Fair Fight

“If anything, I’m the underdog in this fight,” Denver tattoo artist Mike Nickels said to the Spike TV cameras before his June 1 bout for The Ultimate Fighter. “If I topple the giant, then I’m the hero of the show.”

The “giant” Nickels was referring to is Matt Hamill, a deaf wrestler from Ohio who is also an NCAA wrestling champion. Hamill was the first drafted fighter of the show, and Ultimate Fighter coach Tito Ortiz expected him to win the whole thing. Nickels, on the other hand, specializes in jiu-jitsu, kickboxing and grappling, having gotten his start fighting on the streets of Denver.

Nickels and Hamill stepped into the eight-sided ring of the reality-TV show, both fighting to win a six-digit contract with the country’s biggest fighting league, Ultimate Fighting Championship (“No Pain, No Gain,” May 11).

The fighters exchanged jabs before the fight spilled to the ground, and Nickels’s nose was bleeding all over Hamill by the end of the first round. Round two started with more punching as Nickels tried to bring Hamill down to the mat. At the end of the fight, the call was unanimous: Hamill got the victory, and Nickels was knocked off the show.

But UFC president Dana White thought Nickels showed a lot of heart, and the organization gave him another chance. Nickels was asked to return for an undercard bout on the show’s June 24 finale, where he squared off against Wes Combs, a former Marine who had never lost a mixed martial arts battle. Nickels was paid $5,000, with another $5,000 check promised if he won. White also told Westword before the fight that Nickels would move forward with the UFC if he pulled the win.

“He’s a big, scary-looking dude,” Nickels says of Combs. “I heard on the Internet that I was the underdog on the day of the fight, and that kinda lit a fire under me.”

And he burned his opponent: After the third minute of the first round, Nickels got Combs into a chokehold and forced him to tap out.

Now Nickels is back at his Denver tattoo shop, Twisted Sol, spending time with his family, moving into a new house and awaiting word from the UFC.

“This fight was about one thing: redemption for me and my camp,” Nickels told Spike TV after the bout. “I’m here to stay.”

Which doesn’t appear to be the case for Denver-based American Championship Fighting (“The Fight is On!,” May 11). Six weeks ago, ACF founder Rico Vecchiarelli was sentenced to eight years in prison, which could be reduced to four if he pays back the $150,000 he owes in securities fraud.

The ACF’s headquarters, in a Denver Tech Center penthouse, are closed, and a receptionist there had no forwarding address. Attorneys at Montgomery Little & McGrew have discontinued their services because of unpaid bills, and the Colorado State Boxing Commission has no ACF events scheduled. The main contact the commission had for the organization following Vecchiarelli’s incarceration, longtime Colorado fight promoter Keith Schmelzer, has quit amid claims that the company owes him $30,000. And the ACF’s media-relations director has sent out an e-mail distancing himself from the organization.

Looks like the ACF tapped out, too