Worldwide MMA Preview – Legacy FC, ACB, Shooto

The weekend’s action begins in Louisiana, United States with Legacy FC 52 which is headlined by a flyweight title fight between Matt Schnell and Klayton Mai. Schnell fights out of American Top Team and has a 9-2 record. His last defeat was to Mai and since then he has won six fights in a row. He was initially scheduled to meet Damacio Page but an injury ruled the UFC veteran out and gave Mai the opportunity. Mai has an 8-1 record and his last two bouts have been victories on Bellator shows. Mai has finished all but one of his victories by submission.

On Saturday Absolute Championship Berkut has a show in Moscow, Russia which is full of great regional level talent. The main event is a lightweight title fight between Abdul-Aziz Abdulvakhabov and Eduard Vartanyan. Abdulvakhabov won a tournament in ACB in 2014 and then finished three more fights in the organisation in 2015 to bring his record to 12-1 with that lone defeat coming in his first professional MMA fight. Vartanyan has a 12-2 record and his last defeat was in the final of a 2015 grand prix in ACB to Ali Bagov. He bounced back from that loss with a huge win against former Bellator fighter Frodo Khasbulaev in December to set up this title challenge.

The co-main event features a bantamweight title fight between Piotr Yan and Magomed Magomedov. Yan is the current champion having won a grand prix in 2015 which brought his professional record to 5-0. At only 23 years of age, Yan is a bright prospect but this will be his toughest test to date. Magomedov is 12-1 with five wins in M-1 including one over Khabib Nurmagomedov’s brother Said. The bantamweight scene in Russia is very strong right now and the winner of this fight will have a great case to be the top 135er in the land.

Sunday brings us to Okinawa, Japan for Shooto. The main event is a fight between Nobumitsu Osawa and Joachim Hansen. Hansen is a legend of the game, he has been around over a decade and competed in Pride and Dream during his prime with bouts against some of the best lightweights of the time including Shinya Aoki and Eddie Alvarez. Osawa is affectionately known as Tyson and he competed on Road to UFC: Japan last year where he lost to Mizuto Hirota. The former bodybuilder is a fan favourite and has an 8-3 record.