Daniel Hooker will defend his lightweight title for the second time this Saturday night when he takes on hometown favorite Nick Patterson at Australian Fighting Championship 6. The show will also feature the semi-final stages of the promotions middleweight and welterweight title tournaments, along with the intriguing featherweight matchup between Rob Lisita and Rodolfo Marques.
AFC 6 will take place at the Melbourne Pavillion, and will be streamed live via epicentre.tv.
We recently spoke with the champion and challenger ahead of the main event clash.
“Nicks well rounded, good boxing and wrestling, its a five round fight I see it being a long night at the office in a hard grinding fight.” – Hooker (pictured right)
“He is the best in Oceania and I just want to fight the best. Daniel is strong, tough and a smart fighter.” – Patterson (pictured below)
Both men are undefeated in the promotion with Hooker claiming victories over Yuma Ishizuka and Rusty McBride, who he defeated for the first time to claim the inaugural title via a doctors stoppage at AFC 3. The Kiwi standout then went on to submit McBride in the early stages of their title fight rematch at AFC 5.
In his sole promotional appearance to date back in 2011 at AFC 2, Patterson stopped James Fairman in the first round with punches.
As previously announced, the middleweight tournament semi-final matches will be Western Australia’s Steve Kennedy vs local fighter Vic Grujic, and four time Olympic Judoka Daniel Kelly vs slovenian Bor Bratovz. While the welterweight semi-finals will feature Brace and Nitro champion Corey Nelson vs Walber De Barros, and submission specialist Jake Mathews vs Gamebred product Dean Purdon.
In the co-main event, arguable the country’s top featherweight fighter “Ruthless” Rob Lisita will face Victorian based Brazilian veteran Rodolfo Marques.
Thirty year-old Lisita will be making his AFC debut on the back of a TKO win over Jacob Pettett in late June at Adrenalin Unleashed 1.
Also making his debut for the promotion on Saturday night, Marques will take an impressive 14-2 record into the fight, which the 29 year-old has amassed since making his professional debut back in 2006.
In what is the only change to the nine fight lineup following its original release, Queensland’s Zac Hook steps in for Fabian Nemcek to face Joel Fisher.
Fight Card:
- Daniel Hooker (C) vs Nick Patterson – AFC Lightweight Title
- Robert Lisita vs Rodolfo Marques
Middleweight Tournament:
- Daniel Kelly vs Bor Bratovz
- Vik Grujic vs Steven Kennedy
Welterweight Tournament:
- Corey Nelson vs Walber De Barros
- Jake Matthews vs Dean Purdon
Undercard:
- Peter Davenport vs Shaun Wilcock
- Craig Martin vs Mikey Vaotuua
- Joel Fisher vs Zach Hook
