Somehow, the month of May has come and gone already, wrapped up on a day where two UFC fight cards delivered 22 fights to mixed martial arts fans to close out what was by all accounts a pretty damn fun month of action.
With the calendar now turned to June, it’s once again time to take a look at everything on tap outside the UFC over the next month.
This is Outside the Octagon for June 2014.
Bellator 121 (June 6)
Fight to Watch: James Austin Heidlage vs Luiz Lins
This card is headlined by a heavyweight matchup between James “The Colossus” Thompson and Eric Prindle, with Sokoudjou and Terry Davinney holding down the co-main event slot, so expectations are somewhere between tepid and terrible.
That said, the light-heavyweight tournament bout between Heidlage and Lins is intriguing, as both are unbeaten, with Heidlage, who has won six of seven via submission, taking on a Nova Uniao guy with a little bit of pop.
Resurrection Fighting Alliance 15 (June 6)
Fights to Watch: Kevin Casey vs Andrew Sanchez
Fighters to Watch: Alan Jouban, Daniel Aguiar, John Hackleman Jr.
RFA has had a pretty good run over the last few months, graduating a number of fighters to the UFC and delivering some quality fights along the way.
Casey, a TUF alum, has earned a pair of wins since failing to catch on with the UFC, while Sanchez is an up-and-comer with five consecutive finishes and the opportunity to get that signature win everyone is constantly looking for on the regional circuit.
Jouban has gone 7-1 over his last eight fights with that lone loss coming to current UFC competitor Mike “Biggie” Rhodes and Aguiar is a submission specialist along the lines of early-UFC Demian Maia or Giva Santana, with all 10 of his wins coming by way of tap out.
Lastly, Hackelman Jr., the son “The Pit Master” John Hackleman, returns after an 11-second knockout win in January. Just two fights into his professional career, “Handsome Hack” (bad nickname alert) is worth keeping tabs on for now.
Cage Warriors Fighting Championship 69 (June 7)
Fights to Watch: Steven Ray vs Curt Warburton, Rosi Sexton vs Joanna Jedrzejczyk
Warburton is one of the top lightweights in Europe and had a cup of tea in the UFC a few years back, while Ray is a 24-year-old Scottish fighter with nearly 20 fights under his belt already. The veteran Warburton got the better of him in their first meeting last March, so it will be interesting to see what adjustments the Dinky Ninjas product brings to the cage.
I’m spotlighting the Sexton-Jedrzejczyk fight for a couple reasons. First, it’s Rosi’s first fight since that hellacious beating she took against Jessica Andrade; second, Jedrzejczyk is unbeaten and someone who could be on the UFC radar given that the organization will host an event in her native Poland later this year.
World Series of Fighting Canada 2 (June 7)
Fight to Watch: David Perron vs Ryan Janes
Fighters to Watch: Josh Hill, Matt DesRoches
Perron and Janes are a pair of British Columbia-based middleweights, the former training out of Vancouver’s Creative Fighting Guild and the latter a teammate of Sarah Kaufman at ZUMA in Victoria. Janes has had a tough time finding opponents in recent years, but Perron is happy to share the cage with him and is coming off a first-round submission win over Matt Baker in December.
The other two noted fighters here are recent TUF alumni looking to work their way back to the UFC. Hill has long been considered the top bantamweight in Canada, but failed to impress as a member of Team Tate on Season 18, while DesRoches was bounced in the quarterfinals on TUF Nations. Both carry unbeaten professional records into their WSOF Canada debuts.
BAMMA Fight Night (June 7)
Fight to Watch: Scott Askham vs Max Nunes
This is a battle between two of the top middleweights in Europe, as Askham sports a perfect 11-0 record and Nunes has only been beaten once in 14 appearances.
Nunes’s name was bandied about last year when the UFC was looking for a last minute replacement for Alexander Gustafsson, but Ilir Latifi took the spot instead. Since then, the 25-year-old has gone 3-1, rebounding from his first career loss with a pair of dominant wins. Askham rattled off seven straight finishes to start his career, but has earned decisions in three of his last four, including a win over tough veteran Jack Marshman.
ONE FC 17: Era of Champions (June 14)
Fight to Watch: Adriano Moraes vs Kosuke Suzuki
Suzuki has won five straight and six of his last seven and he’s taking on Moraes, a 25-year-old Brazilian with a shiny 10-1 record coming off a second-round submission win over former UFC flyweight competitor Yasuhiro Urushitani. With seven finishes in his 10 career wins, Moraes is definitely one to watch going forward.
Legacy Fighting Championship 32 (June 20)
Fighters to Watch: Thomas Almeida
Legacy has seen a few of their fighters transition to the UFC as of late, most recently Carlos Diego Ferreira, who makes his debut later this month. Next up could be Almeida, a 22-year-old Brazilian with a perfect 16-0 record that includes 12 knockouts and four submissions.
While he’s not beating household names (or even hardcore names for that matter), winning 16 consecutive contests at any level is an accomplishment that can’t be overlooked or dismissed.
World Series of Fighting 10 (June 21)
Fights to Watch: Georgi Karakhanyan vs Rick Glenn, Jessica Aguilar vs Emi Fujino
Fighters to Watch: Lance Palmer, Ashlee Evans-Smith
Even though UFC veterans David Branch and Jesse Taylor battling for the middleweight strap headlines this event, the featherweight championship bout between Karakhanyan and Glenn and the women’s strawweight title fight pitting Aguilar against Fujimo are far more compelling.
The 29-year-old Karakhanyan is 23-3-1 overall with wins over the likes of Micah Miller, Hiroyuki Takeya, and Waylon Lowe, and won the title by submitting Team Alpha Male prospect Lance Palmer. He has won nine straight since being let go by Bellator and is definitely a candidate for a move to the UFC at some point.
Glenn is a Roufusport product who is unbeaten in his last 12 fights, including a pair of wins in Score Fighting Series events here in Canada. He’s tall for the division, uses that length well, and has 12 finishes (seven TKOs, five submissions) in 14 career wins.
“JAG” is the best strawweight in the world, which makes it a shame that she’s stuck in WSOF and not taking part in Season 20 of The Ultimate Fighter. She’s won eight straight since her questionable loss to Zoila Frausto Gurgel in Bellator in 2010, including a pair of victories over the great Megumi Fujii. This is a showcase fight (and the best WSOF can do) as the 33-year-old Fujimo is coming off a loss and is just 3-2 over the last two years.
The aforementioned Palmer is still looking to rebound from his loss to Karakhanyan and will likely make his way to the UFC at some point, while Evans-Smith enters off a third-round stoppage win over Fallon Fox last October.