thePULSEMassachusetts’ Joe McGann a Highlight of the Main Card
By Tim Branch
Reality Fighting is back at Mohegan Sun Arena for another night of action-packed mixed martial arts. The event will feature two championship fights in the Mddleweight and Welterweight Divisions. Middleweight Champion Alexandre “Vaca” Moreno (11-2, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt), will make his first title defense after his title win by armbar in February, 2011 against Domenic Gagliardi (4-1, Bristol, CT), who is coming off a recent win by KO. The Welterweight Championship will be decided when Nate Lamotte (12-5, Manchester, NH) faces off against Brett Oteri (8-3, Dedham, MA). Lamotte, a former title holder, is looking to get the belt back while Oteri has two big wins in Reality Fighting, putting him in the number one contender spot.
The main card is stacked from top to bottom with some of New England’s best, most exciting talent. CT’s Chris Simmons returns to face Massachusetts’ Joe DeChaves and John Naples of Uncasville, CT faces Steve Carr in a featherweight fight. Also fighting are KO artist Dwight Grant (who won his last two fights by KO), submission wizard Jeremy Ross, and, especially exciting for us in Central MA, Massachusetts’ wrestling champion Joe McGann (who will go up against Ross on the 25th).
Joseph McGann, Jr. got a jump on his professional career early on when he took two state wrestling championships at Franklin High School and a national title at Blair Academy in Blairstown, N.J., in 2001. He kept wrestling in college, and then came home to train in Eastern-style fighting at United States Mixed Martial Arts in Bellingham, MA under Ultimate Fighting Championship professional Jorge Rivera, another name familiar to many of us here in Central MA.
In 2008, McGann stepped back into a padded cage instead of onto a wrestling mat in his first professional Mixed Martial Arts fight. He knocked out his first opponent in only 2 1/2 minutes, less than half the time it typically takes. With that win, he was hooked on Mixed Martial Arts combat.
Skip ahead a few years, and Joe McGann ~ at 5’ 10”, 170 lbs ~ had made quite a name for himself in the MMA world with a 3-1-1 (Win-Loss-Draw) record. Come see him add to that win number on February 25!
Where: Mohegan Sun Arena
When: Saturday, February 25th – 8:00pm
Tickets: $75.00, $55.00 & $30.00, available at www.ticketmaster.com/venue/237645/?brand=mohegansun
