Warrior One brings Bad Blood to Montreal

I’m hoping to be cageside and tweeting the results from W-1: Bad Blood in Montreal on Saturday. This is the fourth card from the upstart Ontario-based but Quebec-held Warrior One promotion (MMA still being illegal in Canada’s biggest province, don’t forget) and I’m very curious to see how the card stacks up quality professionalism-wise. I’ve heard good things, and the promotion has signed an impressive TV deal with The Score in Canada and Fox Sports in the U.S.

Bad Blood has been a bit of a troubled card with its two biggest draws going down with injuries – both PRIDE and UFC vet Denis Kang and former UFC welterweight champ Carlos Newton had to withdraw from separate fights. But W-1 president Jack Bateman has managed to find a couple of worthy substitutes.

Former UFC fighter Jason MacDonald has stepped in to replace Kang against Vernon White in a middleweight match-up and John Alessio will fill Newton’s shoes against Chris Clements. According to Bateman, Kang is already rescheduled to fight on the promotion’s June card.

“It’s been a bit more trying than usual to put this card together due to all the injuries but that’s the nature of the sport,” Bateman admitted during a recent phone interview amid making last-minute travel arrangements for all of his fighters.

Also on the card are UFC vet Shonie Carter vs. Nabil Khatib, Antonio Carvalho vs. Eddie Fyvie, Tom Waters vs. John Fraser, Pat Healy vs. Sidney Silva, Dean Martins vs. Nordine Taleb, and Jorge Britto vs. Jonathan Mix.

Of the bunch, I’m most interested in seeing the Britto vs. Mix match-up simply because Britto, as many of you probably know, is my jiu-jitsu coach at Toronto BJJ.

A Royler Gracie and Saulo Ribeiro black belt who has trained with Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and Andre Dida, among others, Britto is coming off a 37-second demolishing of Josh Kryejto at CCF 5 just three weeks ago. Sean McManus over at Top MMA News has a nice story on Britto’s fight career, his most recent win as well as this weekend’s bout against Mix.