Two Hawaii mixed martial artists, one a former Waiakea High School football standout, will be featured on the UFC on Fox 11 card today at the Amway Center in Orlando, Fla.
Two Hawaii mixed martial artists, one a former Waiakea High School football standout, will be featured on the UFC on Fox 11 card today at the Amway Center in Orlando, Fla.
In the main event, Oahu-born Travis “Hapa” Browne will take a 16-1-1 record into the octagon against Brazil’s Fabricio Werdum (17-5-1). The winner has been promised a shot at Cain Velasquez’s UFC heavyweight title.
Browne weighed in Friday at 245.5 pounds while Werdum tipped the scales at 232.5 for the five-round bout.
In a three-round tilt opening the main card, Brad Tavares, a 2005 Waiakea grad, meets Yoel Romero, a former Olympic wrestler from Cuba, in a middleweight clash.
The 26-year-old Tavares (12-2) weighed in at 185 pounds while Romero (7-1), who turns 37 on April 30, checked in at 185.5 pounds.
The 31-year-old Browne trains at Jackson-Wink MMA in Albuquerque, N.M. He enters his tilt with the talented Werdum off three consecutive first-round knockouts, and 14 of his 16 career victories have been KOs, TKOs or submissions. The 6-foot-7 Hawaiian dispatched former UFC champion Josh Barnett in December in a mere 60 seconds. He KO’d Dutch kickboxing legend Alaistair Overeem in August and Brazil’s Gabriel Gonzaga just over a year ago.
His only UFC loss was a first-round TKO stoppage at the hands of Brazil’s Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva.
Werdum has also won his last three fights, but has fought only three times in the past 26 month. His last victory was a second-round armbar submission win over aging Brazilian legend Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in June.
Tavares, who fights out of Xtreme Couture gym in Las Vegas, is also on a tear, having won his last five fights, all by decision.
Romero, who represents American Top Team in Coconut Creek, Fla., is on a three-fight win streak, all KOs.
The televised card starts at 2 p.m. on KHON, channel 3 on Oceanic Time Warner standard cable and channel 83 on Oceanic Time Warner digital cable.
— Kailua-Kona native KJ Noons made quick work of Sam Stout in a UFC Fight Night bout in Quebec City on Wednesday.
Noons knocked down Stout with a right then followed with a left before the referee ended the three-round match in the first 30 seconds.
Noons improved to 12-6. The Ontario native Stout, who was knocked out for the first time in his career, dropped to 21-10-1.
“You know, Sam’s a tough guy,” Noons said. “He’s never been stopped and this is by far one of my best wins.”
The bout was moved from lightweight to welterweight earlier in the week.
“Wherever the UFC wants me to be at,” said Noons, 31, who lives in San Diego.
Stephens Media Hawaii contributed to this report