Last week, we announced the upcoming Jackson’s MMA Series XI event. The August 10th event will be held inside the Tingley Coliseum in the Expo New Mexico Fairgrounds. The eleventh installment of the popular MMA event will be the first of 2013 and includes twelve scheduled bouts featuring several fighters from the Jackson-Winklejohn camp as well as fighters from surrounding areas.
The main event of the evening will feature another Jackson-Winklejohn versus Apex MMA bout with Albuquerque’s Conrad Padilla (4-0) taking on Arizona’s Nick “Nyquil” Rhoades (5-2). The undefeated Padilla is making a huge step in his career as it was not long ago that the amateur Padilla was fighting on the undercard of the Jackson’s MMA Series.
While the Jackson-Winklejohn camp will be well represented in each scheduled bout, the Apex MMA gym has found loads of success in Albuquerque. At the last Jackson’s MMA Series event, Anthony Birchak took a win from hometown representative Matt Leyva. The Apex MMA gym has some of the premier talent from the Southwest region with a fight camp that boasts Ed West, George Roop and Joey Rivera.
The gym will also send down Freddie Lux (5-2) to compete in the event and he is scheduled to face off with Jackson-Winklejohn fighter Guido Martin Cannetti (3-1). “Ninja” Cannetti will attempt to do what no other Jackson-Winklejohn fighter has done and that is defeat Lux. The scrappy and tough Lux has already defeated Nick Urso and “Ox” Wheeler during his professional career and will look to make it 3-0 when he faces off with Cannetti.
Fan favorite Richard Villa (7-5) will also be on the main card of the event. Regional fans may remember Team Roswell’s Villa for his epic slugfest with the UFC’s Diego Brandao or his wins over Rocky Ramirez and Drew Fickett. He will be taking on Jackson-Winklejohn’s Gabriel “Moggly” Benitez (14-3) and will have a handful with the Tijuana native as Benitez has a 93% finishing rate in fourteen professional victories.
Mexican fighters will be well represented on the main card; joining Benitez in the featured bouts will be teammates Salvador Augusto Montano (12-1) and Daniel “El Cazador” Salas (12-3). Their opponents will be Bushido MMA’s Ricky McCall (4-1) and Apex MMA’s Jason Brenton and the featherweight and middleweight match ups should be exciting main card fights.
Rounding out the professional card is top flyweight prospect Nick Urso (5-1) representing the Jackson-Winklejohn camp when he takes on Curtis Johnson (pro debut) of Soccoro’s Damage Inc fight team. Johnson was scheduled to take on Tim Sosa in a King of the Cage event in June; he will instead take on a very formidable opponent in Urso who is considered to be one of the top regional fighters in the area.
The amateur card is also filled with intriguing match ups including an absolute spectacular pairing of Jackson-Winklejohn’s Andrew Tenneson (5-0) and Bushido MMA’s Jerry Sano (2-1). The El Paso fighter Sano is probably best known for his devastating knockout over George Clynes last year. Sano has some fierce power in his strikes and Tenneson has one of the most well-rounded skill sets amongst the region’s amateur ranks. Eric Dodson (2-0) also returns to MMA action taking on Perez Fighting System’s Thomas Mills (2-1). The younger brother of the UFC’s John Dodson, Eric has had two impressive amateur fights for the promotion and is already one of the areas fan favorites.
Also expected on the card, the finals of the 104.1 The Edge fighting challenge which will be the conclusion of the events second season. The challenge features coaches and UFC fighters John Dodson and Isaac Vallie-Flagg coaching their respective teams all the way until each coach sends their team’s finalist to compete on the Jackson’s MMA Series undercard.
We are in for an exciting night of fights and we encourage you to stay tuned to SWFight.com for more event coverage, fight breakdowns and analysis. We are over five weeks away from the event and have plenty of MMA coverage coming your way.
Jackson’s MMA Series XI Fight Card:
Main Event
Conrad Padilla (Jackson/Winklejohn) vs. Nick Rhoades (Apex MMA)
Main Card – Professional Bouts
Gabriel Benitez (Jackson/Winklejohn) vs. Richard Villa (Team Roswell)
Salvador Montano (Jackson/Winklejohn) vs. Ricky McCall (Bushido MMA)
Guido Martin Cannetti (Jackson/Winklejohn) vs. Freddie Lux (Apex MMA)
Daniel Salas (Jackson/Winklejohn) vs. Jason Brenton (School of Hard Knockouts)
Nick Urso (Jackson/Winklejohn) vs. Curtis Johnson (Damage Inc)
Undercard – Amateur Bouts
Andrew Tenneson (Jackson/Winklejohn) vs. Jerry Sano (Bushido MMA)
Brandon Jones (Jackson/Winklejohn) vs. Sage Everage (ABQ BJJ)
Eric Dodson (Jackson/Winklejohn) vs. Thomas Mills (Perez Fighting Systems)
Vince Varela (Jackson/Winklejohn) vs. Ray Vaiza (Damage Inc)
Eric Griego (Jackson/Winklejohn) vs. Robert Fratterelli (Pacific Warrior)
