Northwest MMA

The Northwest fight scene has been known for producing fighters who initially come into the sport as tough, hard nosed wrestlers. Most of those wrestlers start training up at Team Quest in Oregon. Led by Matt Lindland, some of the best talent trains there starting with the new number one Middleweight contender and possible Oregon State Representative Chael Sonnen. He put on a masterful performance against Nate Marquardt at UFC 109. He smothered him with takedowns and pounded on him for three rounds earning himself a unanimous decision win. More interestingly is how marketable he has become. He has made boisterous claims about the current MW champ Anderson Silva speaking perfect English and that he has only fought bums. He’s also called him a bully who he is going to stand up to and beat. Whether Anderson wins or loses at UFC 112, these two are going to fight in the future. With the recent change in the MW title bout at UFC 112, Sonnen could also be facing a familiar foe in Demian Maia if Maia pulls out the win. He embarrassed Sonnen on the ground en route to a triangle choke win at UFC 95.
Another up and comer out of Team Quest is WEC lightweight Dave “The Fugitive” Jansen. He lost the first fight of his career at WEC 46 to Kamal Shalorus in a primarily stand up bout. Once he works on his stand up, he will become a force to be reckon with along with his wrestling.
The local promotion in Oregon is called Sportfight and is run by the aforementioned Matt Lindland. They are running their twenty-seventh card on March 12, which will have a mixture of amateur and professional fights. Two intriguing fighters on this card are Colt Toombs and Nathan Coy. Toombs, who is the son of famous WWE wrestler Roddy “Rowdy” Piper will fight for the second time as a pro. He lost his debut at the Tachi Place Fights in February and will be looking to come back against local Roy Bradshaw. Second is the Welterweight title fight between Team Quest product Nathan Coy and Sikjitsu fighter Travis Bush. Nathan Coy is 7-2 with wins over UFC veterans Ricky Story and Mike Pierce. A win over a tough local guy in Bush could get him in the UFC very soon.
In Idaho, high profile fighters come from the Combat Fitness gym in Boise, Idaho. Scott Jorgensen is a top 135 prospect who is coming off a win against recent title contender Takaya Mizugaki. He has shown great improvement since his first fight against Damacio Page in the WEC. He showed polished boxing and clinch work against a very game Mizugaki. His next fight is against Chad George at WEC 47. It’s another opportunity for him to work on his skills and get one step closer to fighting the winner of Brian Bowles vs. Dominick Cruz in the summer.
Washington is a tale of two sides. On the west side of the state their are two main camps located in the capital Olympia and the bustling city of Seattle. In Kirkland, AMC Pankration is turning out top prospects under Matt Hume. Hume, who trains current UFC fighters Matt Brown and Rich Franklin has two prospects who are up and coming: Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson and Caros "The Future" Fodor. Johnson started training at a AMC gym in Auburn, WA after being signed up by UFC and IFL vet Reese Andy. He then moved to the original AMC in Kirkland and fell under Matt Hume’s tutelage. He is currently 9-0 and coming off a impressive head kick KO win against Combat Fitness product Jesse Brock.
Fedor on the other hand started out kickboxing in Greenalke, WA and wound up wanting to compete. He was told AMC was the place to be and has won six straight fights by submission since. Both fighters agree with the reputation that fighters in the Northwest are tough. Johnson attributed this to have a well run amateur system in the state, which few states actually have.
Bryan Caraway (14-4) is also a interesting prospect who came up through SportFight shows and fights out of Olympia, WA. He trains out of Victory Athletics which is headed by UFC vet Dennis Hallman along with Brad Blackburn and Miesha Tate. He lost his WEC debut versus veteran Mark Hominick. He was lured easily into being swept while on top of Hominick and feel swiftly into a triangle. He had to pull out of his fight at WEC 47 against Fredson Paixao on March 6 due to a injury.
Finally, on the east side of the state in Spokane is Sikjitsu. Lyle Beerbohm, the self proclaimed trainer in the gym and aspiring fighter is the most established prospect. He is undefeated at 13-0 and a tough guy to deal with at 170. He fights at a fast pace the whole time and adopts the same strategy as Urijah Faber: win the scrambles. His last win was in a local show in Spokane but before that he won against talented kick boxer Duane “Bang” Ludwig. He has fought on the undercards of Strikeforce: Challengers cards but has never seen garnered any significant TV time inside the promotion. With his amazing story of being a recovering meth addict, he is going to either be stuck in Strikeforce’s lame duck of a business model or will hopefully be headed to the UFC or even the ever growing Bellator.