UPDATED 2 p.m. The results first reported in this story for the fight between Jake Heun and Jarad Carson were challenged by some of St. George News readers as incorrect. Our reporter went back to fact-check with various eyewitnesses and received confused and conflicting testimony of the results. The undersigned editor has interviewed Aaron Reis, Crown Fighting Championships Matchmaker, promoter of the event, for verification of the final results of the fight. The results of that interview are incorporated into the updated story below; it is to be noted that video of the fight has been sent to the Athletic Commission which may review the findings of the referee.
The name-calling reported to be jeered in crowd spirit at the game was heckling, reported as heard first-hand; nonetheless, the name-calling heckled has been removed from our story out of respect for Heun and to ensure no mis-inference is taken from it.
Our headline was a play on words as headlines are often written. In response to the objections, we have changed that as well.
The remainder of the story, the reporting on all fights in the Championship, has been reviewed in detail with the fight promoter and verified as true.
For those who do not recognize Mixed Martial Arts and fighting as a sport and find it objectionable, we respect that point of view as we also respect those who do favor it as a clean and viable sport. We report without advocacy for or against it; the games are legal and have their own audience, they are held in St. George on a periodic basis and they are viable for news coverage.
St. George News appreciates those who spoke up questioning this report and the opportunity to ensure the story’s accuracy. We strive for integrity and factual accuracy in all reporting, we welcome our readership fact-checking us as well.
– Joyce Kuzmanic, Editor-in-Chief.
ST. GEORGE – Crown Fighting Championship pounded the arena last night at the Dixie Center with 12 scheduled fights.
The best fight of the night was between Kyle Atkinson and Cris Rogers. This fight was nonstop action with both fighters giving and taking some big shots. Atkinson threw one of several big right hands that sent Rogers to the canvas. He followed up with a few more shots to the face to finish it, leaving Rogers bloody and dazed in the corner.
“I hit him with everything I had and he still wouldn’t go down and stay down, “ Atkinson said after the fight. “He can sure take a punch.”
The Main Event with Jake Heun and St. George Police officer Jarad Carson started off well. After only a few seconds the fight was finished, with Heun throwing blows to the head of Carson.
“The referee stopped the fight, made a slight pause, made a decision and called it as a TKO win for Jake Heun,” CFC Matchmaker, Aaron Reis, said. “Because of that, the pause, the Athletic Commission will probably review the decision.”
Reis said that video of the fight has been sent to the Athletic Commission in normal course.
The Co-Main Event between Mario Espinoza and Danny Davis, Jr., was over in the first round. Espinoza, picking up Davis, slammed him to the ground and took side control for only a few seconds. Davis then got the reversal and full mount. Somehow Espinoza just flipped Davis on his side then kept with it, ending up with Davis in a headlock and side control. After landing multiple blows to the face of Davis, the referee stopped it. The referee did give Davis plenty of time to get out of the situation but Espinoza held on for the win.
The bout between Mike Chrisman and Chris Kennedy was exciting as long as you weren’t Chrisman’s face. Chrisman took it to the ground with Kennedy in a chokehold. After Kennedy removed his neck from Chrisman’s vice, he gained side control and started laying down elbows until the bell rang. Showing respect for Chrisman, Kennedy took it to the ground and got side control again, after he laid down 5 or 6 good elbows splitting Chrisman’s eye open; Kennedy then followed that up with a few short jabs to the face and the referee stepped in and stopped the fight.
Jared Ehlers and Eric Tillotson put on a good fight with Ehlers getting the victory. Tillotson was finished in more ways than one:
“This is a young man’s sport, I started fighting at the age of 40 and now I am 44,” Tillotson said after the fight. “This was my last fight, I’m retiring.”
The bout between Alex Brown and Brandon Hart ended with Hart being the victor.
The second fight with Kyle Gilje and Derek Sherman was going well for Gilje, then he threw a few unintentional blows to the back of Sherman’s head and got himself disqualified.
Fight number three had Francisco Cervera against Ryan Phillips. This bout was one of the best of the night with both fighters landing some good head shots; the contest went the whole three rounds. Phillips won by unanimous decision.
The fourth fight of the night lasted all of 14 seconds as Frank Galvan delivered a one-punch knockout to Raymond Banda.
The Jared Painter and Mark Nay engagement was pretty one-sided in Painter’s favor. After taking Nay to the ground and then gaining full mount, Painter pummeled Nay’s face. Then, between rounds, Painter’s corner threw in the towel – leaving Nay and the crowd in disbelief.
The fight between Kevin Hamby and Drayton Woods was short, with Hamby just missing the face of Woods with his knee and taking a hard-left uppercut to the face that broke his nose and sent him to the floor. He tapped out a few seconds later after Woods got his back.
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Copyright 2012 St. George News.
Sorry, but there is something seriously wrong with these guys, the promotors and anyone who likes or wants to watch this crap!
Amen! REAL men don’t have to go around acting like roosters fighting in a cage to show off testosterone…. I’ll keep my man!
That’s your crappy opinion. You clearly don’t understand that these are professionals and this is a sport, not cock fighting, which you just implied.
I always laugh at ignorant idiots like Lacee and Karen here. First off, you both are making naive statements based on your assumptions. Secondly, it’s a sanctioned sport that millions of people watch. These are professional athletes competing in mixed martial arts. If you dislike combative sports than that is your choice. But it doesn’t mean that these athletes and the millions of fans who watch it are horrible. If that’s the case then you also have something against boxing, wrestling, karate, judo, etc. …most of which are Olympic sports. Just because you don’t like something doesn’t mean it’s dumb….just like your taste in men. How about if I call your “real man” you have a pathetic sack-less weenie who probably says “yes dear” to every whim that comes put of your mouth, most likely because he’s one chromosome shy of a male? Oh what’s that? You think that’s a real man? Well none of us don’t! How about you do us all a favor and keep your asinine opinions to yourself you misinformed dumb (probably ugly too) self-righteous jackass?
Sincerely,
The Rest of Us
Correction: meant to say “none of us do.” 🙂
P.s. Lacee and Karen are retarded.
I always laugh at ignorant people like Lacee and Karen here. First off, you both are making naive statements based on your assumptions. Secondly, it’s a sanctioned sport that millions of people watch. These are professional athletes competing in mixed martial arts. If you dislike combative sports than that is your choice. But it doesn’t mean that these athletes and the millions of fans who watch it are horrible. If that’s the case then you also have something against boxing, wrestling, karate, judo, etc. …most of which are Olympic sports. Just because you don’t like something doesn’t mean it’s dumb….just like your taste in men. How about you do us all a favor and keep your asinine opinions to yourself.
Sincerely,
The Rest of Us
*posted the second version in case Lacee or Karen were offended and needed to re-read the less harsh version. Lol
Karen, you must be referring to your self-produced amateur porn videos. Yea I thought they sucked too. I agree you need to quit that profession. Glad you came to the conclusion your stuff was crap. Whew!
F. U. b.
Your wrong! The police officer did not win. How do you get the main event wrong? Thanks a lot for covering the wrong info! And please learn MMA lingo before trying another fighting story.
The story doesn’t say the police officer Jarad Carson won. It says:
“The referee stepped in and stopped the fight, disqualifying Hune for the illegal punches.”
Does that clarify? If not, please let me know, I will verify with our reporter and correct errors as needed.
The author of this article must be blind, deaf and mentally impaired. Jake won the fight legally and did not deliver any illegal blows to Jarrad. (was announced as wInner and not DQ’d) Jarrad and Jake are great guys and friendly…and this jackass wannabe reporter has to twist facts to make it seem like Jake was some cheating jerk. Todd (reporter) should quit journalism immediately and go kill himself.
I will look into this, Chris – and make appropriate corrections.
Go kill himself? You certainly sound like an educated and worthwhile person to wish someone dead for not living up to your journalistic standards.
Not sure you wrote this mis-informed story but I suggest you do your research before print this sort of slander. No one was assalted and Jake Heun was not disqualified. He won the Fight.
I don’t see the slander, Jennifer – but it seems some correction to the story may be in order. I will look into it.
Erroneous Joyce! First of all, it says “assault with illegal punches” which to me sounds like a felony…and secondly it’s bad press for the sport. Makes it seem like it was some bar fight. Additionally, when someone is disqualified in a sanctioned fight, it means the other athlete won. So yes it is falsely reporting a win. Just because Jake isn’t from St. George doesn’t mean he deserved this libel. This is complete garbage. Jake was friendly and courteous to his opponent outside the cage, and the CFC put on a great event. It’s sad people like Todd, who wrote this fictitious garbage, are allowed to report.
We have looked into this and revised the story, as explained in detail by my editorial comment at the top of the story. We do thank you for commenting frankly.
Thanks Joyce. The outcome of the fight was still an official win declaration for Jake Heun. His hand was raised and he was officially declared the winner. The reason there was controversy was because the ref stopped the fight and was talking to Jake. He stopped it because it was over, not because Jake was hitting him in back of the head. The commission is reviewing it to see if Jake was doing anything to break the rules intentionally after a warning from the ref. As of right now there is nothing to report but the win. Jumping to conclusions or collecting confused statements from fans in the crowd, who are not officials, is not facts or a sanctioned result of the fight. Again, nothing malicious or illegal happened.
First try to spell the names of those you report on correctly ; it will lend a little bit of credibility to your paper. Second, before anyone is defamed in public forum, fact checking should be a rule of thumb.
How sad that your ‘further investigation’ into erroneous reporting is a weak excuse and doesn’t right the wrong.
You should be ashamed for your newspaper and your profession and pray Jake HEUN (spelled correctly) doesn’t take legal action against you.
I see changes were made to the story, but it still implies wrongdoing on Jake’s part. “…[The fight] was going well” up until the fight ended “with Jake delivering blows to the head.” First off…going well until what happened? For who? His opponent? That’s bias and implies that Jake did something wrong and things were not well from an ethical perspective. If that’s not what was meant, then yes, things were not going well for his opponent since he lost. Lastly, blows to the head are legal with the exception of blows to the back of the head after a reg gives a warning at minimum.
Todd Tischler is the WORST reporter (if you want to call him that) in Utah. Todd, sir…it is because if people like yourself that honest journalism has to deal with the stereotype of the modern media. I read your original article on this subject prior to the half dozen “correction” and updates, and I have to say that I think you are a slime ball of the worst kind and have no conscience. Not only do you think it’s funny to try to ruin the good reputation of others in a malicious manner, but you incite hatred and animosity amongst the people reading your fictitious trash. Furthermore, you can’t even write well. Is St. George that starving for an extra journalist that they must hire a lying turd like you to invent news that’s not even entertaining? You are a self-serving oxygen thief sir. The lowest of the low. I rank you with the terrorists and felons of the world. Please leave this profession before you further discredit the StG press! Joyce, can you fire him or something? Please?
I’m not alone here…trust me. Lots of people read these articles, and I guarantee we don’t want to see him or read his libelous 3rd grader level “articles” again!
I too read the original article and the “corrected” version. And for as many updates and corrections that were required to get the story somewhat right, I am predicting that readers will not be reading anymore stories by this so-called reporter. Sorry Joyce, but I got to go with the rest of the crowd, I was there ringside and what I saw (all the fights), commentor “Chris” is correct on all counts. I’m sure Mr. Tischler is nice person….just not reporter material.
St. George News has always been and is committed to honesty in journalism.
We engage and cultivate excellence in our contributors at many levels, it is a process and my goal is that it always be so as we grow.
This story had problems and we have sought to correct them with immediacy.
I have spoken with, met with and extended apologies to parties offended by the errors addressed at the top of the story.
I have examined the ways that our reporter erred and I have concluded that he did not have malicious intent or an agenda of any bias. He made mistakes; he owns them and St. George News owns the responsibility for them. We are transparent in the process and we do not mute your voices of criticism.
We trust that our efforts earn your continuing confidence.
As I told Jake Heun and the partners of Crown Fighting Championship in personal conversations and meetings today, we are dismayed and apologize for the mistakes. Their pride in the MMA and defense of its respectability as both a national and state sanctioned sport are admirable. They are all gentlemen and I am pleased to have made their acquaintance even under this circumstance.
Sincerely,
Joyce Kuzmanic
Editor-in-Chief
Correct me if I’m wrong, but Kyle Atkinson beat Cris in the 1st round, not the 2nd. The ref did stop the fight at one point due to an illegal hit thrown by Cris (which seems to be his fighting style if you’ve read about his previous fight, which he should have been suspended for). Maybe the next time you have someone cover a fight event, they should have some mma knowledge to avoid issues like this.
i dont know what fight the author was watching, but the fight was not going well for gilje. He got on top after threw a couple of good shots to my face and when i tried to give him my back (because my ground game was way better than his) he repeatidly hit me in the back of the head. i won the first round and the second round was close until the illegal shots were thrown. if there are any questions about this the fight is posted online and would love to hear about the fight was going so well for him. watch some more fights mr. reporter and get a good understanding of what the sport is and how one wins. clearly this is the worst written ive ever read and you need to consider writting the classified or obituaries. jerk
Quit fighting while you still can. You write like a 3rd grader. Any more blows to the head will just make it worse.