Worldwide MMA Preview – Legacy FC, ONE FC, Akuma FC

The first action of the weekend is Friday night (3am BST) in Louisiana, United States for Legacy 57. The card is headlined by a fight between Kevin Aguilar and Tony Kelley for the vacant featherweight title. Aguilar is a 10-1 prospect with a win on a Bellator preliminary card and multiple appearances in Legacy. His lone defeat came in a previous Legacy title bid, he was stopped by WEC and UFC veteran Leonard Garcia that night but has bounced back with two wins in a row. Kelley is the far more inexperienced fighter with a record of only 3-0 but they are all finishes so he has been impressive.

One FC is in Hefei, China on Saturday (Noon BST) with a featherweight fight between Jadambaa Narantungalag and Eric Kelly in the main event. Jadambaa is the former One featherweight champion but lost his title against Marat Gafurov last year. He bounced back with a submission victory over “No Face” Boku in May. Kelly had a 3 fight winning streak snapped by Ev Ting in January just as he was on the verge of title contention.

Roger Huerta will battle Ariel Sexton in the co-main event. Huerta is a UFC veteran who has fallen into bad form in recent years. After leaving UFC he had an unsuccessful run in Bellator and in One FC he is 1-2 with a defeat to Koji Ando in his last fight. Canada’s Sexton competed on season 12 of the Ultimate Fighter but didn’t get a contract. He lost his first fight in One FC to Kamal Shalorus but has won two since to put himself up near the top of the One FC lightweight rankings.

Closer to home, Akuma FC 8 is on in Templepatrick, Northern Ireland on Saturday night (6pm BST) Declan Larkin takes on James McErlean in the professional main event. Larkin has the experience edge as he made his debut all the way back in 2007. Since then he has been a mainstay of the British and Irish scene, his last two fights have been losses in Finland and Switzerland so this is a chance for him to get a win again. McErlean has a 4-3 record with his fights mainly in Clan Wars and Akuma. His last outing was a win over Niall Smith in February.

There are two amateur title fights also on the card. At welterweight the 7-0 Oktawian Olejniczak will take on Mark Gallivan who is 2-0. At lightweight Nathan Cannaway who is 4-1 takes on the 4-4 Jay ar Campos.