Remi "Bam Bam" Morvan

It’s been 8 days since the best MMA event in Ottawa/Gatineau history has ended. Wreck MMA: Strong and Proud was by far the most exciting and electrifying event to ever take place in the area. I’m very proud and feel very privileged to have had the opportunity to fight on this card.

It’s been over a week and I apologize to all the readers for my delay in blogging. Part of it was that I need time to find out what went wrong in the fight. Fortunately I was able to order it from gofightlive.tv and watch the entire fight right away. The problem was that after watching it a few times. I still didn’t know what went wrong. After a long search I realized but never wanted to admit it was that the problem was inside me. The drive the force to push forward just wasn’t there when I needed it. That was by far the worse 3^rd round I have ever had.

This was my 13^th professional fight which has put my record to 7 wins with 6 losses. I’m 1-5 in my last six fights. Some might think to call it quits but that could not be farther from the truth. I will regroup and I am going to head back to BJJ competition. I hope to compete in 2 BJJ tournaments in the next 6 months and come back to MMA at the end of September for Wreck MMA’s first card in Ontario.

Fight Night Recap:

My Fight

Round 1

The fight started out well he ended up on top but I was not worried at that point. I was able to keep him on the defence for a good portion of the round. Dimitri was playing very smart and throwing a lot of little shots and trying to rack up points with the judges while keeping me distracted. Dimitri had obviously done his homework on his submission defence and did a very good job defending. Mid way through the round we entered into a scramble that saw Dimitri throw two knees to my head. I know that he did not throw them with intent to hit my head but with his aggressive style he just threw the knees and I happen to turn into them. After watching the video it looks like I went out for a moment although I don’t personally remember being out. After regaining my composure I was able to tie him back up and end the round on my back still throwing up some submission attempts. I would score the round a draw but clearly see why the judges gave him that round. He was on top for almost the entire round and showed some aggressive moments even though he was defending submissions for most of the round. Submission attempts don’t score on many judges’ score cards.

Round 2

I knew after spending the first round on my back that I need to spend the second round on top. That is exactly what I did securing a number of takedowns and sinking in a deep rear naked choke. While I was applying the choke Dimirti did a great job to and turned into me. I had to make a slit second decision to roll on my back to get a better chance to finish the choke or let him out and keep top position. I kept top position and ended the round on his back. That was my round by a 10-9 in my opinion.

Round 3

This is was by far the worse round I have ever fought in all my 13 fights. I remember telling Pat before the round started that I was going to fight for top position but I never did. Something wasn’t right and Dimitri controlled the entire round landing some nice shots and controlling top position. This round is easy to explain because I did nothing to win it and Dimirti had the better round. I would score it 10-9 for Dimitri.

Recap: I see how all the judges scored the fight for Dimitri. I am not upset about the decision. I am upset at myself for that poor performance in the 3^rd round. The fight was mine to take and I knew it. Dimitri fought a great fight. The illegal knees may have played a part in my performance but we will never know for sure. That should not take away from dimitri’s win. That was the refs job to acknowledge the knees and I know Dimitri had no intention on kneeing me in the head.

Team recap.

I’m not upset at the decision in my fight but I am upset at the decision that took place in the second fight of the night. OAMA fighter Chris St-Jean fought a great fight and got robbed on the score cards. Chris inflicted more damage and was the more aggressive fighter. His opponent may have had the control but did nothing with it. Keep your head up Chris. That is 3 rounds of experience and you won’t leave it to the judges next time.

Up next was one of my Muay Thai instructors Kru Jeff Harrison. Jeff is a very underestimated fighter. I train with him every week and let me tell you. There is no one more technically aggressive then Jeff. With that said Jeff did not get to show any of his striking skills. Instead Kru Jeff was taken down and wasted no time to getting top position and submitting his opponent in the 1^st round. Jeff is showing everyone that he is a well rounded fighter and that if you don’t want to stand with him then you better be ready for a war on the ground.

Lastly was Kru Mark’s Co-Main event fight. A lot of talk was done by Mark’s opponent and Mark was ready to shut him up. I missed the first round due to my recuperation back stage but I was able to catch the last minute of the fight were Mark took his opponents back and made him pay with vicious punches that eventually led to Mark sinking in a fight ending Rear Naked Choke with 5 seconds left in the 2^nd round. Mark’s opponent spit out his mouth piece and tried to get out of a bad situation by attempting to convince the ref that a mouth guard on the floor deserves a stoppage. Sadly for Mark’s opponent the rules of MMA do not work like that. Great fight from Mark and now he’s off to retirement and will train in the midst of opening a new gym at some point. Good luck bro… Hope to see you come out of retirement sooner then later.

I want to thank my team, trainers, coaches, fiancé, family and especially my son who everyday after training or after a poor performance can put a smile on my face. I’m very blessed to have all the support from OAMA, my friends and family. Love you all and I will be back refocused and ready to begin a new journey in MMA.

To end this record blog (record being the length). I take comfort in my loss by reading this quote below.

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” Theodore Roosevelt

Hi everyone,

Been a little over a week since my last post. I apologize for that. It’s been a busy week let me tell ya….

Last week I went down with Mark Holst to the Montreal wrestling club. The place is packed with great wrestlers and many of them are my weight. It was a great training session that lasted about 2 hours. We wrestled pretty much straight through the 2 hours with little breaks in between. I learned alot including how to get taken down. haha. I hope to go back on a regular basis after this fight. Right now I will stay away from any injuries seeing as I’m 100%.

Training is going real good and my lungs feel like they could run a marathon. Although I know I couldn’t.. lol Jeff, Mark and myself have been training hard and sparring hard. I train with these guys every night and they are top notch Muay Thai guys so i’m ready for what my opponent has to bring.

I’m starting my decent to 135lbs and hope to make this the easiest cut to date. I have James from Free Form Fitness sending me my diet every week and monitoring my weight. Lets hope this results in a great cut and rebound for the next day.

Some big news for next week event is that Wreck MMA will air live on gofightlive.com for $9.99. So if you can’t make it live then check it out there. If you miss the Internet show then you will be able to see all the fights on the Score Ottawa channel 52 a few weeks later. This is big news for Wreck MMA.

So don’t miss the live event because it’s going to be crazy. Two new fights have been added and they are awesome . Canada’s top prospect Jordan Mein will fight former UFC contender and veteran of over 80 fights Joe Riggs.

I’ll update you all on my weight cut and the final prep for this coming fight…

Cheers…

Hi everyone,

There is only 3 weeks left before Wreck MMA Strong and Proud. This event will help support the troops yet again. Wreck always associates themselves with a great cause for each one of their shows. This one is no exception. Tickets are flying off the shelf as the promoter anticipates a sell out well before the day of the event. So if you wait to long you will miss out on this HUGE show.

Jeff, Mark and myself have been training real hard to make sure we all come out victorious on Jan 28th so please get a hold of me tickets and see our hard work displayed in the cage. In a few days Wreck MMA will announce some big news and big changes to the fight card which will only benefit the fans. So please don’t wait for fight day to get a hold of me for tickets because I won’t be able to help you.

Tonight Mark and myself are heading down to the Montreal Wrestling club to train some … well Wrestling of course. I’ll let you all know how that went this week in my next post.

I’ll also be training with James from Free Form Fitness this week to make sure I’m up to were I need to be for this fight. He keeps close tabs on me and my diet. I hope to make this the easiest cut yet and get in the ring at 100%…..

Keep a close eye on the site guys in the next few days for some more news and update from my training in Montreal.

Cheers.

I had a great time over the holidays but the great time were accompanied by some great training. I had the chance this week alone to train with Kru Jeff 3 times while meeting with a new strength/nutrition trainer at Free Form Fitness. I have been able to train trough the holidays and feel great.

The fights are less then 4 weeks away but i’m ready. The WRECK card is looking awesome, this will be the best fight card to hit the area in a long time. I have tickets so hit me up on facebook or by email and i’ll meet up with you to make sure you get tickets and don’t miss out on the show.

I’ll be back at OAMA tomorrow as the club reopens and I’ll be back into full training with Boot, Steph and Jeff for our upcoming fights.

Happy new year to  everyone and watch out becaue 2011 will be spectacular for the OAMA MMA team…

Can’t wait..

Cheers

Remi

Hi everyone,

Christmas has crept up on us all and is finally here. I’m excited to get some time to visit my family back in Kapuskasing over the break but I will be just as eager to get back and into training.

The fight is 6 weeks away now and I have been putting in some hard work and hard sparring in at OAMA. I’ll be away for about 3 days then it’s going to be some even harder training with Kru Jeff. Jeff has a love for fighting like no other and it makes a huge difference in training when he is involved in our training camp as a fighter. Boots, Steph, Jeff and I are ready to go and can’t wait to put on a great show.

Quick Notes.

Check out Mark and Steph’s websites. The links are added at the bottom of this page.

Also if you have a facebook account then please check out the Wreck MMA Interview I did last week.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/video/video.php?v=471272050266&oid=272001460789  

Until next time everyone… keep a close eye on the WRECK MMA news for some big announcements with the show and some changes in my training.

Cheers….

Hi everyone,

Quick note on the week. I have been having a blast training hard and teaching a little bit of Jiu Jitsu at Carling. I’ll be teaching a few classes tonight before I train some MMA. Last night was one of the best nights of training that I have had in a long time. Started out with some boxing followed by some BJJ randori with some of OAMA top guys and top competitors. Then I jumped right into Thai sparring. Aside from having Jeff beat me up around the room I had some great training with a few of the guys including Zev who helped me really push the pace. We trained hard for 4 rounds with Zev training my body with some crazy body shots and body kicks. I can’t have a repeat of the last fight.

There will be some big news coming soon for Wreck so keep your eyes on the site for that. Mark, Steph, Jeff and myself are training hard and will be putting on a great show on January 29th.

Get your tickets NOW…. don’t wait ti’ll January for the show to sell out.

Cheers

Hi everyone,

Quick trip recap seeing as this weekend is my son’s 1st birthday I’m pretty busy.

Just got back from a nice break in the Bahamas and enjoyed every minute of it. Along the way I met a few crew members with some Muay Thai back ground. Hladen Jakovljevic was a 2004 thai boxing champion in his contry of Serbia. He will soon be able to become a US citizen and get back to competition. I also met Prawech from Thailand. He was a really nice guy who took right away to Nathan. Prawech was telling us that he fought from age 8 to 21 to help his family make money. It’s funny how wearing an MMA shirt will help you find friends around the world. I love the way the sport is growing. I added a few pictures below and Training will resume on Monday as we have to ramp everything up for the next two months.

I’ll post soon about the training as we are 4 oama fighters getting ready for Wreck MMA in January. Should be a hard few months.

Cheers.

Hi everyone,

Wreck MMA’s next event is shaping up to be the best card Ottawa has seen in a long time. There will be 2 UFC vets in the ring as the Main and Co Main events. Mark Holst and Jason Day will both be getting in the Wreck MMA ring to start their road back to the UFC. Wreck MMA is becoming one of Canada’s top promotions for UFC talent. Wreck MMA’s Bantamweight Champion Ian Loveland has just signed with the UFC and with Mark and Jason back in the local scene it won’t be long before they are back in the  big show.

The tickets are now on sale so send me an email or a message on facebook if you want tickets. I’m away for a week starting tomorrow and I will be back on Friday December 3rd with a boat load of tickets. The show is in a small venue which only holds 1200 people so don’t wait and miss out on the show.

My training has been coming along real well and I’m looking forward to this week to relax because starting Dec 3rd it’s all about training.

Till next week everyone take care. I’ll try to upload some picks of my trip which will include some gym sessions and some sprint session from the Cruise Ship. I might be far away from Ottawa but my mind will always be on the fight.

Cheers

The next Wreck MMA event is coming together real well. I will be fighting Dimitri Waardenburg from Speedy Gym in Granby Qc. Dimitri has a  6-4 MMA record and has been on a tear in his last 4 fights. I’m excited for this challenge because Dimitri is a very skilled fighter who brings alot of forward pressure in his fights. I have already started my hard training with two sparring sessions this week already. This training camp will be crazy because we will be 4 OAMA fighters on the card. UFC vet Mark Holst will be fighting along with Steph Bernadel, Jeff Harrison and myself  who will all be representing OAMA on January 28th. With all of us getting ready together you can bet that the intensity in the gym will rise to a new level. I’ m looking forward to the next few months with my team and bring home another 4-0 night just like we did in 2008.

The fights are almost all inked and ready to go. All but 2 or 3 fights for the next Wreck MMA event have been signed. 

MAIN EVENT
Jason ‘Dooms’ Day (BDB Martial Arts, Calgary) vs. Craig ‘Farmer’ Brown (FIT MMA, Ottawa)

CO-MAIN EVENT
Markhaile ‘Showtime’ Wedderburn (Team Sufferaz, Toronto) vs. Mark ‘Boots’ Holst (OAMA, Ottawa)

Nathan ‘Gunner’ Gunn (Leading Edge Gym, Thunder Bay) vs. Louis ‘The Joker’ Carle (FIT MMA/Tristar, Ottawa)
Dimitri Waardenburg (Speedy Gym, Granby) vs. Remi ‘Bam Bam’ Morvan (OAMA, Ottawa)
Rory McDonell (Pura BJJ and Evolution Martial Arts and Fitness, Hamilton) vs. Jesse Ronson (Round One, Cambridge)
Amer Hussein (Bruckmann’s MMA, Oshawa) vs. Mustafa ‘Mufasa’ Khalil (Ronin MMA, Ottawa)
Alka Matewa (Team Tugboat, Belgium) vs. Peter Montrait (Mecca, Toronto)
Brett Biederman (Iron Will, Brantford) vs. Jeffrey Laughren (RAMA, Rockland)
Yves Madore (N1 Martial Arts, Ottawa) vs. Wes Ranger (Florin’s MMA, Kanata)
Christopher St-Jean (Sudbury MMA, Sudbury) vs. Marc Lefebvre (RAMA, Rockland)
TBA vs. Stephane Bernadel (OAMA, Ottawa)
Vito Attanasi (Boreland Combat Team, Georgetown) vs. Jeff Harrison (OAMA, Ottawa)
TBA vs. Anna Barone (FIT MMA, Ottawa)

Cheers everyone…

Well it’s time to hit the mats running. I will jump back into sparring today for the first time in over a month. My last fight was just over a 32 days ago and I have barely had the chance/ability to train. I have taught a few classes over the last few weeks with some of the guys being away to Brazil. Hammer, Pat and Sami are back today and I will take that opportunity to get back at it.

I feel like my injury is at about 90% right now as it still bothers me in some positions but with my next fight only a few months away I need to get a head start on things. I’m still without an opponent seeing as the proposed one declined to fight so a new opponent search is underway. I’m looking to change many things in my game over the next few months and come out a much better version of my old self. My first few fights it seems like I was going for the finishes more then I have been lately. I think it showed in my last fight as I was waiting patiently for my opponent to make a mistake instead of creating them. If you wait for a mistake and your opponent doesn’t make one then you end up with a loss. My opponents have caught on to my patient technical game and I need to change that. Risk equals reward is what I’m hoping to bring into my next fight.

Steph Bernadel is going to war this Saturday against an undefeated fighter at Ringside MMA in Montreal. I spoke to Mark about Steph’s training and Mark said that he has never seen Steph in shape like this before and that he has never been this sharp either. I expect it to be a long night for Steph’s opponent. Keep an eye on the site for some info and pictures of training and changes that I’ll implement into my day to day routine.

Cheers.