Brace continues its push into New Zealand this Saturday with the promotion’s second event in Christchurch. Taking place at Cowles Stadium, the main event features a welterweight contest between Renan Secco and B.J Bland.
Secco (4-1) is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt with all four of his victories coming by way of submission. He will be looking to get back into his winning ways after dropping a hard fought decision against Brogan Anderson when Brace first debuted in Christchurch last June. Disappointed with the loss, Secco has been working hard on his stand up and recently spent time in Thailand at Phuket Top Team.
He faces an extremely tough challenge in B.J Bland (6-6) who scored an impressive victory over Cole Davids at Brace 41. Bland has a strong kickboxing background and it is likely that he will look to be elusive and try to keep the fight standing against the jiu-jitsu black belt. Bland does have a strong ground game too however with four submission victories to his credit.
In the co-main event New Zealand MMA veteran Scott MacGregor takes on Joshua Henderson. MacGregor, a New Zealand national wrestler comes into the fight with a distinct experience advantage, having fought some of the best names from this corner of the world. He has previously fought UFC fighters Dan Hooker, Damian Brown and also Ev Ting from One FC.
While MacGregor may have the experience advantage, Joshua Henderson proved that he comes to fight with his exciting victory at Brace 41. Henderson will also be the bigger man coming down a weight class to featherweight for the fight with Macgregor.
The current XFC Australia featherweight champion Shane Young is also on the card and will be looking to rack up his fifth consecutive victory when he takes on Siitia Leti. Leti, known for his punching power, comes into the contest after a three year lay-off and will be looking to make a winning return to the cage. Young, who trains out of City Kickboxing in Auckland last fought in China at bantamweight and will be stepping up two weight divisions when he fights Leti.
In other intriguing match-ups, Paula Campbell takes on Taniera Terry and Joe van Duin will fight Cole Davids. Ian Blade also returns to action against Shelby Devereux.
Brace 43 will start at 4pm AEST and will be live and exclusive on UFC Fight Pass.
Fight Card (Pro):
- Renan Secco vs. B.J. Bland
- Joshua Henderson vs. Scott MacGregor
- Shane Young vs. Siitia Leti
- Pumau Campbell vs. Taneira Terry
- Cole Davids vs. Jo Van Duin
- Iain Blade vs. Selby Devereux
- Chris O’Donoghue vs. Eruera Piwari
- Lachlan Eckert vs. Sam Holdaway
