NAAFS Rock 'n Rumble 8 is in the Books

 Saturday night saw the 8th edition of NAAFS end of Summer spectacular: Rock n Rumble.   Due to a scheduling conflict the event was delayed a month, and moved from its traditional venue in the Flats to Canton Civic Arena.  Next year, Rock n Rumble will return to Cleveland.

As usual for this event it was a stacked card.  Sixteen fights in all, with pro fighters brought in from other states to fill the top of the card and many special guests.  It’s a tribute to the quality of our home grown talent the many of the guests (UFC stars Stipe Miocic and Jessica Eye), are actually local, and the main event, Cody Steven v Frank Caraballo, featured two local fighters.

What was not usual, was that Ahmad Douglas was GriffonRawl’s sole representative on the card.  Normally we have a least three, but moving the event a month made for irreconcilable conflict with the schedules of the fighters we had lined up.   Rather than see GR completely absent from the biggest NAAFS event of the year for the first time, Ahmad Douglas stepped up on relatively short notice to fill the gap.  Ahmad’s fight was a semi-final in the NAAFS Flyweight Amatuer National Tournament.  The winner will fight for the belt in December.

Unfortunately, Saturday was not Ahmad’s night.  He fought a tough, grinding fight against a wrestling specialist in undefeated Adli Edwards from Ronin Fight Team.  Ahmad demonstrated the superior striking skills, but often had to fight moving backward to stymie Edwards’ relentless takedown attempts.  Ahmad was successful in doing damage, but in the end the judges saw Edwards’ efforts as deserving the unanimous decision win.

Ahmad Douglas told his coach and corner George the loss does not discourage him, but will fuel his fire for additional training.  He finished by saying to George,  “I'll see you Tuesday at practice”.

George Comer said while he was disappointed with the loss, he  is not disappointed in his young student.  “Ahmad  is only 19 years old and was in the semi finals for the NAAFS amateur title which is nearly 7 years younger than I  was when I competed.  Ahmad’s  got a ton of potential.”

Ahmad will be fighting again sooner rather than later.  Be sure to congratulate him on his gritty effort when you see him on Tuesday.

Main Card Results

• Frank Caraballo def Cody Stevens  by UD
• Cody 'No Love' Garbrandt def Charles 'The Trinity' Stanford byTKO round 1 @ 1:37
• John 'Big' Hawk def Bobby 'Zombie' Brents by DQ (Groin Strike) round 3  @ 3:07
• Matt 'The Cat' DiMarcantonio def Wesley 'Wild Wild' Hanson by UD
• Eric Bledsoe def Ronald 'R.J.' Buck by Submission (Rear-Naked Choke) round 1 @ 3:36
• Jeff 'Lights Out' Hughes def Devon Wilson by Submission (Guillotine Choke) round 1 @ 3:52

Special thanks to Mike Wrobel of ShootitMMA.com for getting these pictures to us ahead of his own publication date.

Written by: Bob Donaghy