More MMA Action Headed to the UK

More MMA Action Headed to the UK

By Jon Prentice

Two promotional giants in European MMA have today announced that they will be making returns to UK soil in the coming months. First off KSW made the announcement that they would be coming to London’s SSE Wembley Arena on 6th October 2018 for KSW 45, with news breaking shortly after that ACB would also be coming to London on August 11th for ACB 91 from the Copper Box Arena.

Polish promotion KSW were founded in 2004 and have put on a number of huge events in their native Poland including KSW 39 which reportedly sold over 55,000 tickets. The return to London will be only the second showing for the promotion on UK soil, with the first being on October 31st 2015 for KSW 32, an event headlined by former world’s strongest man Mariusz Pudzianowski. The event also featured homegrown talent such as James McSweeney, Jim Wallhead, Oli Thompson and Andre Winner. I would expect to see familiar names such as Scott Askham and Norman Parke participating in the events return to the capital.

ACB have not long showcased their talent on UK soil when ACB 87 went down in Nottingham on May 19th of this year, however they are keen to return to the UK and ACB 91 will mark their first trip to the capital city. The Russian promotion have previously visited on five occasions, two in Sheffield with one apiece in Glasgow, Manchester and Nottingham and never fail to deliver stacked cards for UK MMA fans. There is already talk on social media of a featherweight bout between Robert Whiteford and Brendan Loughnane being on the card, along with calls for Dominique Wooding and Pietro Menga to square off in a huge bantamweight showdown.

I anticipate that both cards will be stacked, must see events, and the two event announcements clearly evidence how the UK MMA scene is booming at the moment.

Fight news for both events will be announced over the coming weeks.