With a stacked main card already in place that includes two championship contests, World Series of Fighting 9’s full lineup is now complete with the addition of six preliminary bouts.
The intriguing contests include no less than 10 of Las Vegas’ finest mixed martial artists, as the “Fight Capital of the World” will be well represented on the card. The new matchups include featherweights Chris “Gritz” Gruetzemacher (11-1) vs. John “Guns” Gunderson (34-15), bantamweights Sean Cantor (1-0) vs. Bryson Hansen (6-1), welterweights “Filthy” Phil Dace (9-4) vs. Danny “Dee1” Davis (8-8-1), bantamweights Jimmy “Rabbit” Jones (4-2) vs. “Ruthless” Rudy Morales (2-0), lightweights Gil Guardado (2-0) vs. Jimmy Spicuzza (2-0) and debuting lightweights Tanner Cowan (0-0) vs. A.J. Williams (0-0).
“One of the great things about being based in Las Vegas is the proximity to so many of the world’s absolute best MMA camps,” World Series of Fighting President Ray Sefo said. “With us returning to our home base for this amazing event, it made sense for us to feature some of the city’s best talent, and I think we’ve put together a preliminary card that is going to deliver an entertaining evening ahead of our spectacular NBCSN-broadcast main-card lineup.”
“World Series of Fighting 9: Carl vs. Palhares,” which features a welterweight title fight between champ Steve Carl and challenger Rousimar Palhares, as well as Marlon Moraes vs. Josh Rettinghouse for the inaugural World Series of Fighting bantamweight title, takes place March 29 at Las Vegas’ Hard Rock Hotel & Casino.
Tickets for World Series of Fighting 9, which start at just $39, are on sale now at Ticketmaster.com. Tickets can also be purchased at The Joint box office or by phone at (800) 745-3000. The night’s featured fights air live on NBCSN at 9 p.m. ET (6 p.m. PT local time) following preliminary bouts that stream on World Series of Fighting’s official website, WSOF.com.
Gruetzemacher, a member of The MMA Lab in Glendale, Ariz., brings an impressive 10-fight winning streak to the cage. He faces Gunderson, a Syndicate MMA fighter who drops to featherweight for the first time in his career in this, his 50th professional fight.
Cantor is a Wanderlei Silva product who earned a close split-decision win in his professional debut. He now returns against Xtreme Couture fighter and transplanted Hawaiian Hansen, who recently rebounded from his first professional loss with a TKO win over Jesus Alvarado.
Syndicate MMA fighter Dace fought most recently in May, where he downed Jesus Wong via TKO. He now meets “Dee 1” Davis, who currently boasts a two-fight winning streak.
Xtreme Couture’s Jones remains one of Las Vegas’ most personable fighters, and he looks to rebound from a November 2012 loss to Sergio Pettis. He faces the hard-hitting Morales, who has earned two quick wins since turning pro in August.
Xtreme Couture’ Guardado followed up his undefeated amateur career by turning pro in March 2012 and is still unbeaten after picking up a pair of stoppage wins. Meanwhile, Syndicate MMA’s Spicuzza is also unbeaten through the first two fights of his professional career.
Rounding out the card, Utah’s Cowan travels to Las Vegas to meet Syndicate MMA’s Williams in a bout where each man makes his professional debut.