Hex Fight Series 7 lineup: Culibao, Berthet to battle for featherweight title

Victorian promotion Hex Fight Series returns to the Melbourne Pavilion for their seventh installment this Friday night. The eleven bout fight card will be headlined by a featherweight match for the vacant title between undefeated Australian Top Team prospect Joshua Culibao and Melbourne based Frenchman Raphael Berthet, fighting out of Absolute MMA.

Culibao is currently undefeated after three outings with all of his professional wins coming in 2016. Berthet (6-2) is on a three fight win streak and most recently is coming off a win over South Australia’s Myles Simpson earlier in the year at Hex FS 6.

The co-main event will be battled out at light heavyweight between undefeated Victorian prospect and Hex Fight Series fan favourite Jim “The Brute” Crute, who takes on Queensland’s Matt Eland.

Bendigo native Crute (2-0) is fighting out of Stewie’s House of BJJ/Team Greco. He made himself known with the promotion after a dominant debut submission win over Ben Kelleher at Hex FS 5, and since has also earned a unanimous decision over Mike Turner at Hex FS 6.

Eland (6-6) fighting out of Mackay MMA is the more experienced in competition of the two. Eland last competed with the promotion at Hex FS 6 where he got an impressive TKO victory over Jeremy Wharerau. Most recently Eland is coming off a first round TKO loss against Shane Mitchell at Diamondback FC 1 in Adelaide.

Also on the card, fellow Victorian’s Kitt Campbell and Kael Coster are matched up in a welterweight contest. An exciting International bout will be contended at middleweight between TUF 17 veteran Ryan Bigler of Guam and Tasmanian Stuart Dare.

If you can’t make it on the night, you can catch the Hex FS 7 stream live and free on the Hex Fight Series Facebook page. You will also be able to tune in live on free to air channel 31 in Melbourne, and also Aurora TV nationally on Foxtel.

Fight Card:

• Raphael Berthet vs. Joshua Culibao – Hex Featherweight Title
• Jim Crute vs. Matt Eland
• Kitt Campbell vs. Kael Coster
• Ryan Bigler vs. Stuart Dare
• James McGlashan vs. Jordan Cameron
• Jesse Medina vs. Raja Shippen
• Raphael Scott vs. Aidan Aguilera
• Kora Maea vs. Dion Mooney
• Joshua Hardwick vs. Sam Hibberd
• Saeed Karsaz vs. Joshua Togo
• Jack Jenkins vs. George Milliaras

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