I wanted to get down some of my impression of the Central Pennsylvania Warrior Challenge III, held last Friday in Lancaster, so here goes ...
I've known promoter Mark Jovich for about 2 1/2 years, pretty much ever since I started this blog. The man is top-notch - a Marine for more than a quarter-century, former military instructor at Dallastown High School, father, husband and of course, martial arts master at Central Pennsylvania Martial Arts Academy in New Cumberland.
Mark's no fly-by-nighter, no "one-and-done" promoter; he's here to stay and to build on what he has constructed so far: quality events, the most bang for the buck, while gving young fighters the chance to realize their dreams.
So, as usual, the event went off without a hitch. Mark's military influence was evident as a color guard was present during the National Anthem. In fact, many of Mark's former students at one time were members of his fight team.
It seems as though most of the events in this state - and probably all others where the sport is legal - have last-minute changes. Sure, there were two fights dropped, but that left 15 others. The other factor to a tight ship is the state's Athletic Commission Executive Director Greg Sirb, who, although I don't believe he served in the military, would've done well there.
It was good to meet some of the people who are regulars at the fights, like judge Brent Colflesh, mmaopinion's Brandt DeLorenzo and mmamelee.com's Joe Piazza. I also ran into purefight.org's Mark Bader, who took great footage of the fights, plus post-fight interviews. Marc Slomske of Next Legend Fightwear, Larry Novak of Tattoo Fightwear and Jerod Phillips of Tap or Sleep Fightwear were all there.
There were several amateur fighters back from past CPWC appearances, like Josh Aarons, John Andel, Ray Eltringham, Dustin "Class Act" Keener, Brett Myers, Justin Krebs, John Flock, Duane Bastress, Josh Kessler, Rob HaleyMike Oberdick, and John Tuxford. Then, we had returning pros liek Biff Walizer, Jay Haas, and new pro Justin Scott.
How about the new guys like Keith Kowal and Tom Anderton and two guys who probably made the biggest explosions that night - Chad Hoar and Robert Eno.
Attendence at the event was good - probably somewhere between 1,500 and 2,000 - and as Jovich builds a following, I'm sure the fans will soon pack that place. So, stay tuned, 'cause Jovich is cookin' up another good one in Lancaster for February.
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