Mark Cherico MMAJunkie: Fight Path

Mark Cherico (4-0), one half of our PinnacleFC main event, was a feature story on MMAJunkie.com, a nationally recognized and read website.

The fight path series details a fighter's journey from their lives before finding MMA leading all the way up to their latest showdown, in this case UFC vet Donny Walker at the Pittsburgh Challenge Series 3. 

This is a very well done spot and worth the read but below are some highlights:

Mark talks about the loss of his father and how he found out about MMA:

Granted, he had experienced a difficult period in his life with some poor decisions, but that only came after losing his father to colon cancer when he was in the sixth grade. By the time he was in his early 20s, he got another dose of that unconditional support, and it came at the right time.
"Right after high school, I was working at a Giant Eagle as a prep cook, and I thought I would end up doing culinary arts," Cherico told MMAjunke.com(www.mmajunkie.com). "I got off work one day, and my neighbor was coming out of his truck with a big bag of gear.
"I asked him what it was for, for boxing or something? He said he trained mixed martial arts. I knew about it, and I thought it sounded like it would be good to try. He said, 'OK, I'll meet you in your garage in an hour.'"

Alot of guys don't start off planning on being world champions, Mark didn't either, at least early on:

When Cherico started his interest in MMA, the sport was still unsanctioned in Pennsylvania, which muted its community in the state.
Seeing his passion and his early skill, Cherico's neighbor recommended a trainer in the area. After a few months, on a break from drills, the trainer mentioned to Cherico that he couldn't wait to see him in a fight for real.
"I had never really thought about it before that," he said. "I was just training because I loved the training."
He started with a grappling tournament (which he won in a division more advanced than his level) and even a boxing match after beginning his training with a boxing coach. He was committed to the sport, knowing it was likely his future.

Check out the full article here.

Mark Cherico MMAmadhouse Interview: Podcast

Mark "The Pride Of Bloomfield" Cherico (4-0) was recently on the MMAmadhouse podcast (28:00 min mark) talking about the amateur rule changes, his fight with Donny Walker and his training camp preparation.

It's definitely worth a listen and Mark hits some funny, controversial points including his fallout with the NAAFS and some wins over previous opponents.   

Mark is set to take on his toughest fight to date in UFC Donny Walker June 29th for the PinnacleFC Pittsburgh Challenge Series 3 event.  Reserve your tickets here or buy them directly from Mark and help him pay for some baby clothes and formula.

    Roy Nelson Vs. Stipe Miocic Scheduled for UFC 161 PPV:

Set your phasers to pumped and your faces to holy shit. 

Strongstyle product Stipe Miocic (9-1) is now scheduled to take on "Big Country" Roy Nelson (19-7) at UFC 161.   Nelson has posted 3 stoppage wins in his last 3 outings including a KO win over Cheick Kongo less than a month ago.   Stipe had posted 2 impressive finishes before getting stopped by dutch tallman Stefan Struve and has a great chance here to improve his standings and popularity with a win over Nelson.

The game plan for Stipe should be fairly straight forward here, stay busy, avoid the right hand at all costs and don't expect a KO. On the floor Nelson is very slick and surprisingly agile for, well.. a "fat" guy, so keep him on his back.  Either way, this is a great fight for Stipe's career and hopefully ha can take full advantage of it.

Check back for more as it is released. 

PinnacleFC Pittsburgh Challenge Series III: Card Is Shaping Up

PinnacleFC's June 29th event is shaping up to be one of the area's best, ever.  Dave Klick and Joe Demore have done an outstanding job of putting this one together.  Matchmaking is the life blood of solid promotions and I am happy to say that I have two of the best in this business working for Pinnacle so we can continue to bring to you the best cage fighting in the area.  Here is a the card and a look at the match ups so far.

Professional Line Up

Mark Cherico vs Donny Walker

• Mark Cherico (4-0) taking on Donny Walker (14-9) is possibly the biggest main event that has happened in this region ever and honestly I'm a little worried we won't be able to top it moving forward.   For the first time in his career, Cherico is the underdog in a fight.   Walker has more experience, faced better competition and has fought on the biggest shows in the world.  Nothing is a given here and it will be interesting to se how "The Pride" measures up against Zuffa approved talent.                                                        

Khama Worthy vs Francis Healy

• In our Co-main event, Francis “Maddog” Healy (1-0) will step up to arguably his stiffest test to date against the rugged and always entertaining Khama “The Deathstar” Worthy (2-2).  This is one of those fights that people will be checking for the results of moments after it happens.  Everyone has their opinion on who is going to win and both men think it’s going to be them.  The style matchup is perfectly designed for violence with a little shock and awe added in.  Not to mention both camps are stirred up over the recent back and forths on Facebook, this could easily be the fight of the night. 

Check out the rest after the jump:

            Kumite Classic This Weekend: May 24th-25th

It's about that time again, the weather is getting hotter, the days are longer and that can mean only one thing; It's time for the 14th annual Kumite Classic.   The Kumite is one of my favorite events of the year and with good reason, they have been a consistent staple of the combat community for years.  

It's been around as long as I have been in this game and wait for it, yes I have won this competition in the past. You knew I was going to crow bar in that last part huh? 

Anyhow, the event runs Friday to Saturday at the Monroeville Convention Center and is an awesome chance to see local BJJ'ers jiu-jitsu one another (technical term) in both Gi and NO-Gi competition.  Check out the website for more details: Kumiteclassic.com

Maddog Gym To Humes, You Lose To Goyette In May, You Lose The Shot At Fadi In June

Things have been heating up in our crosstown scrap between Maddog gym and professional juggernaut Fight Club Pittsburgh.  It was recently released that Philly Chris AKA Chris Humes is scheduled to face off against Joe Goyette next weekend at the Big Bully MMA event in East Liverpool, even though he is already contracted to fight Fadi Shuman in June for the PinnacleFC title. 

Some promotions would probably raise issue with this type of decision but here at PinnacleFC, we approach the game with a "fighter first mentality".  We aren't going to tell you who or where you can fight (or can't), because just like every other show in this region, we are a small entity and frankly, that shit is wack. 

That doesn't mean that Bedo Jones, lead shotcaller for the Maddoggym roughnecks, didn't have his own input on the situation.  Jones said flat out, "If Humes loses, we want a knew opponent because a loss in May does us no good in June".

Check out his actual response after the jump: