By Mathieu Cournoyer
Challenge MMA will hold its first event tomorrow night at the Colisée Isabelle Brasseur in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, QC. Although a few fights from the original card fell apart, Quebec MMA fans are still excited to watch a local professional MMA show for the first time since November of last year. Gary Chartrand and his organization are planning a great night of fights including some familiar faces and some upcoming athletes.
The weigh-ins took place today at Le Samuel restaurant in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, QC and MM-eh.ca was in attendance to bring you all the details. Before we get to the fighters, let’s talk about the infamous Quebec Commission. It is important to state that what the Commission does is outside the control of Challenge MMA and it shouldn’t affect your opinion of this new organization. First of all, a lot of the fighters and coaches found out when they arrived at the venue that the one pound allowance was no longer valid in Quebec. Now, it could be argued that they were informed in advance and some of them forgot about it, but from the number of fighters and coaches who didn’t know about it I don’t believe it was the case. Secondly, the scale (as you can see in our pictures) was an absolute disgrace to our sport, nothing less. The scale itself was not bad at all but it was placed on two pieces of wood because the floor wasn’t straight and fighters kept complaining about their weight changing every time they checked. The middle of the scale was literally a couple of inches off the floor and it would bend whenever someone stepped on it. I don’t know why the Quebec Commission keeps setting its standards so low but every time it covers itself in ridicule it hurts the reputation of the organizations trying their best to promote our sport all across the province.
Enough with the Commission, let’s talk about the actual weigh-ins. All fighters made weight, although some of them had to agree with their opponent on a catchweight because of the one pound allowance being taken away. For example, Alex Garcia and Ryan Dickson both accepted to fight in a catchweight bout at 171 lbs. Both fighters from the main event came in a few pounds under the limit and showed a lot of respect for each other. The only animosity of the day came during the Gallant vs Gavrilovic weigh-in when Strahinja Gavrilovic kissed Ben Gallant on the nose and Gallant slapped him square in the face. Gavrilovic never moved and both men were separated quickly but this one should be a barn burner tomorrow night. Unfortunately, two fights had to be canceled as Theo Toney decided not to show up for undisclosed reasons and Pascal Chambodie suffered an injury a few days ago. This means Olivier Aubin-Mercier and Sébastien Léger will not be in action tomorrow.
205 – Steve Bossé (202.4) vs. Caleb Grummet (203.0)
171 – Alex Garcia (171.0) vs. Ryan Dickson (169.0)
200 – Ben Gallant (198.0) vs. Strahinja Gavrilovic (197.6)
170 – Dominic Trépanier (169.0) vs. Vanja Vojvodic (169.2)
160 – Derek Gauthier (160.0) vs. Kevin Morin (157.6)
136 – Dimitri Waardenburg (135.2) vs. Michael Imperato (136.0)
155 – Mathieu Charrette (154.4) vs. Daniel Ireland (154.0)
145 – Cédric Mongeon (144.2) vs. Trever Leroux (143.2)
145 – Samuel Desruisseaux (144.2) vs. Eric Nadon (144.4)
145 – Tommy Cote (144.0) vs. Alex Morgan (145.0)
145 – Mario Pereira (144.4) vs. Adrian Vilaca (143.6)
155 – Dan Lariviere (154.0) vs. Sacha Maheux (154.6)