Xtreme Couture Toronto is now up and running. It is a phenomenal facility. 30,000 square feet. A full health club in addition to a state-of-the-art MMA gym. It has a hot room for Bikram Yoga. 6,000+ square feet of mat space, a ring and a cage. Mark Hominick, Chris Horodecki and Mark Bocek are on the training staff.
If you head over tonight they are having a viewing part for the Elite XC show and tomorrow there is a seminar with Randy.
Mark Friday Night June 20th on your calendar. It’s a night that will go down in history, as boxing and MMA are presented on the same card FOR FREE at the Thomas & Mack Center.
John Alessio takes on Pete Spratt in the Main Event. Kim Couture makes her Pro Debut. Dennis Davis takes on Team Quest’s Dave Jansen and two future stars of MMA debut when Super Heavyweight Brice Ritani-Coe of New Zealand and 145lber Kui Gonsalves-Kanoho of Hawaii hit the ring.
Extreme Fighter Magazine did an an awesome piece on our fighters who took part in the Tuff-N-Uff show May 23rd at the Tropicana. Check out the video here.
Expect to hear some very exciting news about our Amateurs and how you can become a part of the team in coming days.
Round 5 has released its first line of MMA toys. The action figures are 6″ tall and awesome looking. Head to the store and pick up Randy, Tito, Matt Hughes and Rampage. Rampage even comes with his signature chain.
You can get your set at KB Toys, FYE and Spencer’s here in the States. Or if you live in Las Vegas you can pick some up at the gym. Our pals in Canada can get them at Toys R Us and anyone can order them online.
Elena “Babydoll” Reid returns to the boxing ring June 12th. She will take on Russian Anastaia Toktaulova at the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut. You can catch the fight live on FOX Sports. Look for Elena to have her second MMA fight later this summer.
Xtreme Couture athletes had a tremendous weekend in competition. Gym members went 7-1 at Friday Night’s Tuff-N-Uff show at the Tropicana.
Kimo Yadao kicked off the night with a hard fought decision victory. Fellow Hawaiian Chance Torres followed his lead in the next match winning by Americana in the first round. Weston Dushen won via ground and pound in the second round of his fight. Jimmy Jones suffered the only loss of the night, losing to a D-I wrestler who racked up a number of takedowns. Jimmy didn’t suffer any damage on the ground, continually fought back to his feet and delivered several exciting kicks and combinations. But the numerous takedowns were enough to win the fight. Kui Gonsalves-Kanoho wasted no time in his fight scoring the Knockout of the Night in 7 seconds. Mark Phan scored a unanimous decision win and in the Main Event Brice Ritani-Coe KO’d his opponent in 20 seconds. For full results check out the Tuff-N-Uff website.
Saturday night was more of the same with the newest member of our team Goran Reljic scoring a second round TKO. He showed tremendous heart, battling back to beat Wilson Gouveia a highly regarded UFC veteran.
Later in the night Wanderlei Silva brought the capacity crowd at the MGM to its feet with a vintage performance against Keith Jardine. In classic axe murderer fashion he rocked his opponent then went in for the kill. It was a great night for Randy and Shawn Tompkins who coached both Goran and Wanderlei.
(Pictured l-r: back row Weston Dushen, Kimo Yadao, Jimmy Jones, Brice Ritani-Coe, Chance Torres; front row Kui Gonsalves-Kanoho, Mark Phan, not pictured Justin Linn)
8 members of the Xtreme Couture gym will be competing tonight in amateur MMA at the Tuff-N-Uff show at the Tropicana. Show starts at 7pm and will feature 15 bouts. That’s right, we’re more than half the card. Last month Tuff-N-Uff ran the first sanctioned amateur MMA show in Nevada and it was a barn burner. Awesome action all throughout.
Brice Ritani-Coe fights in the Main Event. He’s from New Zealand (though he was born in LA and has U.S. citizenship) and began his training with Ray Sefo’s trainer. Brice was set to represent New Zealand in the Olympics this summer in Boxing as a Super Heavyweight, but broke his hand a few months back and lost his spot. Now he is in Vegas with us, making the transition to MMA.
Chance Torres had the fight of the night at the last Tuff-N-Uff show, expect more of the same when the Hawaiian slugger takes on Devon Vaughner from Team Crack’em. Fellow Hawaiian Kui Gonsalves-Kanoho a disciple of Shawn Tompkins, who teaches kickboxing and wrestling here at the gym makes his amateur debut at 145lbs. Kui is battle ready. Rounding out the Hawaiian contingent of Xtreme Couture members is Kimo Yadao. An accomplished kickboxer, Kimo will be looking to put on a show in front of the 20 plus friends and family coming up from the Islands for his fight.
In a battle of related gyms, Mark Phan takes on Chris Brady from Legends MMA in Hollywood. Mark had the slam of the night last time.
Jimmy Jones and Weston Dushen will be making their amateur debuts on the card. Weston was all set to fight last time, but his opponent pulled out at the last minute. Hopefully all opponents show this time.
Justin Linn returns after a very impressive showing last time out. He will be taking on Wayne Wrath another young fighter who put on a great show last time. Justin had left the building when we got the crew together for the above photo. So here is one of him solo after he hoped on the scale yesterday.
We are in the process of formalizing an amateur program at the gym now and will be announcing it shortly.
Tyson Griffin will be on hand at Grimaldi’s in Henderson tomorrow at 1pm. ESPN 1100 is doing a ticket giveaway for this weekend’s UFC event. The Cokin and Cofield Show will broadcast live from Grimaldi’s between noon and 3pm. Stop by for a chance to get some free tickets, meet Tyson and enjoy some delicious brick oven pizza.
More than 400 people turned out to the Centennial Hills YMCA to take part in Operation Freedom Run. 85 degrees and sunny. A perfect day to run a 5K. Operation Freedom Run marks the first race put on by the Xtreme Couture GI Foundation and by all accounts it was a rousing success.
Randy welcomed the runners and blew the airhorn to start the race. The champ doesn’t like to run on concrete because it bothers his knees. But Kim the co-founder of the Foundation ran it at a brisk pace.
After the race Randy presented adaptive devices to the race’s honorary guests John Blue and Manny Del Rio both of whom are below the knee amputees who lost limbs in Iraq. John received titanium wheels for his bike that he will be using in an Ironman race. Manny received adaptive skis that will allow him to take on Black Diamond slopes. Former Green Beret Ivan Castro who was blinded by shrapnel in Iraq received a stationary bike and audible heart monitor.
All in all it was a tremendous event and we look to host another 5K next year.
