With ACB coming to the UK next month, the line-up continues to grow with the announcement of six more bouts for the Manchester card including a mega lightweight clash between Saul Rogers and Pat Healy.
ACB 54: Supersonic takes place on Saturday, March 11 at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England and features ACB middleweight champion Mamed Khalidov facing British fighter Luke Barnatt in the main event.
The news of the mega-fight was broken yesterday by journalist Jim Edwards on FloCombat.com.
Saul Rogers faces his biggest test yet at ACB 54
Rogers (12-1) is currently on a six-fight win streak and was victorious in his ACB promotional debut back in October when he defeated Michael Adalena at ACB 47. Despite the 27-year-old making it to the final of TUF 22 where he was set to face Artem Lobov, visa issues meant he was unable to compete and was replaced by eventual winner Ryan Hall.
Strikeforce and UFC veteran “Bam Bam” Healy (30-23) arrived in ACB after a spell with Titan FC and would controversially lose his debut last month, after an eye poke was missed by the referee, allowing opponent Leandro Silva to capitalise and knockout the impaired Healy early in the fight.
With Rogers being talked about as one of the best lightweights in Europe, if not the world, it will be interesting to see how he handles the vast experience of his 33-year-old foe.
Brazilian UFC veteran makes debut against “The Polish Bear” at ACB 54
Despite rumours that Brazilian submission specialist Vinny Magalhaes Magalhaes would face Sweden’s Max Nunes, he makes his debut in Manchester against “The Polish Bear” Przemyslaw Mysiala in a light-heavyweight fight that could have possible title implications.
Magalhaes has finished 11 of his 14 wins by submission and is recently on a run of 4-1 since leaving the UFC. He will hope to carry the momentum into his promotional debut as he trys to earn a shot against newly crowned ACB 205lb champion, Thiago Silva.
His Polish opponent has title aspirations of his own and will know that Magalhaes is a very big scalp to take. Currently unbeaten in his last five fights, Mysiala has finished 16 of his 20 victories in the first round and offers a ground threat of his own with half of those coming by submissions.
Someones ‘0’ must go in 140lbs Catchweight bout
Elsewhere, two undefeated rising stars go head-to-head as one of the UK’s brightest prospects, Dean Garnett will face Australian Michael Tobin in a 140lb catchweight bout.
With both fighters possessing a strong grappling game, this could be a purists dream that will see only the cream rise to the top with Tobin looking to build on his 11 submission finishes from 12 wins.
Also announced today, Mukhumat Vakhaev vs. Tanner Boser, Ibrahim Chuzhigaev vs. David Mitchell and Rakhman Dzanaev vs. Adam Zajac.