Northwest FightScene - The MMA Alliance presents THE UPRISING

The MMA Alliance "THE UPRISING" - May 2nd, 2009

The Showare Center - Kent, Washington

Photos by Mike Renouard & Kerry Vu

To say that "The Uprising", the inaugural all-pro MMA event of The MMA Alliance, wasn't a success would be doing the show a great disservice. A stellar 10 fight card that brought out the fireworks from the very first bout, with a blink and you'll miss it knee to the head by Brad Luvaas that floored Dave Courchaine, to the main event that had Mario Miranda lay down a couple wicked leg kicks that got Chad Vance thinking about it and not reading the knockout punches that dropped him and ended the fight. Fight of the night was the standup war between Bristol Marunde and Mychal "Bolo" Clark that had the crowd at its loudest, and ended via a wicked kimura by Marunde. Shad Lierley also submitted his opponent, veteran Deryk Ripley, via kimura. DJ Linderman out worked Mike Hayes and, assisted by a couple thunderous slams, took home a unanimous decision victory. 6 other pro fights went down as well inside Kent's brand new Showare Center, with 18 of the 20 fighters on the night hailing from &/or training right here in the Pacific Northwest. The MMA Alliance wants to support the local pros, of which there has been an explosion of in the last two years, and this first show was an admirable start to that

Celebrity fighter, Bob Sapp, sat cageside and was called into the center to talk about his upcoming fight with Bobby Lashley. Retired UFC Fighter Ivan Salaverry, and UFC Fighters Aaron Riley and Brad Blackburn were also present cornering fighters.

[Check out our interviews with Sapp, Blackburn, Marunde and Lierley HERE]

Aaron Riley, Bob Sapp, Ivan Salaverry Brad Blackburn, Bristol Marunde, Carlos Hernandez

The show itself started a bit late but nothing too out of the ordinary for an organization doing their very first large event. The MMA Alliance, a Seattle-based MMA promotion, consists of Sean Huertas, David de Jesus, and Aaron McCrary, and according to their mission statement, the trio is committed "to bring high quality Professional MMA, which showcases the abundance of highly trained local athletes, into the greater Seattle area." With this first show, they did just that. Fans who were in attendance could not ask for anything more and the excellent matchmaking from Reese Andy bodes well for future fight cards from the new organization. All 10 fights can be seen in their entirety on Comcast's ON DEMAND in the MMA section of Local Sports, under the Sports & Fitness category. There is also fight video available for viewing at The MMA Alliance myspace page. Be on the lookout later this year for more top quality MMA events from this promising new promotion.

Brad Luvaas (Ring Demon) def Dave Courchaine (Spokane Boxing)

by KO @ 4:42 Rd 1