Thousands of fans piled into the Mullins Center Saturday night, all eyes

engrossed by the glowing red octagon as contenders fought with brute force in the
Premier FC5.
Pulsating music and dramatic lighting amplified the intensity inside the Premier
FC 5 venue on April 9; when the bass boomed, it resounded in the chests of everyone in
the stands as they watched the fighter enter the cage, wide-eyed and with baited breath.
The University of Massachusetts, Amherst, hosted the Premier FC 5 event.
The fight card featured eight amateur bouts, one female grappling match and the
four professional MMA bouts to cap off The Fighting Championship’s fifth event.
The anticipation that continued to build in the stands erupted into cheers when the
ring girls, referees and announcer entered the cage to bring out the 160lb contenders at 8
p.m.
The lights lowered and “Look at Me Now” pumped through the speakers, as
Jamie Courtney (1-3) of Team Sityodong strutted down towards the cage with his
coaches by his side.
Courtney would face off against Mike Jensen, (0-0) from Greater Hartford Bando
in the first of 13 bouts on the night.
The Premier FC 5 event would end with its main event, professional fighter 185lb
bout. Gabriel “Gladiator” Santos (9-6) of AFT/Gladiator would take on Elias Rivera (7-4)
of Dog Pound.
Santos is also the coach of University of Hartford student, Sam Nadeau, who was
on the fight card last Saturday night.
Nadeau fought in the eighth fight of the night. Nadeau (3-3) took on Irving Cortes
(1-0), an independently trained fighter in his 145lb bout.
Nadeau walked out to the cage to the music of his friend, Doug Ratner-Redhead,
which blasting from the speakers of the Mullins Center.
The Premier FC 5 contenders touched gloves to begin the first round, and it was
undoubtedly a tough start for Nadeau.
The Hartford student was aggressive and landed a quick leg kick on his
opponent, but seconds later, Cortes retaliated with a slamming takedown.
Nadeau was unable to sweep, but he refused to stop fighting and finally got back
onto his feet with less than one minute in the round.
Cortes landed a few hammer fists into Nadeau before the end of round one; the
fighters eventually sprawl and end the first round on the ground.
In the second round, Nadeau began with several hard leg kicks as he did in the
first, but this time Nadeau is able to clinch and dole out body kicks.
Cortes fired back with a few knee blows, but Nadeau then took over control with
a single leg takedown, blasting hammer fists at his opponent as the second round ended.
The third and final round of Nadeau’s bout began with a takedown.
Once in the half guard position, Nadeau pelted Cortes in the face but his opponent
get back on his feet.
The end of round three Nadeau landed himself in a dangerous position, when
Cortes almost sinks a neck guillotine.
Nadeau was able to escape and finish the bout in full mount as he pounded Cortes
in the face.
Nadeau defeated Cortes via unanimous decision last Saturday night, bringing the
amateur fighter’s career record to 4-3.
Although Nadeau won, he was disappointed in his bout at Premier FC 5, saying,
“it was an alright performance on my part at best, but thank you for your support.”
Nadeau admits that he is always working hard to be the best he can possibly be,
so it should be interesting to see what the future holds for the rookie MMA fighter.
Premier Fighting Championship is a Western Massachusetts based Mixed Martial
Arts league created by Karyn Wesch in 2010.
Wesch sponsored fighters with her company Need2Bleed MMA apparel prior to
2010, since then she has worked relentlessly to help develop the MMA promotion
company because, “we felt we needed to give these amateurs a home.”