J.T. Taylor’s Desert Brawl 10, April 3, 2004, Bend, Oregon

    Promoter, J.T. Taylor, held the 10th edition of his Desert Brawl series once again at the Midtown Rink Rock-n-Roll in the heart of Bend, Oregon, on Saturday April 3rd. His sold out venue was filled with fans from all over the northwest (we drove nearly 6 hours from Olympia to catch this one). The admission line was already three blocks long when I arrived less than 30 minutes before the doors opened. The Oregon State Boxing/Wrestling Commissioner, Jimmy Cassidy, was on hand to sanction the bout and seemed pretty pleased with the event as a whole. In an interesting move, Taylor acknowledge Cassidy by thanking him for sanctioning this (Taylor’s first fully licensed event) and mentioned to the fans that the previous nine Desert Brawls had, in fact, been held illegally. Congratulations are in order for J.T. for getting his promoter’s license to keep all things MMA on the up and up. Also, look for Taylor to face off against UFC veteran Chris Lytle at the next WEC this coming May.

    There was excitement brewing from the very start as promos from the previous night’s UFC event (held in Las Vegas, NV, by Zuffa Entertainment) were shown on the big screen. The announcer invited all the events participants into the ring for introductions to the crowd prior to the first bout and the crowd response was deafening when the triple main event was announced:

- Ed Herman (Team Quest) was set to defend his Desert Brawl MW title against Justin Hawes (Desert Dogs). Hawes was looking to bring the gold back to Bend.

- John Gunderson was anxious to show that the draw between he and Rob Hisamoto was a fluke. This rematch of a previous fight (held on one of Chael Sonnen’s FCFF cards) would settle the debate.

- After a bit of Internet trash talking (which I heard about second hand and cannot substantiate), Ryan Schultz (Team Quest) squared off against Nick Gilardi (Desert Dogs) to crown the Desert Brawl Welterweight Champion and determine the top 170-pounder in Oregon. Gilardi was coming off a loss to UFC veteran, Tiki Ghosen at WEC 9; Schultz was coming off a victory over Eddy Ellis in Sport Fight: Revolution.

[View Images Of The Event]

Christopher "Last Call" Cope
djlastcall@yahoo.com

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