Ring of Combat starts 2024 with stacked ROC 83 on March 1
Louis Neglia Jr and Frankie Perez’s Dead Serious Promotions are pillars in the MMA community. Their consistency in providing a high-level forum for mixed martial artists to perform and entertaining fights for the fans just keeps getting better.
Ring of Combat will host their first of four 2024 events on Friday evening, March 1, at their usual home inside the Showroom at the Tropicana Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, NJ.
ROC 83
Lou and Frankie are not messing around with their first fight card of the year. There are 3 championship fights and a super-fight which could be a title elimination fight. I would bet money that there are multiple fighters entering the cage this night, that will be making that walk to the UFC”s Octagon in the near future. Here is a preview of the ROC 83 event as it was recently posted on Tapology.com.
Main Event
Itso Babulaidze is the defending ROC welterweight champion, and his story is amazing just like he is. Itso came to the US about four and a half years ago from the Republic of Georgia at 25 years old wanting to follow his dream of becoming a professional fighter like his fellow countryman Merab Dvalishvili. He had no fighting or mixed martial arts background at all. He found a construction job and a fantastic gym at Marquez MMA in Northeast Philadelphia. They are home to numerous UFC fighters. Head instructor, John Marquez told Itso if he wanted to fight, he had to train. So Itso did. Every day. In less than five years, Babulaidze has fought five amateur fights and now gone on to start his professional career at 4-0. In his most recent fight at ROC 81, he fought through adversity and losing the first two rounds to Jimmy Drago, to finally clamp on to Drago and do his best python imitation as he secured the choke, and the submission win to earn his first ever championship of any kind. This was a tremendous fight from both men. But now it’s time for his journey to continue and he is tasked with a very dangerous Josh Jackson. Jackson is 8-3 and coming off of 3 consecutive KO finishes. Jackson comes in from Maryland and 6 of his 8 wins have come from KO/TKO stoppages. Looks at first glance like your grappler vs striker match-up. Winner takes home the gold.
Co-main event
“El Gallo” Sebastian Ruiz returns to defend his ROC bantamweight title that he won in spectacular fashion with a head kick at ROC 80. Ruiz is a beautiful striker who has two Bellator fights on his resume. He has faced very tough competition. That will remain the same as Mark Grey will challenge him for his belt. Grey is a monster prospect with a high-level wrestling background. Grey was 4-0 as an amateur and is now 6-0 as a professional. Two of his six wins are by stoppage. Grey has next level written all over him. Ruiz is going to try and erase that. Another interesting bout.
ROC vacant Featherweight Championship
John “the Don” Caldone is a show. Caldone brings a beautiful arsenal of strikes with him to the cage every time. You will see knees, elbows, spins, and all kinds of combinations. He is fun to watch, and he is deeply talented. Caldone spectacularly won the ROC Lightweight Championship at ROC 82 and in the post-fight interview, he told me and the whole crowd that he wanted to drop to 145 and be a champ/champ. Louis and Frankie must have agreed, because here we are as Caldone has won 5 in a row to move to 6-1 and is set to face the Georgian Roman Kurashvili. Roman is 6-4. All of his wins are by finish. All of his losses are by decision.
170 lb Super-fight
Jimmy Drago is back and looking to get in the win column again and possibly earn a title shot. His last fight at ROC 81, he fought great, and was winning the first two rounds before getting caught in a choke from the current welterweight champion, Itso Babulaidze. Drago always bring that energy and work ethic to the cage and the ironworker draws some of that from his friends and family at Local 40 who will undoubtedly be in attendance and be very loud. Myles Robinson will come down from Ohio and try to quiet them down. Robinson fought 9 times as an amateur and has now started his pro career at 4-0 with all 4 coming via KO due to strikes. This is a certified banger.
155 lb
“Kid Marvelous” Jusin Montalvo got off to a fast start in his career and was signed to Bellator. He was 5-0 but was denied in his next two fights and is now 5-2. He is a very talented and dangerous foe for anyone. Both of his losses are to current fighters who remain undefeated. His opponent, Adam “Bomb” Livingston is also undefeated at 4-0 and has 3 by stoppage. This is a tremendous match-up. A battle of NY as we have Livingston and Long Island MMA battling Longo and Weidman. This could be the fight of the night.
Other bouts
Oscar Garcia Jr vs Ben Coyle 125 lbs This is a non-stop high energy fight and will be a fun one. Garcia is savvy and opportunistic. Coyle has one punch knockout power which is rare at flyweight. He has bad intentions. I’ve had the pleasure of calling previous fights for both of these guys and have nothing but respect for both of them. This is going to be a 125 lb war.
Austin “the Assassin” Coleman (3-3) vs “Remarkable” Billy Markle (2-2)135 lb is an intriguing matchup as both men try to get over the .500 mark.
Cole Cameron will make his pro debut and take on Ahmed Khamis (1-2) at 135 lbs
John O’Dea (1-1) goes to work against Harley Locklear making his debut
“Big Nog” Chris Guariglia (3-2) will try to maul Brendan Hyde (2-1) at 155 lbs
Ronald Barrone and Jonathan Alvarez are both 0-1 and looking for their first win as they go to battle at 155 lbs
Ty Mees (0-1) mixes it up with debuting Marcus Reid at 135 lbs
I will be at the commentary table along with Professor Jay Regalbuto, and former UFC stand-out Ragin’ Al Aiquinta and handling the pre-fight show and post-fight interviews as well. MyMMANews will have some pre-fight interviews in the coming weeks as well as a full recap with official results.
