HOUSTON, TX, March 9, 2012 – Yesterday Legacy Fighting Championship released an early look at the upcoming fight card, LFC 11, scheduled for May 11th at Houston’s Arena Theater and to be broadcast LIVE on HDNet’s Friday Night Fights. As expected, the card is laden primarily with top Texas talents – primarily from the Houston area. A few other vets, former champions, and one very significant out-of-town-prospect fill out the slate.
Here are a few thoughts on some of the top matchups on card as it stands thus far.
As it stands now, Legacy welterweight champion Jorge “Macaco” Patino is slated to headline the card opposite 4OZ Fighter Jesus “The Spaniard” Rivera for the 155 lbs. title. Most everyone knows Jesus as a teammate of last Legacy 155 champ Daniel “The Pit” Pineda, who has since moved on to the UFC’s ultra-green pastures after winning 5 straight bouts in LFC. As for “The Spaniard,” he’s won 2 bouts in a row at 155 to earn this shot, including his redemption win over former champ and old nemesis Rey Trujillo back in July of last year. He’ll be facing his toughest challenge yet in wily veteran Jorge Patino, himself a winner of three straight fights. Jorge most recently defended his title for the first time since winning it from Pete Spratt at LFC 8, beating Mike Bronzoulis via unanimous decision at LFC 9 this past December. Looking ahead to this one, Macaco should be walking is as the prohibitive favorite but the highly-technical striker Rivera will be looking to use all the tools in his favor to neutralize his opponents’ superior experience.
Next up on the card is the return of former LFC bantamweight champion Chad “Robo” Robichaux. Last we heard from Chad, he was dropping the aforementioned belt and retiring in favor of his work with veterans at the Might Oaks Wounded Warrior Foundation up in the Colorado Rockies. The “retirement” was short lived however as the U.S. Marine Corps Force Recon veteran and himself a PTSD survivor has come back to take on this fight with 2-time UFC veteran Joseph Sandoval. According to Robo, he’s taking this fight on HDNet in order to spread the word about his ministry as the primary purpose. As for Sandoval, the West Texas (Lubbock) native will be looking to rebound from his 0-2 stint in the UFC where he lost both of fights by first round TKO.
The following bout may be third on the bout order but it will undoubtedly be the most anticipated bout of the night. That’s because it involves all-world grappler Robert Drysdale. With a multitude of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and submission grappling titles to his resume, Robert is not only a BJJ black belt but quite literally one of the top grapplers that has ever lived. And now he’s taking his talents into the MMA world. Since making his cage debut in July 2010 Robert has made quick work out of all three of his opponents, winning all three bouts by first round submission. He last took out UFC vet Mike Nickels by guillotine in little over a minute so he’ll prove to be a tough task for whoever he faces down the road. This time that assignment falls on Houston’s own “Hurricane” Ike Villanueva, a longtime veteran who’ll be looking to use his striking prowess to neutralize Robert’s grappling. Already most pundits are predicting this one to go the way of Drysdale’s first three bouts but we’ll see if Villanueva can pull off the upset in front of his hometown crowd.
The rest of the main card should prove to be interesting for the future as it includes some of the top young prospects currently working their way up in the Legacy FC organization.
Perhaps most notable among them is the upcoming clash between Bryan / College Station’s Bubba Bush and “The Machine Gun” Artenas Young. These two were already slated to clash once or twice before with the bout not going through due to various reasons (injury, matchmaking, etc.) but it looks like it’s finally going to happen now. Longtime fans of LFC should know how dominating Bush has been in his young career. He’s beaten every one of his opponents thus far minus a certain UFC fighter named Andrew Craig, and he was winning that one too on the judges’ scorecards headed into rounds 4 and 5. He’s won his next two since then and will be looking to fast track his own career with a win in this bout over Young. Speaking of “Machine Gun,” he was on a hell of a run in 2011 with some impressive wins over solid vets Kyle Bracey and Elvis Mutapcic before dropping his latest bout against Clifford Starks, another fighter who’s won in the UFC since their bout. Needless to say, with these two facing such tough competition in the recent past who’ve done well at the highest level, they too will be looking to put an emphasis on their own career development with a win on May 11th.
Round out the main draw on HDNet will be a couple of other exciting bantamweight prospects in Angel Huerta and Cody Williams. Williams is currently slated to take on Dallas area representative Ryan Benoit after originally being scheduled to take on Steven Peterson. Meanwhile Angel will be taking on another Dallas area fighter in Nelson Salas in what has increasingly become Legacy’s most hotly contested division with up-and-coming fighters like Williams and Huerta all in the title hunt along with established vets like Steve Garcia and Carson Beebe.
That’s the main card so far. We’ll save the talk about the undercard for another day but below is the whole draw at it stands today with verbal agreements holding all the matchups together. Be on the lookout for more news here on TXMMA.com as the card draws near. Tickets go on sale next week so make sure to pick up some if you want to be there to see all the action LIVE at LFC 11.
HDNet’s Legacy Fighting Championship 11 – May 11th in Houston, TX
155 title – Jorge Patino (26-13) versus Jesus Rivera (6-2)
125 – Chad Robichaux (11-2) versus Joseph Sandoval (6-2)
205 – Robert Drysdale (3-0) versus Ike Villanueva (7-6)
135 – Angel Huerta (5-0) versus Nelson Salas (3-0)
185 – Bubba Bush (4-1) versus Artenas Young (7-4)
135 – Cody Williams (3-1) versus Ryan Benoit (3-1)
Undercard (untelevised)
185 – Larry Crowe versus Sam Mohammed
155 – Ray Blodget versus Scotty Juarez
170 – Lester Batres versus Justin Murray
170 – Lee King versus Alex Morono
125 – Jesus Mendez versus Andy Sandoval
125 – Bobby Powers versus Marcus Dupar
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