Flawless Fighting Championship advertises feeding into Sengoku, first show this weekend

Will Dicke

Sengoku haven’t held a show since December 30th, 2010 but according to startup promotion Flawless Fighting Championship (FFC) the Chicago-based organization is “the only feeder show for the newly formed Sengoku Global Organization” which will be holding shows in the US market.  FFC 1 takes place August 4th at the UIC Forum in Chicago, IL, no information is available on distribution.

In the main event two experienced if relatively unknown fighters square off as Will Dicke faces Egidijus Valavicius.  Dicke is on a five-win streak starting in April 2011 in regional shows most recently defeating Jesse Lund in Midwest Cage Championships bringing his overall record to 12-5.  Also on a five-win streak Valavicius is making his US debut with his last three fights of his 23-9 record coming in his native Lithuania, most recently Krzysztof Morzyszek last November.  Both have more KO/TKO wins than submissions but both are familiar with the ground making this an interesting fight from a scouting perspective, just surprising as a main event considering they are both known only in their regions.

By contrast a UFC vet and a former WEC champion are further down the card.

Seven-time UFC vet Jake O’Brien returns after two years out of the cage as he takes on Miodrag Petkovic.  O’Brien went 4-3 in the UFC however those three losses were to Cndrei Arlovski, Cain Velasquez, and Jon Jones.  O’Brien’s last fight was a bit of a disappointment as Gegard Mousasi found a guillotine choke in just 0:31 however that loss and the three in the UFC are O’Brien’s only losses in his 13-4 record, basically making O’Brien one so far who loses to champions but nobody else, hopefully that has changed in the past two years.  At 32-18-1 Serbia’s Petkovic is the most experienced fighter on the card, the problem from a marketing perspective is he was on a five-fight losing streak before defeating Mike Marrello by decision in Petkovic’s most recent fight.

Chase BeebeFormer WEC champion Chase Beebe is further down the card as he takes on Charles Diaz.  Beebe was making a good comeback in 2011 until he lost a split decision to Marcos Galvao in BFC 51, a fight Beebe followed up with two wins and a draw most recently defeating Mike Baskis in XFO by unanimous decision.  At 11-5 Diaz has about half the experience as 20-8-1 Beebe however he won his last seven including Pat Curran by split decision in Diaz’s most recent fight.  The real factor in this fight may be ring rust as Diaz hasn’t fought in almost three years, the Curran win being in June 2009.

The angle of relative unknowns fighting basically a “USA vs. EU” theme continues with the co-main event as Macedonia’s Oliver Petrovski tries to improve his 1-1 record against XFO and ROC vet Adam Ward, a 7-3 fighter from Chicago coming off a win over Danny Rodriguez last December.

Overall this card looks interesting from an international angle and is impressive for a first-time promotion, the issue being if this show feeds into the “new” Sengoku how fans outside the area will be able to see the show.

FFC 1 card:

Maria Messer vs.Lisa McCallam
WW: Belal Muhammad vs.Joey Angelo
BW: Giovanni Moljo vs.Larry DiGiulio
WW: Ryan Dickson vs.Jason Graves
LW: Cedric Marks vs.Will Brooks
HW: Ed Carpenter vs.Maurice Green
LHW: Shunsuke Inoue vs.Eric Hammerich
WW: Shamar Bailey vs.Jay Buck
FW: Chase Beebe vs.Charles Diaz
HW: Jake O’Brien vs.Miodrag Petkovic
Catchweight: Adam Ward vs.Oliver Petrovski
LHW: Will Dicke vs.Egidijus Valavicius