BANGOR, Maine — An eight-fight professional mixed martial arts card was announced Tuesday for the “Dana White: Lookin’ for a Fight” internet reality show that will be taped in front of a live audience from the Cross Insurance Center’s grand ballroom on Aug. 5.
The premise for the show is that White — president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship as well as a 1987 Hermon High School graduate who owns a home in Levant — and his friends travel across the country attending local MMA shows looking for talent that potentially could be signed to UFC contracts.
The sale of the UFC for approximately $4 billion to a group led by Hollywood talent agency WME-IMG was announced Monday, but White is expected to remain the company’s president.
White’s live “Lookin’ for a Fight” shows are promoted locally, in this case by the Lewiston-based New England Fights.
The Bangor main event will match “The Fearless” Alfred Khashakyan of Glendale, California, against Brazilian prospect Ricardo Lucas Ramos in a battle of explosive bantamweights (135-pound limit).
Khashakyan (7-2) has won seven of his last eight bouts via knockout or technical knockout, while Ramos (8-1) has scored seven finishes, five by submission.
Five Bangor-area fighters also will be on the card in separate bouts, including four from Young’s MMA.
“The” Ryan Sanders, who most recently has split two nationally televised bouts with the Rhode Island-based CES MMA promotion, will take a 10-8 record into his lightweight (155-pound) bout against Derrick Kenington (11-7).
Sanders had a three-fight winning streak halted on June 10 with a loss by unanimous decision to UFC veteran Levan Makashvili at CES 36 in Lincoln, Rhode Island.
Kennington won four straight bouts until losing by first-round technical knockout in his most recent bout on April 1 in Coconut Creek, Florida.
Joining Sanders from the Young’s MMA stable will be Aaron “Relentless” Lacey, C.J. Ewer and Josh “Hook On” Harvey, all seeking to improve their professional records to 2-0.
Lacey will face John Santos (3-3) and Harvey will battle Brandon Bushaw (2-2) in featherweight (145-pound) matchups while Ewer and Ruben Redman (0-1) will meet in a welterweight (170-pound) clash.
Veterans Jon Lemke (5-5) of Team Irish MMA Fitness Academy in Brewer and Jesse Erickson (7-5) of Auburn will square off in a rematch of their Bellator 93 bout in Lewiston in early 2013. Lemke won that earlier fight by first-round technical knockout, and since then both competitors have gone on to challenge for the NEF professional lightweight title.
Rounding out the card is a heavyweight fight between Brendan Battles (1-0) and Derrick Brown (4-3) and a middleweight bout between Jarod Lawton (4-2) and Mike Hansen (4-4).
