Sam Hayward, David Francis headline MMA by the Bay’s debut event Friday night in Victoria

Victoria welcomes its newest MMA promotion this Friday night with MMA By the Bay debuting in Geelong at waterfront venue, The Pier.

The seven fight lineup will be headlined by an interstate match-up between Victoria’s Sam Hayward and NSW fighter David Francis. The promotion will be the first to bring the cage to Geelong after the ban was lifted in 2015.

In the headliner, Sam Hayward is fighting out of Ballarat’s Infinite MMA and will be taking on New South Welshman and PMA product David Francis. Hayward boasts an impressive 7-1 record with the only blemish on his record coming at the hands of Callan Potter at Hex FS 5 earlier in the year. Francis (3-3) is a team mate and training partner of UFC middleweight Robert Whittaker. The main event bout will be contested at lightweight welterweight.

In the co-main event of the night, hometown fighter now fighting out of Westside MMA, Regan Neoh (4-2) is put up against fellow Victorian Jesse Medina (10-3-1) from Mildura Mixed Martial Art’s. This will be the second time the two have faced each other. Neoh will be looking at getting one back on the night having lost via a first round submission against Medina late last year. Medina, who went 6-1 in 2015, will be eager to get back on track after losing two in a row for the first time.

Fight Card:

• Sam Hayward vs David Francis
• Regan Neoh vs Jesse Medina
• Hayden Wright vs Justin Barbuto
• Troy Resic vs Saeed Karsaz
• Muhammad Abdou vs Chris Baker-Troiano
• Stuart Weekes vs Andrew Smith