Sunday Column: A Historic Week Awaits As Both UFC And Bellator Hit The UK

Bellator 200 and UFC Liverpool will both land in the UK in next seven days in what is arguably going to be the biggest week of MMA ever in England.

A nod to ACB 87

Before I get started there, let’s show a nod of appreciation to ACB 87 last evening which took place in Nottingham. It’s fair to say the fight card featured a lot of very closely fought contests with 10 of the 14 fights going to a decision and the event finishing up close to midnight local UK time.

The likes of Adam Proctor vs Ashley Reece, Dean Garnett vs Dominique Wooding, and Stephen Martin vs Regis Sugden were entertaining affairs, but more often than not the matchups were so closely matched that there were a lot of stalemates and it made for a very long evening.

Regardless, it was good to see the Russian promotion continue to invest in the local UK scene and in my book it’s never a bad thing to see young lads put more cash in their pockets than they might be able to elsewhere.

Bellator 200 is coming and it’s going to be on UK TV… rejoice!

Cage Warriors, BAMMA and ACB now have put on entertaining shows across the last few weeks, but next Friday and next Sunday it’s the turn of Bellator and UFC.

On the face of it, I think it’s fair to say Bellator is offering up a superior fight card from top to bottom. With the main card packed with the likes of Gegard Mousasi, Mirko Cro Cop, Roy Nelson, Michael Page, Linton Vassell and Phil Davis, there are solid bouts throughout.

Perhaps the biggest news for UK fans this week was the fact that it will air live for UK fans. After years of having to watch Bellator on tape delay, it appears that the fans have finally been listened to and that Spike UK have finally seen the sense of putting it on live.

For me personally it’s also a huge relief. I’ll be in the building on the night, but I’ll at least have a fight week where I don’t have to answer the question ‘why isn’t this being shown live?’

Those question will probably now turn to ‘where can I watch it’ so see below…

Bellator returns to London for its 200th event. Catch all the action live on 5Spike, Friday 25th May at 9pm. #Bellator200 pic.twitter.com/XfNSmazvuN

— 5Spike (@5spiketv) May 17, 2018

The next step for Aaron Chalmers

Love him or hate him, Aaron Chalmers has made waves on the UK MMA scene and next Friday he makes his Bellator debut.

The rivalry between himself and his opponent Ash Griffiths has been building nicely over the last few weeks and I can only imagine the tension will further increase once we get into fight week.

If you want to catch Aaron’s fight I’m told it will be on both the Bellator app and likely live stream embeds on most MMA sites. It should be an entertaining scrap and I’m looking forward to seeing if “The Joker” can continue to show improvements under an even bigger spotlight.

History in the making in Liverpool

I’ll be saying a lot more about UFC Liverpool over the next week so I’ll hold back predictions and the what not.

Seven days out I’d more like to show some gratitude to both Darren Till and Molly McCann who hosted me in their respective Kaobon and Next Generation MMA gyms last Friday.

Despite being 9 days out with all the stress of the final few training sessions, weight cutting and media work awaiting them in the next few days, both Molly and Darren gave me their time on Friday and it meant a lot to me that they gave me the opportunity to be a part of their final preparations.

Darren’s interview is out already:

Molly’s will be out later today so keep your eyes peeled for that.

UFC Liverpool is going to be a special night and the hairs stand up on the back of my neck just thinking about it.

Buckle up and bring it on.