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Ring of Combat will start the 2026 slate at their regular spot in Atlantic City’s Tropicana Casino and Hotel Resort on Friday night, March 6th as ROC 89: Worth vs Ducharme takes center stage. As usual, the Ring of Combat 89 fight card is loaded with some of the top regional talent. I will be cageside along with Professor Jay Regalbuto at the commentary table as Louis Neglia and his team bring the caged violence to numerous outlets, including Amazon Prime, as well as a free stream on ToroTV.net.
Neglia has made a habit of providing the forum for mixed martial artists to display their prowess and go on to even larger stages like the UFC. More than 150 ROC alumni have gone on to the next level and on Friday night, we are going to get a glimpse of multiple fighters who may very well follow that same path.
Main Event
The matchmakers had to go to California to find a willing participant to go to work with the 4-o Devan Worth. Worth was a boy when he discovered MMA on TV. He had his mom take him to join a gym and started training seriously. During this time, he was doing his homework and seeing what the smart move was when he really did get close to taking real sanctioned fights. He aced that project as he joined the well-respected and accredited Bellmore Kickboxing and MMA. Currently, Devan is on a 7-fight win AND finish streak as he has dominated his last year of amateur ranks, started 4-0 as a pro and now is looking for the championship in the newly created ROC 175 lb weight class.
I reached out to Devan to check out how he was feeling and got to speak with him as well as his manager, Elijah Rivera. Rivera is very sharp as he is a former PA state wrestling champion and has been on the mat with many killers himself. Worth is finally happy to get a fight as the struggle of finding willing opponents has been brutal. Rivera tells me of his guy Devan Worth.
“Nobody is working harder. I promise you that. Devan is relentless and is as dedicated as you can possibly be. I do believe that this will be a big year for him, but we will handle one fight at a time.”
Dominic “Do Harm” Ducharme will make his way east from Cali with his 3-1 record and try to spoil the Devan Worth celebration party in AC. Ducharme has fought at Uriah Faber’s promotion and 2 of his 3 wins were by finish. Much respect to any fighter who knowingly travels into enemy territory where he knows just about everybody is rooting against him.
Main Card
I’ve called the last two fights of Ryan Sipavicius and he has been nothing short of spectacular. Ryan has finished all 3 of his amateur opponents in the 1st round. His absolutely loaded team at Tiger Schulmann MMA agreed that it was time for a step up and Sipavicius now has his pro license and will be meeting up with Georgian and Longo MMA trained Giorgi Lomtadze. Lomtadze is coming off of a KO in his final amateur bout and now will join Sipavicius for 5-minute rounds instead of 3.
The Tiger Schulmann Fight Team will be very active this night as they have one of the deepest teams I have ever seen in my 20 years of coverage. Ryan’s teammate DJ Tirelli is also making his professional debut as 6 members of their squad are scheduled to make the walk to the cage. I had a nice phone call with Ryan and got to ask him about both moving into the pro level and his camp and he tells MyMMANews…
“I’ve been with Julio Arce since I was 3 years old. Being able to have such great leadership and friendship has been so important, not just for me, but the whole team. The guys that have been there are making sure we aren’t making the same mistakes they made and everybody is in this together. I feel kind of like I don’t want to let anyone down. I’m not just fighting for myself. This camp we also cross trained with Carnicella MMA and once a week we went over to Pilinio Cruz’s gym. I feel like this was the best camp ever and the whole team is well prepared.”
Ryan has a lot of high-quality people around him and he is taking advantage of it the best he can. He is a fun and exciting fighter to watch. I’m very much looking forward to enjoying his story and journey into much deeper waters.
One of the more interesting stories on the fight card is Dan Fiorentino. Dan is a 37-year-old who found jiu-jitsu over 5 years ago and is proud to say that 2 of his kids are also with him training at The Shark Tank. His youngest is a newborn and not quite ready for the gi. Fiorentino is a bartender at Lace, which is located inside the Tropicana at Stilletto’s who has been one of Ring of Combat‘s sponsors for years now. I spoke with Dan to see why he is now finally getting in the cage at 37 and he tells me…
“I’ve trained for years now, and someone heard me say at an after party to get me a fight. Well next thing I know is I’m being introduced to Lou Neglia and he went out and found me an opponent and here we are. The medicals and jump through hoops cycle that the Athletic Commission puts you through has been tedious, but this is something I wanted to do on a personal level to challenge myself and it’s finally here. Bill and the guys at the Shark tank have been so great and professional. It’s been a great experience so far.”
Brooklyn MMA‘s head coach, Terry Gold and I also shared a phone call. Our subject was his welterweight Dell Ali-Matthews. Dell is making his pro debut and Gold had nothing but wonderful things to tell me about him…
“Dell has come to me about a year ago and was already a Serra blackbelt. We have bonded and he has been such a great leader and sort of like a team captain. He has been a huge asset to our team, and he is also a dynamic striker. We are expecting a big night from Dell. He’s worked for it and is in a good place.”
Do not miss this fight card. If you can’t be in Atlantic city, watch this event in multiple spots for no cost. Doors open at 8. First bell is 8:30 p.m.
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