Ring of Combat..by the numbers is among the elite promotions in the sport
When you buy a ticket to a regional mixed martial arts (MMA) event, you’re probably going to support a local fighter that you may know, or you love the action and are looking for a fun night out. Perhaps you may get to see the next big star and UFC world champion as he is earning his way through the ranks. If you are lucky, you may get to see a couple of mixed martial artists who will go on to the larger promotions and see them on ESPN or pay-per-view. If you’ve been to a Ring of Combat show, the chance of seeing that man or woman who will be among the elite sooner or later, increases exponentially.
Louis Neglia is a former world kickboxing champion and decided to begin to promote his own brand of cage-fighting with his first event on October 10, 2002. It was held at the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut. Afterwards he moved his cards to a spot in North Jersey as he continued to build his brand. At ROC 10 on April 14, 2006, Neglia took up partnership with the Tropicana Hotel and Casino Resort in Atlantic City, New Jersey. He has never looked back and has become a pioneer in the sport. Neglia’s many connections in New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey have enabled the respected Neglia to draw from a large pool of talent and put on quality show after quality show.
At ROC 47 on January 24, 2014, if you happened to attend, you would have seen nine future UFC fighters and a TUF competitor. This is unheard of at any show that I can ever recall. Chris Wade, Julio Arce, Keith Berish, Frankie Perez, Mike Santiago, Merab Dvalishvili, Oluwale Bamgbose, Allen Crowder and Gregor Gillespie all entered the ROC cage that night and all eventually made it to the largest MMA promotion in the world. Over the last 19 years, Ring of Combat has made a huge impact and has provided a forum for a multitude of mixed martial artists to improve and fight for their goals of reaching the pinnacle of the sport.
That pleases Neglia like nothing else. Many of his alumni remain “family” to him. Neglia is also very humble and wanted to reiterate that he is not taking credit for getting these fighters to the big dance. He is just happy to help these warriors in any way possible. He spoke about their hard work, time away from their family, and other hardships that they face. He told MyMMANews…
“I want all of my fighters to get bigger opportunities and go to the UFC, Bellator, wherever they can follow their dreams to try and become world champions. It’s our passion. Dana White has been to a bunch of our shows and I speak to him on the phone and am always encouraging him to sign our champions and many of the great fighters that come through our cage. I would never hold anyone back. If they had a fight with me, and the UFC called, no questions asked. I would tell them to tear up our contract and go win your fight. We have three more fighters heading to The Contender Series in the next couple of months.”
The list below represents any fighters who have fought at Ring of Combat sometime earlier in their career and then eventually signed with a larger promotion. They all share the fact that they are alumni of ROC. While a large majority of them went directly, there are also others who competed at other regional promotions before earning their contract with the bigger shows.
Neglia say as soon as he gets the “okay” from the State, he will immediately host his next event (tentatively scheduled for September 26) and promises to have a loaded card once again at the Tropicana Hotel and Casino Resort in Atlantic City, NJ. There are a ton of hungry fighters who cannot wait to get back to work and I’m sure we will see more of the best talent on the east coast with multiple titles on the line.
List of Ring of Combat fighters who signed to bigger promotions:
1 Frankie Edgar UFC
2 Eddie Alvarez UFC, Bellator, ONE Championship
3 Chris Weidman UFC
4 Matt Serra UFC
5 Pete Sell TUF, UFC
6 Luke Cummo UFC
7 Josh Koscheck UFC
8 Jay Hieron UFC, Bellator, WEC
9 Kurt Pellegrino UFC, Bellator
10 Aljamain Sterling UFC
11 Lyman Good Bellator, UFC
12 Mike Massenzio UFC
13 Phillipe Nover TUF, Bellator, UFC
14 Gregor Gillespie UFC
15 Ian Loveland UFC
16 Charlie Brenneman UFC
17 Ricardo Romero UFC
18 Nick Catone UFC
19 Dan Miller UFC
20 Jim Miller UFC
21 John Howard UFC, PFL, WSOF
22 Costas Philippou UFC
23 David Branch UFC
24 Ryan LaFlare UFC
25 Jay Silva UFC, Bellator
26 Jimmie Rivera UFC
27 Julio Arce TCS, UFC
28 Uriah Hall TUF, UFC
29 Tom DeBlass UFC
30 Greg Soto UFC
31 Gian Villante UFC
32 Al Iaquinta TUF, UFC
33 Merab Dvalishvili UFC
34 Nick Pace UFC
35 Lou Gaudinot UFC
36 Paul Bradley UFC, Bellator
37 Joe Solecki TCS,UFC
38 Rafael Natal UFC
39 James McSweeney UFC
40 Charles Oliveira UFC
41 Sean Salmon UFC
42 George Sullivan UFC
43 Edson Barbosa UFC
44 Shane Burgos UFC
45 Brian Kelleher UFC
46 John Cholish UFC
47 Justine Kish UFC
48 Alp Ozkilic UFC
49 Jessica Eye UFC, Bellator
50 Dustin Pague TUF,UFC
51 Chris Wade WSOF,UFC,PFL
52 Ed Gordon UFC, TUF, PFL
53 Frankie Perez WSOF, UFC
54 Levan Makashvili UFC
55 Oluwale Bamgbose UFC
56 Randy Brown UFC
57 Nordine Taleb UFC, TUF,Bellator
58 Mike Santiago TCS, UFC
59 Allen Crowder TUF, Bellator, UFC
60 Roxanne Modafferi UFC
61 Jared Gordon UFC
62 Chris Liguori UFC, Bellator
63 Ron Stallings UFC
64 Keith Berish TUF, UFC
65 Karl Roberson TCS, UFC
66 Tony Gravely TCS, UFC
67 Mike Trizano TUF, UFC, Bellator
68 Dante Rivera TUF, Bellator
69 Aaron Meisner TUF
70 John Clarke TUF
71 Ido Pariente TUF
72 Brian McLaughlin TUF
73 Abner Lloveras TUF
74 Matt Rizzo TUF, Bellator
75 Mike Stewart TUF
76 Jeff Lentz TUF, Bellator
77 Victor O’Donnell TUF, Bellator
78 James Jenkins TUF
79 Marc Stevens TUF
80 Marlon Sims TUF, Strikeforce
81 Phil Caracappa Contender Series
82 Bill Algeo Contender Series
83 Shelton Graves Contender Series
84 Krysztof Soszynski TUF, UFC
85 Sidney Outlaw Contender Series, Bellator
86 Liam McGeary Bellator
87 Jesus Martinez Bellator
88 Will Martinez Bellator
89 Kevin Roddy Bellator
90 Andrew Salas Bellator
91 Tom Espinosa Bellator
92 Frankie Buenafuente Bellator
93 Nekruz Mirkhojaev Bellator
94 Suhrob Aidarbekov Bellator
95 Andre Harrison PFL, WSOF
96 Kyle Daukaus Contender Series, UFC
97 Bradley Desir Bellator
98 Lester Caslow Bellator
99 Matt Church WSOF
100 Elias Silverio UFC
101 Anton Telamantes Bellator
102 Shane Crenshaw Bellator
103 Soslan Abanakov WSOF
104 Carlos Brooks Bellator
105 Chris Wing Bellator
106 Walter Howard Bellator
107 Randy Smith Bellator
108 Munah Holland Invicta FC, Bellator
109 Pearl Gonzalez UFC, Invicta FC
110 Marlon Moraes WSOF, UFC
111 Aung La Nsang ONE Championship
112 Chris Birchler Bellator, Contender Series
113 Tom English Bellator
114 Claudio Ledesma Bellator
115 Ryan Contaldi Bellator
116 Joey Kirwan Bellator
117 Giedrius Karavackas Bellator
118 Josh Key WSOF
119 Sergio DaSilva Bellator
120 Valdir Araujo Bellator, WSOF, TUF
121 Marcos Galvao Bellator, PFL
122 Mike Dolce TUF
123 Mikhail Malyutin Bellator
124 Roger Carroll Bellator
125 Edward Guedes Bellator
126 Jesse Riggleman Bellator
127 Tiawan Howard Bellator
128 Andy Main TUF, Bellator
129 Tuan Pham Bellator
130 Anthony Morrison Bellator
131 Rich Lactawa Bellator
132 Nick Cottone Bellator
133 Pilinio Cruz Bellator
134 John Salgado Bellator
135 Matt Makowski Bellator
136 Igor Gracie Bellator, ONE Championship
137 Jesse Moreng WEC
138 Gregor Gracie WSOF, ONE Championship
139 Lance Everson Bellator
140 John Doyle Bellator
141 Erik Charles TUF
142 James Jones Bellator
143 Todd Moore WEC
144 Tenyeh Dixon WSOF
145 Mike Stine TUF
