A Sea Of Red

Hey guys, quick note here. Elite Fighting Challenge 5 is coming up in Lynchburg on Oct. 17th. (Yes, same day as homecoming) Doors open at 7pm, Fights start at 8pm.

Myself and an LC alum (Jack Bedenbaugh) are fighting to raise money for Freedom 4/24 - a non-profit that helps girls escape the sex trade in Thailand. Our goal is $2400.

Matt Coleman (Coleman-Glass Construction) and LU Student Jeff Murphy are fighting to raise money for the Liberty Godparent Home. Their goal is $5000. Matt and his wife Jamie adopted their son Jacob from the Godparent Home a couple of years ago. Ron Godwin was instrumental in that. Jacob truly is a miracle baby as he was something like 8 inches long when he was born. As you can imagine, the Godparent Home is something near and dear to Matt's heart.

EFC management has decided to help us out and 10% of all the tickets we sell will go to our chosen charities. Also, we are selling t-shirts, of which 100% of the proceeds goes to our charity.

If you can't or don't want to go, no problem. Buy a cool looking shirt and help us out.

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.c ... D=70165759

(yeah, the img button isnt working properly... dunno why)

-Matshark

A big thank-you to Freedom 4/24 Sponsors:

Renaissance Academy of Martial Arts
Light Chiropractic &
Roly Poly Sandwich shop

Come check out the press junket at Renaissance Academy of Martial Arts on Fri 10/9 from 10am-12pm including WSET, WSLS and the News & Advance as they help us get the word out.

Jack Bedenbaugh and I will be selling tickets and T-shirts @ Lynchburg College immediately following the press junket.

Make sure you swing by and say hi and pick up your tickets and t-shirts to help rescue girls from the sex trade in Thailand.

Help change the world, $24 at a time!

They're selling tickets to this at Gold's Gym, if people are looking for a place to purchase.

Yes, but those tickets don't go to help one of the charities. If you want tix PM me or post on here and 10% will go to charity.

You gotta get out there and see this fight - Watched Matshark practicing today at our media day - he is looking VERY good. Very impressed with the shape your in and your striking looks painfully strong!!! Let the fight go into at least the second round though;) The fans deserve a good show

Is Matshark one of the guys on the event poster?

He's on some and not on others. I'm not sure which one you saw...

Some love from WDBJ7 re: Freedom 4/24 and Godparent Home!

http://www.wdbj7.com/Global/story.asp?S=11290685

My name is one the poster with 5 people on the front (Matt Coleman front and center). My picture is on a poster specifically for Freedom 4/24. You've probably seen the one with Matt Coleman in the middle.

Chris, are we going to get some love from the N&A?

And prototype, first time i've cut down this low for 145, but i feel PHENOMENAL! My cardio is through the roof, everything is faster and i haven't really lost any strength. gonna try and finish this one in the first... Hopefully spectacularly on the ground. Got a couple fun little tricks i'd like to use to finish this fight.

(the one I REALLY want to use has been hit fewer than 10 times in MMA history. if it happens expect the RAM boys to go absolutely nuts and for Jeremy Ridgeway to possibly lose his mind. I'm feeling really solid with it. been working it a lot with James Foy and hitting it from about 4 different positions)

I've seen the poster with Coleman front and center. As for N&A coverage, get in touch with sports editor Chris Morris at cmorris@newsadvance.com.

Apparently Mitchell Malcheff is writing a preview for tomorrow's paper and might be covering the event Sat night.

On that note... here's some love from the National press. Fight! Magazine is arguably the nations biggest and best MMA magazine:

http://blog.fightmagazine.com/swagger-i ... burg-1694/

We're promo-ing it at the football game.

Who won?

Matshark won!! Dominated! Looked great out there. 5 RAM guys won, 1 Loss - Matt Coleman:( Should have won, but just got stuck in a bad position... Great fights all night though. Got to give some credit to the Ladies - 1st women's fight (MMA) was one of the best fights all night and the 2nd kick boxing fight was great - it was like watching a bar fight where they just went at it none stop.

Quote from the local fishwrap.

Before the first round ended, Troxel was in full-mount position on top of Rosnic and ended the fight early when he put Rosnic into a a painful armbar.

Although I think his ribs will be hurting a bit longer than his arm. Ref stopped the armbar pretty quick so I don't think his arm will be that sore, but one of my buddies wanted me to beat him like a drum so I did my best to oblige...hehehe

Matt Coleman told me he heard the body shots all the way back in the dressing rooms. Ouchie...

also, I just found this preview article (hard to find things on the N&A website sometimes...)


Freedom 4/24 got a huge boost last night. We sold a BUNCH of shirts last night and are REALLY close to reaching our $2400 goal. Still have a few left. I'm going to have to make another order of sweatshirts for everybody that wants them. If somebody wants a shirt ($24) or a sweatshirt ($36) let me know. The shirts are the softer fabric (not the normal rough tshirts) and the sweatshirts are a medium thickness and tend to run a little large.

Team RAM was impressive. Dr. Ron Godwin & Dr. Fanning (I think) were front and center for the event. Hope they enjoyed it. (I'm pretty sure they did)