Worldwide MMA Preview – ACB, Venator FC, Global Warriors

It is a lean weekend for Worldwide MMA but there are still some interesting events taking place.

Tomorrow, all the way from the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad comes ACB 19:  Baltic Challenge. Topping the bill is a middleweight clash between Poland’s Adam Zajac and Anatoly Tokov of Russia.

Zajac has an 8-1-1 record and was scheduled to face UFC veteran Joe Doerksen in March but visa issues prevented the match from taking place. Tokov possesses a 19-1 record with 10 of those wins coming by way of KO/TKO. The match is a semi-final of ACB’s middleweight grand-prix and should provide lots of action.

The card features plenty of young Russian and Polish fighters to keep an eye on, the pick of which could be Murad Kalamov. The Russian bantamweight has built up a 4-0 record with all four coming by way of submission. He faces a young Czech fighter Filip Macek who is on a five fight win streak of his own which should make for an intriguing fight.

Before Norman Parke steps into the octagon on Saturday the eyes of Irish MMA were going to be on Bologna, Italy for Venator FC but unfortunately 5-0 light heavyweight Karl Moore has had to pull out his scheduled bout with Italian grinder Mauro Cerilli who improved to 4-0 last month with a win over the experienced Englishman James Zigic.

The main event features legendary Japanese leg lock specialist Masakazu Imanari. A professional since 2000 Imanari has secured 20 of his 30 wins by submission and is currently on a two fight win streak. It is hard to imagine that 9-9 Italian Christian Binda will be able to stop him notching another one up tomorrow.

Also on Saturday but this time coming from Ontario, Canada is Global Warriors FC 2. The main event will be contested between two Canadian bantamweights and features a name that will be familiar to Irish MMA fans, Josh Hill. He was the man to deny Patrick Holohan a spot in the TUF 18 house.

His opponent tomorrow is Josh Rettinghouse and both fighters are looking to bounce back from losses to Marlon Moraes under the WSOF banner. The Moraes loss was the first of Hill’s professional career so it will be interesting to see how he bounces back here.