Valor Spectacular, 09/15/06
By Mike Lano, DDS
Wrestling/Boxing/MMA/Music Photojournalism Worldwide Since 1966
Writer/Photographer: PWI magazine family, Shukan Pro, Americana puroresu Magazines of Japan;
Contributor: USA Today, Wall Street Journal; Sports Illustrated, ESPN the Magazine, Rolling Stone, etc

I was completely blown away by my first Valor show experience last Friday at the spotless/new Cache Creek Casino Resort in Northern California.  While I've known Rick Bassman for well over a decade, and he's done my various terrestrial, cable and satellite radio wrestling/mma shows;  I've only been to his UPW wrestling and training seminars with the likes of Bas Rutten, Mark Kerr and Mark Coleman. I've been friends with Tom Howard for even longer, and accolades don't do justice to either.  Bassman garners everyone's respect repeatedly doing business in Japan (constantly studying puroresu and katatougi), promotes both pro wrestling and MMA, runs all sorts of training seminars plus has been a farm system for WWE on/off for many years.  Most of WWE's young stars have finessed in Rick's UPW and Ultimate University including WWE champ John Cena, multi-time women's champ Victoria, Sylvester Terkay, and many more. There's no one quite like Rick in our industry, accomplishing so much more than discovering "Sting" and "the Ultimate Warrior 20 years ago.

I had high expectations for last Friday night's second big Valor Fight card at Cache Creek, which rivals any of the top Vegas resorts as an overall MMA home.  But this second show blew myself, the film crew from Big Vision, and everyone else away.

Attention to every detail was placed.  The vignettes and introductory videos produced  rival anything UFC or Pride have done.  It was just a first-class operation, run effortlessly by Valor.  Cache Creek itself is thrilled with how the events have gone, each drawing so I'm told.

The highlight bouts for me were obviously the historic nature of MMA's first and only husband and wife duos of Clark Bevans (who defeated Larry Rodriquez in a crowd pleaser) and Erin Toughill (who got the decision over a very capable Jen Case).  The crowd was totally into Erin until she was nailed early on by a vicious kick to the face by Jen, who quickly grabbed their equal respect.  It was perhaps the toughest bout to date for Erin, who's mowed through all her international competition as a world-class fighter, female or male.  Her mom came into the ring and delivered a giant, Japanese puro-style flower bouquet which she held  high. And when Erin got the verdict, some of the crowd was upset since they'd not heard Jen submit.  But none of us can wait for a rematch, which will also be off the charts.   It stole the show from the equally popular main event pitting super heavyweights Ruben(his Native-American ring name is Warpath) Villareal and Mike Whitehead which Whitehead won quickly.

Many were impressed that so many local and very capable NorCal fighters were on the card, which pleasingly was culturally diverse. Rick Randolph from nearby Roseville, CA beat Richard Blake, the very popular Marcus Gaines ko'd John Pop, Travis LeBrun beat Troy Acker, Rick Cayo got the crowd going in his win over Louie Moreno, Clint Blake beat John Martinez, local superstar Sandman James Irvin blew the lid off the Creek beating Gary LaFranchi.  And of course those incredible female athletes.  Rick told me that bout would be great, but didn't say just how great!

MSNBC's film crew was in full force, covering the show as they're doing a piece on Erin and Clark.  And although I was bummed to learn Bas Rutten wouldn't be making it last minute, Dan Severn was there to watch the entire show ringside as well as accept an award for his lifetime of service in the ring from Valor.  And I believe that was MMA superstar Cung Le in the corner of Sandman Irvin!  I've shot UFC and the other top dogs. The Strikeforce huge debut show breaking all North American attendance and gate records. And quite a few small, but good shows like King of the Cage.  Few were as well-run, or enjoyable without all the backstage hysterics or commissioin problems seen so frequently.  This was just a very professional and enjoyable card with well-trained fighters.