Battlefield Fight League returns for the first event of 2024 on February 8 and it is as stacked a card as they come.
The promotion has been teasing fights for weeks now, but the poster for BFL 79 was released on Wednesday and there are three title fights on the main card.
Main Event
Rimouski, Quebec’s Maxime Soucy won the interim featherweight championship in his last BFL outing and will now fight for the featherweight championship in the main event of BFL 79 against Radley Da Silva.
Soucy (5-1) made his name known on the West Coast when he made his way into enemy territory at BFL 70 and earned a unanimous decision against Makinde Adeyemi. He showed his grit in that performance, but his next two outings really showcased his well rounded MMA skillset. At BFL 73, the featherweight earned a unanimous decision against fan favorite Josh Kwiatkowski and followed that up with the interim title victory — a second round finish against Nic Ouellet. The BFL 77 title fight was a war of attrition, despite it ending in the second round. Soucy withstood a first round full of grappling from the BJJ black belt Ouellet and went on to weather the storm and push the pace in the second. He fought under the Samourai banner for his latest fight, a second round TKO against Neftaly Martínez Burgos.
Da Silva (3-1) has not been the most active fighter on the roster, having fought four times since his professional debut in 2013. Despite only having four professional fights it has been extremely tough to find fights for the Pinnacle MMA product. In 2019, Da Silva earned the Rise FC featherweight championship, when he finished the very durable John Nguyen in the second round at Rise FC 5. He had two fights cancelled after that bout, but was able to step back inside the cage again in 2023 against Mike McAloon. If you were watching Da Silva for the first time, you wouldn’t have known he had been out of action for as long as he had. There was no ring rust and he put on a grappling clinic from bell to bell earning a unanimous decision at BFL 78.
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Other Title Fights
There are two other title fights announced for the UFC Fight Pass portion of the fight card.
The super welterweight championship is up for grabs as Brazilian Rodrigo Sezinando takes on American Scottie Stockman. Sezinando (5-1) fought for the first time under the BFL banner in early 2023 and he made his mark. Fans and pundits all counted him out against the very dangerous Saeid Mirzaei, however, he proved everyone wrong. Mirzaei is as well rounded a fighter as they come and Sezinando was able to land takedowns, stuff the shot and land the nastiest knockout of the year at BFL 76. Following that fight, he had a title fight cancelled and a non-title fight cancelled, but will look to continue with a bang at BFL 79. The man in front of him is a decorated American wrestler, with an impressive professional record and experience on the world level under the PFL banner. Stockman (10-2) is riding an eight fight winning streak. Most recently he earned a 20-second spinning backfist knockout against Justin Baseman at Primal Fighting Championship.
Ali Wasuk and Ty Wilson will cross paths for the BFL bantamweight championship. Wasuk (7-3) has been at the top of the 135-pound rankings for what seems like forever and will get his third crack at the title. The only man he’s lost to since 2019 is the former BFL champ and current UFC fighter Serhiy Sidey. Most recently, Wasuk earned a unanimous decision victory over Josh Kwiatwoski at BFL 78. Wilson (9-6) has fought under the BFL banner one time before — in 2019 at BFL 59 he was brought in to take on the then champion Cole Smith. Smith was able to earn a first round rear naked choke victory. Wilson has plenty of experience under his belt and is currently riding a three fight winning streak. In June of 2023, the Ontario native earned a third round TKO victory against Alfredo Larios at Durham Fight Series 1.
You can catch all the main card action live on UFC Fight Pass, with the preliminary portion of the card streaming on YouTube.
