This year has seen its fair share of bizarre and weird in combat sports, seeing actual phonebooth fights, pillow fights, and even Siamese twin fights, but fans have not seen anything like what is expected to be Triad Combat.
Triller Triad Combat Preview
Triller has been known for two things it seems recently, an easy-to-use music video app for content creators and completely mishandling the Teofimo Lopez and George Kambosos Jr. boxing fight negotiations. They may have mishandled those though because this event was becoming its focus.
Triller has the money and the backing to be able to sustain some hiccups but based on the outcome of tomorrow’s event, they may have a new cash cow on their hands. As combat sports fans have flocked to BKFC because of its brutality and uniqueness, Triad Combat can be just that with its ruleset.
With the ruleset focusing on the standup, it is the new strikes that they allow with traditional boxing that allows for fans to be drawn into something new. Like in boxing, only punches will be allowed but adding the punches of hammerfists and spinning back fists as well. Obviously, no kicks or elbows are permitted but the new fighting style will allow clinching and striking from the clinch.
Heavyweights Make Up the Top of the Card
Headlining the card tomorrow will be a matchup between former UFC champion Frank Mir and former heavyweight boxing title challenger Kubrat Pulev.
Mir, is a former UFC and Bellator veteran with his last MMA fight coming in 2019, winning against Roy Nelson. In his last 11 MMA bouts, he is just 3-8, with five of those losses coming by way of knockout. Despite his chin being less than ideal, Mir did make his boxing debut earlier this year in a losing effort to Steve Cunningham, albeit looking more impressive than most expected.
His opponent, Kubrat Pulev, is no slouch and a much harder test for Mir than Steve Cunningham was by a country mile. Cunningham was four years removed from his last fight and had won just five fights in his last eight years of competing. Pulev on the other hand has just two losses in his whole boxing career.
Pulev has a boxing record of 28-2 with one loss coming to Boxing Hall of Famer Wladimir Klitschko back in 2014, but his most recent fight back in December of 2020 was when he suffered the second loss of his career in a bout against Anthony Joshua. Pulev never looks bad in his fights but it is his style that can get him in trouble with bigger fights: he has no issue taking a couple of rounds to get to know his opponent, but in the case of Mir he may make an exception. After picking up wins against fighters like Samuel Peter, Derek Chisora, and Hughie Fury, going in against Frank Mir should not faze the 40-year-old Bulgarian.
In the co-main event, Matt Mitrione takes on Alexander Flores in a matchup of one man making his boxing debut and the other coming in after losing to one of the best in the world.
Mitrione announced this week that he is done with MMA, with Triad Combat being his new focus for now. Mitrione has shown an ability to knock out fighters or get knocked out in a career that saw him start as a less than favorable character on The Ultimate Fighter Season 10 and go all the way to the Bellator Heavyweight Grand Prix.
[pickup_prop id=”15826″]
As for Flores, he is in a similar spot as Pulev, as he welcomes an MMA fighter to the ring as the veteran boxing combatant. Flores is coming off a loss to Luis Ortiz back in November of 2020 where he lost in just 45 seconds of the fight. He has been able to put together a career record of 18-3-1, but the losses have all been knockouts to heavy-handed boxers Charles Martin and Joseph Parker. With that in mind, expect this fight to not see the judge’s scorecards.
“Platinum” Returns to Combat
Despite being in the news for signing with BKFC, it appears Mike Perry wants to get busy sooner rather than later. He is matched up with former light heavyweight WBC Continental Americas and WBO Intercontinental title challenger Michael Seals.
Perry has been in the MMA cage with the likes of Donald Cerrone, Paul Felder and Tim Means, just to name a few, while the Alabama-born Atlanta native Seals has fought world-class boxing competitors Elieder Alvarez and Edwin Rodriguez. Perry has shown to be a durable fighter in MMA, but it is a whole other story coming into a new sport against someone who has already done it 28 times, posting a record of 25-3.
Rest of the Card
Rounding out the card, former Bellator lightweight and featherweight Derek Campos faces Brian Vera, who has boxed the likes of Andy Lee, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., and Rocky Fielding. Russian former UFC welterweight Albert Tumenov will fight one of Roy Jones Jr.‘s retirement fight opponents in Scott Sigmon, while 2-1 FAC flyweight Alexa Culp will face the winless Angelina Hoffschneider.
