Bruce “Pretty Boy” Boyington and Brandon “The Cannon” Berry will headline the state’s first combination mixed martial arts-boxing show, NEF XX, at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee in Lewiston on Saturday night.
Boyington, coming off a successful debut with the national-level World Series of Fighting promotion, will defend his NEF MMA lightweight title in a five-round battle against Jimmy Davidson.
The 36-year-old Boyington will be fighting for the second time in barely a month after improving his professional record to 11-8 with a split-decision win over Rodrigo Almeida on the undercard of WSOF 24 on Oct. 17 at the Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut.
He will make the third defense of his NEF 155-pound belt against Davidson, a Sandwich, Massachusetts, product with a 7-1 record.
Berry, a junior welterweight boxer from West Forks, will face Roberto Valenzuela, a 42-year-old native of Mexico with 141 professional bouts (72-69) to his credit.
Berry (9-1) will seek his second win of the year against a fighter named Valenzuela after scoring a second-round technical knockout of Engelberto Valenzuela in July at the Skowhegan Community Center.
That was Berry’s first bout since he suffered a shoulder injury during a fight in November 2014 against Freddy Sanchez in Portland and was sidelined for eight months.
The Berry-Roberto Valenzuela bout will be one of four boxing matches at NEF XX to go with 21 mixed martial arts contests.
Other MMA matches will include two NEF amateur title fights, a featherweight (145-pound) clash between Aaron Lacey and Caleb Horner and a flyweight (125-pound) battle between champion Dustin Veinott and Ryan Burgess.
Also featured is a women’s amateur match at 120 pounds between 1-1 Randi Beth Boyington, Bruce Boyington’s wife, and Erin Lamonte (3-0).
The first fight is scheduled for 7 p.m.
Boetsch weighs in on Holm-Rousey
Lincolnville native and UFC veteran Tim “The Barbarian” Boetsch, now preparing for a Jan. 17, 2016, bout against Ed Herman as part of UFC Fight Night 81 in Boston, watched last Saturday night’s UFC 193 main event in which Holly Holm knocked out champion Ronda Rousey in the second round of their women’s bantamweight title match.
He wasn’t all that surprised with the outcome.
“I knew it was coming sooner or later,” he said. “Holly can fight. She’s a heck of a striker. If you stay in fighting long enough, somebody’s going to come along who can beat you. Ronda found out what that feels like, but I’m very happy for Holly. She seems like a really good person. She trains hard, she’s very good at what she does and she proved that to the world the other night.”
Boetsch just completed his second week of training for the Herman fight at Marcus Davis’ Team Irish MMA Fitness Academy in Brewer.
He will be the guest of honor at Saturday night’s NEF XX show at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee in Lewiston and will be available for autographs from 6 to 7 p.m.
