175 pound Phil Stroffolino takes on 290 pound Frank Amalfitano in HooknShoot’s first ever ‘absolute’ (no weight) final match, with no rules.

Winning single night tournaments has made legends of ordinary men!

Winning a tournament where you fight twice or more in one night is a huge accomplishment that takes a tremendous amount of heart and determination, the kind of heart and determination that very few have!

When I think of this the first fighter that comes to mind is Phil Stroffolino.

The unassuming 5′ 4″ 170lb computer programmer / video game designer, a legitimate genius with an IQ of 196 was the last person you would ever expect to be a fighter.

In 1997 Stroffolino entered a closed door Open Weight tournament that featured a variety of competitors including professional fighters and some very accomplished athletes.

Stroffolino was the smallest man to enter in the tournament

The cavalcade of names to pass through HOOKnSHOOT’s doors in those days read like a Rolodex of serial murderers.

It was different before big money invaded the sport, back when the minor leagues and the major leagues were largely one in the same. Dave Menne rampaged his way to HOOKnSHOOT’s first lightweight championship.

Yves Edwards and Aaron Riley waged Osborne’s first superstar rivalry across two classic brawls. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira debuted on American soil in the middle of Evansville, of all places, and smashed some poor Midwestern boy.

Chris Lytle, Ian Freeman, and Jorge Rivera made cameos, and a former defensive end named Frank Mir figured he’d scratch an itch and give this whole fighting thing a try.

And before women’s MMA ever established itself as a monster in its own right, Osborne carried the sword for the fairer sex largely out of his own pocket.

HOOKnSHOOT eventually became synonymous with its all-female tournaments, which began in 2002 and ran through the end of the decade. Though they were rarely financially viable, Osborne never wavered in providing the women an outlet that equaled that of the men