Central PA Warrior Challenge 12: Explosive

The Central Pennsylvania Warrior Challenge 12 took place last night, with me doing the honors as ring announcer, and all I can say is Wow!  Two amateur titles changed hands with Brett Martinez taking the Lightweight crown from Colin Sharpe, and Jordan Morales taking the featherweight belt from  Rome Dingle.  Both fights were closely contested battles which had the crowd on its feet.

In the professional bouts, Shane "In Ya Face" Shane Chonjnacki lived up to his nickname, getting all up in Juan Vazquez's grill and earning the victory and admiration of the fans in attendance.  Tenyeh Dixsos, aka the Skinny Man, also looked great against the very tough Brazilian fighter Diego Peclat.  Tenyeh dominated the fight on the ground and landed some brutal strikes enroute to a unanimous decision victory.

The main event featured Darnell "Showtime" Hayes vs. Bill "The Manheim Strangler" Bookwalter in a brual war that resulted in a split decision win for Bookwalter.   Hayes dominated the stand up, but Bookwalter was able to get the takedown numerous times and controlled the action on the ground for the first two rounds.  In the third, Hayes really poured it on, totally busting up Bookwalter's face.  Bookwalter showed his toughness by hanging in there, however, and getting the win.

The show is going to be broadcast on United Fight Nation at Fox Sports, hosted by Jay Adams.  Jay was commentating along with MMA legend and UFC Hall of Famer Dan "The Beast" Severn.  It was great introducing Dan to the crown, and I took the opportunity to interview him afterwards, which I will be posting here soon.

Promoter Mark Jovich put on a great show last night, and I had a fantastic time working the event.  Pennsylvania is doing some big thing in MMA, and it was a pleasure working with all the officials there.  PASAC Executive Greg Sirb runs a tight ship and the show came off without a hitch.  Definitely looking forward to Warrior Challenge 13 in September.