Rich Wyatt: Congratulations on one of your pro middleweight fighters, Johnny Buck, winning Saturday night down in Georgia against Rashaun Spencer. How did that fight go down?
Michael Allen: Rashaun is a striker. We knew that going in and had seen him on YouTube. (Laughs) Those highlight videos are scary. When it comes to guys with YouTube highlights, I almost don't won't to put my guys in with them. Those highlight videos are kryptonite for jiu-jitsu. Seriously, though, we knew Rashaun is athletic and a striker. But when Johnny follows the game plan he's hard to beat. He didn't rush anything or over commit. He got hit with a body kick in the first but didn't take much damage. He landed the takedown and did work on Rashaun, controlling him and executing his ground and pound. He landed some elbows from side control and ended the 1st round on top. He came back out in the 2nd and it was more of the same. Sometimes the crowd wants to spur the fighters on and, unfortunately for Rashaun, he overcommitted when he got antsy and Johnny got the slam and took his back and sunk the rear naked choke. He'll be fighting again on April 17th down at Wild Bill's in Atlanta against Sean Kilgus and he'll probably be fighting May 15th in Charlotte. Johnny's had some rough luck with some of his earlier fights but he's really coming on strong now. He's a guy that could easily be 8-2 at this point.
More after the jump:
Rich Wyatt: You're taking a team of some talented North Carolina professional fighters down to Charleston, SC this weekend for an event being billed as "The Storm." Take us through some of those matchups.
Michael Allen: Well, we've got two heavyweights going at it in Josh Lening vs. Bobby Peavler and that is the one I'm probably looking forward to the most. Josh KO'd Peavler before and Peavler's manager did what he was supposed to and the commission moved it to a No Contest due to a knee that Josh had hit Bobby with earlier in the fight. The strike in question was illegal, but it was well prior to the KO from Josh later on. The illegal knee had nothing to do with the outcome of the fight in my opinion. We're all looking forward to Josh settling that score. I don't think Bobby is on Josh's level. I look for the same outcome for Josh in this one. At bantamweight, we've got Butch Marks against Tim Goodwin. Butch (3-1) is on a three fight win streak against tough competition. Tim is 4-1. We look for Butch to get in there and work his magic on his feet and on the ground and come out the victor. We've got lightweight fighter Joe "El Dingo Loco" Carroll going up against Joe "The Hitman" Elmore. I don't know about this one. Carroll is on a three fight win streak too and is the best pro 155 pounder in the state. Elmore is supposed to be tough. I've never seen him. I know he fights for Sponsored Fan. I look for Joey to win, of course, by armbar. I know Joey has a lot of respect for Elmore as a fighter. That will probably be the toughest of the three fights. I know that Carroll is a warrior and he's not going to quit and I've heard good things about Elmore as well.
Rich Wyatt: What other fighters do you have matchups lined up for?
Michael Allen: April 17th we've got Johnny Buck scheduled to compete at Wild Bill's in Atlanta. We've also been in negotiations with a fight promotion in New Hampshire that wants him to compete up there against Woody Weatherby (7-3). It's possible that we might take that fight in the next couple of weeks. Weatherby was on the TUF 11 cast and lost his first fight. We're negotiating with them now. On April 24th we've got that huge card in Carrollton, GA called "Clash at the Coliseum." There will be lots of big organizations there to watch. Roger Carroll will be facing Douglas Lima, another Georgia guy. The main event will be Joey Carroll against Ururahy Rodrigues, a 155 guy down in GA from Sucker Punch Entertainment. Also on that card will be amateur lightweight Jacob Allman. He'll be fighting Josh Glover (4-0), a VERY dangerous Muay-Thai striker. On May 15th we've got the Rock ‘N Rumble show in Charlotte and May 15th I'm in negotiations to get Butch Marks on the SHINE Fights card (Din Thomas vs. Ricardo Mayorga) in Fayetteville. Also, we've got several of my lightweights scheduled to be attending the TUF tryouts on April 1st in Charlotte.
Rich Wyatt: Man, you guys over at "Bread and Butter Management" are keeping your fighters busy. You didn't even mention the stacked Fight Lab card in Saturday, March 26th in Charlotte.
Michael Allen: That card is stacked from top to bottom. If you're an amateur and you want to prove yourself you've got to fight for Fight Lab. There are good guys in other North Carolina promotions like Elite and we have all the respect in the world for Marcelo and other promoters. If you're a 155 pounder, though, you've got to get in there with guys like Kurtis Cloward, Jacob Allman and those guys. If you want to be the best 170 pounder you've got to fighter kids like Travis Ferrell, Blaine Thomas and Micah Lail. There are a lot of those guys from the Elite event last weekend on our March 26th show and we look forward to it. If we have to we'll send our guys to Elite to fight their champions as well. We're going to prove to everybody in 2010 that our guys are the best. If that means I have to send Blaine Thomas to fight Josh Leonard, that's fine. We'd love to send Jacob Allman to fight Colt Howell, as well. We're going to prove to everyone in 2010 that we're the best promotion in the state of North Carolina. Another thing we're doing is the winner of each fight is going to get a custom made belt buckle. We've gone outside the box and we've got custom made belt buckles. The only way to get them is to be part of Bread and Butter Management or to win a Fight Lab fight.
Rich Wyatt: Anything lined up so far for this Spring that you'd like to mention?
Michael Allen: On May 7th at our next Epicentre show I'm in negotiations to possibly bring in a few ISCF national champions to fight our three Fight Lab champions. Their ranked female 125 pounder, Nicole Hess, may face our fighter, Jennie Yum (4-1). ISCF national 145 pound champion Brett Hess (10-1) may face our featherweight, Nate Davis (4-1). And ISCF 135 pound champion Umar Haq (9-3) would be matched against the upcoming winner of Kevin Hulin (4-1) and Matthew Tran (4-0).
Rich Wyatt: What about this light heavyweight kid, Ricky Rainey, from Gastonia? He's 2-0 and has obliterated his opposition in his first two bouts. I've heard some good things about him.
Michael Allen: Ricky Rainey is a stud. He doesn't have a nickname yet but I'm thinking about "The Sniper." Be on the lookout for his nickname at the Epicentre (laughs). He's facing another tough fighter that is also 2-0 so it should be a good fight.
Rich Wyatt: Thanks for the update and we look forward to seeing you at the Epicentre show in Charlotte on the 26th.
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