Battle of the Badges FDNY vs. NYPD Amateur Boxing Event Set for November 22nd

Battle of the Badges Annual NYPD vs. FDNY Amateur Boxing Event

RFA RETURNS TO MILE HIGH CITY WITH INTERNATIONAL FEATURE MATCH

	Bojan Velickovic and Gilbert Smith embrace the change heading into RFA 20 RFA 20 IN COLORADO FRIDAY NOVEMBER 7TH LIVE ON AXS TV by Ryan Bevins  rbevins@rfafighting.com @Bevois   According to Greek philosopher and scientist Aristotle, there are three principles necessary for change to take place. There must be something new that comes to be, there must be something old that passes away, and there must be something that stays the same throughout. These three principles are referred to as form, privation, and matter. These are the principles that Bojan Velickovic (9-2) and Gilbert Smith (9-3) are currently applying to their MMA careers. Now on the surface, they appear to have nothing in common other than their chosen occupation. Velickovic grew up in war-torn Serbia nearly 4,500 miles away from Smith's native New York City. Smith is also seven years older than Velickovic and a veteran of the U.S. Army. However, if you dig a little bit deeper, the parallels these two share leading into their featured welterweight bout at RFA 20 is clear. They are both embracing change, they are both reinventing themselves as fighters, and they both know what is at stake. At universities around the world, the College of Arts and Sciences is usually the largest college on campus. Students from other schools are often required to take courses offered by the College of Arts and Sciences, because they require elective courses to be taken within certain areas to provide a well-rounded education for each student. Top MMA camps are very much the same, but sometimes when a star pupil excels quickly in the arts, the sciences need some time to catch up. This is only noticeable at the highest level of MMA in the form of effectively cutting weight to maximize your skills against your opponent's skills without size being the deciding factor. After finding MMA, both Velickovic and Smith competed successfully in the middleweight (185-pound) division. In fact, they competed so well, that they were both selected by the UFC to participate on different seasons of their hit reality television show The Ultimate Fighter. Velickovic was a middleweight on TUF 19, while Smith was a middleweight on TUF 17. However, their time on the show made them realize it was time to start competing against men their own size. This is a fact that even UFC champions have had to face in their careers. B.J. Penn, Lyoto Machida, and Frankie Edgar only began focusing on the science of weight-cutting after winning a UFC world title in a heavier weight class. However, in a day and age where everyone is training everything, top nutritionists are being enlisted, and proper weight-cutting is a must, it has become necessary to balance the arts and sciences of combat in order to succeed at the highest level. On Friday, November 7th, Velickovic and Smith will meet in true Aristotelian tradition at the 1STBANK Center in Broomfield, Colorado for their showdown at RFA 20. The form is their more physically imposing size as welterweights, the privation are the days of competing against larger men, and the matter is the fact they are still the same highly-skilled mixed martial artists that have brought them to this pivotal moment in their career. The entire main card of RFA 20 - Mercado vs. Sanders will be televised live on AXS TV starting at 10:00 p.m. ET / 7:00 p.m. PT on Friday, November 7th. RFA 20 will be the promotion's fourth event to take place in the state of Colorado and it will be the second time the RFA has visited the state in 2014. More fights on the stacked RFA 20 fight card will be announced soon. About RFA: RFA is a professional mixed martial arts promotion that gives rising stars and top contenders the opportunity to prove their talent to fans and leaders in the industry. The RFA presents up to 10 fights annually around the United States including Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Denver and Milwaukee. RFA can be seen live in over 40 million homes nationally through its television deal with AXS TV. Based in Las Vegas, Nevada, RFA is one of the most active and respected MMA organizations in the fastest growing sport in the world. (The Octagon, Ultimate Fighting Championship®, UFC®, and the eight-sided competition mat and cage design are registered trademarks owned exclusively by Zuffa, LLC. All rights reserved).   About AXS TV Fights: AXS TV Fights is renowned for its universally recognized Friday Night Mixed Martial Arts and Kickboxing events. As Your Home For MMA, AXS TV utilizes an expansive network of promotions from the United States, Canada, and Europe. And Asia to broadcast more LIVE fights than any other television network. "The Voice" Michael Schiavello and five-time MMA world-champion Pat Miletich provide viewers expert play-by-play, in-depth fighter coverage, and extensive analysis to each fight card. AXS TV broadcasts world-class LIVE fight events from RFA, Lion Fight, Legacy FC, and MFC every Friday night at 7 p.m. PT / 10 p.m. ET. WATCH RFA MMA EXCLUSIVELY ON:

Army's Shon Lewis, America's Secret Weapon! He Talks to Takedown Radio

Opinions?  He's got them. The Army's got Shon Lewis. He joins us to give his opinion on 2012 55 kg US Olympic Greco Roman star Spenser Mango,   2012 66 kg US Olympic Greco Roman star Justin Lester and 120 kg US Olympic Greco Roman star  Dremiel Byers.

 

Shon Lewis (Colorado Springs, Colo./U.S. Army) has been named 2011 Greco-Roman Coach of the Year by USA Wrestling. It is the fourth time in his career that Lewis has won this prestigious honor (2002, 2003, 2006, 2011).

Lewis works as the head coach of the U.S. Army team, stationed in Fort Carson, Colo. He is responsible for training the athletes in the Army's World Class Athlete Program.

He coached the U.S. Army team to the Div. I U.S. Open title in April, 2011 in Cleveland, Ohio, as well as the Dec. 2011 U.S. Open held in Arlington, Texas. He is the personal coach for three athletes who competed for the 2011 U.S. World Team: Spenser Mango (55 kg), Justin Lester (66 kg) and Dremiel Byers (120 kg). Lester placed fifth at the World Championships.

He was a member of 2011 World Team coaching staff, which placed 19th at the World Championships in Istanbul, Turkey. He also served as the 2011 Pan American Games coach, which competed in Guadalajara, Mexico, had three medalists and placed second behind Cuba in the team stands. He also served as a coach for U.S. tour teams to Cuba and Hungary in 2011.

The Army was also the champion at the 2011 Armed Forces Championships and has won nine of the last 12 Armed Forces team titles.

Lewis was an Olympic Coach for the U.S. Greco-Roman wrestling team, which competed at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece. The United States team was led by Olympic bronze-medalist Rulon Gardner, who claimed his second career Olympic medal. 

Lewis served as head coach of the 2003 U.S. Greco-Roman World team that competed in Cretiel, France. The U.S. team placed 13th in the standings, led by three athletes in the top 10 of their divisions. 

He was the assistant coach of the 2002 U.S. Greco-Roman World Team, which placed fifth in the World Championships held in Moscow, Russia. The team was led by World Champion Dremiel Byers. 

He was a member of the coaching staff at the 2008 Olympic Games. Lewis was a member of the coaching staff for a number of other U.S. World Teams, including the 2007 U.S. World team which won the team title and the 2006 U.S. World Team which placed third in the standings.

He coached the 2006 U.S. Pan American Championships team, which competed in Rio de Janiero, Brazil and placed second in the team standings. The U.S. team won a medal in all seven weight classes.

He has coached many U.S. National Team members and All-Americans during his tenure in all three Olympic wrestling styles. He is the club coach for Dremiel Byers, who was a World champion in 2002, one of only five Americans to win a Greco-Roman World title. 

Lewis has also served as a coach for the U.S. World Military team seven times, which competes at the CISM World Military Championships. Lewis has coached numerous Military World medalists during those trips.

As an athlete, Lewis competed on the 1993 and 1999 U.S. World Championships teams. He also qualified for the 1998 U.S. World Team, but was unable to participate in the World Championships that year. He was a four-time U.S. Nationals Greco-Roman champion (1993-94, 1996, 1998), and was a medalist in three U.S. Olympic Team Trials (1992, 1996, 2000). Lewis was a member of the U.S. Army team as an athlete, winning six Armed Forces Greco-Roman titles and competing in the World Military Championships. He was the 1993 U.S. Army Athlete of the Year, an award including all sports in the Army's program. 

Prior to joining the Army, he attended the Univ. of Oregon, as well as competing for Placer High School in Auburn, Calif.

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