News 2004

|04.12.2004| Four of the finest of GTT made their way to the windy city Chicago (USA) to compete in the "Iron Man" of MMA - the annual World Shidokan Open. Franco "Ortega" De Leonardis, Vlajko "Psycho" Perovic, Jochen "OG" Gieb and Peter "Yamatodamashii" Angerer qualified to fight in one of the world's most prestigious tests in skill and will. Known as the toughest Martial Arts competition worldwide the World Shidokan Open bring fighters from around the world together in Chicago to determine who is the REAL World Champion in all facettes of full contact fighting. The fights are held as an 8-Man-Elimination tournament with only one man remain standing in the ring at the end of the night. This means 3 vicious fights in one night for the winner in the respected "Triathlon of Martial Arts. All fights go for a maximum of six rounds: two rounds bareknuckle Knockdown Karate, two rounds of Thaiboxing and at the end two rounds of Submission Fighting. Perovic, De Leonardis and Angerer fought in the 8-Man-Tournament, while Jochen "OG" Gieb was selected to fight in a Heavyweight 4-Man-Tournament in Thaiboxing for the International Championship.

Vlajko "Psycho" Perovic was the first of the GTT who entered the ring to face Luis Hernandez from Costa Rica in the quarterfinals. Perovic easily dominated the strong Karatefighter with his solid clinching and powerful knee attacks. He finished Hernandez in the fourth round with a TKO, when he downed Hernandez with powerful punches in Thaiboxing for three times. Perovic advanced to the semifinals of the World Championship.

Next for the GTT was Peter "Yamatodamashii" Angerer, who faced the experienced japanese Thaiboxer Naoki Takizawa. This fight was very entertaining for the audience, with both fighters exchanging solid kicks and fast attacks during the Karate rounds. In the third round Peter downed his opponent twice with strong punch combinations. The end of the fight via TKO came in the fourth round, when Angerer totally dominated the japanese Takizawa and downed him with a punch-knee-combo for the third time. Angerer also advanced to the semifinals.

Franco "Ortega" De Leonardis faced the strong and experienced MMA fighter David Hulett from the USA in his quarterfinal match. Hulett was physically stronger than Ortega and build up a lot of pressure to the GTT member. Even the Karate rounds were balanced, in the Thaiboxing rounds Hulett unleashed his full striking power and was able to down Ortega three times with solid punches and knees and won by TKO in the fourth round.

In the first fight of the Heavyweight Thaiboxing Grand Prix Jochen "OG" Gieb faced Steve Philipps from St. Marteen (Caribean/Dutch Antillees). The fight was evenly balanced until in the third round Philipps caught Jochen with a huge knee to the head, which opened a wide cut under Jochen's left eye. The referee was forced to stop the fight in the last round in favor to Philipps, who also easily won the later finals and became the International Heavyweight Champion in Thaiboxing.

In the semifinals of the World Championships two US fighters faced to of the GTT. In the first match the defending World Champion Richard Trammell faced Vlajko for a real war. Both fighters showed tremendous technique, spirit and class over the entire six rounds. But Trammell had the better moments and more domination during this bout and he earned the well deserved victory via unanimous decision.

In the second semifinals Peter had to fight against David Hulett and again Peter started very entertaining for the audience with fast high kicks and even a flying guillotine choke in the Karate rounds. In round 3 Hulett started to punch very strong and the referee gave Peter a standing eight-count. Peter was kind of "angry" about this and started argueing with the ref, when the ref opened the fight again and Hulett came in with a solid left hook-right knee combination, which knocked Peter out cold.

With two 3rd places in this World Championships the GTT was happy to proof the world that its fighters can compete in ALL disciplines of Martial Arts on a high level.

On August 28th Shidokan Germany will host the 2nd annual German SHIDO MMA Grand Prix in the Triple F Gym in Geislingen. Five 4-Man-Tournaments will determine the "Champion of Champions" in Germany's MMA circuit. Of course some of GTT's finest will be on the fightcard, too, e.g. Franco "Ortega" De Leonardis, Patrick "TAZ" Suhl and Peter "Yamatodamashii" Angerer. Vale Tudo and MMA-Fighters from all organizations and labels in Germany are invited to compete and to test against the best.

On August 28th Shidokan Germany will host the 2nd annual German SHIDO MMA Grand Prix in the Triple F Gym in Geislingen. Five 4-Man-Tournaments will determine the "Champion of Champions" in Germany's MMA circuit. Of course some of GTT's finest will be on the fightcard, too, e.g. Franco "Ortega" De Leonardis, Patrick "TAZ" Suhl and Peter "Yamatodamashii" Angerer. Vale Tudo and MMA-Fighters from all organizations and labels in Germany are invited to compete and to test against the best.

Daniel Ackerman will fight at "KO Arena 2" on July 24th in Spain. He will face the Spaniard Jose Luis Zapater from MMA Alianza in Spain in a Vale Tudo fight. KO Arena is one of the TOP Vale Tudo events in Spain and Daniel is training very hard for this fight. After his tremendous victory at "Vikingfight V" in Denmark the two-time European Champion in Submission Wrestling has got a good taste of MMA...

Two fighters of the GTT will again compete at Ultimate Combat 11 on September 12th in Bristol (England). GTT Shootingstar Ortega will face Bocao of the Brazilian Top Team to determine who will fight for the World Title on Ultimate Combat 12 against the Dane Kim Hoovgard. Yamatodamashii will face Paul Daley from England. A third German - Franco's student Nils Schlägel - will also go to England for UC 11 to fight his international debut in the Octagon.

Daniel Ackerman will not fight at KO Arena 2 on July 24th in Spain. His trainer Mathias Werner of the Suum Cuique Mainz informed the GTT Leaders about this decision. It seems that Daniel has problems to make weight for the event. Anyway, Daniel is in current negotiations for a fight at "SHOOTO Switzerland" on September 4th in Zurich and also "Ultimate Combat" in England asked for Daniel for "UC XI" on September 12th. Looks like the Mainz based two-time UGC Champion will have a busy season...

Mr. Rafa Lopez, President of the WKL, again contacted Peter Angerer for his scheduled appereance for a World Title Match in Vale Tudo at "Tatami Mix" in Barcelona. The show was originally set for June but has been postponed now until October. Peter Angerer will fight for the WKL Vale Tudo World Title in the Welterweight Division. Also Vlajko Perovic will be on the same card, fighting for the WKL World Title in Knockdown Karate. More details and a date for the event will be released soon.

One of GTT's up-and-coming fighters, the 22 year old Dietmar Roth from the Shark's Gym in Ulm, will fight on UFC Veteran Ian "The Machine" Freeman's show "Pride&Glory" on August 7th in Newcastle/England. His opponent will be Golam Hussan Muradi, who will fight out of Middlesborough (England). Dietmar is a well-rounded fighter with a solid background in Jiu-Jitsu and is surely one of GTT's most promising new talents. We wish you good luck, Dietmar!

Last Saturday Didi El Loco has fought against Hassan Muridi (England) at UFC Veteran Ian "The Machine" Freeman's "Pride&Glory III" in Newcastle. Didi did a great fight, exchanging big bombs with the strong Muridi, who controlled the ground game. After three round Muridi was declared the winner by unanimous decision.

On September 12th GTT's Peter "Yamatodamashii" Angerer will face another worldclass competitor at Ultimate Combat 11 in Bristol (England). Holland's Rafles LaRose, a top SHOOTO fighter and student from legendary Martijn DeJong, will be Peter's next challenge after his dramatic lose to Javier Garcia from Spain at Ultimate Combat 10. But LaRose, who is a strong allround fighter was also victorious over Javier Garcia at UC 8, and the question is, if Peter can handle the dutch. "I am currently take some time off from training to give my body some rest, but next week I will start my training again. And this time I work with the best trainers in GTT, with Mathias Werner and Artur Allerborn. I will be 100% fit for this fight!" states a confident Angerer.

Last Saturday, on August 28th 2004, GTT Fighter Vlajko Perovic marked an impressive new step in his current fighting carreer: the student of Kickboxing legend and GTT-Coach Artur Allerborn won this year's German SHIDO MMA Grand Prix in the Triple F Gym in Geislingen and conquered the chance to fight against Brian Gassaway (USA) for the SHIDO MMA World Title on "Fists of Fury 4" on September 25th 2004 in Zurich/Switzerland. A brutal and crueling 4-Man-Tournament was set to determine who will be the new Champion in this division, showing three fighters from the GTT going to battle against each other plus the "Fight Club Berlin"-Veteran Andre Balschmieter from Eschwege. In his first match Vlajko showed phenomenal striking skills against his team mate Mihaljo Mihnjak. After 1:14 minutes in round 2 Vlajko scored the stunning KO with a punch-knee combo and advanced to the finals, where he faced another teammate and "Vikingfight"-Veteran Patrick Suhl, who won his semifinal match against Andre Balschmieter in only 0:54 minutes in round 1 by a lightningfast heelhook submission. Both fighters went to war in this match and exchanged solid kicks and punches from the first second on. Vlajko managed to bring the wild Patrick to the ground and gained the mount position. From here he rained down cracking punches to Patrick's head and scored the win by submission due to strikes after 2:00 minutes in the opening round.

GTT's icon Peter "Yamatodamashii" Angerer teamed up with the best trainers available in Germany to prepare for his upcoming fights in England and Switzerland in September. "The two GTT Trainers Mr. Artur Allerborn and Mr. Mathias Werner currently work two to three times weekly on my skills and I already feel that I become better and better. But I also have a mental trainer for the upcoming fights. Mr. Horst Oswald, a martial artist by himself, offered me his generous support in mental training to prepare me for my upcoming challenges. I am really very happy, that these people support my goal to become SHIDO MMA World Champion again!" states the 36 year old Angerer. And it looks like, the work has paid already, as the fighting phenomenon has submitted Nenad Brezovec in a Submission Wrestling match at the German SHIDO MMA Grand Prix last saturday in only 25 seconds!

Three Fighters of the GTT have competed in the "Ultimate Combat 11" on Saturday, September 12th, in Bristol (England). All three of them have lost their matches against international top oppenents. Here are the official results:

Welterweight European Bout
Niels Schlägel (Germany) Vs Phil MacCall (England)
- MacCall (Guillotine, R1, 4:43)

Lightweight European Bout
Franco DeLeonardis (Germany) Vs Marcelo "Bocao" Ferreira (BTT Brazil)
- Ferreia (Submission, R1)

Welterweight European Superfight
Peter Angerer (Germany) Vs Rafles LaRose (Holland)
- La Rose (Guillotine, R1, 4:30)

Five of the GTT's finest will fight on September 25th 2004 in Zurich (Switzerland) at "Fists of Fury 4" for the World Titles in SHIDO MMA and Thaiboxing. Daniel Ackerman will face the European Grand Prix Winner 2003 - Dave McLaughlin from England - for a fight in the -65 kg Division. UC-Veteran and #1 ranked Franco De Leonardis will battle against Hassan Seddik from France, the winner of the European Grand Prix 2003 in the -70 kg class. Also former champion Peter Angerer will fight again for the Middleweight crown - but against no other than the Brazilian Iran Mascarenhas! Vlajko Perovic, who recently won the German SHIDO MMA Grand Prix 2004 with two Knockouts, will fight in the Lightheavyweight class against experienced SHOOTO veteran Brian Gassaway from the USA. In a World Title Match in SHI KON Thaiboxing (-72,5 kg) GTT's Andreas Beckert will fight against the Japanese Champion Ryo Sakai from Tokyo.

With a tremendous performance and unbeatable submission skills two of the German Top Team have won at the Ultimate Grappling Challenge V on September 18th in Cologne/Germany: Andreas "Andyconda" Schmidt and Franco "Ortega" De Leonardis proved to be the best of the best at this day in Europe's toughest Submission Wrestling Competition: the annual Open European Championships without any time-limits! "Andyconda" remains top in Europe with a still unbeaten record in UGC History, winning the -87,9 kg division and the Absolute Class for the fourth year in a row by submitting all of his opponents from USA, Poland, Switzerland and Germany. The Luta Livre Black Belt is now a 8times unbeaten European Champion in both divisions! Also in the -76,9 kg division his team mate "Ortega" showed superior submission skills by defeating all of his opponents by tap-out on the way to his first UGC Title. Congratulations to both fighters of GTT!