Heavyweight Brett “The Grim” Rogers (10-2) will head to Canada’s East Coast for his next fight as he headlines the upcoming “W1: New Ground” event. Rogers will face Ruben “Warpath” Villarea (18-18-3) at the Halifax Forum in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada on Oct. 23.
“The Grim” still has a contract with Strikeforce and received permission to take the fight outside of the promotion according to MMAFighting.com.
Rogers suffered his first two career defeats in his last fights, but both were against highly ranked opponents Alistair Overeem and Fedor Emelianenko. The 29 year old suffered TKO losses in both title bouts. Before that he rattled off ten straight wins, all but one were won via (T)KO, with the submission victory due to punches. His last two wins were over former UFC heavyweight champ Andrei Arlovski and Abongo Humphrey.
This will be Villareal’s first bout of 2010. He fought four times in 2009, going 2-2 winning his last fight against Deandre Goree at a Gladiator Challenge event in September. Before those four bouts, the fighter took 2008 off appearing in six matches in 2007. “Warpath” has fought such names as Don Frye, Bas Rutten, Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva, and Paul Buentello.
Also fighting at the W1 event will be “The Ultimate Fighter” season 11 competitor Jamie Yager who takes on 6-0 Jeremiah Hamilton.
To view the full card visit w1mma.com.