Fight Time at Philips!

The AFL Brings MMA to Downtown ATL

By Jim Terwoord

Flexing its muscles with a glitzy downtown publicity bash, “Rooftop and Ringside” at Stats on May 7th, the up and coming American Fight League kicked off the promotional campaign for its May 30th event, “Bullet Proof,” at Philips Arena, the first mixed martial arts event ever staged at the big house on Centennial.

Hosted by AFL founder Jon Hatton and CEO “B.J.” Santiago, the event had everything – music, booze, babes and best of all – the promise of an explosive night of MMA action featuring three championship fights - that’s long overdue for starving ATL fans who’ve grown used to snubs by other martial arts organizations. Well get ready boys – that night there’s gonna be a jailbreak!

Hatton and Santiago took the time to introduce many of their fighters to the enthusiastic crowd on hand for the event, including rising star Rafael Asuncao, currently ranked 9th among world featherweights, along with his brother, lightweight “Junior” Asuncao. Unfortunately, Rafael is recovering from an injury and will not fight in “Bullet Proof.” But that won’t stop brother Junior, a UFC veteran with a 6-3 record, who takes on Torrance Taylor of Cleveland, OH (7-5) in a 155 pound showdown for the AFL lightweight championship.

Other fighters who attended the event were Douglas Lima, a 170 pound fighter out of Knuckle Up Fitness/Ascension MMA, who faces Brent Weedman in what Lima says will be the toughest fight of his young and promising career – and the AFL welterweight championship is on the line. David Curby, who was also on hand, squares off in a rematch of his recent Cowboy’s win over Robi Ramey who is looking for revenge following a rare defeat (see “Cowboy’s Up” elsewhere on this site). We’re looking forward to this one – Ramey is a bad dude and Curby does not play well with others!

George “Loaded” Lockhart (7-2) brings a four fight win streak into the cage against George “A-Dog” Allen, a veteran with a 12-12 record, for the AFL middleweight championship. In other bouts, Diego Saraiva will take a 12-6 record into the cage against Josh “Kaos” Cates of Knoxville, TN in another lightweight throw down. Beef gets added to the mix when heavyweights Steve Banks (9-0) and Todd “The Irish Car Bomb” Duffee go at it in a knuckle knocker that should turn the octagon into a “socktagon.” Banks has vowed “somebody’s getting knocked out.” Let’s hope!

Willie Smalls of Buford, SC takes on Ethan Garrison from Team Knuckle Up in a light heavyweight match up of two fighters familiar to local fans. Smalls, coming off a two fight ATL win streak, should get tested by Garrison, who is training in the UK with UFC star Michael Bisping to prepare for Smalls. Sounds good to us! Rounding out the card is another local favorite, Sam Holloway (7-2), fighting out of the Hardcore Gym, who takes on Dan “the Sandman” Christison of Indianapolis, IN in another battle of the big boys in the heavyweight division. It promises to be a night of equal opportunity enjoyment across all weight classes.

While he’s slippery in the cage, GAMMA was able to pin down AFL lightweight star Junior Assuncao for a few moments during the event. Atlanta fans may recall his memorable 2005 match against Dustin Hazlett where he had both his cheek and arm broken in the first round, but still managed a TKO win at 4:27 of the first, in a brawl that resembled a suicide bombing. Junior told us that he’s looking forward to his upcoming fight against Torrance Taylor and expects a battle. Assuncao last fought in the AFL event in Kentucky on March 7th and is following a similar game plan in preparing for Taylor. Like most fighters, he regards preparation as the key to “mmartistic” success and is currently not doing much other than training, eating and sleeping.

Junior also shared his thoughts on a lot of other things with GAMMA, including the current state of the lightweight division where he likes “JZ” Calvancante, B.J. Penn and Sean Sherk. His brother, Rafael, was invited to train with Sherk for his upcoming fight with Penn, but the arrangements didn’t pan out – since Junior wasn’t invited. Of course we also asked about Diego Saraiva, his friend and training partner, who is also in the AFL stable. Junior allowed he doesn’t want to fight buddy Diego, who gave him his black belt, but that they have discussed the matter and realize that since they are both AFL employees, it could happen. If it does, Junior says there “will be a huge party afterward” – and we’ll hold him to it.

Although sidelined by injury for “Bullet Proof,” we also collared Junior’s brother, Rafael, for a few minutes. With a stellar 12-1-0 record, he has crept into some of the top ten rankings among featherweights and is the AFL’s brightest star. He has a win over Joe Lauzon on his resume and many think his only loss, to Jeff Curran, should have been in the win column as well, ala the Bisping – Hammill debacle. However, he regards his three round UD over Jorge Masvidal at 155 three years ago as his toughest fight.

We asked him about his recovery from the broken hand that has him on the bench following surgery that required inserting seven pins to repair the damage to his right paw. He currently has only about 50% mobility, but is hoping to be far enough along in his recovery to fight in the AFL event on June 14th, probably against an unranked opponent. He is targeting a possible AFL PPV event at Phillips in October to be firing his right hand rifle at full speed.

We asked for Rafael’s comments on the Bullet Proof card and he called it “very solid.” He was animated about the event, pointing to his brother’s scheduled bout with Taylor and Diego Saraiva’s match up with Josh Cate. He was also very high on Douglas Lima, the youngest fighter on the card, who he said “improves with every training session” and predicted a tough fight for his opponent, Brent Weedman.

Like his brother, Rafael offered up his opinions on his weight class, citing Urijah Faber (no surprise there) as the pick of the litter, with Kid Yamamoto a close second. GAMMA asked him about Faber’s coming battle with Jens Pulver and he indicated he thought it would be Faber’s biggest challenge to date. However, he discounted any advantage Pulver might have, being a “bigger” 145 pounder than Faber, pointing to technique, experience and intelligence as being more important than “walking around weight.”

The brothers Assuncao also took time to get in a plug for their new gym, or dojo, as Junior prefers to call it, that will be open for business right after Bullet Proof. Ascension Mixed Martial Arts (AMMA) opens soon in Roswell and will offer a full menu of mixed martial arts – call 770-910-7509 or visit www.ascensionmma.com. Junior calls the gym “a dream come true” – and the guys there know a little about fighting.

We missed connections with Douglas Lima at the event, but caught up with him by phone over the weekend. Lima, the youngest fighter on the card at 20, told GAMMA that he has been training since he was 14 or 15. He has compiled a record of 11-1 over his professional career, but says that the upcoming nastiness with Weedman should be his toughest fight yet. Beginning his career at Knuckle Up Fitness where he still serves as a kick boxing instructor, Lima now trains primarily with the Assuncao brothers. He was brought to the AFL by local promoter Tony Metcalf who introduced him to the AFL’s CEO, “BJ” Santiago. His fight with Weedman will be his second on a four fight contract with the AFL. His last fight was a win at the AFL’s “Eruption” event in KY.

Douglas told us he considers his Jiu Jitsu the strongest part of his fighting arsenal and that his training is coming along well. A big welterweight, he currently walks around at 185, but doesn’t expect any problems with the cut to 170. He’s being sponsored by Bullet Fight Gear for the Philips event.

We also got the chance to talk more about the AFL with founder and Chief Production officer Jon Hatton. He told us more about the fights, along with a few AFL tidbits and other surprises. Watch GeorgiaMMA.com for our next story. In the meantime, buy tickets to “Bullet Proof” – it’s fight time at Philips!