An eventfull 2011 draws to an end!
Team MMA Spirit wishes you a merry Xmas and a happy New Year!
The 31st of December will put an end to a great year which has been full of sporting achievement and another step in becoming force to be reckoned with in the European and World scene of martial arts.
We can count more than 80 bouts including more than 60 victories in the different martial arts such as Boxing, Thaiboxing, Wrestling, Grappling and of course Mixed Martial Arts- which means that we are well prepared for the upcoming challenges in 2012! This is the moment where I would like to thank Roger Knorr, Faldir Chahbari, Samir Almansouri, Sam Behnud, Timur Fidanverdi, Flavio Serafin and last but not least Gustavo Coelho for their great commitment in pushing our competitors to the limit. MMA Spirit wouldn´t be possible without your sportive but also human vision- thanks my friends!
There surely have to be three mma fighters to be mentioned who have achieved extraordinary results in 2011, starting with Daniel Weichel, Sunay Hamidov and Rafal Lewon who have wrapped up a 10-0-0 picture perfect record- with only 2 fights going to distance!
Daniel was able to win his debut on the US sports channel Showtime, while underlining his return to the US with an impressive victory, which earned him a shot at the M1 Challenge lightweight world title in November. Daniel captured the M-1 gold in the best fashion possible- knocking out former champion Jose Figueroa before the two minute mark of the first round was reached. Daniel couldn´t have chosen a better place to put himself in the limelight- as he held the feature bout of the evening next to Fedor vs. Monson in a packed arena full of more than 22.000 in the audience!
Sunay Hamidov was as impressive as ever as he captured four victories in as many fights in 2011, closing the year with a third round triangle choke submission to enter the semifinals of the M-1 Selection middleweight tournament and also having been able to claim the “Submission of the night” honors.
Rafal Lewon secured another three first round victories in 2011 and has shown that he will be one fighter to be reckoned with in the near future, as he is able establish his pure strength and wrestling abilities probably second to none in that division.
Max Coga was thereabouts to have ended the year perfectly as well, as he only lost his third fight of the year in a razor thin decision loss, which could have gone either way. He will surely be back with a vengeance. Ole Nörz started the year with a sloppy loss only to ensure that two victories were to follow later that year- congrats + thanks for helping the team out back in Astrakhan for Sunays amazing victory.
Schemsi Aktas and Marc Bockenheimer both debuted for MMA Spirit and were able to go 1-0-0 in the middle and featherweight division.
Our trainers Flavio Serafin, Faldir Chahbari and Samir Almansouri were all able to claim victories in their fights and to make the whole team proud!
One of the definite highlights was the return of the “Axe Murderer” to Germany- the MMA and Valetudo legend came to Frankfurt for a one week´s stay and two days of great seminars to celebrate the belated first anniversary of MMA Spirit deep in August. We couldn´t have gone for any better option has Wanderlei Silva truly is a great fighter and an incredible and humble person.
The seminar and festivities drew a lot of attention from great fighters such as Dennis Siver, Mairbek Taisumov, Arbi Aguev, Alan Omer and Nordin Asrih- only to name a few.
Thanks for the great time in Germany and I am sure it won´t be the last time that we will be in touch- as Wanderlei represented MMA Spirit in his last fight against Cung Le at UFC 139, which he won via KO, to earn him a victory and the “KO of the Night” bonus!
MMA Spirit is well prepared for 2012 and we can´t wait to get bigger, better and stay as humble as we used to be.
Thanks to my team at the front including Osman Secer, Thorsten Barth, Tufan Erenel, Serhan Özdamar, Jones Jonesi, Tekin Velioglu, Björn Schildknecht, Erhan Dogan, Roland Rang and anyone involved in the “Spirit”- speaking of our members who are putting in a great effort to become better sportsman and to represent MMA Spirit the best way possible- it´s you guys that make it worth the work we are putting in every day. Thanks and see you even more often in 2012!
