Tim Boetsch scored one of the most satisfying victories of his career two summers ago when he helped the Ultimate Fighting Championship bring the world’s top mixed martial arts promotion to Maine for the first time.
The 35-year-old Lincolnville native will be seeking a similar result when he helps the UFC make its South Dakota debut on July 13.
Boetsch will fight on the main card of UFC Fight Night 91 at the Denny Sanford Premier Center in Sioux Falls in a middleweight battle against Josh Samman.
The bout will be nationally televised by FS1.
Boetsch, who lives in Pennsylvania, was scheduled to begin his formal training camp Wednesday with Marcus “The Irish Hand Grenade” Davis. The camp will be in North Carolina where Davis and his family relocated earlier this year.
Boetsch (18-10 overall with eight knockouts and five submissions) scored a dramatic, second-round technical knockout victory over Brad Tavares when the UFC stopped at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor on Aug. 16, 2014.
Along with a come-from-behind victory two years earlier over Yushin Okami that vaulted the former four-time wrestling state champion from Camden-Rockport High School into the top five of the UFC’s middleweight division, the Tavares win was one of the signature moments to date for Boetsch since he turned professional in 2006.
But Boetsch is winless since, leaving some national MMA reports to suggest that he needs a win over Samman in order to maintain his spot on the UFC roster.
Boetsch lost via second-round submission to Thales Leites in a battle of top-10 middleweights at UFC 183 in January 2015 — a bout that landed each fighter a $50,000 bonus for performance of the night.
Boetsch then fell to MMA legend Dan Henderson by a stunning 28-second knockout in the main event of a UFC Fight Night card in New Orleans five months later.
The fighter known as “The Barbarian” moved back up to light heavyweight (205-pound limit) for the first time in several years for his most recent bout at the TD Garden in Boston on Jan. 17, but after a solid first round, Boetsch got caught with a knee to the jaw by veteran Ed Herman that ended the bout with a second straight knockout loss.
The 28-year-old Samman, from Tallahassee, Florida, takes a 12-3 record (seven KO’s, four submissions) into the fight. He had a four-fight winning streak halted in his most recent bout, a third-round submission loss via triangle choke to Tamdan McCrory in Orlando, Florida, last Dec. 19.
Familiar faces on WSOF card
There will be a distinct New England Fights flavor on the undercard of the World Series of Fighting 31 show scheduled for June 17 at Foxwoods in Mashantucket, Connecticut.
In addition to former NEF professional lightweight champion Bruce Boyington (13-8) seeking his second straight WSOF win when he takes on Saul Almeida (18-6), two NEF title holders will be fighting that night.
Devin Powell (6-1) of South Berwick, who recently replaced Boyington atop the NEF pro lightweight ranks with a first-round stoppage of Jesse Erickson at NEF 22 in Lewiston, takes on Tommy Marcellino (7-4) of Amsterdam, New York, on the WSOF card.
And Tyler King (10-4) of North Attleboro, Massachusetts, the NEF pro heavyweight champion, faces Lorenzo Hood (9-3) of Chicago in the featured undercard bout.
King won the NEF heavyweight belt in May 2013 with a first-round submission of Travis Bartlett, then successfully defended the title in February 2015 with a first-round stoppage of Terry Blackburn.
The WSOF 31 undercard bouts will be streamed live on WSOF.com.
