Eleven-time UFC and WEC veteran Brock Larson will make his return to television on Friday night, as he battles former Strikeforce Challenger Eduardo Pamplona as part of AXS TV’s Resurrection Fighting Alliance 6 fight card.
After purchasing Titan Fighting Championships in October 2012, the RFA has continued to grow and put on quality events. RFA 6 will take place at the Scottish Rite Temple in Kansas City.
Larson, founder of the Minnesota MMA promotion Cage Fighting Xtreme (CFX) has been in battles with the likes of Mike Pyle, Jon Fitch, Mike Piece and Carlos Condit throughout his career. At 35 years old, he is still competing at a high level and will look to build on the back-to-back wins he had to close out 2012 against Lucas St. Claire and Anthony Lemon.
Larson’s opponent will be Black House MMA’s Eduardo Pamplona, a veteran who has fought all around the world while training with some of the greats in the world, including Anderson Silva, Lyoto Machida and the Nogueira brothers.
Joining Larson on the fight card will be two fellow Minnesotans who will be making their television debuts, Nick Compton and Mike Waverek.
For Compton, the move up to the big show has been a long time coming. A finalist for 2012 MNMMANews Fighter of the Year and winner of Most Improved Fighter of the Year, Compton will head to RFA with a 6-2 professional record after a very impressive year.
Things started off tough for Compton in 2012 as he lost a very close split-decision to another one of Minnesota’s top up-and-comers, Damion Hill, but it only seemed to motivate him. He remained very active for the remainder of the year, defeating Bobby Ferrier, Billy Christianson and Randy Kittelson before 2012 came to a close.
Compton will battle Bobby Cooper, replacing his own teammate, Dan Moret, who was forced out of the bout due to an injury.
Cooper is considered one of the RFA‘s top prospects, holding a professional record of 7-4. He’s already been challenged by some of the other top up-and-comers in the area, including Chidi Njokuani (younger brother of UFC fighter Anthony Njokuani). It will be a step up in competition for Compton who, at 30 years old, is still looking to make a name for himself in the sport on the national level.
Mikey Waverek will also get a chance to make his name on a bigger stage, having put together a 6-2-1 record as an amateur thus far. A well-conditioned fighter, Waverek has spent much of his amateur career competing at 160 and even 165 pounds, but will settle into his natural weight class of 155 in this one.
As a young fighter, Waverek has used his high-quality wrestling skills and raw power to control many of his opponents. His bruising style earned him an impressive first round TKO win over Jurrell Skelton this past November. He’ll have his sights set on doing that against undefeated (4-0) Kansas native Dusty Spaulding.
Spaulding, 4-0 as an amateur, has competed mostly in the 145-pound division, which should mean that Waverek has a significant advantage in terms of size and strength. Spaulding is a tough fighter with solid grappling, however, and he has experience in the RFA cage. This will be an interesting challenge for the Minnesotan who has his sights on making his pro debut in 2013.
All of these fights and others will take place as part of the Resurrection Fighting Alliance 6 event on Friday, January 18th. The event will be shown live at 9pm CST on AXS TV.
Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com