
- Gegard Mousasi vs. TBA
- Ariel Sexton vs. Thomas Schulte
- Sarah Kaufman vs. Ginele Marquez
- Marcus Vinicious vs. Edwin Dewees
- Toby Johnson vs. Garrett Davis
- Len Tam vs. Gerald Lovato
- Ben Greer vs. TBA
- Myles Merola vs. Juan Barrantes
- Andrew Buckland vs. TBA
- Tim Smith vs. Mike Rowbotham
When I asked Keith Crawford about the TBA’s on the circulating card and he had this to say,
“Gegard Mousasi’s opponent fought this weekend and we are awaiting the outcome of that to announce his fight. If that opponent cannot fight then we will find another immediately. We were also waiting on Ben’s fight to see how he felt after. “
Ben Greer is scheduled to fight Mark Hominick at TKO 30: Apocalypse on September 28/07 in Montreal, Canada.
Topics: Canada, MMA, Media | 1 Comment » | Permalink | Trackback | Share This
Hell yeah, I love the MMA stock. It keeps going up and up and one day I will be able to throw my money into it! Thanks for the reporting.