It has been one calendar year since mixed martial arts competitions were made legal in Ontario and one thing is becoming pretty clear. The Score Fighting Series has established itself as the hottest and most reliable local MMA show.
The Score Fighting Series is again set to explode on the people of Hamilton and the GTA this Friday March 16th, and the card is stacked with prominent Canadian talent.
This will be the fifth show that The Score has put on in Ontario and they have some great momentum coming off a stellar night of fights on December 10th in Sarnia. In that show, hometown bantamweight wizard John Fraser gained a quick submission victory over Travis Reddinger and Canadian 170-pound multi-title holder Chris “The Menace” Clements paved his way to the UFC with a thrilling TKO over Rich Clementi.
The former UFC veteran Clementi was set to headline this weekend’s card in a juicy match up with B.C.’s “Ragin” Kajan Johnson but Johnson had to withdraw due to injury. That blip aside, The Score has delivered on a very highly anticipated return to Hamilton.
Top five Canadian lightweight veteran John Alessio will look to climb his way back to the UFC against Ryan Healy. Hometown up-and-comer Josh Hill will look to remain undefeated against Eric Wilson and the card is rounded out with established talent like Forrest Petz, Lyndon Whitlock, Shane Campbell and Ryan Dickson.
There have been some very good local shows held in the region in the past twelve months but most have been a one and done with nothing on the horizon to look to. Promotions such as The Maximum Fighting Championship, Professional Fighting Championship, MMA Live and Freedom Fight have all held single shows in the province with varying degrees of success. Elite fight cards have been tough to secure for the most part.
Bellator made it’s debut in Ontario in November and is building a solid presence with two more shows set for the market in the next few months. They have been equal to The Score in the talent that they have been able to showcase to the fans, and these two promotions are delivering the type of shows fans want to see.
The entire March 16th card now lines-up as follows:
155lbs – John Alessio (33-14) vs. Ryan Healy (19-9-1)
135lbs – Josh Hill (7-0) vs. Eric Wilson (5-1)
170lbs – Sergey Juskevic (11-6-2) vs. Forrest Petz (24-9)
145lbs – Jeff Harrison (5-4) vs. Will Romero (7-3)
155lbs – Alex Ricci (4-0) vs. Iraj Hadin (6-3)
155lbs – Shane Campbell (3-1) vs. Derek Boyle (7-5)
145lbs – Lyndon Whitlock (5-2) vs. Corey Houston (4-1)
170lbs – Ryan Dickson (2-0) vs. Brandon Johnson (2-1)
155lbs – Jason Meisel (2-0) vs. Mike Sledzion (3-2)
155lbs – Adam Assenza (0-1) vs. John Roche (0-0)
265lbs – John McPherson (1-1) vs. Craig Hudson (1-1)
185lbs – Elias Thedorou (2-0) vs. Erik Herbert (3-1)
Tickets for The Score Fighting Series event start at $30 and are on sale now at the Copps Coliseum box office and online at www.ticketmaster.ca. The entire event will be streamed live on thescore.com starting at 7:30pm.
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Dwight Wakabayashi is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report MMA, MMA Editor at CKSN.ca and guest blogger for Sportsnet.ca
Catch him on Facebook and Twitter at wakafightermma.
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