Saturday night Southern California gets a treat as two well established MMA promotions unite (the Hawaii-based Icon Sport and Iowa-based Extreme Challenge) to present the Raze MMA Fight Night. The event will take place in San Diego at the former San Diego Sports Arena, now dubbed the ipayOne Center.
Some matches with the same modus operandi have been a real snorefest (Pete Williams-Tsuyoshi Kohsaka (Pictures) at Ultimate Brazil comes to mind) but this one promises to really deliver.
Lindland was a top contender for the UFC middleweight title before being discarded from the promotion and he has won his last six fights. Van Arsdale has lost his last three and is 40 years old. But he is by no means washed up.
Friendship or no friendship, the winner here has a new feather to put in their cap. These days, when there’s something on the line, fighters know you leave the friendship outside the ring until it is over. This is business and someone’s career is going to advance with a victory Saturday night. Who will it be?
The entire fight card is as follows:
Under Card:
Adam Bass versus Sam Ortiz
Justin McElfresh versus Brent Stevens (Pictures)
JC Pennington (Pictures) versus Dave Hisquierdo (Pictures)
Dave Kelly versus Brandon Magana (Pictures)
Feature Bouts:
Joe Camacho (Pictures) versus Roger Huerta (Pictures)
Alan Belcher (Pictures) versus Buck Meredith (Pictures)
Main Event:
Mike Van Arsdale (Pictures) versus Matt Lindland (Pictures)