Not Surprising to anyone, but 247fighting had their best event ever with their May 29th & 30th double header event.
247fighting, led by Hunter Homistek, is changing grappling in the Ohio Valley in a major way. Running one of the most visually stunning regional events as smoothly as humanly possible is not easy, and to cross-pollinate the event with high level grappling bouts on top of that? Well, color me impressed.
What separates 247 from a lot of regional combat sports promotions is that it doesn’t feel like a local show trying to look big. It feels like a big show that happens to still be close enough to touch. The production is sharp, the venue looks incredible, the matchmaking has real thought behind it, and the energy in the room feels less like “regional MMA” and more like a combat sports festival with a pulse.
The Friday and Saturday format gave the weekend a different kind of weight. This wasn’t just a fight card. It was a full-on showcase of the Pittsburgh-area combat sports ecosystem, with MMA, striking, and grappling all sharing the same orbit. That matters. It gives fighters more visibility, it gives grapplers a bigger stage, and it gives fans a reason to care about the broader scene instead of only showing up for one discipline.
And the fighters delivered.
The events ran two night in a row, and for those Prograppler fans, we had several TGGL CarJitsu veterans on the card including Jeremiah Butler, James Neeley, and myself!
Check out 247Fighting’s instagram to see fight clips
247 Fighting Event Results
(May 30th Results)
| Winner | Loser | Method | Time / Round |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brittany Bickhart | Dee Begley | Submission | 0:44, R1 |
| Niko Petrides | Hunter Watt | KO/TKO | 0:22, R1 |
| Ardis Smith | Chase Boyde | KO/TKO | 2:10, R1 |
| Ben Nagy | Bryan Mitchell | KO/TKO | 2:55, R1 |
| Joey Perry | Andrew Felegie | Unanimous Decision | — |
| Dan Walters | Evan Furlong | KO/TKO | 1:11, R1 |
| Malcolm Harris | Jayden Blake | KO/TKO | 0:34, R1 |
| Xavier Rodela | R. Santiago Jr. | KO/TKO | 0:23, R2 |
| Noah Miller | Josh Sarasnick | Unanimous Decision | — |
| Evan Brailey | F. Hernandez | Majority Decision | — |
| Chad Miller | Joey Vucick | Unanimous Decision | — |
| Anthony Smith | Hunter Gerber | KO/TKO | 0:25, R1 |
Friday’s card hasn’t been uploaded to Tapology yet, and I am way too lazy to type out everything by hand but I will highlight the winners of the MMA portion!
Big Congrats to:
Hope Chase from Indio Dojo
Julian Flenory from The Mat Factory
Gerrit Nijenhaus from The Academy: Pittsburgh
Ahmad Zaki Ahmadi from Stout PGH
Zawad Islam from Stout PGH
Bittany Ludwick from Totem Muay Thai
Eric Bennington from Reakt Fighting Arts & Fitness
Of course, the fact that this event opened up each night with grappling matches just filled up my heart with joy as well.For years, grappling has existed in this strange space where the talent is undeniable, but the presentation often lags behind. You can have world-class athletes doing incredible work in front of a half-empty room with bad lighting and no real story being told. 247 seems to understand that the presentation is part of the product. If you want people to care, you have to give them something that feels worth caring about.
And that’s exactly what they are doing.
By putting high-level grappling on a platform that already understands fight promotion, 247 is helping move the sport into a more professional, more watchable, and more commercially viable lane. This is not just good for Pittsburgh. It is good for the entire regional combat sports scene.
Shout out to the winners from Saturday night!
