Although this is a Louisiana-based show, IXFA has strong ties to Texas with both Reed and Dawson residing in the Houston area. Likewise, the promotion held the bulk of their shows in Texas during 2010-2011 before making the move back out to Delta Downs and they continue to use many of the area’s fighters with IXFA 9 being no different.
As of now this pro-am card is currently slated for 13 fights overall with 7 of those bouts in the professional ranks. The bulk of the pros fighting on this card are from Texas and 5 out of 7 bouts are title fights so look for some continuity to be established on this card as IXFA decides a multiple of its’ latest champions in between the 135 lbs. – 185 lbs. divisions.
Let’s go over these championship fights and the rest of the pro card in further detail…
IXFA 9 – Main Card Preview for May 18, 2013
Middleweight Title: Abilene’s Brandon Farran travels all the way to Delta Downs looking to bounce back from a rough stretch of three losses in a row in his last fights, albeit to some tough competition in Derrick Krantz, Jason House, and Alex Morono. He’s be looking to bounce back again Louisianan Aaron Davis, 9 years his senior but definitely on the upswing career-wise with 4 straight wins heading into this title fight.
Welterweight Title: Making his return to the cage for the first time since July 2011 is defending IXFA middleweight champ Antonio ‘King Kong’ Flores. A knockout artist, Flores won the IXFA title with a 26-second TKO of Brandon McDowell in Houston in October of 2010 before similarly succumbing to Pete Spratt in his last bout at Legacy. Now a year later he’s looking to right the ship. Also looking to bounce back after two tough losses in a row is another hard-hitting fighter in Jonathan “Hulk” Harris. The former powerlifter opened his career at 6-1 prior to his last two fights so he’s definitely looking to get back to his winning ways and pick up a title in the process in this one. Looking at the styles at both men, this should make for one of more exciting fights of the night.
Lightweight Title: Jason “Karate Man” Carter travels all the way from Houston to take on LA native Marcus Andrusia in this one for the IXFA lightweight title. Carter is fairly familiar to us coming from the Houston area but the selection of his opponent here is perplexing considering he’s lost 4 out of 5 as a pro and is winless since the summer of 2010. How that merits a title shot is something beyond our realm of comprehension.
Featherweight Title: When looking at fighters competing out of both Texas and Louisiana in recent years, you’d be hard-pressed to find many as exciting as Rey Trujillo. This knockout artist will be looking for his third win in a row on this card, having viciously knocked out Chris Jones at Legacy FC 19 in his last fight and scoring TXMMA’s KO of the Year in our 2012 Awards Season. This experienced fighter will be taking on a relative newbie in Todd Matarona – who despite winning both his amateur bouts lost his pro debut by TKO to Cody Williams at IXFA 8. He’ll be facing another uphill battle here as he tries to upend his veteran opponent.
Bantamweight Title: Last but not least in title action could be a ‘fight of the night’ between two exciting fighters looking to build some consistency at the pro level in Cody Williams and David Armas. Take away their records and what you have are two guys willing to go toe-to-toe with any opponent they meet. Will they do the same here? The best guess is YES they will but if not, this could also prove to be an interesting duel on the ground as well with Cody ever-improving there while Armas has proved almost impossible to submit in his own career thus far. Then of course there’s the battle on the scale as well. We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention this but David’s last fight was at 155 lbs. and this fight is at 135 lbs. – a weight he’s had trouble making in the recent past. With a title on the line, will he make it here? We’ll find out on May 18th.
Best of the Rest: The rest of the pro card features only two more fights with Silverback Fight Club’s Scotty Juarez traveling to Vinton to take on another skilled newcomer Jordy Morgan out of United MMA and two other vets set to do battle with Edgar Verdin taking on RJ Knepp.
All in all it should be a good card overall at Delta Downs with some of the intriguing matchups they’ve put together so make sure to stay tuned to TXMMA.com for results if you don’t make out to Delta Downs to catch this one LIVE.
Here’s the IXFA 9 card below as it stands today.
IXFA 9 – Updated Fight Card
Professional Fights
185 lbs.: Brandon Farran (7-7) vs. Aaron Davis (5-3) <TITLE>
170 lbs.: Antonio Flores (5-3) vs. Jonathan Harris (6-3) <TITLE>
155 lbs.: Marcus Andrusia (1-4) vs. Jason Carter (2-2) <TITLE>
145 lbs.: Rey Trujillo (14-9) vs. Todd Matarona (0-1) <TITLE>
135 lbs.: Cody Williams (4-4) vs. David Armas (4-7) <TITLE>
155 lbs.: Scotty Juarez (1-1) vs. Jordy Morgan (1-1)
185 lbs.: Edgar Verdin (2-4) vs. RJ Knepp (2-2)
Amateur Fights
135 lbs.: Xavier Siller vs. Andy Stoute
115 lbs.: Halleigh Haak vs. Devaney Clayton
170 lbs.: Lewis Copeland vs. Trent Parker
185 lbs.: Isaac Castillo vs. Andrew Martinez
170 lbs.: Matt Cantelmo vs. Beau Koenig
155 lbs.: Hernan Vasquez vs. Charles McLendon
155 lbs.: Alec Williams vs. William Leads