A combat sports heavy weekend includes all the big promotions as well as the small guys headlined by LFA returning for LFA 117 in California tonight on UFC Fight Pass.
The event is headlined by Ricardo Dias, who looks to improve to 3-0 in the promotion, going against Michinori Tanaka who is a UFC veteran and making his LFA debut. Both men have fun, action-packed styles that make this a very fun matchup with tons of possibilities behind it while also giving LFA a new face in its title mix at bantamweight.
The co-main event is between Yuma Horiuchi, who is 1-3 in his last four and in desperate need of a win, and fun LFA prospect Mark Climaco who is 6-0 and a name to watch as things develop in his career.
LFA 117 Preview
Ricardo Dias, as mentioned, is looking to improve to 3-0 in LFA but 11-4 overall in his career. His debut in the promotion came against Desmond Torres and he came away with the win in an action-packed split decision victory. In that fight, he demonstrated a complete set of skills highlighted by his grappling expertise and his ability to use kicks to keep range and set up his boxing counters.
In his second fight, his boxing set up the knee that would score him one of the best knockouts of the year. He would use the counter overhand right to drop George Garcia and would follow that up with a well-timed knee to Garcia as he was getting up and would knock him out cold. That would be the first knockout victory of his career so in this upcoming fight against Tanaka look for him to use his grappling more naturally as his offensive weapon.
Speaking of Tanaka, Michinori Tanaka is looking to work his way back into the UFC, and using LFA to do that isn’t the worst idea. In his UFC career, he went 2-3 that included a win over former title challenger Joe Soto. After being cut from the UFC he found back-to-back wins, one by stoppage, but now the 31-year-old is hoping a larger platform garners more attention from the UFC brass.
In 2 Days, #UFC veteran @Michinori_TAMJ makes his @LFAfighting debut in the main event of #LFA117! 🇯🇵
Friday, November 5@VisaliaConvCtr#Visalia, #California
🎫: https://t.co/T487eY8veY#MMA#LFANation@UFCFightPass pic.twitter.com/NfpGTnMdRM
— LFA (@LFAfighting) November 4, 2021
The Prospect to Watch
The name everyone should be excited to see, and the fighter who may be in the UFC sooner rather than later is Mark Climaco. The bantamweight prospect is currently 6-0 with three stoppages and is looking to get one more win in 2021 to bring his total to four.
Climaco trains out of American Kickboxing Academy and is just 23 years old so the future is bright for him and his traditional AKA combo package of skilled wrestling and smooth striking work.
He will be going against Yuma Horiuchi who started his career 6-1 but has since lost three of his last four so this fight is just as important for his career as it is Climaco. One man is looking to continue his ascent and the other is looking to salvage a career that was once so promising.
Rounding Out the Rest of the Card
The fight card consists of nine bouts with three of them being contested under amateur rules and regulations. As per usual, LFA has the card filled out with action fighters as well as fighters with promising records who may earn more meaningful spots on future LFA cards.
Fighters Batsumberel Dagvadorj and Hyder Amil both have good records in 7-2 and 4-0 respectively and are in favourable spots to showcase their skills on the main card. They and so many other fighters can be found on LFA 117 on UFC Fight Pass tonight and of course, MMA Sucka will have the results for you to follow along with as things roll along.
Featured Image from LFA Twitter
