MMA Rundown: April 27th-29th – Lots to love from Japan, South Africa and Sweden

Guess what, kids? No UFC this weekend!! Sure, there’s a major Bellator event and all. There’s no UFC to chew up half of your Saturday, and there’s some quality items and personalities to watch outside of the Big Two.

Friday night gives us LFA 38, live from Minneapolis, MN. Heavyweight champion and Stipe Miocic teammate Jeff “Lights Out“ Hughes (8-1) defends his belt against Maurice Greene (5-1). Greene only has one decision win, and has a loss at the hands of Bellator veteran Dan Charles and a submission win over another Bellator vet in Kevin Asplund. Hughes won his belt from Bellator and LFA veteran Richard Odoms back in November by decision in a five-rounder.

Former Ultimate Fighter contestant Dane Sayers (12-3) returns to welterweight as he faces Indalecio Romero (28-6). This is a rematch of a previous bout between the two, which took place in 2010. That was Sayers’ first loss of his professional career, and also has decision losses to Bryan Barberena and Marcus LeVesseur. Romero is on a four-fight win streak, which is good even if two are against Jay Ellis (then 14-60) and Sean Huffman (then 19-33).

The real treat for this card could very well be the bout between Invicta vet Mallory Martin (2-2) and Linsey Williams (2-2). Williams has insane submission defense, and fights with a mean streak. Martin’s simply vicious, and has sharpened her tools while at Tiger Muay Thai in Thailand.

LFA 30: Hughes vs Greene starts at the usual time of 9:00pm EST on AXS TV.

Night owls will have a treat with Deep 83 Impact, which starts at 3:00am EST. The welterweight title is at stake when Ryuchiro Sumimura (12-6) makes his first title defense against Yoichiro Sato (19-8-2 draws). Sumimura won the belt in the welterweight tournament, where he defeated Ken Hasegawa in the finals, and has won seven of his last eight. Most of Sato’s wins have been submissions, and he’s on a two fight win streak while facing very experienced opposition.

Also on this card? Toshiaki Kitada (22-10-4 draws) faces Korean Zombie disciple Jin Soo Son (8-2) for the vacant bantamweight title. Kosuke Suzuki (12-9-3 draws) vs Yutaro Muramoto (5-4-1 draw) goes down at men’s strawweight, which has been fantastic as of late. Koji Takeda, who does stuff like this, and this, and this, will be in action. He’s going to be a problem in the future, so get used to him now. Ryuta Sakurai (25-24-6 draws) takes on Yoshiyuki Katahira (10-6-2 draws). Korean fighter Ye Jin Yung (0-2) finds herself in what is almost guaranteed to be a Sisyphean effort against Satoko Shinashi (36-3-2 draws!!) for some reason.

DEEP has been putting on great fights, but this will obviously not be on TV. Keep your eyes on Twitter feeds in case a live feed pops up, or to at least follow along.

Saturday should be fun for the early birds as South Africa’s EFC has two title fights on tap. Main event spot goes to a bantamweight title fight between JP Buys (4-2) and Phillipe Rouch (7-3). You may remember Buys from his performance on Dana White’s Contender Series against Joby Sanchez, where he ended up after having three fights cancelled in 2017. Buys lost via TKO, but still had the EFC interim belt at the time. Rouche has six consecutive wins and four of his seven wins have come by triangle choke.

The co-main is for the flyweight title when former bantamweight champion and current flyweight champion Nkazimulo Zulu (9-2) defends his belt against Marino Cutedana (5-3). Zulu had the bantamweight tile before losing it to current bantamweight king Demarte Pena, then went on to win the then-vacant flyweight belt. After that, he also appeared on Dana White’s Contender Series, losing to Hiromasa Ogikubo by submission. His EFC return ended with a fourth round TKO against Sylvester Chipfumbu. Cutedana has only gone to the judges’ scorecards once in his seven overall wins in his combined amateur and professional career.

To round the weekend off, Cage Warriors 93 has a very fun card for the crowd in Gothenburg, Sweden this Saturday, starting at noon EST. Top spot goes to former UFC fighter Nicolas Dalby (14-2-1 draw) against Carlo Pedersoli (9-1). This will be Dalby’s first fight since his release from the UFC in 2016. Pedersoli has six consecutive wins on the European circuit, mostly in Italy. Pedersoli even had a fight at Venator’s Rimini event last year, and his wins are mostly by submission, but also mostly against middling opposition.

Former Bellator fighter and Ultimate fighter contestant Norman Paraisy (15-5-2) looks to snap his two-fight losing skid (not including his TUF participation) against Alan Carlos (12-9) who was last defeated via TKO by Jack Hermansson in 2016.

13-4 Jack Grant tests himself against (7-1) Medhi Dakaev, while Cornelia Holm (1-0) and Malin Hermansson (1-0) compete to see who reaches their second pro win first. Holm has an extensive amateur background to draw from with a record of 8-3 before going pro, while Hermansson is a former boxer.

Cage Warriors 93 will be streaming live on UFC Fight Pass this Saturday starting at noon.