For immediate release, March 5 2010:
SuckerPunch Entertainment, an MMA Management company has signed 5 new athletes to is stable of professional mixed martial arts fighters.

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Ron “Abongo” Humphries | StrikeForce
Pro Record 5-1-0
Freestyle Fighter
Out of Atlanta, GA
Next fight: StrikeForce Challengers, March 26th

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Warren Thompson | The Ultimate Fighter season 11
Pro Record 5-0-0
Muay Thai/BJJ
Out of Atlanta, GA
Next fight: Sport Fight X (Red Line Grand Prix) March 26th

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Brent Weedman
Pro Record 16-5-1
Karate/Muay Thai/Judo/BJJ
Out of Louisville, KY
Next fight: N/A

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Dhiego Lima
Pro Record 1-0-0
BJJ/Muay Thai
Out of Atlanta, GA
Next fight: Sport Fight X (Red Line Grand Prix) March 26th

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Eric Kriegermeier
Pro Record 1-0-0
BJJ/Boxer
Out of Chicago, IL
Next fight: N/A

What can we say about Bart? If you don’t know Bart Palaszewski, your impression of him might be that he is a rough, tatted up, red headed wild man. If you google him you will see fight after fight and war after war… a guy like this has got to be a jerk right?

The truth is Bart is a promoter’s best kept secret. He is one of the nicest, funniest characters in the sport and will step up and fight anyone at a moment’s notice.

Bart has been fighting since the age of 18 and now at the ripe old age of 26 he is considered a veteran and an underdog rather than a young, improving contender in the sport. Bart knows all about being the underdog and even being bullied. After all, he got involved in training after getting beat up in school by a kid who trained in Mixed Martial Arts. Ironically, Bart was bullied by a student that trained with Jeff Curran at the time so he decided to go to the source and seek training himself. For Bart to show up at the the bully’s school definitely took some brass. Bart showed great potential and Curran took him under his wing. Outside of Curran, it wasn’t long before Bart became the top fighter in the gym. As for the student that that bullied him, well he mysteriously stopped showing up for classes.

Bart’s successes lead him to a shot in the now defunct IFL where he made a name for himself by being involved in some of the promotion’s most historic wars and cementing his name as a KO artist. However, few people know that he is a very talented BJJ brown belt which often goes unnoticed because of his KO ratio.

After the IFL Palaszewski exploded into the WEC with a KO over Alex Karalexis but then took back to back losses to last minute replacements Ricardo Lamas and Anthony Nyojukwani. With his WEC career on the line Bart was asked to fight the undefeated phenom, Anthony Pettis. “It was a big risk taking that fight with Pettis because I really wasn’t able to put in a proper camp due to an injury that only allowed me to jog and hit pads 3 days a week” said Palaszewski, “but I don’t like to complain about injuries because we all have them all the time”.

On March 6th Palaszewski will face Karen Darabedyan and there have been rumblings that a win over Bart puts Darabedyan in the hunt for a title fight. This frustrates coach and friend Jeff Curran, “Anyone that thinks Bart has peaked or has reached his potential is out of their mind. He isn’t a Gatekeeper of the LW division, he is a top contender and deserves respect.”

Matt “Meat” Mitrione announced today that he will enter his training camp for his next fight at legendary striking coach Duke Roufus’s gym in Milwaukee, WI. Roufus has built a successful camp that boasts fighters such as Pat Barry, Eric Schafer, Alan Belcher, Anthony Pettis, Eric Koch, Ben Rothwell and Razak Al-Hassan to name a few.

“I have been looking for a camp that can develop my natural skill sets and my manager Brian suggested coach Roufus as an option because of the size and type of guys he has out there”, said Mitrion, “I have heard nothing but good things about coach Roufus so trust me when I tell you, I’ll be ready for my next fight.”

With a such a high quality collection of Heavy and Light Heavyweights at Rufus’ gym Mitrione will be able to work with fighters such as Rothwell, BJJ black belt Eric Schafer and possibly the best striker in the UFC’s heavyweight division in Pat “HD” Barry, giving Mitrione an opportunity to evolve into a legit contender. “I like Matt and I think he got a bad rap on the show” said Duke, referring to Mitrione’s stint on TUF10. “I think this man can fight and he’ll be a great addition to the group we have here.” Duke also goes on to say, “We have a very good camp especially for big guys in MMA and we are looking forward to Matt getting in here.”

Mitrione has made it clear that he has set his sights to finish his next fight in an explosive manner and making the move to train with other elite heavyweights is a major step towards that goal.

Shortly after celebrating the victory of his younger brother Freddy Assuncao at the Virginia based promotion RIE (Respect Is Earned), Junior sat back to watch the remaining bouts on what turned out to be a very competitive card. “I got really frustrated when I saw my friend lose in the main event to local fighter Beau Baker. No disrespect to Beau but I just kept hearing the crowd go crazy for him and I kept seeing things that my friend wasn’t executing made me want to get in there!”, said Assuncao.

Following that fight the promoter, Jon Price, entered the cage to make some announcements, one of which was a challenge thrown down for Junior to fight the local hero in an upcoming show. Beau’s manager, Rick McCoy and Juniors manager Brian Butler agreed to let this fight happen if the promoter could put it together in a timely manner.

The crowd went crazy when their local hero accepted the challenge with the 3X UFC veteran by squaring up with Junior in the center of the cage. “I’ll fight anybody but right now, I feel like I am at at the best I have ever been.” said Junior. “Beau and his brother Kyle are very tough prospects in this sport and this would be a good fight!” said Butler, “Let’s see if they can make it happen.”

Although not happy with his performance Saturday night, Jason David Frank (former Green Power Ranger) came away with a win against Jonathon Mack in his much anticipated MMA debut. “I got caught up in his trash talk and played into his game” said JDF, “I’m usually very aggressive but I dropped my hands a bit when I got sucked into his game and he caught me with a good shot to the chin”. Frank went on to say, “I felt my legs get wobbly and I kept thinking to myself, I can’t go down, I can’t go down”. A hesitant Mack went in for the kill just as JDF was able to get his faculties together and the fight went to the ground. “I know I’m known for my striking but I was very comfortable when I got to the ground, I went for an armbar but ended up getting the omoplata”, said JDF, “I’ll do much better next time I promise”.

When asked what he will do differently next time he fights JDF added, “I will stick to the game plan, also my manager and coaches are on my case now about me signing autographs nearly all the way up to my fight on Saturday. They are not letting me do that again until the fight is over… I just never want to disappoint any of my fans, they mean the world to me and have been by my side for years.”

Regardless if you are a fan or a hater you have to give credit where credit is due. This man put himself way out on the line by promoting this fight on a national level, and stepping into a cage with a bigger opponent in a sport where anything can happen. The pressures of knowing you have life long fans who view you as a childhood hero, to having the ultimate haters wanting to see “the Power Ranger” get his rear handed to him, Mr. Frank stepped up and got the job done.

Jason returns to the cage February 19th. Stay tuned for more details and be sure to become a fan of the JDF Facebook Fan Page and SuckerPunch Fan Page