Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / Zack Partridge - Fierce Fighting Championship Friday night at the SLC Masonic Temple

Transcript

Zack Partridge - Fierce Fighting Championship Friday night at the SLC Masonic Temple · The Sean O'Connell Show

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: You're tuned to the Sean O'Connell Show for the Murdoch
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Chevrolet Studio of ESPN. AM Hot Lunch on the Sean
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: O'Connell Show, brought to you by my friends at Big Willie,
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: seventeen seventeen, South Maine.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: I would tell you to log in on YouTube so
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: you can see me eating the hot lunch, but it's gone.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: Whoopsie's too good, all right. Today's hot Lunch special a
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: corn beef melt. I cannot express how delicious the sandwich was.
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: I've never had one from Big Willies before. I don't
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: know if this is even a regular menu. Ite them
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: for them. It's the hot Lunch special today. Tender tender
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: corn beef, a little bit of cheese, some Royale sauce,
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: toasted sour dough, and then the side dish. Patrick and
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: Michelle threw in there because they know me so well.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: The fried cheese curds. Wow, I've already eaten it and
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: my mouth is watering thinking about it again. Head down
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: to seventeen seventeen South Maine. Tell him you heard about
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: it on the Sean O'Connell Show. They're gonna hook you
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: up with the hot Lunch special and they've got cold
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: beers on draft. If you have to go back to work,
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: so maybe no beers, no problem. They'll hook you up
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: with a drink that will make it so you can
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: finish out your workday. Fierce Fighting Championship this weekend at
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: the Masonic Temple in Salt Lake City, also pfl Action
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: this weekend. Zach Partrich changes us. He is the brains
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: behind the Fierce Fighting Championship card that has been put together.
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: Main event pro welterweight bout featuring Marco Sanchez who came
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: in and talked with us about this. I guess that
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: was last week. Zach, welcome, How are you?
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: Thank you appreciate it. I'm doing right. How are you?
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: I'm doing awesome. You got a show coming up in
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: three days. How the ticket sales gone? Could people still
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: go to Fierce Fighting Championship and get a couple of seats?
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 2:12
  Speaker 4: Absolutely. So it's just a funny thing, you know this
• 2:15
  Speaker 4: year is you're in the Utah market for a long time.
• 2:17
  Speaker 4: Utah crowd is a late buying crowd. It's a walk
• 2:20
  Speaker 4: up crowd, it is, and it's just the way it is.
• 2:23
  Speaker 4: We've had a couple of shows sell out, or we
• 2:25
  Speaker 4: had a show, our December show, we turned to about
• 2:27
  Speaker 4: fifty people away at the door that showed up just
• 2:29
  Speaker 4: thinking they're going to grab a ticket or two for
• 2:31
  Speaker 4: them or whoever, and and so that that was unfortunate.
• 2:35
  Speaker 4: But you've said it many times. The Temple is such
• 2:38
  Speaker 4: a cool venue and intimate environment, but the seating, you know,
• 2:43
  Speaker 4: only holds about a thousand people, So once tickets are gone,
• 2:45
  Speaker 4: it's gone.
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: It's it's not a big venue by any means.
• 2:48
  Speaker 4: So when we have big cards like we do this
• 2:50
  Speaker 4: Cup coming Saturday, you know, we're we're at about fifty
• 2:55
  Speaker 4: percent sold out, but we usually sell about half of
• 2:57
  Speaker 4: our tickets in the last three days. So mental math
• 3:00
  Speaker 4: would say, like, we're gonna be right there, So I
• 3:02
  Speaker 4: wouldn't wait. I would definitely take advantage of of getting
• 3:06
  Speaker 4: online and getting them early.
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: Fears Fighting Championship dot Com. This is it's gonna be
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: a fun card. Doors open a five fight start at six.
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: Is that right?
• 3:15
  Speaker 4: Yep, that's right. I mean it is a fun card.
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: I mean the reality is, if if you like watching
• 3:20
  Speaker 4: fighting going in person, they're pretty, they're they're all fun.
• 3:26
  Speaker 4: You're gonna see knockouts, you're gonna see awesome submissions and
• 3:30
  Speaker 4: the utah Im and macne is sneaky, sneaky good.
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: Uh.
• 3:35
  Speaker 4: People don't understand how lucky we are to have multiple
• 3:41
  Speaker 4: shows running year round here and we have people like
• 3:45
  Speaker 4: your coach Jeremy Horn cornering Court McGee is pretty much
• 3:51
  Speaker 4: always there, and a bunch of other guys fighting attending around.
• 3:55
  Speaker 4: You never know who you're gonna see there. It's awesome.
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: So a couple of my couple guys from my gym
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: are fighting on this card, so I got to give
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: him a shout out. Manny Cazeris is a police officer
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: here in the state of Utah and is an absolute
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: monster grappler like he is a big time problem on
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: the mats. I actually haven't sparred with him, so I
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: don't know what a striking is like. But if you
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: get on the mats with this guy, he's gonna choke
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: you out. We were talking during the break about ethan Ojuku.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: This is a kid. I say it all the time,
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: all right, and I'm not doing it to sell tickets
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: for Fierce Fighting Championship. I want it to sell out,
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: but that's that's not why I'm telling you this particular story.
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: This kid, if he sticks with it, will be at
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: the top level of the sport within probably three to
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: five years. He is that good. And you can see
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: him in an intimate environment twenty five feet away and
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: tell all your friends in those three to five years
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: when he's on a UFC card, he's on a PFL card,
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: I watched this guy fight at the Masonic Temple. It's
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: going to happen. So he's He's just the example I'm using.
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: There's probably three or four guys on the card that
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: you could say that about. It is one of the
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: best things about MMA that you can see these guys
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: before they're big. You can talk to them before they
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: become a face on your television, get down there to
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: Fierce Fighting Championship and watch the next crop of great fighters.
• 5:18
  Speaker 4: I mean, it's really interesting to me because there hasn't
• 5:20
  Speaker 4: been a ton of fighters we had this, you know,
• 5:23
  Speaker 4: when the showdown days and you were fighting yourself, a
• 5:26
  Speaker 4: bunch of others got shots on the Ultimate Fighter got
• 5:28
  Speaker 4: to the UFC bellatour now PFL, right, and they went
• 5:33
  Speaker 4: that way, and then there was there's kind of been
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: a lull for a while of guys getting through well,
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: it feels like since we've been going for the last
• 5:42
  Speaker 4: three or four years, there's a new crop of guys
• 5:45
  Speaker 4: that are starting to see the path back and there's
• 5:47
  Speaker 4: some guys with real potential here and Ethan's one of them.
• 5:51
  Speaker 4: Interesting is you know, Mike Jones are former pro middleweight
• 5:53
  Speaker 4: champ and stud uh one of the if not the top,
• 5:58
  Speaker 4: one of two or three pound for pound guys in
• 6:00
  Speaker 4: the state for sure, and he's like, he's, dude, we
• 6:05
  Speaker 4: have this amateur heavyweight And it was before Ethan did
• 6:08
  Speaker 4: his first fight, and he goes, he he's going to
• 6:11
  Speaker 4: be a giant problem. And then we were just talking
• 6:14
  Speaker 4: are both of us for Andy Bouquette, who trains at
• 6:16
  Speaker 4: the same gym. He's our commentator on the commentary team
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: at Fierce And when we were talking and he's like,
• 6:22
  Speaker 4: we're about six months away where me and Mike are
• 6:24
  Speaker 4: like sitting there going going, Okay, who's going with the next?
• 6:27
  Speaker 4: Like neither of them want to And Andy, who you
• 6:30
  Speaker 4: know trained with you gave you good rounds, you know
• 6:34
  Speaker 4: when you were at your best, you know, I mean,
• 6:36
  Speaker 4: he's going with established high level guys and they're all
• 6:40
  Speaker 4: sitting there going who wants to go with this young kid, so,
• 6:43
  Speaker 4: I mean, it hit the sky's the limit with him.
• 6:45
  Speaker 4: So I'm very excited. He's fighting somebody with a lot
• 6:48
  Speaker 4: more experience. He is quite a bit older, more experience
• 6:51
  Speaker 4: than him, and you know, it's fascinating to watch and
• 6:55
  Speaker 4: it's exciting. Like you said, I mean, these are the kids,
• 6:58
  Speaker 4: these are the fighters from you to that will the
• 7:01
  Speaker 4: next generation to put Utah in and May on the map.
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: Here's what to look for in a in match like
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: this for all of you uninitiated MMA fans. Right, You've
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: got this rising young star who's got all the unlimited
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: potential against like you just said, Zach, a guy who's
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: got a lot more experienced, older cagiar, been there, done it,
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: seen it, got hit hard a few times. Whatever does ethan?
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: Does the young guy have the gas tank to get
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: through it? When you hit the old guy hard and
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: he doesn't go away? That's what you're looking for as
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: a fan, Like all right, the next test for this
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: young dude is can he win an ugly fight? If
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: this guy's good enough to make it ugly, if you're
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: not mowing through someone because they're scared of your pecks,
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: like are you able to dig deep. So we're gonna
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: find out.
• 7:46
  Speaker 4: And what's interesting, Ethan's a real heavyweight. So just so
• 7:48
  Speaker 4: people know, Ethan is a heavyweight. He is six four
• 7:51
  Speaker 4: two forty. Uh looks like a Greek god. He has abs. Yeah,
• 7:55
  Speaker 4: like he's a real heavyweight.
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: He looks like a defensive end.
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 7:59
  Speaker 4: The reality is most heavyweights are just middleweights or light
• 8:03
  Speaker 4: heavyweights that are just fat. Right, So Ethan's a real heavyweight.
• 8:09
  Speaker 4: And and it's interesting because the guy he's fighting, Jacob
• 8:14
  Speaker 4: Smack from Idaho, he just did this to somebody else.
• 8:18
  Speaker 4: He came down on one of our other cards, fought
• 8:20
  Speaker 4: another young kid in his early twenties. Thought it was
• 8:23
  Speaker 4: going the same thing, and he came out and knocked
• 8:24
  Speaker 4: him out in the first round. From So like, I mean,
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: it's I I am interested. Everybody's really high on Ethan.
• 8:31
  Speaker 4: Jacob Smack is very into coming and being the spoiler.
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, these guys. I fought one of these guys and
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: he beat me. This is Hank Weiss, this is the
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: this is the veteran guy that you don't get him
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: out of there early. And then he pulls something out
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: of the hat you've never seen him throw a Haymaker
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: punch and he lands one and you're asleep. Like these
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: kind of guys are crafty. And there's a bunch of
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: great cards all up and down this one. It's at
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: the Masonic Temple at five PM is when the doors open.
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: Fights will begin at six. Let's see if you can't
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: get there at five or six. And you're like, I'll
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: just go for the main fights. How many fights you got?
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so we have a twelve fight card. Okay, yeah,
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: really good.
• 9:12
  Speaker 4: We have a really good night of fights and so, yeah,
• 9:14
  Speaker 4: we have a twelve fight card. I mean, fights are
• 9:16
  Speaker 4: gonna go until Nino so. And there are people, not
• 9:21
  Speaker 4: everybody's a giant MMA nerd like me, who will sit
• 9:23
  Speaker 4: down and watch twenty fights if they the Commission allowed
• 9:26
  Speaker 4: us to have that many. You know, I can't get
• 9:30
  Speaker 4: enough of it. But you know, when it's a twelve
• 9:33
  Speaker 4: fight card, some people they they'll come stroll in seven,
• 9:36
  Speaker 4: seven thirty eight and they'll still get a full couple
• 9:38
  Speaker 4: hours good seven eight fights to watch, still get to
• 9:42
  Speaker 4: see all the beautiful violence.
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: The setting is incredible at the Masonic Temple. Fierce Fighting
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: Championships is putting on a plus cards. You're you're getting
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: as much as you can out of a local regional
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: MMA promotion. They really do a good job. They bring
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: in good food vendors, drink vendors. It's it's a well
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: oiled machine. Now, So go to Feerce Fighting Championship dot Com,
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: grab your tickets. Remember to click on a fighter that
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: you think you want to see them, get some credit
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: for your ticket purchase. It can be Marco Sanchez, it
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: can be Manny Cazeris if you want to support the
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: local police department, if you want to talk about this
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: next rising star, Ethan Ojukwu. Whoever, click on that fighter,
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: give them credit for the ticket purchase before I let
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: you go, because we were talking about it, and I
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: want to get all my MMA people on record. Bellatour
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: that you just mentioned previously, they were the number two
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: MMA promotion in the country. PFL bought them, right and
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: now the pfl's talking about and considering potentially a rebrand,
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: and one of the potential rebrand names would be just
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: going back to Bellatour. I've been against it. I've heard
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: my fellow commentator Dan Hardy be pretty vocally against it.
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: There's a certain amount of heritage with Bellatore they did
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: some good things. We had some really good fighters come
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: through Bellatore. But I think it's proper places where it
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: is right now in the history books. I wanted your
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: thoughts on the potential return of Belatore as a brand.
• 11:15
  Speaker 4: I mean, for me myself, I liked the pfl's branding
• 11:18
  Speaker 4: and packaging. If I was the PFL, I think it's easier.
• 11:22
  Speaker 4: I think Bellatore is a little confusing. I think back
• 11:24
  Speaker 4: to the time that I, you know, almost ten plus
• 11:27
  Speaker 4: years ago now that I started following the sport of
• 11:30
  Speaker 4: mma and Bellatore was a little bit newer. I was
• 11:34
  Speaker 4: very confused what Bellatore was.
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: PFL.
• 11:38
  Speaker 4: The acronym thing helps a lot, kind of a tie
• 11:41
  Speaker 4: UFC acronym PFL acronym. It's good packaging. PFL does a
• 11:46
  Speaker 4: lot of cool things like in the cage with the
• 11:49
  Speaker 4: refcam and and everything like I would keep all of that.
• 11:53
  Speaker 4: I just think the PFL, I understand they want to
• 11:55
  Speaker 4: do a rebrand. I don't think they need to do
• 11:57
  Speaker 4: a rebrand. I just think that it needs to be
• 12:01
  Speaker 4: I personally liked the tournament thing, but I know a
• 12:04
  Speaker 4: lot of people didn't because they just didn't get it.
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: And I don't know why people are confused by tournaments.
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: I don't either.
• 12:09
  Speaker 4: I think it's great. I think it's great. I mean,
• 12:12
  Speaker 4: everything settled in a tournament. NFL, what is the playoffs?
• 12:15
  Speaker 4: A tournament, NCAA tournament, not March Madness tournament. We even
• 12:19
  Speaker 4: got college football on board. Tournament, right.
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: But I.
• 12:25
  Speaker 4: Love the tournament style thing, and they have the opportunity
• 12:28
  Speaker 4: to win the million or now what it's five hundred thousand,
• 12:31
  Speaker 4: which is still fantastic gat money.
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: And that was for three fights. To win the million,
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: you had to win five in six months. The five
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: hundred thousand. When we went back to that tournament, it
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: was three fights in six months. Yeah, so it made sense,
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: I guess.
• 12:44
  Speaker 4: But it's it's fun, I would be. I don't think
• 12:48
  Speaker 4: the PFL needs a rebranding. I just think it needs
• 12:51
  Speaker 4: a you know, maybe some And I like that it's
• 12:55
  Speaker 4: man and I liked that it was different than the UFC,
• 12:58
  Speaker 4: you know, the tournament like you you know, Bellator was
• 13:01
  Speaker 4: always kind of just number two to the UFC, and
• 13:03
  Speaker 4: everybody knew it was the little brother and it didn't
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: matter if Rory McDonald or whoever left the Gay Guard
• 13:09
  Speaker 4: Mussaci All these great guys left the UFC and went there,
• 13:13
  Speaker 4: they were still the little brother and if you go
• 13:15
  Speaker 4: back to that rebranding, you clearly defined where PFL like
• 13:19
  Speaker 4: there was some legitimate and you know, by the way,
• 13:22
  Speaker 4: I think the UFC is there's a They're in a
• 13:24
  Speaker 4: little bit of trouble right They're.
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: Creating some opportunities for creating opportunities.
• 13:28
  Speaker 4: So I think this is the time for PFL to
• 13:30
  Speaker 4: double down on what they are and and go try
• 13:34
  Speaker 4: and steal some of that market share and get some
• 13:36
  Speaker 4: of that top tier talent, because what the UFC doing
• 13:39
  Speaker 4: is doing right now, it's it's really not working. They
• 13:43
  Speaker 4: have a pay per view event. I don't know if
• 13:44
  Speaker 4: you've seen this, they have a pay per view event
• 13:46
  Speaker 4: this weekend UFC does. The stadium's about fifty percent sold out.
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: And by the way, they.
• 13:53
  Speaker 4: They've been selling out everything since COVID on numbered events.
• 13:59
  Speaker 4: Interesting and their ticket sales are about fifty percent of
• 14:02
  Speaker 4: that stadium's full like there, and there's a lot of
• 14:07
  Speaker 4: people aren't happy with Dana UFC stuff. There's a lot
• 14:10
  Speaker 4: of backlash going at the PFL right now, from the
• 14:13
  Speaker 4: casual fans and from the diehards like PFL has a
• 14:17
  Speaker 4: real opportunity or somebody at least they.
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: Could not agree more. James clip that we're gonna send
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: it to my bosses at the PFL. Fiers Fighting Championship
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: dot com. Get your tickets for this weekend at the
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: Masonic Temple. Doors open at five, fights start at six.
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: Telemosse he sent.
• 14:33
  Speaker 4: You message us at Fierce Fighting Championship on Instagram. Go
• 14:37
  Speaker 4: on to your Instagram follow Fierce Fighting Championship. Message me
• 14:41
  Speaker 4: that you heard us, you heard me on the on
• 14:43
  Speaker 4: the OC Show, and we I will send the first
• 14:47
  Speaker 4: three people that message us a pair of tickets.
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: There you go, grab yourself some free tickets and if
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: you don't get the free ones, buy them anyway. You're
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: gonna want to see these fights. Zach, thanks for coming in.
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: Thank you,