Tonight in Phoenix, the World Series of Fighting airs their 19th edition on NBC Sports Network with a lightweight title defense for champion Justin Gaethje as he faces Luis Palomino in a scheduled five-round bout. The co-main event features UFC veterans Matt Hamill and Thiago Silva in an interesting light heavyweight bout. The two last fought in 2013 when Silva won by unanimous decision.
Also at light heavyweight, Jake Heun faces Teddy Holder on the main card. The NBC Sports broadcast opener comes at Lightweight with veteran Ed West facing 25-year-old Russian prospect Timur Valiev.
The big question here is will Gaethje win another match here and jump ship to the UFC? The WSOF has lost quite a bit of talent (Josh Burkman, Anthony Johnson, Andrei Arlovski) to the UFC and what they need now to enhance their reputation and not look like a “B’ class show is draw the line and commit to talent rather than letting them go. Gaethje as an undefeated 26-year-old champion who is growing up as a WSOF product may be the guy to make that commitment with.
The World Series of Fighting 19 has four fights up at the books, we review the lines with our blogger, Miguel Iturrate in this latest edition of our MMA Video Blog.
