HONOLULU -- X1 World Events "Legends," scheduled for Friday, will mark the return of a number of Hawaii's favorite fighters of yesteryears, including former Icon Sport middleweight champ Egan Inoue (Pictures) and Ray "Bradda" Cooper (Pictures).
Fighters and media gathered Wednesday in Honolulu to discuss the event, which will be headlined by a middleweight bout between Hawaiian fighting legend Egan Inoue and Hans Marrero (Pictures).
"It's going to be a tough fight," Inoue said. "I'm not taking [Marrero] for granted one bit. He's 23 years old, strong. He looks in shape and ready to go. It's going to be a good fight."
Inoue, whose last fight was a losing effort against Jason "Mayhem" Miller in December 2003, made the decision to come out of retirement when Marrero requested a fight with him.
"I found out that Hans was wanting to fight me," Inoue said. "Not that I always take on guys that want to fight me, [but] I actually wanted to test my skills against someone 23 years old, or someone young."
"Egan has definitely inspired my fight career, but it's gotten to the point now where we have to fight," Marrero said. "For me, it's just to see where I'm at and at the same time fight an inspiration, a hero to your sport and to you. It's going to be an awesome opportunity. As a fighter I think he's awesome. As a person I think he's awesome. Very humble guy."
In the evening's co-main event, Chad Reiner (Pictures) will defend his welterweight title against Team MMAD's Brandon Wolff (Pictures).
"I think Brandon is a great opponent," said Reiner, who took the belt from former champ Mark Moreno (Pictures) last January. "He's a coach, so he probably knows his stuff. It'll be a good fight."
Said Wolff: "Thanks to Chad for coming out here. He just had a fight about a month ago, and I respect that. It means a lot for me to be here."
In other title action, local favorite Ray Cooper will take on Richie Whitson for the recently vacated lightweight title.
"I'm a little disappointed," Cooper said of his original opponent, Shane Nelson (Pictures), bowing out of the fight. "I hope whatever came up with him works out pretty good. I just got to look at this guy right in front of me. [Whitson's] an aggressive guy, so hopefully it will turn out good."
"It's an honor to be here and it's an honor to fight Ray ‘Bradda' Cooper," said Whitson, who is coming off a TKO victory just last week in Alaska Fighting Championship and then took the fight with Cooper on only days' notice.
Also on the card, tough up-and-comer Michael Brightmon (Pictures) will battle veteran fighter Kola Koka; Ron Jhun will fight Dylan Clay; Kana Hyatt (Pictures) will defend his 135-pound title against the B.J. Penn (Pictures)-trained Albert Manners (Pictures); Maui's Brandon Visher will fight Bulls Pen's Lorenzo Moreno; and Sean Sakata will fight Johnavan Visante, Jr. in a 170-pound amateur title bout.
The event will be available for statewide pay-per-view on Oceanic channel 260 and in high definition on channel 1260 as well as a worldwide Internet pay-per-view available at www.x1ppv.oceanic.com.
