Mixed martial arts return to the valley with Ringside Unified Fighting Nation’s RUF 40, scheduled for this Sunday, April 25that the Glendale Civic Center in Glendale, AZ.
Following its recent success of a live broadcast event in March, live streaming to an audience of over 100,000, Ringside Unified Fighting Nation, also known as RUF Nation, is opening its doors for the valley’s first MMA event with fans since sports were shut down over a year ago. Based out of Goodyear, AZ, RUF Nation chose the Glendale Civic Center for this historic event because of the long history of hosting previous events at the spacious location pre-pandemic.
“People want to see MMA again and are excited to attend a live event in over a year,“ said Dr. Joel Lopez, President of RUF Nation.
Thanks to a recent partnership with ONE Championship, Asia’s largest MMA promotion company out of Singapore, RUF Nation is now host to “Road to ONE”, a 16-man heavyweight tournament looking for the country’s next great heavyweight superstar. The “Road to ONE” tournament will award the grand champion with a $100,000 contract to fight in ONE Championship and compete on a global level. The tournament is well underway with the first bouts happening previously at RUF 39 in March and will continue over the next several RUF Nation events.
The partnership is likely to increase RUF Nation’s audience, as ONE Nation has a partnership with Turner Sports, owner of the cable network TNT.
With the pandemic shutting down gyms and clubs last year, RUF Nation has not had trouble finding matchups for this year’s events.
“Fighters have been shelved for a year. They are hungry to get back in the cage.” Dr. Lopez added, “We have enough fighters for three more events.”
With a full fight card consisting of nearly 15 fights, the Glendale Civic Center’s socially-distance capacity of 568 seats is sure to sell out this coming Sunday.
For more information or to stream the event live, you can reach RUF Nation at www.rufmma.net.
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RUF 40 Fight Card
Prelims
Amateur – Flyweight (125lbs)
Dionee Marrero v Issa Matsubishi
An Tuan Ho v Terrance Saeteurn
Amateur – Featherweight (145 lbs)
Alec Schwartz v Bryan Araujo
Jose Delgado v Dakota Munro
Amateur – Lightweight (155 lbs)
Chris Owens v Kyle Overman
James Pleasant II v Chris Alvarez
Avery Brightwell v Luis Fernando Medina
Zurina Turrey v Virginia Marvin
Amateur – Welterweight (175 lbs)
Anthony Camacho v Victor Canedo
Amateur – Middleweight (185 lbs)
Zach O’Malley v Osama Awadalla
Mark Lozano v Alfonzo Pitolo
Kristien Ruffin v Lamar Harris
Amateur – Catchweight (190 lbs)
Vincent Ruiz v Tristan Mordecai
Amateur – Heavyweight (265 lbs)
Noah Merrill v Brooks Vanness
Main Card
Pro – Bantamweight (135 lbs)
Marcus McGhee v Joshua Wang Kim
Pro – Featherweight (145 lbs)
Moses Diaz v Octavian Trumbo
Pro – Lightweight (155 lbs)
Jose Campos v Devon Brock
Ivey Nixon v Sunni Imhotep
Austin Wourms v Ernesto Rodriguez
Pro – Welterweight (170 lbs)
Gabriel Rodriguez v Jimmy Scully
Pro – Heavyweight (155 lbs)
Jordan Powell v Brandon Cash
By: Alejandro Salazar – HMG Guest Writer
