Newport Beach, CA. (October 8, 2012) – Bellator MMA will return to New Mexico as the Santa Ana Star Center plays host to the Toughest Tournament in Sports on Friday, October 25th. The night will feature the Bellator Lightweight Semifinals and a host of New Mexico’s top talent.
Meeting in the middle of the cage for the second time, Saad Awad will face Will Brooks in the Bellator Lightweight Semifinal. After finishing Martin Stapleton with a first round submission in the opening rounds and winning his previous five victories by first round finishes, Awad sees his fight with Brooks ending the same way.
“You’re going to see the best Saad Awad you’ve seen to date,” Awad said. “Fans are definitely going to see a fight of the night performance. I plan on pushing the pace every minute he’s in there with me. I’m taking this tournament one fight at a time, but as long as I am in the cage it’s do or die for me and I don’t plan on dying anytime soon. “
After suffering his only professional loss to Awad in the Season 8 Lightweight Tournament Semifinals, Brooks is anxious to get back in the cage and is looking for redemption on October 25th.
“I’m very excited and beyond ready for this semifinal fight against Awad,” Brooks said. “Unfortunately I wasn’t able to finish what I started in the first tournament, but this time around things will end differently. I continue to improve my game every day and stay focused on the goal at hand, which is beating Awad and moving on in the tournament.”
Rounding out the lightweight semifinals, Bellator veteran Ricardo Tirloni will fight Russian submission artist Tiger Sarnavskiy. With a strong performance in the opening round against Rich Clementi, Tirloni will turn to his veteran experience to hold off Sarnavskiy and make his way through the Toughest Tournament in Sports.
Six additional New Mexico athletes will fight on the preliminary card, held in conjunction with Orthrus Promotions. All of the preliminary fights will card will be streamed exclusively on Spike.com.
The full fight card is listed below.
MAIN CARD:

Bellator Lightweight Tournament Semifinal: Saad Awad (15-5) vs. Will Brooks (11-1)

Bellator Lightweight Tournament Semifinal: Ricardo Tirloni (16-4) vs. Tiger Sarnavskiy (24-1)
Heavyweight Feature Fight: Ron Sparks (8-2) vs. Mighty Mo (4-2)

Middleweight Feature Fight: Eugene Fadiora (12-1) vs. Andreas Spang (8-3)
PRELIMINARY CARD:

Bantamweight Feature Fight: Steve Garcia (1-0) vs. Shawn Bunch (2-0)

Middleweight Feature Fight: Eddie Larrea (17-23) vs. Rocky Ramirez (4-4-1)

Bantamweight Feature Fight: Adrian Cruz (5-0) vs. Jesse Brock (14-7)

Bantamweight Feature Fight: Luis Nogueira (15-3-1) vs. Frank Baca (16-3)

Light Heavyweight Feature Fight: Volkan Oezdemir (9-0) vs. Josh Lanier (3-7)

Heavyweight Feature Fight: Joseph Bryant (4-2) vs. Raphael Butler (6-0)
Featherweight Feature Fight: Angelo Sanchez (12-3) vs. Desmond Green (8-2)


