Absolute Cage Combat Shuts down
A few days ago I went to the website of Absolute Cage Combat only to find this on its home page.
“ACC is canceling all future plans of events due to its dismantling. Two MMA Promotions maybe formed but one definitely will. The name may change yet the fighters will stay the same. Big announcements coming soon… stay tuned.”
I talked to Jon Rotroff who along with a partner formed Absolute Cage Combat roughly 13 months ago. A regional MMA promotion that focused on West Central and North Western Ohio. Rotroff who owns a few MMA gym’s in the Ohio area was handling the booking of fights while his partner handled the sponsors. The two ran the first ACC fight card July 4th of 2009 with some success but when time for their second show on October 24th the partner really didn’t hold up to his end of the deal. When it came time for their third and what turned out to be final show on December 19th Rotroff’s partner just wasn’t doing his end of Absolute Cage Combat. Fed up with his partner, Rotroff decided he was going to start looking for someone else or just do it myself.
He didn’t get that chance though, after the third event Rotroff learned that a substantial amount of money from the ACC bank account had been “misplaced”. Out of money and with a partner that wasn’t pulling his end & had likely done something with that money, Rotroff decided it was time to move on. The promotion had two future events planned, one in March and one in April that had to be scrapped when Rotroff decided to close the doors. The two haven’t been in contact since this all went down as Rotroff wanted to cool down some before they get face to face to resolve this. Rotroff wouldn’t give me the name of his partner say he didn’t want to professionally bash him. Until the two meet the fate of Absolut Cage Combat is up in the air, but in the meantime Rotroff will start the long process of building back up the capital.
Whether its Absolute Cage Combat or something else Rotroff plans to get back into the promotions business. Since he still has boxes full of ACC shirts, the logo’s and website he’d prefer it’d be under the ACC banner. It remains to be seen if that’s going to be possible but either way Rotroff plans on coming back strong.
Jon’s two MMA gyms are in the Ohio area, one in Lakeview and the other in Findlay. The lakeview gym will actually be moving into the old Lewistown Middle School in Lewistown, Ohio starting February 1st. They also very recently brought in former UFC fighter Sean Salmon to teach grappling at their Findlay location. If you’re in the Ohio area check them out.
I thank Jon for his time and willingness to talk to me. Hopefully they can straighten all this out and we’ll see Absolute Cage Combat again down the road.
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