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Video interview with Liam O’Toole below:
MMA Philly style
Philadelphia MMA is currently experiencing the greatest time in their history. Besides Eddie Alvarez winning the UFC lightweight championship in 2016, Philly’s Sean Brady had the most iconic moment for the city of brotherly love in the cage this past Saturday night. Brady, on short notice, went across the pond to #1 ranked Leon Edwards homeland, and demolished him the entire fight before choking him out in the 4th round. Brady has shot up from #5 in the world at 170 to the #1 contender to Belal Muhammad, who holds the belt. Brady’s teammate, Joe “Bodybagz” Pyfer was scheduled in the co-main event this week against Kevin Gastellum in Mexico before becoming ill and having to be pulled from the fight. And their other teammate, Patrick Sabbatini has the co-main event on April 5th at the Apex. The city is on fire when it comes to mixed martial arts, and this has trickled down to the regional scene where Art of War Cage Fighting continues to host many of these talented men and women who are chasing dreams.
Marquez MMA & family
These three UFC fighters all call Marquez MMA home. Their room on the 4th floor in NE Philly is as deep and talented as there is in the sport. Multiple other UFC fighters as well as a giant group of up-and-coming fighters gather here to work and help each other get better. I’m blessed to be about 20 minutes from them and always appreciate the warm welcome when I show up to observe or check-in with some fighters who are in camp preparing for battle. Marquez MMA also has several affiliated schools in the Philadelphia area such as Semper Fi MMA, where I ventured to catch up with Liam O’Toole. O’Toole is set to face Francis Trivelli in a rematch whom he defeated in his debut in December of 2023 at AOW 33.
The Rematch
In their first fight, O’Toole took down Trivelli and was able to win by controlling the position much of the time. It was a three-round fight with each round only being 2 minutes and no ground and pound other than to the body. This time it will be much different. Trivelli, who we4nt on to win the AOW title at bantamweight, will be defending that belt, and the ruleset will be advanced amateur, which is basically pro rules but with 3-minute rounds. Fran is 21 and Liam is 23. They have a little history even before their original match-up as they have crossed paths on the wrestling circuit. O’Toole is a fun fighter to watch. He brings a lot of energy and much of that is from his fans who are among the loudest in the building every time he fights. This one is going to be crazy good. I think very highly of both young men. Marquez MMA Coach James Lyons tells about Liam…
“Liam has improved dramatically since that fight. He was 0-0. Fran was 2-0. I thought it was a good learning experience for Liam and also with the ruleset, it didn’t really benefit him. Now with the pro-style rules, the ground and pound is in play and I thought he had those opportunities the first time but was not allowed to capitalize because of that. He offers a variety of finishing abilities here.”
You can check out our interview on the link above.
Art of War Cage Fighting 41 goes off on April 5th at the Valley Forge (PA) Casino. Doors open at 6. First bell at 7. If you can’t make it to the event, it will be available on a PPV stream at the Starfund App.
Stay right here at MyMMANews as I will have several more interviews and articles on this stacked event.
Below photos by William McKee for Art of War Cage Fighting
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