With Australian Fighting Championships 6 quickly approaching, the Melbourne based promotion has released their fight card for their event scheduled to be held on August 24.
The promotion will return to the Melbourne Pavilion in Victoria and is scheduled to be shown on pay-per view. Further details on that is expected to be released shortly.
The event will be headlined by New Zealand fighter Daniel Hooker (pictured left) who will be looking at defending his AFC Lightweight Title for the second time when he faces local favourite Nick Patterson.
Hooker captured the AFC Lightweight Championship back at AFC 3 when he won the belt with a second-round doctor’s stoppage over Rusty McBride. McBride got another shot at the title but Hooker came out victorious again, this time winning via a first round rear-naked choke at AFC 5 in May. Training out of the Strikeforce Gym in Auckland, Hooker has also competed in the Legend FC organisation where he has gone 1-1.
Training out of Kimekai, Patterson has notable victories over Chris Bridgewater, Callan Potter, Jacques Marsters and will be looking at making a mark in the Australian lightweight division. In his lone AFC appearance back at AFC 2, Patterson defeated James Fairman by a first-round stoppage. Patterson will be the more experienced fighter of the two and has also won 7 out of his last 8 fights.
In an international bout that could steal the show, Australian featherweight Robert Lisita will face off against Rodolfo Marques (highlight video) who is now based in Victoria and has previously trained at the highly regarded Nova Unaio gym in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.
Since making the drop to featherweight, Lisita has been vocal in recent times wanting to find opponents in his new weight division. Lisita has notable victories against the likes of David Vergers, Daniel Hooker, Shane Wundenberg and Rory McConnell. He has competed in Hong Kong based promotion Legend FC, where he defeated South Korean Yeong Gwang Choi before losing to the highly regarded Yusuke Kawanago. Lisita last competed in late June where at the Adrenalin-Unleashed event he defeated Jacob Pettett via TKO in the second round.
Marques (pictured right) is now based out of the Nova Uniao Australia – Extreme MMA gym in Chadstone, Victoria, and will bring an impressive 14-2 record into the fight. He has previously trained with the likes of Jose Aldo and Renan Barao and only notable losses in MMA have come to stand-outs Luis Alberto Nogueira and Bibiano Fernandes. The Fernandes fight occurred on the Dream 2011 New Years Eve card. Marques has predominantly fought in his native Brazil and will be going up a weight division for the opportunity to fight in Australia. He has made his intentions clear on the AFC facebook page commenting, “I can’t wait for (this) fight. I will kill him.”
Lisita is ready for whatever Marques will bring as he told Fight News Australia recently, “Kill or be killed is how I fight every fight. If he wants to talk tough then meet me in the middle of the ring and we will punch on like men until someone dies.”
The welterweight and middleweight tournaments continue on the event wit the semi-finals set to take place as well. The tournament has a lot of interest as many of the participants are expected to also be at the TUF Nations: Australia vs Canada trials which is expected to feature the welterweight and middleweight divisions.
In the welterweight tournament recently crowned Nitro champion, Corey Nelson will be looking at keeping his fine form going when he faces Brazilian fighter Walber Brito De Barros. Barros received a bye in the first round of the tournament back in May after his opponent Zein Saliba missed weight. The other semi-final will feature a fight between two undefeated fighters as 18-year old Melbourne based fighter Jake Matthews (5-0) comes up against Queensland fighter Dean Purdon (4-0).
Four time Judo Olympian Daniel Kelly is looking at taking out the middleweight tournament and will need to get past Slovenian fighter Bor Bratovz in their semi-final match-up, while the experienced Steven Kennedy and Vik Grujic locking horns int he other semi-final.
The winners of the tournament fights are expected to go on and face each other for a title shot at AFC 7 in November. With a few of the fighters expected to be in the running for the TUF Nations house, this could throw a spanner in the tournament.
Fight Card:
- Daniel Hooker (C) vs Nick Patterson – AFC Lightweight Title
- Robert Lisita vs Rodolfo Marquez
Middleweight Tournament:
- Daniel Kelly vs Bor Bratovz
- Vik Grujic vs Steven Kennedy
Welterweight Tournament:
- Corey Nelson vs Walber De Barros
- Jake Matthews vs Dean Purdon
Undercard:
- Peter Davenport vs Shaun Wilcock
- Craig Martin vs Mikey Vaotuua
- Joel Fisher vs Fabian Nemcek
