The Fight for Wrestling a success in SLO

Fundraising event for Mustangs wrestling program draws former UFC champ Liddell

The Fight for Wrestling lost one of its signature fights Saturday but still ended with a signature moment, and inside Mott Gym, the reaction to the first mixed martial arts event in San Luis Obispo was an overall positive one.

The marquee moment came when main-event winner Cruz Gomez mounted lightweight opponent Eddie Hoch in the center of the octagon and began to pound away.

Former Ultimate Fighting champion and Cal Poly Hall of Famer Chuck Liddell jumped out of his seat to cheer on his friend Gomez, and it seemed a good portion of the estimated 1,500 in attendance were cheering on Liddell’s animated antics as well as the fight.

Gomez won by decision after needing the third-round comeback to pull ahead in the last of seven professional bouts.

Eight were originally scheduled, but the professional debut of Cal Poly and San Luis Obispo High grad Casey Noland was canceled after her opponent, Jenny Trujillo, backed out with an injury just prior to Friday’s weigh-in.

I didn’t want to be here in heels, Noland told the crowd. I wanted to be here with my gloves on punching somebody in the face very hard.

Noland, whose father wrestled with the Cal Poly team in the 1970s, was a main draw for the charity event — meant to raise money for the Cal Poly wrestling team — because of her local ties.

The timing of Fight for Wrestling was significant as the Mustangs are in danger of losing two Pac-10 Conference foes to budget cuts for next season. UC Davis dropped wrestling and three other sports. Cal State Bakersfield did the same but has given the Roadrunners the chance to fund raise for their full budget.

With Stephen Neal — a former Cal State Bakersfield two-time NCAA heavyweight champion and current New England Patriots guard — helping the fundraising effort, the program reportedly raised more than $100,000 at a dinner auction last week.

Neal was at Mott Gym on Saturday — along with fellow celebrities Liddell, Lou Ferrigno and up-and-coming MMA star Urijah Faber — to support Cal Poly wrestling, and Neal believes the Roadrunners will be back.

I wouldn’t have been fighting if I didn’t think we were going to get the program back, Neal said. I think we’re pretty close. The community stepped up and showed they want all four sports back at Cal State Bakersfield, and I hope the administration takes notice.

It’s too early to tell how much money Cal Poly was able to raise with Fight for Wrestling. Organizers were optimistically hoping for $50,000 to $100,000. It could even be significantly lower, but Mustangs athletic director Alison Cone seemed encouraged.

I think it’s been very successful, Cone said. It’s obviously one that has a lot of interest in the local community. The fans turned out. It’s been very professionally run, well-controlled. I think it will raise some money for our wrestling program, and it did a lot to raise awareness about our wrestling program.

Fight promoter Scott Adams, a former Cal Poly wrestler and co-founder of World Extreme Cagefighting, put the event together with former Mustangs wrestling coach Lennis Cowell.

He said his group is already looking forward to bringing another MMA event to Mott Gym in the future.

We really hit a home run tonight, Adams said. It was an excellent event. The show was great, we raised money for Cal Poly athletics, and everybody seemed really pleased.

This was a great introduction that this is a great sport.

Read entire article…