February 15th, 2009 - Wargods and Ken Shamrock Promotions came together on Friday, Feb 13th to do their first MMA event together - The Valentine Eve Massacre in fresno, CA at the Selland Arena. After working together off and on the past few months and a series of meetings back in December of 2008 the two organizations decided that it seemed to be a good fit and combining forces to do promotions might be a good thing.
"I worked with Wargods on some of their past events, I thought they had a lot of integrity, we sent two of our guys to fight on their show and they came back with a good report. Wargods seemed like they really wanted to take care of the fighters. They work hard and really focus on trying to put on the best show they can - it definitely seemed like a good fit." said a KSP representative
As with the start of any new venture, things always need adjusting.
"We want to run a smooth and streamlined operation, we want the fighters to walk away excited, the fans to get what they paid for and the promotion to make money so we can come back and continue to do more shows." KSP representative
The week the show was to take place definitely had its share of challenges. Wargods and KSP worked hard to make sure the fighters had their matches and were going to fight, but certain forces were in place that were out of their control.
"We did learn from the experience and are taking steps to make sure some of the challenges that we could control dont happen again to benefit everyone involved - thats what you do to succeed, you make it better than the last. Those who dont learn from the past - those are the ones who will fail"
The promotion was able to save 8 of the 12 scheduled fights including the anticipated Ken Shamrock and Tank bouts.
As for the fights that couldn't be salvaged: Kyacey Uscola's opponent BJ Lacy injured his knee, Jen Babcock's opponent Jen Tate called hours before weigh ins to say that she slipped and injured herself in the sauna, Tonya Evinger's opponent was flown in by the promotion last minute in an attempt to salvage a match up for her (after a series of already failed attempts for various reasons), but the commission would not clear the fight. Buddy Roberts opponent Wesley "Cabbage" Correira was suspended by the commission Friday for withdrawing from the fight minutes before he was set to go out. Lance Foreman, the matchmaker for the promotions said he spoke with Cabbage immediately to try and make the fight happen for the fans and for Buddy Roberts. Lance said he asked Cabbage how much money it was going to take to solve the problem, when Cabbage replied it was not money, Lance asked him "was there anything else besides money that would solve the problem?", Cabbage replied, "Im not mentally there, there are personal reasons, the issue isn't money, the issue is my manager."
Even tho the promotion seemed to have a series of unfortunate events, the show must go on and that it did. Tank Abbott entered the arena to a roar of excitement from the crowd and before the fight seemed to even get started, Mike Bourke was on the ground due to knockout.
The fit and confident Shamrock entered the ring as the main event of the night against Ross "The Grizzly" Clifton. The size difference was as in your face as the right that Clifton received shortly into the first round. He dropped like a timbering tree and the Shamrock we know and love came in for the submission. Ken has had a string of losses in the past, but he never seems to let anything hold him back. He was welcomed by many of his family and friends in the cage and later had this to say:
"This win is dedicated to my dad, Bob Shamrock who is very sick and in the hospital - please keep him in your prayers." Ken Shamrock
The promotion would like to thank all of the fighters who came and supported the event, and give a special thanks to Josh Haynes and his management and Tank Abbott for their professionalism and support.
