SFS 6 A Big Night For Chatham-Kent Fighters
Chatham-Kent fighters will be front and center when The Score Fighting Series 6 hits the RBC Center in Sarnia on Friday night. The fight card is stacked in Score fashion wth headliner, London’s own Chris The Polish Hammer Horodecki facing off against Brad Cardinal.
Chatham Kent pro brawler Jesse The Ghost Gross (6-3) will make his long awaited return to the cage as he faces Seiji Sugiman Marangos (5-1) in a welterweight battle. Gross is a dangerous puncher who has been working hard at rounding out his game,but he has faced tough competition very early in his career. Gross burst out of the gate going undefeated in his first six pro fights with every one ending in a TKO.
Bad luck then halted his run with a controversial stoppage loss to SFS 6 main event fighter Brad Cardinal. Things only got worse from there as Gross was outmatched in a fight with Alexandre Bezerra at Bellator 47. He was then matched up against Michigan beast Daron Cruickshank. Gross is young and has plenty of time to turn his fortunes around. This is a very big fight for him. Seiji fights out o Winnipeg and has two knockouts and two submission wins on his resume. Gross’ friend and mentor, Chatham’s own UFC veteran fighter Chris Clements recently stated that Gross was doing all the right things and especially training jiu jitsu hard.
Two other Chatham Kent fighters will be making their professional debut’s on the preliminary card of the event as Chatham’s Tyler The Terminator Kirk will debut in a very tough and intriguing match up against Adrenaline fighter Malcolm Gordon. Gordon is a slick and quick submission wizard, but Kirk is no slouch on the ground. I give a slight edge on the feet to Kirk, and he may want to keep it standing as much as he can. This one has fight of the night written all over it. Kirk holds an amateur title in Michigan, and will be looking to make a big debut.
The other CK fighter making his debut is Tilbury tough guy and amateur champion Jo Petahtagoose. The 7-3 amateur out of formerly out of Hard Knocks in Tilbury and now under head coach, Gracie Barra owner and instructor Thomas Armstrong. Jo will be facing off against Kyle Nelson in his Score debut.and he knows the cage he is about to step into more than he knows his opponent.
“Obviously I’ve watched The Score a little bit for sure. I really don’t know too much about him but I know he’s a kickboxer but I haven’t really studied up too much on him. I rely on my coaches to direct me so.” he said via phone this week.
Petahtagoose trains in Chatham under jiu jitsu trainer and certified Gracie Barra instructor Thomas Armstrong. The full time fighter also travels to Leamington for sessions with his boxing coach. I asked him about his kicking game and had that covered too.
“I went and trained Muay Thai in Thailand for two months.” he stated. He is willing and ready to take the fight wherever it may go.
“I just train for everything and i prefer standing but you can’t bank 100% that the fight is going to stay there.”
Kirk will be up before him, and Gross after and he had a surprising response when I asked him if he knew or followed Jesse Gross.
“Yeah I one point I think I was supposed to fight him but it never happened.”
You can tell that Jo enjoys what he does and he has a smart approach to his future in combat sports. I asked him if he does this full time now and if he would like to make The Score his home.
“Yeah. I’m full time and any opportunity that comes my way I just try to capitalize on it. Just try to jump on anything, I’ll fight anywhere.”
It starts on Friday night.