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SATURDAY, December 2nd, 2006, AT 9:00 PM, PT
First Annual
2007
ISCF MMA WORLD
CLASSIC!
AMATEUR MMA CHAMPIONSHIP TOURNAMENT
US Cellular
Center &
Crowne Plaza Hotel
April 27th, 28th & 29th, 2007 -
In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, USA
It had come down to 4 locations of the over 50 Bid Proposals we received from around North America. One location in Chicago, one from Georgia, one in Tennessee and the Iowa location.
In the end, it was the combined efforts of the US Cellular Center (Right, The same Event Arena used for the 2003 and 2006 IKF Annual Kickboxing Tournament), and the Crowne Plaza Five Seasons Hotel (Left) and the Cedar Rapids Convention Visitors Bureau in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, USA.
The photo at the left is a shot from the second level of the Arena, before event day for this years IKF World Classic kickboxing Tournament. The black curtain in the background of the left hand photo hung from floor to ceiling and split the arena in half. The full size of the arena (With chairs on the floor) can be seen at the right. This is the same Arena that the UFC used when they came to Iowa back in the 90's before settling in Las Vegas. The half you see was for the competition and behind it was all warm-up area. The fenced off area around the rings is called "The Pit!" This is the fighters "staging" area. Fighter's were called to "The Pit" prior to their bout to be fully prepared to enter the ring for their next bout. This procedure will be the same procedure for the ISCF MMA WORLD CLASSIC. Behind the rings you can see some of the vendor booths and the main announcer platform.
At the ISCF MMA WORLD CLASSIC, the two rings will be replaced with 2 fight cages and on the other side of the curtain will not only be warm-up area for the fighters but also potential space for a "Non Striking" Grappling Tournament on mats that the ISCF is currently deciding if they want to host at the Tournament as well.
The US Cellular Center is a beautiful 28,000 square foot "Stadium Seating Arena" which has held the title of the FINEST Venue we have ever had over all the years (8 straight years now) of the annual IKF Kickboxing Tournament. There is a total of 16,200 square feet on the actual arena floor space, and add in the Stadium Seating area and there is plenty of seating for spectators. Better yet, since nearly all the seating is elevated, there is not a bad seat in the house!
It is one of the most impressive entertainment venues in the Midwest. It also has 4 complete locker rooms (Showers, lockers etc.) for the participants and plenty of warm-up area surrounding the outside of the arena bowl under the elevated seating areas. As far as sporting events, in the past it has hosted as mentioned above, the UFC along with the Taekwondo Nationals and many Wrestling Championships and even WWF wrestling (Now WWE), not to mention many stars like the Harlem Globetrotters as well as concerts including KISS, Prince, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Amy Grant, Diana Ross, Pantera, Motley Crue, Alan Jackson, Brooks & Dunn, Styx, AC/DC, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, Diamond Rio, Martina McBride, Gaither Homecoming, Barry Manilow, Chicago, Bon Jovi, Blue Collar Comedy, Chicago, Beach Boys and Bob Dylan.
Current acts include Disney on Ice: 100 Years of Magic, Martina McBride and the Harlem Globetrotters just to name a few.
The 275 room Crowne Plaza Five Seasons Hotel is also Fantastic! The 16-story hotel is situated in the heart of downtown Cedar Rapids and is conveniently located just 10 minutes (eight miles) from Cedar Rapids Airport (Eastern Iowa Airport). The Hotel will provide Free Shuttle service for all tournament Attendees (Fighters, trainers, officials and of course, fight families and fans!)
It is connected by hallway to the US Cellular Center and connected by 12-block skywalk system to numerous shopping and dining options and 2 theatres, the Theatre Cedar Rapids and the IMAX Theatre. All 275 rooms in the 16-story hotel feature cable TV and in-room movies, coffee maker, hair dryer, ironing board/iron and there are of course, non-smoking rooms available. There is also a business center, fitness center, indoor pool, and sauna. Top of the Five rooftop restaurant and Front Street Lounge, serving lighter fare, are both open 7 days a week. The room rate for a weekend at the Crowne Plaza Five Seasons Hotel is usually $140.00 per night, however our special ISCF MMA WORLD CLASSIC rate will only be $109.00 per night. The US Cellular Center is simply down an elevator and a hallway from everyone's hotel room.
"Like what happened this year with our IKF Tournament, the final factors came down to dates, facility and our past working relationship with Mary Lee Malmberg, the Director of Sports Tourism at the Cedar Rapids Area Convention & Visitors Bureau." Said ISCF President Steve Fossum. "The Cedar Rapids bid offered as much or more than all the other bids and with an availability date of April 27th, 28th & 29th, it was a major factor in the final decision."
HOST HOTEL
ALL Participants are required to stay in
the Host Hotel.
This is a lesson we learned at a past
IKF Tournament. The lessons learned
happened at back to back IKF Tournaments before we made the decision to put in
place the mandatory host hotel rule. At one of our past IKF Kickboxing Tournaments we had Fighters get
injured in their bout and we needed to contact their parents who were not in the
venue at the time of their bouts. At another past tournament we had some
fighters we needed to locate due to bout changes but we could not find them in
the event room or in the hotel because they were at another hotel sleeping. Due
to these issues causing a lot of problems, we do not want to face such issues
again. This is why this is a MANDATORY RULE now for
competitors at not only the IKF
Kickboxing Tournament, but it will also be a rule for the ISCF MMA WORLD CLASSIC.
At Registration we will be asking each fighter and trainer for their room number
and room confirmation code in case we need to contact them for bout or schedule
changes or in case of any emergency. The The ISCF
will have a main Headquarters Suite for all event organizations duties.
The hotel layout also allows us to block off a private floor for all the ISCF Event Officials to book their rooms on.
20K+ IN AWARDS
EVERY
FIGHTER will walk away with some type of Award(s) or Gift(s) from the ISCF and other Sponsors!
The awards for this
event alone will be a major expense. Awards will be broken down into two
different divisions.
ISCF's
OBLIGATION TO THE SPORT...
Looking at the numbers above, once one
does the math for 8 belts at $1000.00 each ($8,000.00) plus the other 8
at $265.00 each ($2,120.00) and already we have over $10,000 in just Belt
Awards. This does not include the Thousands of dollars in additional awards "AND"
if we decide to have a Woman's MMA Division,
start adding more $$ to the mix. Overall we plan to give out between $20 and
$25,000 in awards and gifts alone. This will be the ISCF's
opportunity to "Give Back" to the Amateur side of our sport
because as you can add up here, there will probably not be any profit for us in
this event unless we sell a lot of spectator tickets, so "Bring your
Fans!" Like with the yearly
IKF Tournament, that started as a USA
only, than grew to a North American and is now a WORLD Amateur
Kickboxing Tournament, we feel it is our obligation and duty to create the
Ultimate "Golden Glove" style tournaments for our fight
sports! The expenses for this Tournament and the other Tournaments we host are
necessary to create "Legit Amateur Champions." We hope you
agree.
OFFICIALS
As
would be expected, an event of this size will be needing a lot of Officials (Judges,
Timekeepers, Referees and assistants). Those of you who are either local to
the event or already going, please let us know by e-mail if you can volunteer to
be an official at the event. We have received a lot of request for officials
however most of them are asking for us to pay their travel fees and we simply
cannot afford this because of the cost of the venue, awards and the many other
items that go into promoting such an event. There simply is no budget for 50+
Officials. For these very reasons, officials (or trainers who can assist as
officials) who can pay their own travel fees will be selected first as the
event officials as we have done every year for our
IKF Tournament. Once we have you
confirmed, we will list you on our soon to be posted ISCF MMA WORLD CLASSIC OFFICIALS PAGE.
Each official will receive a free ISCF MMA WORLD CLASSIC Officials Shirt and
the ISCF will pay for your lunch on both
days of the Tournament just as the IKF
does for Officials at our annual
IKF Tournament. So, If you are able to
volunteer to be an Official at 2007
ISCF MMA WORLD CLASSIC please let the
us know by e-mail at: info@iscfmma.com
REGISTRATION &
DEADLINES
The Registration fee for the 2007
ISCF MMA WORLD CLASSIC is $55.00 Per
Fighter.
Those wanting to
Register now can go to the Official Registration form by Clicking
HERE!
In order for everything to run smooth, all fighter applications and
registration fees must be received here at the ISCF
Headquarters by The DEADLINE date of MARCH 30th,
2007. Any fighter who's Registration form is RECEIVED (Not
Postmarked) Here at the ISCF
Headquarters AFTER MARCH 30th, 2007 will be charged a Late Fee as noted below
paid at the Finals Weigh-ins.
ADDITIONAL LATE FEES
There
Are "SIX" Registration Deadlines
BRACKETS ARE LIMITED TO "EIGHT" FIGHTERS!
ONLY
8 Fighters Will Be Accepted for EACH Division Bracket!
Not only
will the weightclasses be limited to "EIGHT" Divisions, each weightclass bracket will also be limited to "EIGHT"
Amateur MMA fighters! This is because we do not want the fighters to
have to fight more than 3 times over the weekend. Twice on Prelim Saturday, and
their Championship bout on Championship Sunday. For this reason, registrations
will be taken on a FIRST COME basis! So if you want to reserve
your spot in your desired bracket you need to register as soon as you can. ALL
registered fighters will be posted on our Registered Fighters page that will be
posted soon. Fighters are urged to keep watch of this page because "IF"
your division fills up, you need to keep watch to see if anyone drops out of
your division so that you can take their place.
So Again...Those wanting to Register now
can go to the Official Registration form by Clicking
HERE!
COACHES & TRAINERS
EVENT PASSES
Like every year with our IKF
Kickboxing Tournament, there are a lot of people who try to sneak into these
events claiming to be assistant trainers, officials, etc. etc. For this reason,
as we do at our IKF Tournament now, we
will charge for an Official ISCF
MMA WORLD CLASSIC Cornerman/Trainers Badge.
This will prevent individuals just attaining a cornermans pass for free
only to watch the event. The other reason for this is to police each fighters
corner so that only Registered Cornermen and Trainers are in each fighters
corner in "The Pit" and the warm-up area. Only registered
cornermen/women will be allowed into each fighters corner and "The Pit."
The cost of each Official ISCF
MMA WORLD CLASSIC Cornerman/Trainers Badge for the entire weekend is
only $10.00 and you MUST HAVE A HEADSHOT PHOTO OF YOURSELF on the badge.
This photo and fee will need to be mailed in PRIOR to the event so that
we can have your Official PHOTO ID Badge made for you prior to
the event. The photo you send in should be no larger than 2 inches X 2 inches.
If you do not send in your Trainers Registration form and fee prior to the event
you will be charged $25 for your Official PHOTO ID Badge once
at the event IF you bring your own 2"x2" headshot photo. If we have to
take your picture for your badge at the event the fee will be $35.00. A Maximum
of 3 Laminated Photo Cornerman/Trainers ID Badges will be sold per GYM. ALL
Cornermen/women must be at least 18 years of age. Cornermen and Trainers will
register on Friday during the hours of 2:00 PM and 6:PM at the Trainers
Registration Table which will be marked in the Venue.
As a courtesy, All
CURRENT ISCF
Promoters (Promoters who have promoted an ISCF
Event within 4 months prior to the tournament) who are also
Cornerman/Trainers will receive their Laminated Photo Cornerman/Trainers ID
Badge for free.
SPECTATOR TICKETS
Tickets
will be Available At The Door.
ALL SEATS will be GENERAL ADMISSION
which means anyone can sit wherever they wish to.
SPECIAL GUESTS
& PRO SCOUTS
It's pretty well
known that the Annual IKF Amateur
kickboxing Tournament has had many different Special Guests attend the
event
along with Kickboxing event Promoters and Pro Fight Scouts for large Pro Events.
This will be no different for the ISCF MMA WORLD CLASSIC We already have a plan
on who will be our Special Celebrity Guests and we will be making that
announcement after the first of the year. However we would also like to let you
up and coming Amateurs know that THERE WILL
be Pro Scouts there from "SEVERAL" Large Pro MMA Promotions.
One of those Large Pro MMA Promotions is the IFL, the International Fight League. (www.ifl.tv). The IFL is a League of Pro MMA Teams that compete on a circuit throughout a season towards their own Championship Event. We have already received word from Mr. Keith Evans, VP of Operations for the International Fight League that he and several IFL Associates and Team Coaches will be at the 2007 ISCF MMA WORLD CLASSIC.
The current Team Coaches for the IFL are very well known in MMA. They are Bas Rutten, Pat Miletich, Carlos Newton, Renzo Gracie, Frank Shamrock, Ken Yasuda Tokyo, Maurice Smith and Matt Lindland.
As for the other Special Guests, we will be announcing them between now and the event. Simply put, this is going to be BIG!
SPONSORS
& VENDORS
For those who are in the MMA Game, you
know Sponsors Love MMA! Sponsors will LOVE this Tournament! We have
already had commitments from several
Sponsors such as "Combat sports international (ringside's Martial Arts
division), Brain Pad and others. If you know of someone who would like to
sponsor this event or donate gifts for the Athletes, please let us know by
e-mail at: info@iscfmma.com
We
will also have Vendor Booth space available inside the arena at the event. Our
plan is to make this not just an MMA Tournament but an MMA Fair! As with the
Sponsorship, those interested in Vendor Booth Space, Banner placement, Program
Ads and more, please let us know by e-mail at:
info@iscfmma.com
MMA SEMINARS
Although
not confirmed, we have had quite a bit of interest from several Top MMA fighters
who would like to offer some MMA Seminars at the event. We have also had several
trainers and amateur fighters ask if there will be any available as well. We are
unsure if we will add any seminars to the weekend's schedule but it is indeed
something we are thinking about. If you have any thoughts for or against
seminars on the weekend please let us know by e-mail at:
info@iscfmma.com
TV?
We
don't want to make any promises now but what we will say is that we are offering
this Event up to several TV Networks and those who have responded back have been
very interested. However as you might guess, there are tons of details and
expenses in producing programing from an event this size. So, we will keep
working at it and see what we can do to bring all of you more exposure to the
many MMA Fans around the world. We have had discussions with programmers of
Internet TV, Cable TV, Satellite TV and Network Broadcast TV. Hopefully we can "Make
Something Happen" with one of them for this GREAT EVENT!
Fighters... It's time for us all to stop "Talking The Talk!" If you think you are the BEST Amateur MMA Fighter in the World, It's time for you to come join us, and prove it to the WORLD as we all "WALK The WALK" at the 2007 ISCF MMA Classic - Amateur MMA Championship Tournament!
We look forward to seeing you all there...
For more info about the 2007
ISCF MMA WORLD CLASSIC - Amateur Championship
Tournament, Click
HERE!
Please note that some
pages have yet to be updated
TUESDAY, December 5th, 2006, AT 1:50 PM, PT
MORE INFO
For
The
ISCF MMA Classic!
MAIN PAGE ISCF MMA CLASSIC CLICK HERE ISCF - EVENTS - NEWS - GYMS - RANKINGS - RULES - SANCTIONING - FIGHTER REGISTRATION - WEIGHT CLASSES - E-Mail |