Primal Thunder MMA Johnson City

March 5th at 6 PM

There's a gathering going on in Johnson City,  PRIMAL THUNDER is in the air!! Step Teams representing Florida, Tennessee, and North Carolina will have on their GOLD BOOTS, the fighters are getting their minds right and the SHOW STARTS TONIGHT... Freedom Hall, doors open at 6pm. You do not want to miss this show!

Mixed Martial Arts at Freedom Hall

Black and Blue Primal Thunder Review:

Our official reviews can always be found on www.urTriCities.com

 

Saturday night, March 5th brought MMA or Mixed Martial Arts back to the TriCities.  Primal Thunder which  is  promoted  by  Black and Blue Entertainment, owed by Nathan Webb,  had  a show  Saturday evening at Freedom  Hall  in Johnson  City.  urTricities.com was anticipating great action  and  great entertainment  this evening,  especially  after the  event promoted  by Cage Brawl Fights  a month  and a half earlier.

 

Primal Thunder, which was promoted as a mixed martial arts events, brought 2 different and separate types of shows in one evening. One was 8 fights of mixed martial arts, and the other was about an hour’s worth of step dancing. Florida State University (Chi Theta Chapter of Omega Psi Phi), UT Chattanooga (Eta Beta chapter), UT Knoxville (Iota Beta chapter) and Pierre Banks was the One-Man Show and MC for the Step Show from App State (Psi Mu chapter). Mr. Banks did a great job of introducing the step teams energizing the crowed.

 

Please watch a short clip of Pierre Banks introduction:

 

 

At first, it was hard to see how MMA and step dancing would relate, but it did bring a different atmosphere and a little bit of excitement to Freedom Hall. I’m not sure how well the step dancing pleased the mixed martial arts crowd, but the step fans were in full force supporting the step artists.

       

The Primal Thunder promoters mentioned that they will be coming back to the TriCities, and urTriCities.com will give this event an “R” rating because of the profanity used during the event. The MC for the evening was Justin Simpson, and he tried to get the crowd at Freedom Hall energetic and entertained. We would like to warn parents of the Tricities not to bring children under the age 15 to the event because of the cursing and gestures done by the MC..

 

Now…Back to the MMA event, the fight card held 8 fights.

The night was introduced by the MMA Inside the Cage hosts, Cyrus Fees, and local MMA celebrity Casey Oxendine. They continue to introduce Black and Blue Entertainment and the Primal Thunder promoters, and had a lot of excitement for the Primal Thunder Mixed Martial Arts event. From there, the Johnson City Science Hill ROTC presented colors and a great national anthem was sung by Abbie and Mattie Hensley.

 

The introduction of Omega Attire and the Omega Girls was follow by the Step Dancing of Appalachian State. It was a nice little twist to the opening of an MMA event.

After 30 minutes of step dancing, we got into the mixed martial arts action which had a total of 8 fights on the fight card. Unfortunately, 5 out of the 8 fights ended in the first round and weren’t very competitive.

Fight 1 was between Dustin Long and Mike Nance, which had a slow round 1 with a lot of ground work. Dustin who is a very promising fighter looked great at the weight 215 lbs was able to do a quick escape from a ground hold and started landing blows to Mike and it was ended in 59 sec in round 2.

 

Fight 2 involved, Jesse McDavid and Brian Mullins. Brian Mullins definitely had the experience with fighting over 21 fights, the only bad thing is Brian lost 13 of them. Jessie was able to get Brian into a rear naked choke within 25 sec of round 1.

 

Fight 3 put Adam Townsend up against Nick Yontz. Adam showed great technique and a great fighting motor and was able to get Nick in a rear naked choke in round 1 within the time of 1:29 sec.

 

Fight 4 brought Cassidy Trentham vs. Troy Lyons. Cassidy looked very comfortable in round 1 but Troy was able to dominate round 1 on the ground. This fight took us all the way to round 3 which was a decision in Troy’s favor. I’d like to credit Troy’s corner men with great corner work in helping Troy pull out the win.

 

Fight 5 brought us into the professional MMA rank featuring Gene Lady and Chuck Caylor. This was Gene Lady’s first professional fight and he came out very excited and landed a couple of great chokes and knees and was able to win a bloody knockout within the first 20 sec of round 1.

 

Fight 6 brought Drew Kennedy and Chad Perrine. Drew had a record of 1-0 while Chad was 0-1. This was a round 1 submission. Drew was able to catch Chad in a triangle chokehold. I believe Chad had the momentum but Drew was able to counter Chad’s momentum and got him into the submission.  We feel both fighters have a great future, and will be looking forward to them fighting again.

Fight 7 brought John Cofer vs. Harry Johnson. This was a very good fight. Harry Johnson and John Cofer were both in great shape. John was able to take Harry’s back and was able to get him into a rear naked choke, but it was a very very good fight.

The finale put Chris Wright vs. Jay Meneghello. ...THIS WAS THE FIGHT OF THE NIGHT, AND WAS WORTH THE PRINCE OF ADMISSION...Both fighters came in to the fight undefeated and also both fighters did not like each other at all. Chris Wright had a more laid back loosely goosy style where jay was very intense and very pumped for the fight. Round 1 was won by Christ who showed some skills and was very smooth. In round 2, Jay really turned up the heat on Chris and was winning the around and then all of a sudden, Chris landed Jay with a Hey Maker right at the bell and the fight was over. Chris Wright will stay undefeated at 6-0. Overall,

I would have to say the evening was a success for Black and Blue Entertainment and the Primal Thunder promoters. I would definitely like to see Nathan Webb bring the show back into town, and continue the growth of MMA in the TriCities, but I’d like to see him have Justin Simson clean up the language a bit, and have more of a family friendly atmosphere. I’d also like to see more local sponsorship involved into the fight, and have more door prizes, do more things to get the fans involved.

There will always be minor changes to make the event better, Primal Thunder and Black and Blue Entertainment will always be welcomed back to the TriCities, and urTriCities.com will be happy to support their efforts.

 

 

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