An aptly named show which despite some of the usual problems, and some unusual ones, causing plenty of headaches  everything appeared to run very well; learning from the previous three shows, Danny Taylor and the CFC Events Team had really streamlined things this time, including some improvements to the cage.

The Liverpool Olympia is the venue for CFC and I can only say, as always, that it is an absolutely fantastic place for mma.  There literally is not a bad seat in the house.

A rather serious traffic accident near the Olympia caused a slight delay on the start time - as the video commentary team of Mssrs Butlin and Remedios had to reroute and were lost somewhere in the locality!

Then it was on with the action:

Terry Etim  v Neil Barber: A close match, particularly on the ground, but Terry – who was making his pro debut – just always seemed to that little bit in front before catching Neil with a beautiful round kick to the head for an awesome KO in 1:55 of the second round.

Chris Oban v Mohammed Adapour : This was a debut match for Adapour who had taken this match on short notice. By the end of the first round his lack of condition and experience was showing with Oban slowly but surely starting to get the better of things.  However, following a reversal on the ground early in the second round, and in a position where it was only a matter of time before the match was won for him, Oban blatantly head butted his opponent resulting in his DQ at 1:20.

Craig Cunliffe def Andy Miles : A tremendous effort by both guys but the match ended early in the first round when some heavy shots on the ground badly cut Andy’s above and below his eye.

Chris Shaw def Danny Rogerson:  Unfortunately I missed this match with the result a win by Sub for Shaw early in the second round when he caught Danny with an arm bar.  Danny did take this match at short notice but full credit to young Chris Shaw who is obviously a new talent in the 70kg class.

Jay Tann v Leslie Ojugbanna :  Having had slightly the better of the stand-up, and after an extended attempt to escape from Tann’s submission attempts on the ground, Les tapped to a triangle with only 4 seconds left till the end of the first!

Paul Jenkins v Luciano Azevedo:  Despite conceding over 10kgs in weight to the vastly experienced Jenkins, the little Brazilian completely dominated the match forcing a submission to a RNC after about 3 1/2minutes of the first round – the majority of which was spent with Azavedo with hooks in on Jenkins’ back alternating between trying to get the choke and hammering him with punches.

Dion Staring v Aziz Karaoglu: Another brutal explosive match for the round that it lasted!  Aziz came out throwing bombs from the start and rocked Staring on the first exchange, following down to the ground and continuing to unload.  To his credit, Staring never panicked and absorbed a tremendous amount of punishment before managing to reverse Aziz and give him a few of his own!  Returning to his corner at the end of the first round Aziz appeared completely spent and was retired before the bell for the second.

Fatih Kocamis v Yaya Lalanne:  Yaya came to CFC as an unknown commodity, having taken the match with Fatih on short notice following the late withdrawal of the Canadian Team TKO.  It was a brave decision on the part of the Frenchman and, in retrospect; it was obvious he wasn’t in the same class as Kocamis.  The end came at about 3mins of the 1st round by submission to a rear naked choke.

Paul Cahoon v Melvin Manhoef:  Stepping in at short notice when David Loiseau pulled out of his match with Paul due to a hand injury, Melvin came billed as “The Monster from Amsterdam!”  He certainly lived up to the hype on this occasion! Manhoef imposed his explosive thai-boxing skills from the start, and never allowed Cahoon to get into the fight. A massive thigh kick followed up by huge punches, knees and a frightening kick to the head had Paul completely out on his feet against the cage forcing a ref stoppage in under 2 minutes of Round 1.  

A massively disappointing end to an excellent night for the Liverpool crowd, with their local hero getting soundly defeated but that’s the way things go, and no-one could be anything other than impressed with Manhoef.

Although, as matchmaker and sometime referee for the show, I am somewhat biased, I genuinely feel that this is an excellent event which is improving every time.  The next CFC is provisionally slated for Sunday 4th September and will feature an England v Brazil series of matches.  More details as they become available.