“Little touchdown machine”
By: Jeremy Luchau
So far things are starting to come together nicely for our December 2nd Tachi Palace Fights card at the Tachi Palace Hotel and Casino in Lemoore.
Last week we ironed out a lot of the kinks, finalized 90 percent of the card and bout agreements will be in the mail Friday morning.
I think that our main event and co-main event are going to be pretty exciting fights.
I was really excited to see this week that Sherdog.com had elevated Ian McCall to the No. 1 flyweight in the World. That’s a great honor for our show, and is the second time we’ve had a No. 1 fighter under contract with us.
It’s also great to see for McCall, as he has been through his share of ups and downs and seems to have finally settled in a good place and can really develop as a fighter. I always tell everyone it took a lot of guts to not take a sure-thing opportunity with The Ultimate Fighter and stay with us and fight at flyweight.
I believe this is the start of him reaping some serious benefits from that decision.
His main event opponent has been chosen and both sides have verbally agreed, but I do not want to release that ‘til the ink dries on the bout agreements. I will say that he will be fighting a UFC and WEC veteran.
The co-main event, however, was announced at the August show – Featherweight Champion Eddie Yagin vs. Isaac DeJesus. I see nothing but fireworks in this fight. And this is a fight that is starting to turn into a little bit of a grudge match.
Ulysses Gomez and Cody Gibson will fight for the vacant Bantamweight title after TPF veteran Farkhad Sharipov signed with Bellator. Sharipov and Gibson both earned spots to fight for the title with wins in May, but with Sharipov exiting Gomez stepped up to fill the spot. Gomez was scheduled to fight at 125 pounds on the card, but as he always says “I’m a company man”.
When asked if he was interested in fighting at 135 for the title, he said he would do what was best for the promotion. We think right now that’s the best fight we could put together despite Gomez being a natural flyweight.
He still expressed that he wants to drop down and take flyweight fights and eventually challenge for that belt as well.
Another fight that’s been leaked, thanks to our good friend Jon Motsenbocker at CageRadio.com, is Phil Collins vs. Mickey Martinez, which should be a great fight for the local crowd.
We head back indoors for this show and will be in the Bingo Hall. I think I like that atmosphere a bit better than outside for a few reasons.
The first being that everyone is so close to the action and I think it gives fans a real sense of being right there in the cage. Even in the very last row it’s almost as if you can walk right up and touch the fighters right after the fight.
I also enjoy it not being 100-plus degrees like it is outside.
We will be streaming on Sherdog.com and trust me this is a No. 1 priority for this show. I have both our teams working on resolving all the issues we’ve had on all our past steams, including GoFightLIve.tv and MMAJunkie.com. None have been perfect to say the least.
I really want to give the fans what they want and obviously it’s a better stream.
I will break down some of the fights in the coming weeks and talk more about the behind the scenes stuff for TPF 11 “Redemption”.
Personally, I’ve been going through a tough time. I think just worn out from work and stressed from all the life situations being a fiancée and father of four can put you through. Sometimes I wish I could just break away and get a real vacation and then other times I just remember I always get my greatest joys being around my kids.
Speaking of kids, my son scored four touchdowns in his youth football game last week and all in the first half. Oh how his head has grown in a week. He deserves all the praise that he is getting, though; he works pretty hard for a 10-year-old.
He goes to wrestling practice before football and has just started running in the mornings with a teammate. I think he has a lot of potential to do some great things in the future.
Proud of my girls, too. Ryanne, my oldest, just started high school and Nia just started middle school.
And the baby, Jariah, she is just cute.
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Facebook: www.facebook.com/jeremy.luchau
Twitter: @TheProject23
Email: [email protected]
Special Thanks: Tachi Palace Hotel and Casino (www.tachipalace.com), Fairtex (www.fairtex.com) and Hostility Clothing (www.hostilityclothing.com).
“The Project Files” by Jeremy Luchau is a weekly blog series here at ProMMAnow.com which gives readers an inside look into the life of an MMA promoter. It is part of our ongoing series of exclusive content written by individuals involved in the mixed martial arts industry.