Inferno Debuts in MMA-Friendly Texas
Inferno Debuts
Scott Holmes Jun 29, 2005
PLANO, Texas, June 24 — Ten years ago I dragged five of my friends
(back when I had friends) to a coliseum in Amarillo, Texas. My
friends didn't really know what they were in for. I had fallen in
love with this thing called the UFC about a year prior and now here
it was in my own town.
The “coliseum” was a crappy building that normally housed rodeos and tractor pulls. Coliseums normally conjure up images of Roman times and this place, with its boxing ring in the middle of a dirt floor, resembled more of something out of “Roadhouse”.
The event was called Unified Shoot Wrestling Federation (USWF for
short). It was a Pancrase-style fight with most of the usual rules
but only allowed for "open hand" strikes. With 90 percent of the
crowd unsure of what they were about to witness, the atmosphere was
still pretty electric.
Most of the guys on the fight card were nobodies or local tough guys, so we all had fun picking who we thought would win this UFC-style tournament. Minutes before the event began I spotted one of my dad’s friends from church. He was an Olympic alternate stud wrestler who had just moved to town. I had a pretty good idea of who might win the tournament.
Like I said it’s been about 10 years, and after seeing this sport explode I finally was able to see “closed fist” fighting in Texas.
Inferno Meltdown was the first of three shows slated for this summer from new fight organization Inferno Promotions. Looking to seize on the rising popularity of MMA and the new rule changes in Texas, the Inferno brass plans on showcasing the local talented athletes that are trying to compete.
Inferno was held at the Plano Centre in the Dallas suburb of Plano. The venue was small and intimate, which is great for the smaller shows. Picture if you will, a large oversized hotel conference room with a large stage on one end. I’d guess the place could hold a couple thousand fans. Most of the room was full by the end of the night making it a pretty good turnout for a first time show.
I appreciated the attention to detail and how everything ran real smooth. The ring crew, announcer, ref and production crew were all first rate, something you almost never see at a smaller show. I was impressed with the large screens above the ring so you could see all the action. Outside in the lobby, many vendors and sponsors had booths set up and that was a pretty novel idea, sponsorship combined with actual exposure to the fans.
With exception to maybe the beer line being too long, it was a near perfect place to see a fight. The beer line wasn’t my problem though because I skipped the beer in lieu of trying to run down Pete Spratt and Guy Mezger, both of who were there to corner young fighters. Pete sounded excited about his upcoming match with T.U.F. wrestler Josh Koscheck. He told me that he matches up well with Josh’s style and thinks that he’ll be able to handle Josh’s take-you-down-and-hold-on skills.
Mr. Mezger was also kind enough to talk to me and not ignore me like the majority of Dallas’s women. First off he’s doing very well health wise and told me that he looked forward to seeing his guys get to compete and try to help Texas catch up with the rest of the MMA friendly states.
I was just about to ask Guy what he thought about the whole Tom Cruise/Katie Holmes madness when I heard the music start back up in the main room and I excused myself for the first bout.
James Montgomery and Troy Owen were both around the 200lb mark and they rushed each other as soon as the bell rang. Owens attempted a throw on Montgomery but instead ended up being mounted. Montgomery started throwing punches from up top. They scooted under the ropes and the ref stood them up for a restart.
Again they ended up under the ropes somehow and on the restart Owens grabbed Montgomery in a schoolyard "bulldog" headlock. Montgomery slipped out but then got caught in a standing guillotine. He didn’t look to be in much trouble but then they dropped to the ground and Owen maintained the guillotine and trapped Montgomery's leg to keep him from maneuvering to get out.
Montgomery wasn’t totally choked but his windpipe as getting squeezed like a toy. Stuck without many options he tried to wait patiently for Owen to tire out and release the hold, but after a minute or so Montgomery was screwed. He tapped and Owen won by tapout at 4:58 in the first round.
I’ll refrain from giving you the ending times of the rest of the fights. All but one ended early in the first round.
Guy Mezger was on hand to corner Eric Schambari and his training showed. Schambari started the fight off against Jamey Herbert with a solid right cross that turned Herbert's head and woke up the crowd.
Herbert was taken down easily and Schambari secured side mount where he fired off some punches to the grill and big knees to Herbert's ribs. From the North/South position Schambari secured Herbert's right arm and cranked out a kimura, ending the fight by tapout in just a few minutes. Schambari is a Grappler’s Quest competitor and looks fairly technical. I’ll be looking forward to seeing him fight again.
The “coliseum” was a crappy building that normally housed rodeos and tractor pulls. Coliseums normally conjure up images of Roman times and this place, with its boxing ring in the middle of a dirt floor, resembled more of something out of “Roadhouse”.
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Most of the guys on the fight card were nobodies or local tough guys, so we all had fun picking who we thought would win this UFC-style tournament. Minutes before the event began I spotted one of my dad’s friends from church. He was an Olympic alternate stud wrestler who had just moved to town. I had a pretty good idea of who might win the tournament.
None of us knew then that in the final match that night, we would
see history in the making as UFC veteran Paul Jones would beat up a young kid
named Heath Herring.
Like I said it’s been about 10 years, and after seeing this sport explode I finally was able to see “closed fist” fighting in Texas.
Inferno Meltdown was the first of three shows slated for this summer from new fight organization Inferno Promotions. Looking to seize on the rising popularity of MMA and the new rule changes in Texas, the Inferno brass plans on showcasing the local talented athletes that are trying to compete.
Inferno was held at the Plano Centre in the Dallas suburb of Plano. The venue was small and intimate, which is great for the smaller shows. Picture if you will, a large oversized hotel conference room with a large stage on one end. I’d guess the place could hold a couple thousand fans. Most of the room was full by the end of the night making it a pretty good turnout for a first time show.
I appreciated the attention to detail and how everything ran real smooth. The ring crew, announcer, ref and production crew were all first rate, something you almost never see at a smaller show. I was impressed with the large screens above the ring so you could see all the action. Outside in the lobby, many vendors and sponsors had booths set up and that was a pretty novel idea, sponsorship combined with actual exposure to the fans.
With exception to maybe the beer line being too long, it was a near perfect place to see a fight. The beer line wasn’t my problem though because I skipped the beer in lieu of trying to run down Pete Spratt and Guy Mezger, both of who were there to corner young fighters. Pete sounded excited about his upcoming match with T.U.F. wrestler Josh Koscheck. He told me that he matches up well with Josh’s style and thinks that he’ll be able to handle Josh’s take-you-down-and-hold-on skills.
Mr. Mezger was also kind enough to talk to me and not ignore me like the majority of Dallas’s women. First off he’s doing very well health wise and told me that he looked forward to seeing his guys get to compete and try to help Texas catch up with the rest of the MMA friendly states.
I was just about to ask Guy what he thought about the whole Tom Cruise/Katie Holmes madness when I heard the music start back up in the main room and I excused myself for the first bout.
James Montgomery and Troy Owen were both around the 200lb mark and they rushed each other as soon as the bell rang. Owens attempted a throw on Montgomery but instead ended up being mounted. Montgomery started throwing punches from up top. They scooted under the ropes and the ref stood them up for a restart.
Again they ended up under the ropes somehow and on the restart Owens grabbed Montgomery in a schoolyard "bulldog" headlock. Montgomery slipped out but then got caught in a standing guillotine. He didn’t look to be in much trouble but then they dropped to the ground and Owen maintained the guillotine and trapped Montgomery's leg to keep him from maneuvering to get out.
Montgomery wasn’t totally choked but his windpipe as getting squeezed like a toy. Stuck without many options he tried to wait patiently for Owen to tire out and release the hold, but after a minute or so Montgomery was screwed. He tapped and Owen won by tapout at 4:58 in the first round.
I’ll refrain from giving you the ending times of the rest of the fights. All but one ended early in the first round.
Guy Mezger was on hand to corner Eric Schambari and his training showed. Schambari started the fight off against Jamey Herbert with a solid right cross that turned Herbert's head and woke up the crowd.
Herbert was taken down easily and Schambari secured side mount where he fired off some punches to the grill and big knees to Herbert's ribs. From the North/South position Schambari secured Herbert's right arm and cranked out a kimura, ending the fight by tapout in just a few minutes. Schambari is a Grappler’s Quest competitor and looks fairly technical. I’ll be looking forward to seeing him fight again.
