The Fierce Fighting Challenger series returns to the Carbon County Event Center on Saturday, July 13. Once a year, Fierce Fighting returns “Home” to Carbon County. Nine bouts are scheduled for a great night of MMA action.
Zack Partridge, Fierce Matchmaker and COO joined KOAL’s Drive Time Sports recently to discuss some of the fights coming on Saturday night. The conversation began by talking about the Jackson DeGrey and Nasir Davis bout for the bantamweight championship.
“Jackson is skyrocketing right now, he is on a hot streak. This storyline is so fascinating for so many reasons. This is the match-up that everybody wanted, we tried to make it. His last fight at UVU on April 20, he said he was going pro, and was going to make way for his teammate Nate Reinhardt to fight for the new bantamweight title. Nasir Davis is a young man who is growing, he’s decided he’s no longer cutting to 125 pounds, he’s had a really hard time both times, he was our 125-pound champ, vacated that title because he doesn’t want to cut there anymore. When Jackson decided he wanted one more amateur fight to go down to 125 before he goes pro at 125 pounds, that’s where he feels his home is going to be as a pro fighter. We have rankings, we have a panel that votes and ranks, and Nasir and Jackson were ranked one and two, and their paths just missed and we didn’t get to see the fight we all wanted. So now our ranked pound-for-pound amateurs one and two are fighting at 135 pounds, giving us the fight we’ve wanted.”
In the main event, we’ll get Starling Simmons going up against Ben Robinson.
“What”s exciting with Ben is how active he wants to be, unfortunately, he was supposed to be on our April show at UVU, but unfortunately, he broke a bone in his hand and couldn’t, but he still came to the show and it was great to see him, and his family but he wanted to get in there quick. He’s fighting the guy that not a lot of people want to fight, Starling’s a beast, Starling is 5-1 and his only loss comes off of a TKO from a leg break in August of 2021. He had to come back physically and mentally from that, was supposed to fight, but maybe mentally wasn’t ready for that yet, got the mental right and actually took a fight in the Dominican Republic earlier this year and got his hand raised, Starling is an absolute stud and loves to stand and bang, and that’s what Ben asked for, so I’m excited to have him (Ben) back and see how he stacks up against Starling. Don’t blink in that fight, somebody is getting knocked out.”
There are also three local fighters on the card as well Kallon Curtis who trains at Fierce MMA, Randy Kopchinsky, and Jason Eargle.
Doors open at 4:00, and fights start at 5:00. Tickets are available by following the link HERE, starting at $40.