The Warriors Cup held its first event at Madison Square Garden with a massive card featuring 21 fights with athletes that ranged from amateurs recently turned pro to the main event: a title fight for the WBC Muay Thai Nai Khanom Tom Prestige Championship between Dzmitry Varats and Kenny Carey.
The Infosys Theater was nearly filled by the time the professional fighters took to the ring, and pockets of the fighters’ families and friends from their own gyms erupted during every knockdown, head-kick and round start: waving flags, jumping out of seats and drowning out the announcer.
“It means a lot because I’ve been to Madison Square Garden before as a fighter, so being able to come here as a promoter and give everybody the platform that I had myself and now to be able to offer that platform for other athletes, because I know how much it meant to me, it really means something special.”
The next Warriors Cup event will take place on April 24 at Melrose Ballroom.
Beginning at 5:45 p.m. and ending close to midnight on March 7, the rumble in MSG was a far larger affair than the typical events held at Melrose Ballroom in Long Island City. The Infosys Theater comfortably seated the over 3,000 people that came to the inaugural MSG event. Warriors Cup, RFC Promotions and Three Pillar Promotions came a long way from holding Muay Thai cards at gymnasiums in and around Yonkers just six years ago.
Guccione, a retired Muay Thai fighter himself, relished the opportunity to display Warriors Cup talent at the legendary venue as he had and was satisfied with the performance of all the athletes. While Guccione still calls Melrose Ballroom the Warriors Cup home, but looks forward to hosting more events at MSG after the success of the inaugural event.
“It had great fights and really that’s what it’s all about at the end of the day. It’s really about the fighters: everybody pretty much went home safe and nobody had to go to the hospital. Just a couple of bumps and bruises, but that’s my main thing right at the end of the night because we don’t want anybody to get hurt severely,” Guccione said. “Everybody gets hurt, but you got highs and you got lows and that’s what it’s all about.”
Highlights included a TKO by Brendyn Smith of Cruz MMA, the Manhattan gym opened by former Bellator heavyweight champion Plinio Cruz, who coaches for another legendary MMA and kickboxing champion: Alex Pereira. Cruz, who attended to corner and support his fighter, would later take to the ring himself to give the belt to the newest champion, Janlissa “Jani” Quezada of Church Street Muay Thai.
While most fights ended via split or unanimous decision, none were dull and showed a wide variety in weight classes, techniques and strategy. The Muay Thai fight between Quezada and Rebecca Ward of Strategic Combat became one of the nights most brutal, as both fighters scored several knockdowns and an accidental headbutt drew blood from Quezada’s cheek.
The referee paused the fight and gave Ward minute of recovery time after taking another hit while already getting up after the clash, and she kept the fight competitive until the final bell of the three-round fight. Quezada won the TWC Strawweight Championship, which had been vacant, by unanimous decision. Quezada previously dawned a “Free Palestine” flag at her last victory at Melrose Ballroom, and this time displayed a new flag of the typical stars and stripes colored in with the flags of Latin American countries to show her support of immigrants.
View this post on Instagram
“I will always use my platform to redirect the attention to fights that matter more than mine; for things that matter more than me. To my immigrants, especialmente mis Latinos bello, los amo. En las palabras del conejo ‘seguimos aquí’ que sin nosotros no hay América. Con todo el amor de mi alma, que viva las Americas,” Quezada wrote on social media.
Yoniel Santana gave the crowd another highlight with a flatline KO finish against Christian Dexter of Chops n Chops MMA. Just at the start of his career, with his fight at MSG his first as a legal adult, out of 12 total fights Santana has knocked out his opponent nine times. According to Santana, the KO came when he noticed Dexter dropped his right hand a little too far when throwing punches.
A powerful left hook finished the fight in the first round.
View this post on Instagram
“[I loved] just being here, being around the crowd, because there’s been a lot of times where I was the only person fighting for my gym and that’s just sad when you’re by yourself,” Sanatana said when asked what he enjoyed most about his first fight at MSG. “But when you have a group of friends and we’re all fighting in the same stage, it means a lot. All that support, we’re all just laughing together and then it’s a show-time. You don’t even think about the time that’s passing.”
The 18-year-old fighter out of Rigaro Gym shows a lot of promise this early in his career, and even won Co-Performance of the Night for his KO victory.
Later in the evening, Varats won a decisive victory over Carey for the WBC belt, though Carey stood his ground and still had the wherewithal to dodge a series of spinning back-kicks and crescent kicks to the head. The Englishman carried the fight to a decision, ending Varats’ two fight KO/TKO win streak. Varats, originally from Belarus, celebrated the win with his friends and family in the crowd.
Not to be overshadowed by the main event, the ranked fight between Ashley Blanco and Susan Wallace as the night’s co-main event received some of the most applause from audience members. Wallace fought through a massive cut that opened on her cheek in the second round, ending the fight covered in blood and splitting the judges’ decision between her and Blanco. Blanco won the split, overturning the outcome of pair’s previous fight that took place in the amateurs, in which Wallace won by unanimous decision.
View this post on Instagram
“I wish I could properly and with my whole heart express the gratitude I felt this past weekend, but words do no justice. I’m just a girl from Paterson, who made it out, fought and won at Madison Square Garden in front of everyone I love,” Blanco wrote on social media. “I am so thankful to my coaches, teammates, all my sponsors who made this camp possible, and @warriorscup_3pp for giving me this opportunity.”
One of the officials with the sanctioning body told QNS about his experience being around the fighters behind the scenes and inspecting their wraps and gloves before stepping out into the lights. Without experience fighting himself, he emphasized the importance of safety and cited the martial artists’ mutual respect as his reason for participating in events like the Warrior Series.
“The atmosphere here is, it’s fun. The atmosphere keeps you young. I look at it as a respectful heart… to one another, it’s not like I’m going to kill you or hate you,” he said. “To get into the ring, it’s just an amazing feat in itself. Not too many people do that.”
