“I just try to look at something that I would, as a fan, want to see”

Colosseum Combat 16 XVIThis Saturday, February 19th, Colosseum Combat will put on their 16th show in Kokomo, Indiana and the main event between welterweights Ryan Thomas and Daniel Head has really been heating up.  Both fighters have stepped up the trash talk towards each other in separate interviews with CageCraze.com and there is a lot on the line with each fighter having tasted the big stage and wanting to return.

We sat down with Colosseum Combat promoter Mark Slater about the upcoming event.

This is Mark’s sixth show as the promoter and as he puts it, “it’s been crazy.”  A lot of these matches just kinda happened.  The Daniel Head/Ryan Thomas fight came together real easy when Mark got a message from Ryan Thomas’s manager saying he’d called out Daniel Head so it just made sense..

“I just try to look at something that I would as a fan want to see”, said Slater while describing his strategy for booking shows.  ”Before I was in charge of anything, I was a fan.  I was a sponsor for some of these local guys from the tattoo shop I work at.  Another buddy of mine, we had a sweet DJ and he was in charge of the music and it just kinda grew from there.  A lot of it has been stuff that I personally want to see and I know what these guys have to offer.”

When describing both main event fighters, Mark said “both Ryan and Daniel have branched out to big shows with limited success.  Ryan’s recent record is very deceiving because of the talent he’s fought.  They both have the talent to fight on the big shows and after this fight one of them will be moving on.  Daniel is a confident kid, I wouldn’t say cocky he knows what his talents are.  Him and Ryan have trained on a couple occasions back in the day at IBJAA when Ryan was coming over here to work with Clingerman.  Both of them have an idea of what the other has to offer.”

“A lot of time when you get two tough wrestlers, they negate each other and it can turn into a slugfest”, said Slater, who has high expectations of his main event.  ”I think right off the bat, there will be some fireworks.  They’ll definitely test each other’s standup and then if somebody doesn’t like that they’ll look for the takedown.  Both of them, Ryan’s been training at ATT in Florida and Daniel has a solid jiu jitsu and wrestling background.  I see this being a sprawl and brawl type of fight.”

Slater also had some nice compliments to give to his co-main event fighters, featherweight veterans Dustin Neace and David Love.

“Niece and Love both have a fight that they lost to Jeff Curran.  With that common opponent, that shows the level they’re at, both having the opportunity to fight a former champ.  Both of those guys have spent some time at IBJJA.  David Love has a lot to offer.  He’s a veteran that a lot of people don’t know of.  He fought on the Bodog Fight Series back when they were on pay per view in Costa Rica.  He’s a solid vet.  He lives like 25-30 miles from Kokomo.  People around here they respect David Love, he’s no joke.”

Before the interview was over, Mark offered one last reason to come out early for the show on Saturday night.

“We are giving free t-shirts to the first 100 people through the door.  CageCraze is on there, really nice, big and bold on the back of the shirt.  If they get there nice and early when the doors open, the first 100 fans through the door get a Colosseum Combat shirt with all the sponsors on the back.  They can strut around with CageCraze.com on their back.”

Tentative fight card

Professional Bouts:

Daniel Head vs Ryan Thomas
David Love vs Dustin Neace
Joshua Kinser vs William Miller
Mike Eikenberry vs Michael Berry
Ryan McIntosh vs Brady Hovermale
Mark Neville vs James Porter

Amateur Bouts:

Rod Cole vs Mike Walker
Drew Walters vs Dustin Conley
Matthew Perry vs Nick Anderson
Clint Maclin vs Aaron Santiago
Derek Cook vs Shawn Botoms
Jacob Hurlock vs Jordan Crider
Markous Smith vs Devin Miller
Henry Goonen vs Mike Shields