Mixed Martial Arts Returns to Arizona

Mixed martial arts return to the valley with Ringside Unified Fighting Nation’s RUF 40, scheduled for this Sunday, April 25^that the Glendale Civic Center in Glendale, AZ.

Following its recent success of a live broadcast event in March, live streaming to an audience of over 100,000, Ringside Unified Fighting Nation, also known as RUF Nation, is opening its doors for the valley’s first MMA event with fans since sports were shut down over a year ago. Based out of Goodyear, AZ, RUF Nation chose the Glendale Civic Center for this historic event because of the long history of hosting previous events at the spacious location pre-pandemic.

“People want to see MMA again and are excited to attend a live event in over a year,“ said Dr. Joel Lopez, President of RUF Nation.

Thanks to a recent partnership with ONE Championship, Asia’s largest MMA promotion company out of Singapore, RUF Nation is now host to “Road to ONE”, a 16-man heavyweight tournament looking for the country’s next great heavyweight superstar. The “Road to ONE” tournament will award the grand champion with a $100,000 contract to fight in ONE Championship and compete on a global level. The tournament is well underway with the first bouts happening previously at RUF 39 in March and will continue over the next several RUF Nation events.

The partnership is likely to increase RUF Nation’s audience, as ONE Nation has a partnership with Turner Sports, owner of the cable network TNT.

With the pandemic shutting down gyms and clubs last year, RUF Nation has not had trouble finding matchups for this year’s events.

“Fighters have been shelved for a year. They are hungry to get back in the cage.” Dr. Lopez added, “We have enough fighters for three more events.”

With a full fight card consisting of nearly 15 fights, the Glendale Civic Center’s socially-distance capacity of 568 seats is sure to sell out this coming Sunday.

For more information or to stream the event live, you can reach RUF Nation at www.rufmma.net.

 

Get your Mixed Martial Arts tickets Here!

 

RUF 40 Fight Card

 

Prelims

 

Amateur – Flyweight (125lbs)

Dionee Marrero v Issa Matsubishi

An Tuan Ho v Terrance Saeteurn

 

Amateur – Featherweight (145 lbs)

Alec Schwartz v Bryan Araujo

Jose Delgado v Dakota Munro

 

Amateur – Lightweight (155 lbs)

Chris Owens v Kyle Overman

James Pleasant II v Chris Alvarez

Avery Brightwell v Luis Fernando Medina

Zurina Turrey v Virginia Marvin

 

Amateur – Welterweight (175 lbs)

Anthony Camacho v Victor Canedo

 

Amateur – Middleweight (185 lbs)

Zach O’Malley v Osama Awadalla

Mark Lozano v Alfonzo Pitolo

Kristien Ruffin v Lamar Harris

 

Amateur – Catchweight (190 lbs)

Vincent Ruiz v Tristan Mordecai

 

Amateur – Heavyweight (265 lbs)

Noah Merrill v Brooks Vanness

 

 

Main Card

 

Pro – Bantamweight (135 lbs)

Marcus McGhee v Joshua Wang Kim

 

Pro – Featherweight (145 lbs)

Moses Diaz v Octavian Trumbo

 

Pro – Lightweight (155 lbs)

Jose Campos v Devon Brock

Ivey Nixon v Sunni Imhotep

Austin Wourms v Ernesto Rodriguez

 

Pro – Welterweight (170 lbs)

Gabriel Rodriguez v Jimmy Scully

 

Pro – Heavyweight (155 lbs)

Jordan Powell v Brandon Cash

 

By: Alejandro Salazar – HMG Guest Writer