MMASucka.com recently reported that top Canadian Featherweight fighter, Graham Spencer had signed a deal with Aggression Fighting Championship. However, we have since learned that was not the case. In what can only be described as a Soap Opera-esque twist news rocked the North American MMA world early Friday morning that Spencer had in fact come to terms with a Canadian promotion, only not the one we had been lead to believe.
MMASucka.com is pleased to break the news that Graham Spencer has officially joined the Maximum Fighting Championships and is expected to make his debut October 26th at MFC 35 in Edmonton Alberta. The show will be seen live on AXS TV and tape delayed on TSN2 in Canada. Not only has he be joined the promotion, but he will be the MFC’s Featherweight Division’s debut fighter as the organization has not had a Featherweight Division…Until now!
Spencer (8-1-1NC) is undefeated in his last 2 fights, however that would be 4 if 1 weren’t ruled a no contest. He defeated Shawn Albrecht in his last match at BFL 13 claiming the BFL Featherweight Championship. The Vancouver Island standout is ranked #4 in Canada however according to Fight Matrix he is the 201st ranked Featherweight in the world rank.
Spencer has not fought since February of this year. When MMASucka spoke with him this was the reasoning behind the break.
I was supposed to fight in June and defend my belt, but I had a whole bunch of stuff going on with my family. So, I had to take a little bit of time off training.
When speaking on his decision to join Canada’s biggest MMA Promotion, Spencer simply stated,
This is an opportunity I didn’t even consider being available, since they had no featherweight division. In light of what has happened the last few days – my Management, Coaches and I sat back and re-assessed our options. A couple new offers became present and we took what we thought to be the most beneficial to my career.
What Spencer referred to was a barrage of different articles being released on his supposed signing with the aforementioned AggressionFC. The Nanaimo BC native chose to address this by only saying
My Management knows all the details, this is why I have Darcy (McBride) handling this, I have a full time job and don’t have time for unneeded drama. I want to fight, that’s it.
We spoke to McBride early this morning and when asked about what has transpired he didn’t hesitate to clear the air.
At the time the article was released on that website stating he was signed we had every intention of fulfilling the agreement although the signed contract had not yet been returned to the AFC, one which I did possess. However the article went on to state quotes from Mr. Spencer that not only appeared out of character, but were completely fabricated. He had not done any interviews regarding the AFC except the one he did on your Radio Show ( Feel free to plug your show here 😉 Have a listen.
I brought this to his (Graham’s) attention and Mr. Spencer was not impressed. I also came across comments that (Adam) Lorenz hadn’t yet received a contract for the fight from the AFC’s Darren Owen, although ours had his name on it. BFL President Jay Golshani was apparently upset with certain comments made by Mr. (Darren) Owen, which is none of our concern other than the fact I received phone calls and texts from both parties regarding what I consider to be a personal feud that is not my business.
At this point we decided to wait on sending the signed contract back as we are not looking to be a piece that is played in an ongoing feud in the BC MMA Scene. Graham is too large a commodity for that. There were arguments over a supposed release ( from BFL) , a release that I have since received without incident from Mr. Golshani. With this secured we had a look at the other options on the table. Although we were swaying towards the Lorenz fight we decided to leave both parties to their business, take the high road and join the MFC’s newly formed Featherweight Division.
This is the 2nd member of Impact MMA and Echelon Fighter Management to join the MFC in the past month, as Graham’s teammate Nick Hinchliffe will make his MFC debut August 10th vs. Dhiego Lima. Expect him (Graham) to be in attendance and look for an interview to air LIVE on AXS TV and well as TSN2 when the show is replayed in Canada a few weeks later. It is unfortunate that there has been such a stir over this, I am just happy Graham has been professional, thankful Mark (Pavelich) went out of his way to retain Graham’s services with a deal we couldn’t refuse, and I’m truly thrilled to have him join the MFC roster making history in the process.
Something tells me this story is far from complete. Look for Darcy McBride to join us on MMASucka Radio in the coming weeks to get into it a little deeper and shed light first hand on what will be one of the most talked about Canadian stories of the summer. Spencer’s opponent for October 26th is yet to be named, but expect a flurry of activity leading up that card as the MFC bolsters it’s newly formed FW Division.
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