By Dwight Wakabayashi
Canada’s longest standing mixed martial arts promotion, the Maximum Fighting Championship, is set to hold its second show of the year on Friday night from the Shaw Conference Center in Edmonton.
The show has had a last-minute shift as the originally scheduled headline fight between heavyweight’s Michael Barnett and Smealinho Rama was cancelled due to a failed medical by Barnett. Some shuffling has occurred and six fights remain on the main card portion of the event and new bantamweights Anthony Birchak and Ryan Benoit have been promoted to main event status.
Here is a complete main card beak down.
Peter Neufeld (6-3) vs. Garret Nybakken (5-5) – lightweight
The show will open with this old vs. new battle of Alberta as two local fighters get a chance to showcase their skills. Nybakken is the 32 year-old MFC veteran from Edmonton and is coming off of two first-round submission wins in a row. Four out of five of his wins have come via submission but four of his losses have as well.
Neufeld is a young up-and-comer from Bow Island and will be making his debut in the MFC. He is on a nice two-fight win streak as well and lost to established veteran Curtis Demarce before that. Neufeld carries some heavy hands and has four knockouts in his six professional wins.
Paul Grandbois (5-5) vs. Allen Hope (7-10) – middleweight
Paul Grandbois has earned his nickname “The Punisher” with four of his five wins in the cage coming via knockout within the first two rounds. The Canadian middleweight needs to bounce back from his loss to Marcus Hicks in February. None of Grandbois’ fights have gone to a decision so you can expect something dramatic to happen here.
Edmonton’s own Allen Hope is the perfect opponent for fireworks as none of his 17 professional fights has gone the distance either. Hope’s losing record is very deceiving as he has faced some very tough guys like Terry Martin, Shonie Carter and Todd Henry in his career. This one will be as close to a bar room brawl as you can get in MMA.
Jay Silva (8-7) vs. Sam Alvey (19-5) – middleweight
These two guys will get another chance to take a step up in their respective careers with a win in the MFC this weekend. Silva has just turned the corner on 31 years old and suffered a surprisingly bad loss in his MFC debut. The power fighter has only one win in his last four fights, although the win did come over UFC veteran Kendall Grove.
Sam Alvey is a 27 year-old Wisconsin native who built up a large resume of wins on the local circuit but he lost to Elvis Mutapcic in his MFC debut in February. Alvey has 11 knockout wins in his career and he will look to go toe to toe with Silva to make a statement.
Kurt Southern (11-4) vs. Mukai Maromo (8-3) – lightweight
These two will fight in a rematch as they faced each other in 2010 at Aggression MMA 5: Uprising where Southern chocked out Maromo two minutes into the fight. Following that win, Southern beat Brad Cardinal and Jorge Britto before being derailed in his last fight against Jonatas Novaes. He is one of the most well rounded fighters on the MFC roster.
The 30 year-old Maromo, trains at Iron Tiger Muay Thai in Ontario and is a different fighter since his loss to Southern and has five wins in his last six fights. His last fight was a rematch with Graham Spencer and he lost to Spencer via third-round submission. Maromo must make a career statement in this fight by beating Southern handily if he wants to make that next step in his career.
Luke Harris (9-2) vs. Jason Zentgraf (7-1) – middleweight
Submission specialist Luke Harris has no time to waste in his career climb and the 35-year-old from Alberta will get a tough test in youngster Jason Zentgraf. Both these men are familiar to MFC fans and both fighters wins have all come via submission. It’s no secret where their strengths are, the question is whether the grappling will cancel out and make for a technically sloppy slug fest.
There is not much that separates these two fighters and it could come down to the intangibles. Wear and tear and cardio could be the difference as Zentgraf is the younger fighter.
Anthony Birchak (9-1) vs. Ryan Benoit (6-1) – bantamweight
These two brash and aggressive youngsters take center stage as the headliner in the first bantamweight fight ever in the MFC. They got bumped up to the main event at the last minute — after heavyweight Chris Barnett wasn’t granted medical clearance to fight Smealinho Rama — and have vowed not to disappoint.
An accomplished wrestler from Tucson, Ari., Birchak was the first bantamweight signed by the MFC and is pegged as the early favorite to be the first bantamweight champion in the promotion’s history. He is aggressive and explosive and every aspect of his game is solid and improving. He is currently on a three-fight win streak. Birchak stated after he signed that he only wanted to fight the best the MFC could find and Benoit has been brought in as his first test.
Benoit, a native of Dallas Texas, has four wins in a row and five of his six professional wins have come via knockout. He is a very bombastic and boastful fighter, who seems ready to meet the challenge head on and it should make for an electric main event.
Here are the complete results from the MFC 37 weigh-ins:
Ryan Benoit (6-1) – 135.2 vs. Anthony Birchak (9-1) – 135.8
Jason Zentgraf (7-1) – 185.4 vs. Luke Harris (9-2) – 185.6
Kurt Southern (11-4) – 155.8 vs. Mukai Maromo (8-3) – 155.4
Jay Silva (8-7) – 186.6 vs. Sam Alvey (19-5) – 185.6
Peter Neufeld (6-3) – 155.2 vs. Garrett Nybakken (5-5) – 155.8
Allen Hope (7-10) – 184.8 vs. Paul Grandbois (5-5) – 185.2
Marcus Hicks (14-21) – 185.8 vs. Jared McComb (4-2) – 185.2
Thomas Treadwell (Pro Debut) – 226.6 vs. Mike Treadwell (Pro Debut) – 213.0
Maged Hammo (4-2) – 144.8 vs. Allan Munroe (5-4) – 145.0
