The Parkland Pavilion at Westerner Park is going to get a whole lot more intense this Friday night as the Havoc Fighting Championship returns to the venue.
Havoc FC 11, which will be taking place almost a year to the day of the last Havoc fight card, is shaping up to be a showstopper of an event.
“It’s been a year since the last one with the change in the commission, so it’s exciting to get it back going,” said Havoc FC Owner and Promoter Ryan Machan.
Headlining Friday night’s stacked card of bouts is a real treat – a throwdown for the vacant Havoc Heavyweight Championship between Edmonton’s Grayson Wells (2-1) and Winnipeg’s Steve Roy (2-1).
“The main event is the co-main event of our last show, so the winner of that is now fighting for the heavyweight title,” Machan explained.
The night will also include two more pro fights including a bout between Brent Keryluke (3-2) and Trenton Rowell.
“We try to bring in the best guys we can for our pro card and then we have a lot of the Red Deer and Calgary and Edmonton amateurs that come down trying to get the experience before they turn pro,” Machan explained.
He noted they’ve got one of the top 135-pounders in Canada coming in from Winnipeg in addition to Roy, as well as a fighter from Montreal.
In addition to the MMA action that will take over the Westerner there will also be two kickboxing matches, which will be headlined by a light heavyweight matchup between Red Deer’s own Luke Spicer and Markhaile Wedderburn out of Toronto.
“It’s entertaining. We bring in the best guys we can to make it competitive. It’s entertaining when you get two of the top 135-pounders in Canada and they’re fighting each other for the top spot, it makes for a good fight,” said Machan.
One of the reasons that it has been so long since the last Havoc fight is because of a number of changes that had to be made to the Penhold Fight Commission over the past eight months.
According to Machan, a couple of the commission members from Calgary and Edmonton made the decision to leave the commission, which set off a lengthy process to replace them.
“It just took about eight months of going back and forth and getting resumes in for new commission members, so it took a while to get the commission back up and going.”
But now Havoc is ready to get underway again and try to build on the success of last December’s Havoc 10, which sold out.
“This ones not quite the same as last year but we’re still doing okay. Times are tough for a lot of people, so we just wanted to keep putting them on to stay relevant and hopefully once the economy picks back up we’ll have a better turnout for next year.”
General admission for Havoc FC 11 is $50 in advance. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. for VIPs and 7 p.m. for general admission. For more information or to purchase tickets head to www.havocfc.com.
zcormier@reddeerexpress.com
