Art of War champs Cafaro and Small throw their names in for TUF
Interview below:
Recently, the UFC announced that the upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter (Season 32) will feature the featherweight and middleweight fellas. That was welcome news for a bunch of regional fighters who are more than deserving. I’m here to tell you that a few of them should not only be on TUF but belong in the big show in the UFC with many of their fellow Philly fighters. All of these fighters mentioned below, have confirmed their application to the show.
Trouble
Earl “Trouble” Small has a ton of good story to tell to go along with a wealth of talent. Earl’s mentor is the Godfather of Philadelphia BJJ, Ricardo Migliarese, who along with his brother Phil, are the founders of Balance Studios. Small has gone from accomplished blackbelt grappler to dangerous fighter. Trouble is 29 years old and after a 4-0 amateur career, has gone 7-2 as a pro middleweight with two consecutive first round finishes. He is the current Art of War Cage Fighting middleweight champion. I have gotten to know and watch Earl since he was grinding his way through the amateur ranks. Many times, he has put his students and instructing before his fighting career. This may be the time for that to change.
Small has grown up in the sport with all of the other fighters from the city, including a horde of them already in the UFC. I spoke with Andre Petroski, who has spent many hours on the mat with Earl as they were teammates coming up together. Petroski tells me of Earl “Trouble” Small….
“Trouble is the epitome of a lifelong martial artist, a blackbelt and world champion before the age of 18. A Gypsy blackbelt of his pedigree is something the UFC has never had before.”
Please check out our video on the link above with Earl and AOW President Mike Bickings. Mike wants people to know what a great guys both of his champions are and why they are deserving. Matt Semelsberger, Andre Petroski, and Joe Pyfer are all AOW alumnus who have gone on to the big dance. Who might be next?
Korean Thunder
“Korean Thunder” Ryan Kim Cafaro is definitely known by Dana White and Sean Selby. Cafaro has been holding pads and training with UFC fighters for years now, including Paul Felder, Frankie Edgar, Marlon Moraes, Eddie Alvarez and a bunch of others. Ryan has worked UFC corners numerous times and is a regular at Nick Catone MMA. Tapology ranks Cafaro as the #1 featherweight in both PA and NJ, who is not currently in the UFC. Ryan is the current AOW featherweight champion and is scheduled to defend his belt at AOW 33 coming up on December 15th. Cafaro is now 11-5 with 9 of his wins coming by finish. He’s won 4 in a row with 3 straight stoppages. Ryan looks like he’s peaking at the right time.
Cafaro (34) also has a great back story that will play well on the show. He has gone from a self -admitted “not very good high school wrestler”, to a world class mixed martial arts instructor and personal trainer all through hard work. He has tons of friends in the business and is very well-liked. He’s known a keen tactician and student of the sport who brings a very high fight IQ to the cage with him. A perfect candidate.
Couple other names to watch…
Ethan Goss stood at 5-6 in the featherweight division battling mostly out of Pennsylvania. He has now won 6 in a row to move to 11-6 and is ranked #3 in PA by Tapology in the featherweight division. Goss would definitely show well on TV and has a lot of energy. Good luck to him as he has also thrown his name in the mix show.
Shawn Stefanelli is another talented featherweight who has sent his information. Stefanelli is 4-3 but has faced some stiff competition early in his career. Also, another amazing story as I interviewed Shawn when he was making his amateur debut. He went from drinking a beer on the couch watching UFC, to joining Grindhouse MMA and now doing well for himself as a professional fighter.
