Out of the Mouth of Dave…

Forget North Korea, the real explosives are over at CageWarriors.com.

Yesterday Cage Warriors V.P. Andy Lillis levelled the accusation at Cage Rage Co-Promoter Andy Greer that he was behind several cases of anti Cage Warriors forum “trolling.” This prompted a three thousand word tirade in response from Cage Rage’s other main man, Dave O’Donnell.

For the back story check out yesterday’s MMA Universe article “Promotion War!" And see how it played out on the CageWarriors.com forum here.

Now read part 2 as posted on CageWarriors.com and read the reaction from the UK MMA fans by clicking on the link below.

Firstly please be aware that the following quote, originally posted on CageWarriors.com, is highly controversial. So it is our duty to remind you (the readers) that the content of the passage below is solely the opinion of Cage Rage Co Promoter Dave O'Donnell. The opinions and ideas below in no way reflect those of MMA Universe or its staff.

Cage Rage vs Internet Warriors

“As many of you are aware Cage Rage has sought to develop the sport of Mixed Martial Arts in Europe perhaps more than any other promotion. The success we have had in this endeavour has elevated the Cage Rage brand to a position of prominence in the world of MMA. This achievement has come about through a great deal of hard work, personal sacrifice and considerable financial risk to all those involved. It wouldn’t be an understatement to say that the last four years have been some of the most difficult in our life time. Yet to see where we have come from since our inception to where we are now is truly inspiring. Though most heartening of all is that the show has served as a springboard for many exceptional young fighters, to move onto the international fight circuit. The sole motivation of the Cage Rage team is, and has always been, to demonstrate that Europe has a place on the world stage when it comes to MMA. And furthermore to provide UK fighters with the kind of opportunities that aren’t readily available elsewhere in Europe.

As with any successful endeavour you will inevitably have those, who through their own sense of inadequacy, will attempt to undermine you at every quarter. We are no exception to this rule, and have snapping at our ankles, an unrepressed moungrel in the form of a certain Dougie “man of the people” Truman. Regrettably this self-indulgent nonentity is not alone in his quest to bring ruin upon the Cage Rage brand but is incompetently assisted by two other backward imbeciles who together form the promotion team better known as Internet Warrior promotions. Sorry slip of the tongue, Cage Warriors promotions.

At every opportunity this trio of scheming manipulators attempt to damage the good name we have built up on the international stage, for no other apparent reason than jealousy. It would be easier to understand if Internet Warrior promotions could be considered our rivals. But with a staggeringly unremarkable attendance of approximately 400 at their last show and 8325 at ours, it is plain to see that this is simply not the case.

The disconcerting feature of this campaign of deprecation is that this conniving axis of deceit has a powerful tool at their disposal; a tool which they use to their full Machiavellian advantage; their internet forum Cage Warriors dot com. Devious Doug and his shifty underling Kainer (perhaps that should be changed to flamer, given that he spends most of his day criticising Cage Rage on other international sites) spend most of their day peddling nonsense and making pompous statements on this biased propaganda site.

Every other day, on Cagewarriors.com, brings another grandiose statement about the exploits of MMA patron Doug or one of his grimy bed fellows.

“His royal highness Dougie of the Truman and his favourite colourless subject Kainer will be travelling to The Blue Water shopping mall to defecate in the public toilets” A detailed PBP report will be available from 13.00 hrs written by Dougies meticulously efficient anaemic servant Ian. Be assured of the most fastidious coverage as prolific forum dweller Kainer returns his head to its normal dwelling in the upper reaches of Dougies arse.

What really amuses me however is that a substantial proportion of the people who respond on the forum are either Phillis, Dougie or the other third of the insignificant three. They’ve been using their aliases for so long they probably believe the handles they have created are now living entities. What the stupid chav morons don’t realise is that it is patently obvious that much of the acidity that appears on the forum originates from them.

Suddenly someone appears out of the blue, calls them self Hemphus Riggs or the such like and then launches into a tirade about how awful Cage Rage is.

I really am convinced that these trolls are disgruntled Cage Rage punters so overcome with anger by our failures that they feel a pressing need to speak angrily about anything associated with the promotion. In fact please wait a moment while I pop outside and catch that pig that just flew past my window. The ridiculous thing is that once these contrived handles have served their purpose they disappear of the site and a new one appears, who just so happens to have a similar writing style.

Though perhaps the most perturbing element in all of this is the fact that Devious Doug has a horde of willing devotees, prepared to take as gospel the lies and half-truths spouted by their leader.

So why am I replying to Devious Dougs accusations now? Well the answer to that is a simple one. The perpetual vilification originating from the Cage Warriors forums has simply got out of hand and warrants a one off response in kind. Though the difference with my counter, as opposed to Dougies, is that it will be based on reality and not conjecture.

So here’s the situation as it stands. Andy and I spend the vast majority of our time trying to build Cage Rage for the benefit of the UK mixed martial arts scene as a whole. We are not loafing about on the internet drinking tea and exchanging chit chat with other bored individuals. We are out there working tirelessly to get things done. We can justifiably say that we have created something that the UK MMA community as a whole can be proud of and we hope to keep building on this success.

Go to most places in the world and ask an MMA fan if they know the name of a British promotion and the answer will invariably be “Yes! Cage Rage.”

Cage Warriors, in comparison, will be virtually unheard of, and for good reason, as they are a second rate promotion who talk big but produce nothing of real substance.

The one certainty with Dougie and co is that they will never grow beyond the confines of the drafty guild halls and cold ice rinks they use. I’ve heard the argument that we’ve got pots of money and that’s why we do better. However using that line of reasoning Cage Rage contenders would suffer a similar fate to the last Cage Warriors show in Sheffield where the venue was largely empty.

Wrong! Contenders although a low budget production presented a level of quality that was far superior to anything provided by Cage Warriors and in addition had a far more impressive attendance ratio. What Dougie is not prepared to admit is that it is his continual incompetence that has been the main cause for Cage Warriors being a promotional disaster.

In comparison the good organization and efficiency of the CR team have made the contenders franchise an instant success. On the Contenders point, this is one of many examples of Cage Rage trying to reach out to the smaller orgs by offering them assistance to develop the shows by using the Cage Rage name to their benefit.

Another point to note is that Dougie regularly states that he is the friend of the fighter. Yet this is a man, who in most cases, can’t even be bothered to provide a doctor to take care of the fighters.

The most disconcerting thing I have ever observed in UK combat sports history is watching the ring announcer, just before the notorious Coventry Cage Warriors riot show , asking the audience if there was a Doctor in the house who could provide medical cover. (Please refer to the French copy of the said event for evidence to corroborate this claim).

Now let’s assume that this call was being made for a fighter who had sustained a serious injury on one of his other events. The fact that there is not normally a doctor available demonstrates that there is a clear potential at Cage Warriors events for someone to suffer serious injury or worse. I’m sure people would be taking a completely different view of Uncle Doug if the sport was being banned or god forbid they were having to bury someone from their camp because of his cost cutting negligence. Even minor MMA promotions like Cage Warriors have a duty to provide the most basic of requirements to maintain fighter safety, something that Dougie dismisses as irrelevant. I believe his reason has been that a ambulance crew is sufficient to deal with a combat sports medical emergency.

This is only one of the visible cost cutting measures that potentially puts peoples health at risk. Yet “altruistic friend of the fighter”

Dougie would have you believe that he runs a fighter first, profit second organisation.

Yeah pull the other one you devious doughnut.

Cage Warriors would also have you believe that the Cage Rage team is some kind of dark force out to dominate the world. Yet for years we have worked closely with many of the UK teams and promotions, in many cases offering support when no other assistance was available. We have done this while building a brand that has done more to promote UK fighters than any other organisation in Europe. Some of you may ask “why is it that Dougie and his gaggle of internet warriors chums are such abject failures when it comes to promoting”? My contention would be that they spend too much time on their propaganda instrument berating other promotions, when their time could be better spent promoting the event in hand.

Or perhaps it is, like Dougie would have you believe, that the dark forces of Andy and Dave are out to undermine the good and gentle folk of Internet Warriers Inc. Indeed that the Cage Rage mission statement has the sole aim of seeking the destruction of poor Uncle Dougie and his two rescued leper helpers Phillis and Dean. Come on let’s be realistic for a second! Cage Warriors can’t even compete with many of the smaller promotions in the UK, let alone us. Consequently the only comparison we make of Dougie is not about his dismal promotion against ours, but that he has a peculiar likeness to a sexually transmitted fungal disease…. thrush.

In other words he is a thoroughly irritating piece of male genitalia.

So why is it that we don’t reply when Doug or Phillis make their regular denunciations of Cage Rage? Well the answer is right before your eyes. It is because we want our show to be a success and we put all our efforts into making it so. We consign Dougie, Phillis and Kainers juvenile diatribe to the “irrelevance bin” as we have far more important things to do than bicker back and forth with a trio of numpties.

Now it’s a fair guess that Dougie will retort by saying “but we had a full house in Elephant and Castle and a full house when we promoted with Ian Freeman and Mick Nokes” “So what do they mean, abject failures?” I suppose he makes a fair point if you are ignorant to the real goings on in the MMA world. The truth, however, is that the success of these co-promotions is not down to Dougie and his underlings; it’s down to the hard work of the co-promoters. Mick Nokes, for example, is a hard working fella and was the main reason that this joint venture with Internet warriors was a success. Yet it doesn’t take the brain of a rocket scientist to guess why Dougie and co were so quickly discarded after such a brief interaction. Which leads me to ask the question, if Dougie and the Axis of incompetence were so wonderful to work with why is it that so many of their former partners have severed ties with them?

As for the Elephant and castle show, it was a certain team Elite that provided the bulk of the fighters. Indeed it was the same Team Elite fighters, and their trainer who sold the bulk of the tickets to make this particular Cage Warriors event a success.

These points like many other relevant facts will almost certainly be conveniently forgotten by the master manipulator Dougie. We also had Jeff Monson booked for one of the Cage Rage shows. I received a call from Dougie begging me to let Jeff fight on his” Night of Champions” show. After a bit of deliberating I agreed to release Jeff to help Dougie make his event a successful one. Yet did Dougie ever mention this, no?

So here it comes again, the truth and nothing but the truth. I have bent over so many times to accommodate Dougie and his Cage Warrior promotion. That I feel like a fucking arch bishop. But when someone smiles in your face, shakes your hand then sticks a knife in your back you become weary. Hence the reason for me severing contact with this duplicitous knob.

We then recently had Dougie “friend to the maimed and bereaved” promising to destroy the career of Paul Daley. A young fighter who had done nothing more than honour a contractual obligation he had made to Cage Rage some months previously. Dougie then peddled some Omerta-like nonsense about punishing Daley for reneging on his promise to fight on the Pub gangster’s next offering. And that Daley’s disrespect to “the family” would have dire consequences for his career.

Give me another fucking break, who does his Dougieness think he is, Don” I promote MMA on the side” Corlleone?

Dougie has about as much chance of damaging Daley’s meteoric rise to the top as a three legged moungrel has of winning a championship greyhound race.

The thing is that Dougie plays the “I am the kind uncle to all UK MMA fighters” card well. Though once you get to know the real man you begin to see him for the manipulative double glazing salesman that he really is. A salesman who simply has enough time on his hands to undertake a relentless smear campaign against an organisation he perceives to be his enemy. Yes he has a successful instrument with which to spout his distorted propaganda but for the most part it is full of those who don’t possess the courage to stand up and say. “hold on a minute, the ones doing most of the trolling on this site are you three silly c**ts” I am sure that if you were to analyze the past months post you would be bound to find a hundred post from one of the dastardly trio trashing Cage Rage or something to do with Cage Rage. In fact the daily disparagement of Cage Rage has now become so normal, on the Dougie Band wagon that some of the internet flunkies that hang on his every word have earnt f*cking free travel passes!

It has now got to the stage where any one of the axis of b*llocks can make an unfounded accusation and the Cage Warriors faithful will take it as gospel. The whole Dougie thing reminds me of the Story of The Emperors new clothes. Kainer, Dougie and the other cretin are forever making threads commenting on how great Cage Warriors is and how it is the show that can get you places” But were you to take an honest look at what Dougie has to offer you’d find it amounts to nothing.

Regrettably Devious Doug has managed to dupe some of the more gullible members in the MMA community into thinking there is some hidden Cage Rage agenda to seek his destruction.

I can state categorically that there is no agenda to undermine Dougies inconsequential promotional efforts and that our sole purpose is to develop the Cage Rage brand for the benefit of the UK MMA community as a whole. Of cause there will be problems with other organisations from time to time but never will you see or hear of us making threats or using underhand tactics to win an argument. We are mature enough to deal with problems in an honest and responsible way and if it doesn’t go our way then so be it.

The back biting and duplicity that originates from the IWI corner is unnecessary and unfortunate. But we simply accept that it as now just become a regular feature of their day to attack us in some way. I would only ask that people open their eyes and judge this state of affairs in an equitable way. The whole “Cage Rage are after us bollocks” smacks of resentment and jealousy on the part of Dougie and his cronies and arguing with them serves no purpose but to give them legitimacy where there is none deserved.

In conclusion please do not believe that because an accusation has not been answered it is in fact the truth. The reason for ignoring the constant calumny on Cage Warriors dot com is a far simpler one than would first come to mind. To argue against every bogus accusation made by Dougie and co would require someone to be at a PC for at least 16 hours in a day. We have neither the time nor the inclination to deal with the moronic crap promulgated by Doug and his chumps and just have to accept that for a few easily manipulated individuals the theory of a Cage Rage Evil Empire take over is a real one.

I can only hope that the sensible and more mature individuals on the UKMMA scene can see that by ignoring this type of nonsense we are merely trying to avoid the sort of squabbling that drags our sport down.

P.S. The only advice I can give to Dougie and the rest of his crew is to change the name of your group name from Cage Warriors to Internet Warriors. Perhaps then people will have a better understanding of what you lot are really about.

p.p.s. Got any balls put this as a stickey

last post sorry"

David O'Donnell

Image 1: Dave O'Donnell is pretty pissed off. CageRage.tv

Image 2: Sandwiched between Ring Girls, Cage Rage Co-Promoters Andy Greer (left) and Dave O'Donnell (right) Ringpics.com

Image 3: Left to right, Cage Warriors V.P. Andy Lillis, Cage Warriors and TUF 3 Champion Michael Bisping, Cage Warriors President Dougie Truman. RobertSwannPhotography.com

If you want to fan these flames or douse them with water,
you can have your say at CageWarriors.com