'Hell breaks loose' at MMA event in Sheffield, England

rovert

http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/Pool-table-thrown-as-39hell.5350950.jp

SPECTATORS had to run for cover after a barrage of missiles including a full-size pool table rained down on them during a riot at a martial arts event in South Yorkshire.
Hundreds of people packed into the Virtual Ice Inline Skating Arena on Chesterton Road, Eastwood Trading Estate, Rotherham, after being promised "an explosive night of entertainment" at the Retribution Fight Night.

But they got more than they bargained after one of the mixed martial arts and kick boxing bouts was cancelled.

Eyewitnesses say "all hell broke loose" when an announcement was made
the fight was cancelled because a competitor had suffered a cut eyebrow shortly after 11.15pm.

One spectator, who did not want to be named, said a gang of thugs thought to be following a fighter from Lancashire reacted with fury.

He said: "They had been drinking heavily and started throwing bottles and, among other things, a pool table from the balcony at an innocent crowd including children and pregnant women.

"The venue got trashed beyond belief."

Another witness said: "They were throwing bottles at a machine gun-like rate plus tables, chairs and every other item that was on the balcony.

"Having chucked every other item they possible could off they then collectively managed to pick up and throw a pool table.

"It ended smashed at the very bottom of the stairs."

One fan added: "The security were straight in but were overpowered by a large gang of idiots.

"They threw a pool table over the balcony which stopped the rest of the security getting up the stairs and it was a large table, landing on the stairs blocking the whole area.

"The security then diverted their energy in keeping the real fans safe and got them out of the building."

Police arrived shortly after the trouble broke out on Saturday.

A police spokesman said: "It is alleged members of the audience were unhappy a match was cancelled when one of the fighters was injured.

"Four men from the Manchester area were arrested on the night and have been bailed pending further enquiries.

"The investigation is ongoing with officers now viewing the venue's CCTV footage and interviewing witnesses."

Rebecca Guest, who works at Virtual Ice, said: "There was quite a mess including damage to the pool table but this was quickly cleared up and the venue was open as usual the following day."

Phoenix Fights, which put on the event, says on its website it aims "to provide an arena for the amateur and semi-pro mixed martial artists and kickboxers to showcase their ability and hone their skills".

Were these guys Fight Club members :pac:

Judomad

rovert wrote: »

http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/Pool-table-thrown-as-39hell.5350950.jp



Were these guys Fight Club members :pac:

Why do you make a joke from this very serious matter???
Maybe if it was pro wrestling it would be ok as the damage it would do to the rep of the sport wouldnt be so severe as pro wrestling is already a made sport and has very few people/no people trying to ban the sport!!
Whereas MMA(especially in Ireland and the UK) still has a huge number of doubters and you can be guaranteed that venue will not allow MMA take place there again EVER, i wouldnt be suprised if alot of venues follow them too....What good can come of making a joke of a very serious matter...


Edit, Gary its ok to point out that an established thing such as pro wrestling wont be as harmed but lay off the irrelevant pro wrestling comments.. Or i will moderate you to submission.

competitive MMA fighters may find less chances to compete now...possibly fewer shows leading to a downfall in the sport on our and there shores....Sad to hear stories like this and fingers crossed it wont affect MMA to much.... As a non-drinker id love if alcohol was banne from MMA events..I know alot of peole will disagree but I will fully admit im being biased as a non drinker though!!

Fozzy

Judomad wrote: »

Why do you make a joke from this very serious matter???
Maybe if it was pro wrestling it would be ok as the damage it would do to the rep of the sport wouldnt be so severe as pro wrestling is already a made sport and has very few people/no people trying to ban the sport!!
Whereas MMA(especially in Ireland and the UK) still has a huge number of doubters and you can be guaranteed that venue will not allow MMA take place there again EVER, i wouldnt be suprised if alot of venues follow them too....What good can come of making a joke of a very serious matter...You're ok Rovert you watch MMA and will still be able to pearch yourself on your armchair and watch your pro wrestling from the comfort of your sofa but competitive MMA fighters may find less chances to compete now...possibly fewer shows leading to a downfall in the sport on our and there shores....Sad to hear stories like this and fingers crossed it wont affect MMA to much.... As a non-drinker id love if alcohol was banne from MMA events..I know alot of peole will disagree but I will fully admit im being biased as a non drinker though!!

What's pro wrestling got to do with anything at all?

It's an unfortunate event but I've always thought that there was the potential for something like that to happen. Hopefully it doesn't get overblown and all MMA fans get tarred with the same brush as these idiots

rovert

Judomad wrote: »

Why do you make a joke from this very serious matter???
Maybe if it was pro wrestling it would be ok as the damage it would do to the rep of the sport wouldnt be so severe as pro wrestling is already a made sport and has very few people/no people trying to ban the sport!!
Whereas MMA(especially in Ireland and the UK) still has a huge number of doubters and you can be guaranteed that venue will not allow MMA take place there again EVER, i wouldnt be suprised if alot of venues follow them too....What good can come of making a joke of a very serious matter...You're ok Rovert you watch MMA and will still be able to pearch yourself on your armchair and watch your pro wrestling from the comfort of your sofa but competitive MMA fighters may find less chances to compete now...possibly fewer shows leading to a downfall in the sport on our and there shores....Sad to hear stories like this and fingers crossed it wont affect MMA to much.... As a non-drinker id love if alcohol was banne from MMA events..I know alot of peole will disagree but I will fully admit im being biased as a non drinker though!!

Why bring Pro Wrestling into this? I dont see any other reason other than an attempt at a personal attack.

Elitism has also reared it's head yet again on here as well with your arm chair comments.

cowzerp

Thanks for the article, i can speak for everyone when i say its awful and there should be no place for that in any sport

with that said thread closed as nothing positive can come of this.

Karatekrazy

Why was the thread 'Hell breaks loose' at MMA event in Sheffield, England locked. I think this matter most definitely should be discussed so that we can come up with measures to prevent an incident like this ever happening again. Especially in Ireland as it would certainly kill the sport.

dunkamania

If you have an issue with a mod action, we would appreciate you communicating by PM, as opposed to posting on it.

cmb.

Karatekrazy wrote: »

Why was the thread 'Hell breaks loose' at MMA event in Sheffield, England locked. I think this matter most definitely should be discussed so that we can come up with measures to prevent an incident like this ever happening again. Especially in Ireland as it would certainly kill the sport.

totally agree - the attiude of our mod "thread closed as nothing positive can come of this." seems quite short sighted. Sure if the thread turned into a 'sure they're all only a bunch of . . .' then yes its in no was constructive but discussing the incident is the sure fire way of dealing with it. We have had some very low level of undesirable activite at MMA shows here - luckily nothing serious like the incident in Sheffield but turning a blind eye to those or the posibility is no answer

sporting hoolaginism is on the rise in ireland but the answer is not ignoring it or making sensationalisistic tv3 documentaries - lets actually discuss and deal with the issues

cowzerp

cmb. wrote: »

totally agree - the attiude of our mod "thread closed as nothing positive can come of this." seems quite short sighted. Sure if the thread turned into a 'sure they're all only a bunch of . . .' then yes its in no was constructive but discussing the incident is the sure fire way of dealing with it. We have had some very low level of undesirable activite at MMA shows here - luckily nothing serious like the incident in Sheffield but turning a blind eye to those or the posibility is no answer

sporting hoolaginism is on the rise in ireland but the answer is not ignoring it or making sensationalisistic tv3 documentaries - lets actually discuss and deal with the issues

If i was having it ignored i would have deleted it, the story is there for everyone to read, then if left open everyone says-that's awful blah blah, and then the odd troll will jump in with a knock on the sport knowing they will get a response, and the end outcome is the same as if we just read it,

also it did not happen in Ireland so as far as Irish fans are concerned it means nothing, this could happen at a snooker match, where scum bags are there is a potential for trouble.

Hooliganism is not a problem in Irish MMA, and talking about it makes out that there is, but as we all know, if 20 hooligans go to an event there probably would be hassle, thats nothing to do with MMA and would not be tolerated by the irish MMA community.

Quadsey

I've seen some low level bother at one or two Irish events but nothing security (and some spare fighter/trainers) couldn't handle.
Unfortunitly there is always going to be a chance of trouble when you put a bunch of men, drinking and hyped up watching fights into a venue and although this sport has it genuine fans there will always be that group of lads who are there to support someone they know but don't really care for the sport or the ones who are just there to see a fight (these are generally the booers of ground game). Either of these groups have the potential to get pissed off over something (fight not going the way of there mate, fight gets cancelled etc.), all you can do is sell the tickets to your show and hope for the best crowd possible.

Roper

At the trouble in the Stadium (which was very minor) the bulk of the people standing up to the idiots were fans and team mates of the guys on view.

In spite of people, it seems, really, really trying to put the spectators of the sport in the same category as soccer hooligans, it's actually not the case. At small shows, the spectators tend to be friends and family of the fighters. Large shows tend to be quite expensive to attend so the casual idiot is discouraged economically. The most you get that is someone trying to be the big man in front of his mates by shouting the stupidest comment of the night repeatedly like "stop hugging him" or something. Take the UFC in January, would anyone really pay €75 to start a row?

rovert

Roper wrote: »

At the trouble in the Stadium (which was very minor) the bulk of the people standing up to the idiots were fans and team mates of the guys on view.

In spite of people, it seems, really, really trying to put the spectators of the sport in the same category as soccer hooligans, it's actually not the case. At small shows, the spectators tend to be friends and family of the fighters. Large shows tend to be quite expensive to attend so the casual idiot is discouraged economically. The most you get that is someone trying to be the big man in front of his mates by shouting the stupidest comment of the night repeatedly like "stop hugging him" or something. Take the UFC in January, would anyone really pay €75 to start a row?

Yeah a lot of it has to do who you market it to. The price point can weed out the maggots for the most part. But if you market based on "watch these 'ard bastards fight in a Cage" and not the Sport then you will get the geezer element at shows a la Cage Rage. But booze and a heighted atmosphere will always evitablely lead to trouble at any gathering of people. I didn’t think that the article was unfair to the sport as didn’t mention cockfighting and the like which I take as progress considering the source.

calex71

happens at big events too http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N68vThrjm48

happens at non-mma events.

I think regardless of the event, be it football , mma, or even a night out in the pub , those lads mendioned in the article would have caused trouble no matter where they where.

dunkamania

Threads merged.

pablohoney87

Judomad wrote: »

As a non-drinker id love if alcohol was banne from MMA events..I know alot of peole will disagree but I will fully admit im being biased as a non drinker though!!

I'm a drinker and totally agree with this. It's great to go out and have a few after a good night of fights but there's really no need to get hammered while watching a good night of foghts.s

T-K-O

Not surprised at all. You typical MMA fan is.... well a buffoon.

It probably started over, who has the nicest one of these

UFR Management

I had three fighters due to fight on this show,when the trouble started i told the guys to leave the venue and wait outside

To much alcohol seems to be a major factor,alot of shows that have regular intervals between matches where the punters fuel up on alcohol during breaks then become disruptive the later the show drags on.

cmb.

cowzerp wrote: »

also it did not happen in Ireland so as far as Irish fans are concerned it means nothing, this could happen at a snooker match, where scum bags are there is a potential for trouble.

Hooliganism is not a problem in Irish MMA, and talking about it makes out that there is, but as we all know, if 20 hooligans go to an event there probably would be hassle, thats nothing to do with MMA and would not be tolerated by the irish MMA community

yes, i agree, incidences dont just have to happen at combat sporting events & an incident could happen at a snooker event but lets be honest its hightly unlikely whereas unpleasant incidentes do happen at the likes of mma events - the atmosphere of a fight night with alcohol & the wrong people (or the wrong people with alcohol in their systems) does lead to incidences - even at the likes of the ufc event there were idiots starting fights (I personally saw one start in a toilet for little or no reason despite it being a well organised and chaperoned event if thats the right way of putting it & a reasonably educated crowd)

Also, i think your taking my post the wrong way - im not saying all out hoolaginism is there in irish MMA but it is an increasing problem in irish sport - and the potential for problems is always there and by looking at these issues and not allowing them to develop is the right way of not allowing a similar incident to happen in irish mma - im not involved in runing of events but many of the boards posters are and i am interested in their input and just welcommed the discussion - yes sure the initial reacion would always be the whole thing was terrible and you might get a troll looking to get a reaction out of us but after that there is the potential to have a good debate on the whole incident, what it means for us here (potentially) and what we can learn fro it, especially from those who would be directly involved in the local scene, be they fighter,trainer, promoter, fan or whatever

cowzerp

if a scumbag decides he wants trouble, all the talking on here in the world wont make a difference, basically we're highlighting a 1 off event that happened in a different country and blackening our own name by association.

Thats my opinion.

Nothingcompares

This isn't a hosted forum used to promote the sport of MMA and offer a web front end to it's promotion. It's for MMA to be discussed, warts and all, and as long the laws of the (internet)land are held, imo, anything can go.

I'd usually challenge what T-K-O has to say about "typical MMA fan is a buffoon." but I think he highlights his own ignorance by his comments alone.

rovert

Nothingcompares wrote: »

I'd usually challenge what T-K-O has to say about "typical MMA fan is a buffoon." but I think he highlights his own ignorance by his comments alone.

And the contempt the sport has for it's own fans

Nothingcompares

rovert wrote: »

And the contempt the sport has for it's own fans

I suppose it's true, there are a lot of people who look down their noses at other fans for different reasons.

fedor29

is that a penis in the middle of that affliction t-shirt

Fozzy

Dave Meltzer noted in his coverage of the recent Strikeforce show that he saw three fights break out in the crowd. He said that it's been years since he's seen one at a UFC show. Two of the fights involved women, which kind of puts a different spin on things discussed in this thread

Judomad

Fozzy wrote: »

Dave Meltzer noted in his coverage of the recent Strikeforce show that he saw three fights break out in the crowd. He said that it's been years since he's seen one at a UFC show. Two of the fights involved women, which kind of puts a different spin on things discussed in this thread

Im not pickin at you here but may i ask what relevance that entire post has to this thread?? Your talkin about probable scuffles between woman at a huge american show compared to a riot as it was in a smalltime show in the UK....If you wanna be picky you could also say there were scuffles outside the UFC in January..but again has no relevance to this thread....ZERO!!!

muckwarrior

Judomad wrote: »

Im not pickin at you here but may i ask what relevance that entire post has to this thread?? Your talkin about probable scuffles between woman at a huge american show compared to a riot as it was in a smalltime show in the UK....If you wanna be picky you could also say there were scuffles outside the UFC in January..but again has no relevance to this thread....ZERO!!!

What has fighting at an MMA event got to do with fighting at an MMA event? More than pro wrestling anyway!

T-K-O

Nothingcompares wrote: »

This isn't a hosted forum used to promote the sport of MMA and offer a web front end to it's promotion. It's for MMA to be discussed, warts and all, and as long the laws of the (internet)land are held, imo, anything can go.

I'd usually challenge what T-K-O has to say about "typical MMA fan is a buffoon." but I think he highlights his own ignorance by his comments alone.

I obviously touched on a nerve. You know I am right. MMA is still a new sport for many fans. A lot of those fans attend for the brutality factor and are oblivious to the actual skill require to compete at that level.

I have nothing against these guys - we are all fans and contribute to the growth of the sport - but some of these guys need to sit down and actually watch the fight.

How many times can you hear booing when two guys are not "entertaining" enough in the ring / octagon.

Nothingcompares

T-K-O wrote: »

I obviously touched on a nerve. You know I am right.

No, you're not. You're wrong. I've been to a couple of UFCs and the vast majority of people don't boo. I'm speaking from my own experience and you're talking out of your hole that's why I don't want to discuss this with you.

dunkamania

I am going to step in here before things get out of hand. If the thread continues in the same vain as the last few posts, this thread will get locked (again)

T-K-O

Nothingcompares wrote: »

No, you're not. You're wrong. I've been to a couple of UFCs and the vast majority of people don't boo. I'm speaking from my own experience and you're talking out of your hole that's why I don't want to discuss this with you.

If by hole you mean mouth I would say.... No, you're wrong. I am communicating with my fingers.

By the way great argument. Why so angry ?

Are you denying the fact that more than half of people attending MMA events are only there for "blood and guts" and I aint talking about the shows in the local gym hall.

Oh wait you've been to a few UFC shows :rolleyes: so you in fact know it all.
Did you purchase any T-shirts while you were there ?

rovert

T-K-O wrote: »

Did you purchase any T-shirts while you were there ?

Jeez is this really becoming a genuine insult? This thread is becoming a similar haven for macho posturing as that show in the OP was.

T-K-O

rovert wrote: »

Jeez is this really becoming a genuine insult? This thread is becoming a similar haven for macho posturing as that show in the OP was.

Petulant comments deserve the same.

c montgomery

dunkamania wrote: »

Threads merged.

Threads over moderated!!

dunkamania

c montgomery wrote: »

Threads over moderated!!

I disagree, I should have locked this thread earlier. Warnings/bannings to folllow.