King of the Ring: Rumble Under the Stars, takes place this Friday night at the The Italian Soccer field in Marrara, Northern Territory. The show will showcase a mix of MMA and Kickboxing, with a Mixed Martial Arts Middleweight contest between locally based Kiwi Ben Kelleher and Victorian fighter Daniel Way to feature as the main event.
Kelleher will be looking to continue the form which saw him unanimously outpoint Croatian Top Team product Marko Lukacic in his last fight at Night of Mayhem 7 in late June. Originally from Auckland’s Mt Wellington suburb, Kelleher holds notable wins over Hale Vaa’sa and Chris Indich among others. A win on Friday night will make it six in a row for the Performance Gym fighter. Kelleher spoke with Fight News Australia recently about his upcoming clash.
“Daniel is a friendly and humble fighter. I am excited to fight him, and I respect his ability to no end. He’s tough, fit, and a great striker and Mick Siebert and myself believe he will be my hardest fight to date. I have had a couple of wars of late, with my five rounds with Ray Dimatchki and three round war with Marko lukacic, so I have faith in my cardio. Like Daniel, I love to keep the fight standing, and I’m looking forward to putting my own ability to the test against a taller, experienced guy. I’ve worked hard on the little things, this time around, the simple one percenters that make the difference, because I have a feeling this Isn’t going to be a fight that is over quickly. Daniel and I both wont lie down when things get hard so I’m definitely bracing myself for a true test. win or lose I just want to become a better fighter but ultimately, I think I can win because I want it more.”
Also featuring on the Night of Mayhem 7 card in his last outing, Daniel Way will go into this fight on the back of a first round submission loss to the undefeated four time Olympic Judoka Daniel Kelly. The accomplished Kickboxer believes that striking and conditioning are his biggest advantages.
“I’m really looking forward to this fight, I’ve been training MMA on and off for a few years now and really just started to get serious about it, Ben will be my first MMA opponent with any significant striking ability so I’m really looking forward to a bit more of a stand up fight than usual, I’m confident in my striking as a Muay Thai fighter and I’ll be looking to keeping this fight on the feet as always. I believe I’ll have the edge in the fight due to my unpredictability and my cardio. I met Ben a few weeks back and saw him fight for the first time then too, he is a great really friendly guy and I think he’s talented and tough as hell. I’m looking forward to war.”
Rumble Under the Stars is also advertised to feature Melbourne based Russian kickboxing veteran Dzhabar Askerov, however his opponent has not been announced at this stage.
King of the Ring: Rumble Under the Stars lineup (subject to change)
Mixed Martial Arts:
- Daniel Way vs Ben Kelleher – Main Event
- Aiden James vs Tyrell Hogan
- Luachlan Lake vs Yogi Dahiya
- Roman Kini vs Josh Tybell
- Jack Kickllingbeck vs Nathan Enright
- Lewis Wood vs Ned Dickeson
K-1:
- Dan Ginnane vs Martin Tchong
- Brock McRobb vs TBA
- Joel Goldring vs Donovan Fantasia
- Duran Folino vs Jimmy Sizeland
