After a twelve month hiatus, Alice Springs hybrid promotion, Submission Fight Nights, returns to the Alice Springs Convention Centre this Saturday (August 17), for a night of pro Mixed Martial Arts, Kickboxing and Boxing. The main event will feature an interstate MMA clash between the Northern Territory based Ben Kelleher and undefeated Tasmanian, Rob Wilkinson.
Fighting out of the Performance Gym in Darwin, Ben Kelleher (pictured) will take a pro record of 10 wins and 3 losses into the middleweight main event, which will be his third appearance for the promotion. The Auckland born striker, whose record is littered with first round stoppages, recently had a six fight win streak snapped by Victorian fighter Daniel Way at the King of the Ring: Rumble Under the Stars show just last month. Speaking with Fight News Australia in the lead up to Saturday night, Kelleher reflected on the split decision loss, and gave us his thoughts on his upcoming clash.
“I let the occasion and the respect I have for Daniel get to me in my last fight, this time I’m going in with my usual approach, destroy who’s in the way of my goal!”
“Rob Wilkinson is undefeated in his pro career and hasn’t been out of the first round yet. I plan on changing that and getting redemption for my split decision loss. I think taking him into deep waters will work in my favour.”
With The Ultimate Fighter Nations: Australia vs Canada, tryouts scheduled for next month in Sydney, Kelleher’s goal is to represent Australia in the series.
“I plan on going to TUF trials 11-3.”
Rob Wilkinson is undefeated after four professional appearances with his last win coming at Valor 3: Invicta, over Ady Sutton late last year. He also has two Brace appearances under his belt, defeating Marc Gehret and Dallas Wilkinson-Reed at Brace 14 and 12 respectively.
An international co-main event is slated for the show with Western Australia’s Chris Indich and Stanley Phan of Bangkok meeting in a 82 kilogram bout.
Fighting out of the Arena MMA gym in Perth, Chris Indich will go into the fight on the back of a first round rear-naked choke submission win over Dominic Harrison-Campbell at Bragging Rights 6 late last month. The 26 year-old is a WA BJJ gold medalist, and also holds the Integrated Combat Championship welterweight title, which he captured after stopping Mark Tabone with punches in the first round at ICC 1.
Stanley Phan originally hails from San Francisco and now fights out of the Fighting Spirit gym in Bangkok, where he also teaches MMA and Jui jitsu.
Among other matchups slated for Saturday night, former Bragging Rights light heavyweight, and Nitro middleweight title challenger, Hale Vaa’sa, will face Melbourne’s Leon Johns in a full Thai rules bout. The fight will be contested at 89 kilograms.
MMA Matchups:
- Ben Kelleher vs Rob Wilkinson (Main Event)
- Stanley Phan vs Chris Indich
- Josh Tybell vs Tu Katu
- Tyrell Hogan vs Neil Camble
- Dimitar Dimitrovski vs Des Green
- Daniel Hodgson vs Tiziano Vona
- Cameron Dunbar vs Josh
- Nathan Enright vs Lachie Lake
- Mark Elworthy vs Vika Pasefika
Kickboxing Matchups:
- Leon Johns vs Hale Vaasa
- Ev August vs Kyle Philpot
- Lee Blumenthal vs Brendon Farrows
- Jack Killingbeck vs Talili Wilson
Boxing Matchups:
- Jason Lord vs Franco rici
- Aaliyah Fuamatu vs Kim Seymour
