Whitsundays based school teacher Anton Zafir will defend his Nitro welterweight title for the first time when he comes up against 5 Rings Dojo trained Ryan Heketa from the Gold Coast.
The two headline Nitro 13 which takes place at the Logan Entertainment Centre this Saturday, 21 March.
Training out of the Whitsundays Martial Arts School, Zafir comes into the bout with an impressive 6-1 record and a four fight win streak. Zafir has been inactive from the MMA cage since March last year where he upset Corey Nelson to capture the title. In the time since that bout, Zafir has been recovering from injuries also got the opportunity to represent Australia at the Kudo World Championships late last year.
Zafir’s opponent Ryan Heketa gets the biggest opportunity of his professional career in what will also be the Gold Coast based fighters first time headlining an event. Heketa has earned himself a shot at the title with four straight first-round stoppages that had him nominated for the 2014 Australian breakthrough fighter of the year award.
In the co-main event, Ben Kelleher and Hale Vaa’sa meet in a trilogy bout after splitting their first two encounters. In their first outing back in 2011, both Vaa’sa and Kelleher progressed to the final of a one-night tournament before Kelleher scored the KO victory. Less than six months later, Vaa’sa got his revenge as he submitted Kelleher with a rear-naked choke to even up the ledger. The bout will be contested at a catch-weight of 96 kilograms.
Shannon McClellan will look be looking at keeping his good form going when he meets former Australian Commonwealth Games representative Shane Parker in a flyweight bout. McClellan has the help of PUMMA team-mate Tim Moore, who defeated Parker late last year.
Also on the card, Maui Tuigamala will look to rebound from his first career loss when he meets Anthony Johns at middleweight while Gerhard Voigt faces Tristan Murphy and James Klingner clashes with Kimo Smith, both in the welterweight division.
Fight Card:
- Anton Zafir (c) vs Ryan Heketa – Nitro welterweight title
- Ben Kelleher vs Hale Vaa’sa
- Shannon McClellan vs Shane Parker
- Anthony Johns vs Maui Tuigamala
- Gerhard Voigt vs Tristan Murphy
- James Klingner vs Kimo Smith
- Martin Tucker vs Craig Lankester
- Michele Evans vs Keohu Smith
- Darwin Sagurit vs Tahiwi Sellars-McGee
