Prospect Thread

Doesn't Wallhead train in the Leicester Shootfighters gym?? Or has he moved?? I've grappled with him!

i dont know where he trains Anfield.

how good of a grappler is he? i know you have alot of judo experience and obviously so does he.

I have been doing judo for a couple of months only but i grappled with a guy who said it was only his first time doing judo so i thought "ok then".

he threw me around like a ragdoll!

it turned out trained greco roman wrestling for years, is a bjj brown belt and is an mma fighter who was in cage rage!

I think Wallhead is with Rough House in Nottingham (Dan Hardy, Paul Daley etc). But Leicester Shootfighters probably work with them regularly. I know Nathan Leverton is Hardy's UK BJJ coach.

He probably does train there now. I met him about 5 years ago at a Judo convention in Brighton. He was definitely with Leicester then but has probably moved on as a lot of fighters developed there do.


As for his grappling. He was strong for his size and pretty quick but as with most English trained Judoka his technique was a bit sloppy and his timing was poor. The problem with Judo in England is, was and always has been poor weight distibution and too much of the mentality that brute force and ignorance will make up for ability. It may have been that he'd adapted his Judo too much for MMA, i'm not sure. You could tell it was more the way he'd been trained than a lack of ability though. On the ground he was much better. Good control, good movement, strong legs and knew how to transition and fake transition.

Seemed a nice guy from what i can remember.

Tyron Woodley submitted Rudy Bears on Strikeforce Challengers last night taking him to 6-0 (6 sub wins). Pat Miletich proclaimed Woodley "the best athlete in the sport" after the fight.

Thanks Moose, I've updated Woodley's profile, high praise from Miletich!

Also thanks to Anfield and KJGould, I added Jim Wallhead.

Scary-ass 185lb Eduardo Pamplona in action on December 12th against Tommy Speer.

Adding another category for prospects that don't fit into the other categories:

Name: Gustavo Falciroli (Australia)
Weight: 143lbs
Record: 9-2-2
Team: Mach 1
Signed to: Shooto/CFC - defeated Richard Vaculik by UD 12/03/2010
Background:

Name: Xavier Lucas (South Africa)
Weight: 167lbs
Record: 7-1-1
Team: Mach 1
Signed to: Shooto (last defeated Japanese prospect and Shooto Rookie Champion Akihiro Yamazaki)
Background: Boxing

Name: Hector Lombard (Cuba/Australia)
Weight: 185lbs
Record: 26-2-1
Team: ATT
Signed to: Bellator - destroyed Jay Silva at Bellator 18
Background: Former Olympic Judo competitor, only losses to Gono and Mousasi.

Name: Ivan Iberico (Peru)
Weight: 155lbs
Record: 12-2-0
Team: Escuela Pitbull
Signed to: Jungle Fight - Lost a UD to Rodrigo Damm 27/03/2010
Background: Freestyle wrestling, former member of Peru's olympic team

Another lame self-bump. Issei Tamura improves his record to 5-0 after beating fellow prospect Gustavo Falciroli by decision in Shooto today.

Also added a bunch of light heavyweights: Besike Gerinava (Russia), Dong Yi Yang (Korea), Tony Lopez (USA) and Christian M'Pumbu (France). Also lightweight Charles Oliveira (Brazil).

Ngoo Ditty should go in here definetely a good prospect

Bump.

What about this Roger Bowling guy?

170lb'er

Currently 6-0 with all of his fights finished inside the first round.

Training with Vision MMA in Cincinnati, was 9-0 as a boxer.

Signed for Strikeforce recently, and big things expected, from what I hear. He has been plagued with hand injuries though (having to pull out of two fights at least).

Expecting great things from Ben Askern and Phil Davis (fantastic nickname of Mr Wonderful), both were exceptional amateur wrestlers.

this guy is awesome:

Name: Magomed Shikhshabekov (Russia)
Weight: 170
Record: 6-0-0 (fight finder) 11-0-0(m1 states this is his record)
Team: Legion fight team
Signed to: M1 - on fight finder all of his 6 fights are for m1
Background: Sambo

http://www.sherdog.com/fighter/Magomed-Shikhshabekov-40949

all round 1 stoppages, 3/6 inside a minute.

you have Gerinava on here who isnt half the fighter this guy is.

this guy could be huge i am telling you, his last fight submitted a BJJ black belt in 2 minutes.

A welterweight Fedor!

Anyone got videos?

http://www.megavideo.com/?v=SFQVY4FO

opponent is bjj blackbelt ^(sorry for lack of english)




another fight (with english) starts at 13.00*

vs a can but that team turkey for you!

http://www.megavideo.com/?v=R3MXXBJ1

*just watching the start of that vid, noticed the japanese guy crocop beat in dream was competing for team japan last year.



he looks more like arlovski though!

Cheers for those mate. He really looks like a massive talent. Weighed 162 for the first fight, and 166 for the second if he could make 155 he'd be a beast at that weight.

Great Judo trip in the first fight to take it to the floor. Triangle attempt was sloppy but really cranked the armbar.

Second fight was Lesnar-esque! haha!

Ian Freeman is a decent ring announcer!

Scary guy, any ideas when he's fighting next?

hendos_right_hook wrote:Scary guy, any ideas when he's fighting next?

from Vadim Finkelstein....

"There are no contradictions from our part, Fedor already started training for a fight on 26th of June in San Jose. We made an agreement that some of M-1 fighters can also participate in event. I hope that that will be one of the best russian fighters Magomed Shikshabekov."

Just an update/bump. Added Canadian prospect Claude Patrick, Brazilian prodigy Eduardo Dantas, DEEP LHW Champ Yoshiyuki Nakanishi, guillotine addicted featherweight Cody Mckenzie and Korean mystery man Dong Yi Yang rejoins after it emerges he's dropping to 185lbs and finally fighting again. Updated all fighter profiles, sorry it's been a while!

Sunthunder, Want me to see if I can Sticky this thread and keep it at the top cause it seems one to keep updated?

Sure that'd be great ben. I'll update it more, can post in it when there's an event some of these fighters are appearing in. A lot of these guys fight in Bellator/WEC or are generally heading toward bigger promotions, so it might be worth keeping closer tabs on them.

No probs mate, Ive not really noticed it but gotta keep an eye on a few of these guys.

sunthunder wrote:Name: Jimi Manuwa
Weight: 205lbs
Record: 8-0-0
Team: Semtex MMA
Signed to: Ultimate Challenge UK (defeated Reza Mahadavian at UCMMA on 8th of May)
Background: Boxing, BJJ at Nova Forca under Ricardo Da Silva, Muay Thai at Keddle's Gym.
(Paolo_73)

I just watched the fight against Mahadavian on Skysports. Manuwa looked a different class from his opponent, however he looked fairly awful so I'm not too sure how much to read into that.

There was a monster in the main event... some guy called Neil 'Goliath' Grove. Could be one to keep an eye out for?

Thanks for bringing Grove up Moose, but I think at 39, Grove would have to do something pretty special to become significant.

BAMMA 3 on Saturday features two top European prospects, Joachim Hansens team mate Simeon Thoresen, and German featherweight Alan Omer, two very talented young fighters.

I've never realised Grove was 39!

Here are a few you could consider. John Hathaway (12-0) or would you already count him as established? Joe Soto (8-0) the Bellator FW champion is the other one, only 23 but looks very impressive.

ChelseaQuinsfan wrote:I've never realised Grove was 39!

Here are a few you could consider. John Hathaway (12-0) or would you already count him as established? Joe Soto (8-0) the Bellator FW champion is the other one, only 23 but looks very impressive.

Yeah, I think I'd consider John Hathaway established now, people know about him. Same reason I don't have guys like Bones Jones or King Mo in there, although obviously not comparing Hathaway with those two.

Soto's a good call, I'll add him, thanks!