Cavallaro Adds UFC Flavor to WCF's Second Event
By Derek Constable

WILMINGTON, Ma. -- The countdown has begun for Joe Cavallaro's second World Championship Fighting event, and only two shows into the company's brief history it looks as if the WCF is raising the bar for what it takes to put on a mixed martial arts' event in Massachusetts.

Ultimate Fighting Championship veteran Dan Lauzon is headlining the event and will join many other exciting fighters from the area including Reality Fighting Welterweight and Middleweight Champions; Nate LaMotte (170) and Nate Kittredge (185).

It's a quality fight card which includes many of the Northeast's most talented up-and-coming fighters, some of whom may even become future fighters for the UFC one day, and who better to judge such an assumption than UFC President Dana White -- the guest of honor for Friday night's fights.

But the star-studded guest list doesn't stop there … before the fights at 5 p.m., fans will get a chance to attend an autograph session with UFC Fighters Marcus Davis, Kenny Florian, Tamdan McCrory, Jorge Rivera, Alex Karalexis, Sean Gannon and Murilo Rua.

The fights will take place Friday in the Shriners' Auditorium in Wilmington for the second time and there are some real good ones to look forward to. For instance, Kittredge and Ronnie Wuest in the middleweight division should deliver punches in bunches.

Despite losing by first-round KO in his last fight to a perfectly-placed punch, Wuest proved at the first WCF event that he can handle some serious punishment; he also proved that he can dish it out when he survived a beating and finished his fight with a win by TKO.

Kittredge is a brawler. He's got good wrestling skills and good takedowns, but at 5'8" - 5'9" he's more than comfortable with his power and striking, and doesn't mind just standing with a guy until one of them drops.

This should be a good old-fashioned slugfest and end with someone pounding out a win by TKO.

Another fight, which has been a long-time coming, is Travis "The Villain" Lerchen and Nuri Shakir. These two welterweights were originally supposed to fight months ago on the Global Championship Fighting card at Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Ct., but when Shakir missed weight -- and the entire event got cancelled due to too many fighters not making weight or passing physicals -- the match-up fell through the cracks and never got rescheduled.

Since that time Lerchen is coming back from a loss by KO and Shakir has still been showing up a little heavy for his fights, most recently against former Cage Fury Fighting Championship Lightweight Champion Jim Miller at the Ring of Combat in Atlantic City, N.J.

Shakir is known for his striking, has a healthy judo background and is the hometown favorite, but Lerchen is looking to make a name for himself and is very knowledgeable in the submission department.

Both these fighters need a notch in the wins' column badly. Shakir must prove he's still a force to be reckoned with at 170 and Lerchen needs to show everyone that he got KO'd in the first round because he made a mistake and that he's learned from it.

The other face on the WCF billboard, beside Lauzon and White's mugs, is Nate LaMotte, whose been riding a win streak for four fights now. He's a well-rounded fighter with knockout power whose No. 1 attribute is his toughness. He has KO-power, technically-sound jiu-jitsu/submissions and is an excellent wrestler -- but the reason he wins fights is because there's no quit in him and when it's time to go to work he likes smashing people in the face.

Originally scheduled to fight Lauzon in the main event was Andrew Calandrelli who suffered an injury while preparing for this fight. Lauzon and Calandrelli had been engaging in a heated battle of words via internet forums, but luckily for fight fans, the undefeated Frank Latina has agreed to step-in for Calandrelli in the main event.

Latina has good stand-up and excellent ground game, but a much shorter list of fights than his opponent. Even with an undefeated record of 4-0, he enters the fight an underdog, but with the UFC President sitting ringside for his fight what better night to try and pull off an upset?

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Dan Lauzon (front) at Thursday's Weigh-Ins

Scheduled match-ups:

Dan Lauzon (159.5) vs. Frank LaTina (157)
Jason Bennett (140.5) vs. Henrique Bicalho (140.5)
Nate Kittredge (186) vs. Ronnie Wuest (183)
Travis Lerchen (171) vs. Nuri Shakir (170.5)
John Benoit (167.5) vs. Justin Hammerstrom (171.5)
Dan Duarte (144) vs. Ken Stone (147)

- - - Intermission - - -

Nate LaMotte (170.5) vs. Stephen Stengel (170.5)
Justin Homsey (144) vs. John Franchi (145)
*Ryan Hackney (179.5) vs. Reid Homer (as of 7 p.m. had not weighed-in)
Dan Bonnell (146) vs. Mark Giove (144)
Greg Croteau (154.5) vs. Aaron Chidester (153.5)
Luke Czekalski (147) vs. Larry Kerrigan (148)
Sean Radcliffe (153.5) vs. Jose Lopez (155)

*Fight may be scratched from the card