The Ultimate Fighter – Smashes competitor, Ben Alloway returns to action this week when he faces Tristan Murphy for the Eternal welterweight title. The fight will be one of three title fights on the card with David Butt looking to defend his Eternal lightweight title against Brett Jacobsen and Eternal bantamweight title holder Reece McLaren looking to keep his impressive form going when he meets Edwin Arana.
The event takes place at the Hellenic Centre in Bundall, Queensland on Saturday night.
For Alloway, it will be the first time he competes in Australia since the front-kick knock-out over fellow Ultimate Fighter cast-member Manuel Rodriguez. The Gold Coast based fighter went on to lose his next two fights in the UFC before returning back to European promotion Cage Warriors. There, Alloway defeated Jack Mason however lost a split points decision to Mohsen Bahari in his last outing back in June 2014.
Should Tristan Murphy get past Alloway it will be the biggest win of his short career. The Ronin BJJ trained fighter is coming off a spectacular first-round knock-out over Gerhard Voigt at the last Nitro event last month. Murphy’s lone loss has come at the hands of current Nitro champion Anton Zafir.
David Butt was one of the most active fighters of 2014 in a year he also captured the Eternal lightweight title with a submission victory over Jason Preece. Formerly based in Tasmania, Butt lost back-to-back fights outside of the promotion following the title win. The 25 year-old is now based out of Potential Unlimited MMA on the Gold Coast.
Brett ‘The Blessed Brawler’ Jacobsen earned himself a shot at the title with a submission win over Dane Snell last month. Jacobsen is formerly from PUMMA but now trains at Tweed Coast MMA & Triune MMA. He has fought six times for the promotion and was awarded knockout of the night honours back at Eternal 2.
2015 is looking to be the breakthrough year for Reece McLaren. Training out of Kachi MMA in Toowoomba, McLaren started the year impressively by submitting Jacob Mahony in February to capture the XFC bantamweight title. Following the win and with the blessing of his Kachi MMA coach, McLaren relocated to PUMMA on the Gold Coast where he has the likes of Tim Moore and Shannon McClellan to keep him on his toes. McLaren has just finished off a couple weeks training at the highly acclaimed Alpha Male gym in Sacramento, California where he got to spend time on the mats with the likes of Urijah Faber.
Standing across the cage from McLaren, will be Townsville based Edwin Arana who despite his mixed record has notable wins over the likes of Jacob Mahony, Kian Pham, and Ashkan Mokhtarian. In his last outing back in November, he lost a unanimous decision to Luke Morris.
Also on the card, Emjay Rose comes up against Eternal regular Jason Preece while Damien Fraser faces Aiden Meaney and Nix Agulto will clash against Diego Pereira.
The event will be streamed live via our LIVE FIGHTS page however geo-blocking rules apply. The stream is geo-blocked with anyone living 250 kilometres from the venue unable to stream the event.
Fight Card (A-Class):
- Tristan Murphy vs Ben Alloway – Eternal welterweight title
- David Butt (c) vs Brett Jacobsen – Eternal lightweight title
- Reece McLaren (c) vs Edwin Arana – Eternal bantamweight title
- Emjay Rose vs Jason Preece
Fight Card (B Class):
- Damien Fraser vs Aiden Meaney
- Nix Agulto vs Diego Pereira
- Shaun Johnson vs Richard Powell
- Michele Evans vs Isi Fitikefu
- Amy Prewitt vs Michelle Labrosse
- Troy Pilcher vs Corbin Robertson
- Shiva Rama Smyth vs Ryan Winnet
Fight Card (C Class):
- Aaron Varnier vs Dominic Brew
