PFC Border Wars 1 Aftermath: Clements and Fighters Highlight a Solid First Show

Pro Fighting Championships Border Wars: Round 1 was presented at the WFCU Arena in Windsor on Saturday night. It was Windsor's second mixed martial arts event as Canada's longest standing and most popular promotion The Maximum Fighting Championships held an event there in April.

The show was a mix of hits and misses, and as in any first time promotion, Pro Fighting Championships will get better at this game each time out. Here is my breakdown:

Hits

When the dust settles on an event, the first and foremost important thing are the fighters and fights, and this card delivered seven solid fights. Yes, there were some late fighter and fight switches and cancellations which led to some fan backlash, but the fights that ended up on the card were solid in every way.

It was a fight card with UFC ties and roots as a few of the fighters were coached and cornered by Shawn Tompkins of Team Adrenaline and Tapout in Las Vegas. Tompkins also had some solid corner help with former UFC veteran Kevin "The Monster" Randleman, and former IFL and WEC star Chris Horodecki at his side.

Randleman was interviewed in the cage and had great things to say about Canadian mixed martial artists and the future of the sport in this country. I am a huge fan of Randleman and got to shake his hand as a highlight. Horodecki fights at Bellator 47 next Saturday at Rama.

It was a great night for my hometown fighters as Chatham fighter Chad Laprise knocked out grappling specialist Andrew Mcinnis with a solid shot on the ground and main event champ Chris Clements padded his highlight reel with a beautiful spinning back kick knockout victory. They make em tough outta Chatham I tell ya. Don't mess with us.

Certain positive details were: top level reffing, judging, in ring announcing, and ring girls and no lulls or stalls in the evening.

Misses

One hates to be critical with a first-time promotion, but how else are you going to get better, right? There were only a few minor things, starting with the lack of prep for the media. I got there early afternoon as did a few of my colleagues, and we were basically told come back later, just before gates open.

Once we did get in there was no power to plug in at cage side and special thanks goes out to MMA fighter and colleague Matt "Tank" Dunning who was beside me working and ran around to get us the power we needed. He also had to bug for a fight card, so that we could follow which fight was up next.

I want to take Tank with me to every event as an assistant and bodyguard. He is a big tough looking fighter and father from Kitchener who is recovering from both shoulder surgery and a broken hand that he suffered in Grapplers Quest Toronto in April.

As in any event there were fights that got cancelled at the last minute due to sanctioning and medical issues. That is always expected and feared at any event big or small, and fans buy tickets based on certain fights and fighters. All regional shows will have to get better at nailing this part down.

Lastly, I was a bit surprised and disappointed in the fan turnout for this event. I am not sure what the final attendance was but it sure seemed very empty in the arena and I am hoping they were able to get to the thousand mark. A good show that too many people missed

Dwight Wakabayashi is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report MMA (also a correspondent for MMACanada.net).

Catch him on Twitter @wakafightermma.