MMA debuts in Maine

It was an historic moment on Saturday when the first ever sanctioned mixed martial arts event in the state of Maine was held at the Stevens Avenue Armory in Portland.
According to reports, more than 2,000 people attended the event headlined with a win by Ryan Scheiding of Manchester, N.H., over Colby Brown. Scheiding, who fights for Team Burgess, won by submission in the first round.
The bigger story, however, is that now MMA is sanctioned in Maine. That makes two New England states that have sanctioned the popular sport over the past two years. Massachusetts gave MMA the nod just over a year ago.
This is significant because it means more opportunity for New Hampshire fighters, and they are already taking advantage. The second event in Maine, GFL 11, is scheduled for Friday in Portland and there are six fighters out of New Hapshire on the card. They are Trevor Stone, John English, John Healey, Jason Libby, Ken Kersch and Kevin Haley.
The next event in New Hampshire isn't until July 15 and there are only seven more events planned for this calendar year.

By MARK QUIRK
New Hampshire Union Leader

SALEM -- New Englanders didn’t fare well in the premier fights at Combat Zone 37 on Friday as three of the four professional bouts on the card were won by fighters from other parts of the country.
Tom Moreau of Derry, and both Nate Kittredge and Nate Ainsworth of Vermont all lost their bouts. Moreau (7-3) was choked out at 2:35 of the first round by Dave Hulett (16-8) of Las Vegas in the main event, Kittredge (11-2) lost by technical knockout at 3:22 of the second round to Mike Massenzio (13-3) of Paramus, N.J., and Ainsworth (0-2) was knocked out 23 seconds into his match with Brian Kelleher (1-1) of Cortland, N.Y.
Moreau fell victim to bad luck in his fight at Rockingham Park. As the two were grappling in the first round, Hulett gained Moreau’s back and landed some illegal punches to the back of his head.
“I must have clipped the back of his head,“ Hulett said. “It certainly wasn’t intentional.“
Moreau, who said he suffered a concussion from the strikes, felt differently.
“I don’t like to win like that and I don’t like to lose like that,” Moreau said. “There’s no way it was an accident. It really frustrates me.”
The ref stopped the action so Moreau could compose himself and the doctors could have a look at him. After an examination, the doctors cleared Moreau and he continued to fight, but it was clear he was still feeling the effects of the blow.
The two locked up again, and at that point it didn’t take long for Hulett to slap on a triangle choke for the submission.
Moreau said he remembers the entire fight up to the point when Hulett landed the illegal blows. Things were blurry after that. He doesn’t remember being on the ground talking to the doctors and “was confused as to what happened.” He said things started to get better when he stood up and told the doctor he could go on, but he wasn’t fully recovered.
The only local pro fighter who won was Perry Filkins (3-1) of Hooksett, who knocked out Will Santiago (2-1) at 2:53 of the second round in his bout.
Santiago’s two wins as a pro both came by knockout less than a minute into the first round. It looked like he was heading for his third when Santiago came out throwing bombs in the first,. He wasn’t able to land anything significant, however, and all the swinging took its toll.
Santiago got exhausted in the second round. Filkins took advantage of that and landed a punch that stunned Santiago in the second round. He followed that with several punches and knees, which led to the knockout.
“I went back to my basics. I started using my leg kicks more and that stopped him from swinging those big right hands,” Filkins said. “Once I saw I could finish him, I just kept going.”
In the best fight of the night, Manchester Memorial graduate Erik Tseronis (1-1) endured a beating only to lose by unanimous decision to Mike Sullivan (3-1) of Nashua as part of the amateur card.
Sullivan won the fight, but Tseronis won over the crowd. A punch by Sullivan early in the first round busted open Tseronis’s nose, which gushed blood for the remainder of the fight. He absorbed more punches and kicks for the next two rounds and even almost got a choke on Sullivan in the third. But Sullivan was relentless on the attack and didn’t give Tseronis a chance to win over the judges.
Despite all the blood and swelling, Tseronis said his nose wasn’t broken, and the cheers from the crowd made it all worth it.
“I feel fine,” Tseronis said. “I just wish I had a win to go with it. I said to myself somebody’s going to have to put me out to stop me. That’s how we train.”
The results of the rest of the amateur fights were as follows: Maciek Lewandwski (1-0) beat Allan Jocelyn (0-1) by ref stoppage, Nick Alley (1-0) beat Roberto Santiago (0-1) by ref stoppage, Ralph Llorens (1-0) beat Xavier Vargas (2-2) by ref stoppage, Jake Deignan (2-2) beat John Santos (3-4) by knockout, Nick Berube (2-2) beat Mike Garcia (0-1) by ref stoppage, Heather Lambert (2-0) beat Melissa Demers (0-2) by ref stoppage, Mike Burke (2-0) beat Bernado Fanti (1-1) by unanimous decision and Dave Clemens (1-0) beat Isiah Ocasio (0-1) by decision.