TUF Smashes Finale: Give The Locals A Go
It has been a little over a week since the Gold Coast was announced as the city of choice for the finale of TUF Smashes and already the card is starting to take shape. Added just in the past twenty-four hours is a light heavyweight clash between Anthony Perosh and Joey Beltran, this begs the question, just how much Australian talent will we see fight on home soil?
It may not make sense for the UFC to fill a card that they will be airing worldwide with talent from the Australian circuit however there is no harm in asking.
Although it’s a long shot, two local fighters who missed out on fighting their way into the TUF Smashes house have volunteered their services to the UFC. Those two fighters are Damien Brown and Dylan Andrews. Both fighters have been very vocal in their intentions and have gone about advancing their careers on their own accord. Damien is in the process of organizing a four month training camp at Jacksons MMA to improve his craft and Dylan just recently took himself over to Las Vegas to try out for the next season of The Ultimate Fighter. Both men know what it takes to succeed in the MMA business and both men are willing to sacrifice everything to get their one shot at greatness. You only get one chance to make a big first impression on the centre stage in this sport and both these fighters are hungry to get that chance.
Every day, actually, more realistically ever hour Dana White must receive a tweet from fighters, fans, managers or sponsors asking to give fighter “XYZ” their chance at super-stardom in the UFC. I am sure that he gets so many that with each new one; it’s getting to the point where it becomes just another name to try to forget. It’s unfair to assume this but realistically he doesn’t have to worry about what Johnny Smith is doing in the Canberra Backyard Fighting Championships, he has a business to run and he has fighters to match-up. With a pool of talent extremely deep it would be easy to send just about anybody to Australia to fight, I mean who doesn’t love our country?
With so many options available, as suggested, it would be easy to fill the card with “foreign” talent and to match-up fighters that the relatively “fresh” fans in Australia aren’t going to know anyway, so why not instead of flying talent over they use at least one or two Australian based fighters? A way you can look at it is a “Facebook prelim” fighter who is already in the UFC is more than likely going to have the same amount of value to an Australian fan as a “local” fighter. Why not only fly one or two international names out and give a few guys the chance of a lifetime? Dylan Andrews has publically stated that he would fight anybody to get his chance and with the lack of competition on the Australian circuit willing to lock horns with The Villain this would be a perfect test for Australia’s best Middleweight. There are plenty of options that the UFC could use that would still see a high calibre of fighter on the card.
Enter ex-UFC fighter Bernado “Trekko” Magalhaes who is fresh out of a local win in the first round over a top Australian fighter in Sonny Brown. It has been heavily suggested that should Trekko string together a few wins he would see himself back on the big show in no time. The Gold Coast card, coming off a big first round win would be a perfect place for Trekko to take another shot at getting a “w” under the UFC banner.
One fighter that has put his hand up to fight Trekko is Damien Brown (no relation to Sonny). Damien stated that he would even “fight for just a win bonus” with no base pay to get his shot at the big time. Damien is one of the country’s top Lightweights and is quietly confident that he could do well enough against Trekko. The two have verbally agreed to a bout on Twitter but no Australian organization has come to the party to match the two up. Since they are struggling to get the fight signed why not give Trekko his second chance at stardom and at the same time give Damien Brown his opportunity to prove he is the best lightweight in the country? These two men want to fight; they just need the platform to do so.
That’s right all you people from the UFC that are reading this.. The hard work is done. Sign the paperwork and give these guys their chance that could change their lives forever!
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