British Association of Mixed Martial Arts (BAMMA) will hold its 5th event this Saturday, February 26 from the MEN Arena in Manchester, England. BAMMA 5 will be their first event held outside of either Birmingham or London.
The night’s main card features several former UFC fighters, a former UFC heavyweight champion and the BAMMA welterweight championship.
The main event of the night is a welterweight title between the hard-hitting Paul Daley (26-9-2) and the Judo black belt Yuya Shirai (20-8). Shirai is on a five fight winning streak and is the current DEEP welterweight champion. Since being released for the UFC for sucker punching Josh Koscheck after the bell, he has won three in a row for three different promotions. Though the fight is for the BAMMA welterweight title, a chance at the Strikeforce welterweight title is also on the line. Should Daley win he’ll most likely face Nick Diaz in April for the title, but should he lose to Shirai that opportunity will slip away.
The night’s co-main event is a heavyweight match up between TUF 10 contestant and UFC veteran James McSweeney (4-6) against the former UFC heavyweight champion Ricco Rodriguez (45-11). McSweeney has lost four of his last five fights and has a very tough draw in Rodriguez, who has won 10 fights in a row. Rumor has it that Rodriguez is auditioning for another shot in the UFC, but he’ll need to win for there to be any chance of that rumor to become a reality.
The remaining two bouts on the main card are Alex Makhonin vs. Xavier Foupa-Pokam and Claudio Henrique Da Silva vs. Jean-Francois Lenogue, both in the Middleweight division. BAMMA 5 will air live at 9pm on the SyFy channel on UK TV and will also broadcast live around the world on www.bammatv.com as an online stream pay per view.
Below you’ll get our picks for the main card, along with picks from some guests we called in from twitter. Thanks to our guests for lending their picks to the site and make sure to check them out on twitter.
BAMMA 5 Main Card
Welterweight Championship bout: Paul Daley vs. Yuya Shirai
MMAValor – Paul Daley
Amesbelle – Paul Daley
MyTakeRadio - Paul Daley
CSC Memorabilia – Paul Daley
MudDawgsMMA – Paul Daley
Vital277 - Paul Daley
Heavyweight bout: James McSweeney vs. Ricco Rodriguez
MMAValor – Ricco Rodriguez
Amesbelle – James McSweeney
MyTakeRadio - James McSweeney
CSC Memorabilia – James McSweeney
MudDawgsMMA – Ricco Rodriguez
Vital277 - James McSweeney
Middleweight bout: Alex Makhonin vs. Xavier Foupa-Pokam
MMAValor – Alex Makhonin
Amesbelle – Alex Makhonin
MyTakeRadio - Xavier Foupa-Pokam
CSC Memorabilia – Alex Makhonin
MudDawgsMMA – Alex Makhonin
Vital277 - Alex Makhonin
Middleweight bout: Claudio Henrique Da Silva vs. Jean-Francois Lenogue
MMAValor – Claudio Henrique Da Silva
Amesbelle – Jean-Francois Lenogue
MyTakeRadio – Claudio Henrique Da Silva
CSC Memorabilia – Claudio Henrique Da Silva
MudDawgsMMA – Claudio Henrique Da Silva
Vital277 - Jean-Francois Lenogue
Make sure to follow our guests on twitter:
Amesbelle (@amesbelle), MyTakeRadio (@MyTakeRadio), CSC Memorabilia (@CSCMemorabilia), MudDawgsMMA (@MudDawgsMMA) and Vital277 (@vital277)
