This marks the first time that a promotion from our list of The Top Ten MMA Organizations That We Really, Really, Really Miss A Lot has been resurrected from the MMA afterlife and returned back on the scene to denote a coming eschatological apocalypse on our planet, Jesus Christ style.
Caged Fury Fighting Championship otherwise known as ‘that organization where you can see that Youtube guy fight’. Before there was EliteXC and The Ultimate Fighter: Season 10; CFFC was the first promotion to extend an invitation to Kimbo Slice when he was still taking out neighborhood bullies in the backyards of Florida. Back when his old high school frend “Icey Mike” was holding a camcorder screaming ‘Get ’em Ferg!’. This was vintage Kimbo, back when you thought that not even Galactus could knock him out (leave it to Seth Petruzelli to urinate on that illusion).
CFFC premiered June 30th 2006 in New Jersey and featured a 13 fight card headlined by undefeated Carmelo “The Fury” (after defeating Cheick Kongo at UFC 64 he then went on to a 10-4 record with his most recent loss coming in the Vendetta Fighting Championship in Aruba. Probably more information than you even wanted but hey, knowing is half the battle). Besides guys like Tamdan McCory and Dan Lauzon making the occasional appearance, CFFC just couldn’t quite climb over the other side of the talent hill like that other organizations (refer from 9-1) enjoyed. Screw it, the CFFC prowled on Youtube and found a dude that appeared to be born on the Planet Kypton: Kimbo Slice.
Ray Mercer vs. Kimbo Slice rocketed the organization into every MMA message board on the face of the planet. The heavyweight bout was later changed to an exhibition due to some technicality that we aren’t sophisticated enough to understand. The bout (which was far more competitive than Ray Mercer vs. Tim Sylvia), ended in a submission on Kimbo’s part and brought up the discussion that Kimbo Slice should face Paul Buentello, for some odd reason. Instead, the CFFC slated Kimbo to face Tank Abbot on October 12th 2007. At the time, I was living in Europe and tried to scrap up enough loot to attend the event. I started working overtime at the European 80s club that I bartended at (it was an interesting time in my life). Late September I booked my ticket, October 4th rolled around and I hopped on my 10-hour flight back to the US. Eventually I arrived at my destination (my friend’s parent’s basement), I checked CFFC’s site to map out the venue on Google and I was smacked in the face by this.
Now it looks like CFFC is finally coming back and they even created a snazzy hype-video to prove their existence.
