With installments of Ring of Combat, Cage Fury Fighting Championship and the Urban Conflict Championship looming, there’s so much ass-kickery impending that it’s almost impossible to sleep at night. In fact, I no longer sleep. I just sit on the couch in my den and ruminate – sometimes with the lights off, sometimes with them on. Anyway, MMA Journalist has of course compiled a list of bouts to watch out for. Thank me later.
- Chris Liguori vs. Mikhail Malyutin, ROC 35 – On April 8, one of the area’s longtime best lightweights in Liguori takes on what could very well be his foreign counterpart. Malyutin has fought about a million times in M-1 against dudes whose names are impossible to pronounce, but he’s got skills, as evidenced by his ROC 31 win against Luiz Azeredo. Fast and frenetic – that’s what this pairing promises.
- Tom DeBlass vs. Sean Salmon, ROC 35 – DeBlass is a Ricardo Almeida-trained light-heavyweight on the rise, and he sports ever-improving boxing. Salmon is a UFC vet who’s really good at getting knocked out in exciting fashion. We’re talking “eyes rolled up in his head-stiff as a board-dropping like a felled tree” here. That, coupled with his wrestling, means DeBlass is either going to KO him or jiu-jitsu him to death.
- Uriah Hall vs. Aung La Nsang, ROC 35 – Hall’s coming off a loss against Costa Phillippou, but he’s still an ace striker with solid ground-and-pound skills. La Nsang is a Muay Thai guy with good submissions. This match-up is either going to end suddenly or violently, or it’s going to go the distance (and still be pretty violent).
- Daniel Akinyemi vs. Mike Andrillo, ROC 35 – Bellmore Kickboxing rep Andrillo’s got a strong guillotine and, like his teammates, is very capable of banging. Akinyemi, meanwhile, bangs so hard, his opponents usually end up fetal against the cage. You see where I’m going with this, right?
- Andre Gusmao vs. Tim Williams, CFFC 7 – April 16 is when we get another installment of CFFC, and the main event features UFC vet Gusmao taking on a very promising grappler in Williams. Does Gusmao still have the striking power to put away people like he used to? Or will Williams get him down and molest him?
- Lester Caslow vs. Eddie Fyvie, CFFC 7 – These two are so well-rounded and evenly matched, they could be sharing DNA. Er, no homo.
- Nah-Shon Burrell vs. Noah Faunce, CFFC 7 – Burrell absolutely slew his opponent at the last CFFC. Faunce, however, hits hard and can wrestle when he needs to. Will he need to? Or will this be another Burrell-inspired bloodbath?
- Andy Main vs. Felipe Arantes, UCC 4 – April 22 will bring us the fourth installment of the UCC, and the marquee bout – between TUF vet Main and a very deadly Brazilian named Arantes – should be one heck of a barnburner. Main’s got KO power in his hands and has jiu-jitsu for days, while Arantes’s got sick Muay Thai and has so much jiu-jitsu he craps whole gis. This will definitely be a good one.
- Sean Santella vs. Sedico Honorio, UCC 4 – Santella is among the best “little” fighters the Northeast has to offer, and brings to the table some serious wrestling mixed with submission grappling. The first words out of Honorio’s mouth when he was a child were “mata leon” and “you just try to pass my guard, mom. I dare you.” Enough said.
- James Jenkins vs. Jay McLean, UCC 4 – McLean’s proven himself to be durable as all hell, and his wrestling tends to give fighters fits. Jenkins is a well-rounded dude on the rise, so this should be a nice test for him.