Summary: Asian MMA Weekend Recap May 3-5 2019 - Asian MMA Podcast Episode 20 Before we get right into the fight action from the weekend, I’ve got to give a shout out to two fighters who have cut their teeth in the Asian MMA scene over the years and have been making some serious moves as of late. First up a big shot out to Cole Smith who made a successful UFC Debut over the weekend. The Cole Train spent a lot of time training up in Chiangmai Thailand with Team Quest Thailand, under the tutelage of Dylan Fussell. Cole cut his teeth in the Bangkok based promotion Full Metal Dojo, having an amateur fight under their banner, and making his pro debut with Thailand Ring Wars back in 2016. This isn’t on Coles record, but if my memory serves me correctly I saw Cole fight in a very underground promotion out in Pathum Thani, Thailand called Ring Wars, this was pure grit, they set up mats in a parking garage, slapped some cage around it and held a one-day tournament. Amature, pro, it didn’t matter. You just showed up and banged. The second shout out is to another FMD Alumn and Rizin Heavyweight Grand Prix finalist Amir Aliakbari who signed with the UFC over the weekend! Amir is an Iranian beast who other than his only loss to the legend of CroCop has smashed everyone else he has faced, having gone the distance just once in his 10-1 career. He was basically the most feared heavyweight in Asian MMA for a long time, Also happens to be one of the nicest dudes in the game. He was training out of AKA Thailand with Mike Swick for a while, I’m not sure if that is still the case, I have heard conflicting reports, and have not had that confirmed by Amir as of yet. It looks like he will be making his UFC debut on their upcoming Abu Dhabi show in September, no opponent has been announced, but I am looking forward to that one for sure. One thing that has to be pointed out regarding Amir is that he has a lifetime band from wrestling due to a positive PED test. Of course, we all assume that fighting for Rizin and ACB these types of things are not an issue, but signing with the UFC means he will have to enter their USADA testing pool. My hope is that this won’t impact his ability to compete in the UFC, but only time will tell. But my fingers are crossed. On to this weekends events. The first one is the IMMAF Asian Open Championships held right here in Bangkok. Now Bangkok was a last minute replacement location for the championships. They were supposed to be held in China, but there were some administrative difficulties so the Thailand branch of IMMAF stepped up and organized the tournament on about two months notice. The event went really well. It was held right in the middle of the city, so it was easy to get to. And they put on three days of amazing fights. The tournament was full representative of the Asian members of IMMAF, but what we saw when you look at the results were that for the most part Kazakhstan and Bahrain pretty much dominated every single division. Of the 15 divisions, just 3 were won by fighters from other countries, and of the 15 division, Kazakhstan won 7 of them. There is something special in the water there. Clearly, the wrestling base played a very big role in the Kazak teams success, as did their overall conditioning.
