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News and Notes from Canadian MMA By Kelsey Mowatt This week's edition of the Northern Touch brings word from top-ranked Canadian super lightweight fighter Antonio Carvalho, as he prepares for his championship fight with Jeff Curran this Saturday night. Also in this week's column, FCF catches up with up and coming fighter Kevin Barkhouse, and we have news from Canuckles spokesperson Lindsey Marin about the recent rumors that team instructor and fighter Max Marin is retiring. Ironheart SLW Championship: Curran vs Carvalho November 19th Team Shah Franco standout Antonio Carvalho will fight UFC 46 veteran Jeff Curran this Saturday in Hammond, Indiana, for the Ironheart/ American Shooto Championship at 145 pounds. Carvalho, who comes into this fight with a record of 8-0, will be facing one of the State's better super lightweight (SLW) fighters in Curran, whose record stands at 23-7-1. Carvalho, who has defeated such notable fighters as Tommy Lee and Lion Takeshi, acknowledges that Curran is stiff competition. "For sure Jeff will be my toughest opponent that I have ever faced," Carvalho said. "I don't think I have ever fought someone so well-rounded. This fight will be interesting for me because I really don't know how this one will go." Curran has been on a tear since his loss to Matt Serra at UFC 46 in January of 2004, and is currently on a seven-fight winning streak. The stretch includes victories over Masahiro Oishi, Jason Dent, and Luke Spencer, with six of the seven victories coming way of submission. Carvalho is quick to praise Curran for his well-rounded skills, but seems to have studied up on his championship bout opponent. "Curranīs overall skills impress me," Carvalho reported, "I feel he is very well-rounded as a fighter and has shown that he can grapple and strike very effectively. He has submission wins and knockout wins on his record. He also shows a great ability to adapt to his opponents. An example was when he fought Baret Yoshida in which Yoshida was probably the better grappler, but Curran survived the ground and ended up knocking him out." "Training has been going very good," Carvalho told FCF. " I think that I have been able to fix some technical issues that have bothered me in past fights. My ground skills feel much sharper then before and my striking is better too. I have to thank Prof. Sylvio Behring and Prof. Shah Franco for that." Thus, Carvalho remains confident in his own capabilities, and believes that he has good shot at coming away with the title. "I don't really know if I have any advantage over him. I think that I may be quicker then him, but I could be wrong," said Carvalho. "I guess we will find out this Saturday. Of course I am confident in my skills and I believe that I have a chance to win this fight and bring home the belt. The better man will win that night and that's all I can say about that." Max Marin: Retirement Talk Only Rumors Team Canuckles spokesperson Lindsey Marin, informed FCF this week that her husband and team instructor Max Marin is not retiring from MMA competition. Speculation that Marin was retiring began to circulate after he gave an emotional speech following his recent loss to Thierry Quenneville at TKO 23: Extreme. "Both Max and I were surprised to hear he was retiring," Lindsey Marin told FCF, "so it's good to clear the air on that. I'd like to hear the speech he gave after the TKO fight myself, I heard it was really good. No, he is not retiring. He was slated to fight Ryan Diaz this December 3rd coming up, but immediately knew his arm from the armbar that night, along with various other injuries he's had for some time, wouldn't allow him to fight." For now, Max plans on taking care of his injuries, and concentrating on his busy Canuckles gym that is increasingly receiving more students and producing fighters for competition. "Because Max not only trains himself - he trains other fighters and does lots of one on one stuff with students and this has forced him to overuse his body," Lindsey noted. "He loves competing, but he is so busy doing his number one job, which is spreading the sport of MMA to the mainstream public and exposing everyone to MMA, that he has to now focus on healing his body and getting all his staff at the school organized, so he doesn't have to take the physical brunt as much. The blessing of having a full MMA studio is that you get to train a lot, the curse is that you find yourself training from 8 to 10 hours a day without a break, which leads to injury." Despite a hectic schedule through running a successful business, Lindsey is certain Max will indeed be fighting once again. "Once he is healed he will be back, but now that he is a business owner, coach to so many different types of people, manager, newly a fight commentator, he has a lot on his plate in the MMA world. I know we can't keep him out of the ring for long though!" Kevin Barkhouse: Off to Rousing Start 21-year-old fighter Kevin Barkhouse is off to an impressive start in his fighting career, especially in light of the fact that Barkhouse has only been training in MMA less than two years. Barkhouse, who fights at 145 pounds, turned to MMA after enjoying competition in wrestling during high school. "Well I started training in MMA about a year and a half ago," Barkhouse reported, "What peaked my interest was the high school wrestling team, which I trained with and competed in for two years." Fighting out of the Team Evolution gym in Vernon, British Columbia, Barkhouse has put together a 4-0 record, including his most recent victory over Tim Tamaki by unanimous decision at the Extreme Fighting Challenge 4 in October. "My fight with Tim Tamaki was a lot harder than I thought it would be. I went into this fight thinking that I would completely dominate him but to my surprise, Tim had a lot more heart and skill then I anticipated." The success of Barkhouse is partly due to the fact that in the last year and a half, he has had daily exposure to MMA fighters and instructors at the Evolution facility. The Evolution gym is one of Canada's premiere training facilities, with fighter living quarters, a fully equipped training room, and a cage to spar in. Barkhouse took some well deserved time off after the Tamaki fight, and is happy to be back training at Evolution once again. "After my last fight in mid October, I took some time off training and just recently returned to Evolution," Barkhouse said." I will be training with Dan Theodorand and the other members of the gym." The Evolution Team, in its short existence, has included such fighters as Matt Leo, Chris Ade, and a brief instruction stint from Joe Doerksen, no doubt aiding Barkhouse, in his early successes. |
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