Jason Ball To Face Edson Berto For The RFC World Lightweight Title This Friday In Tampa, Florida

Jason “Daddy Cool” Ball and Wayne "Mayhem" Murrie To Represent the UK This Friday Night At The Real Fighting Championships In Tampa, Florida.

With UK fighters looking to defend home borders from some of the world's elite MMA stars at UFC 105 in Manchester on Saturday night, it would be easy to forget that the UK MMA scene will unleash a quick counter attack of their own on Friday night. As Jason "Daddy Cool" Ball (15-7-0) and Wayne "Mayhem" Murrie (7-2-1) take part in the Real Fighting Championships this Friday night at the A La Carte Event Pavilion, in Tampa, Florida.

Currently ranked fifth in the UK Lightweight rankings Jason "Daddy Cool" Ball (15-7-0) returns to action in the State of Florida for the third time this year as he looks to take the RFC World Lightweight Title home with him. Ball will take on defending Champion Edson Berto (17-6-1) in the main event of the evening and will be looking to add to his impressive run of form that has seen him win 6 of his last 8 bouts. This includes wins over the former British Champion Aiden Marron, the current Cage Warriors World Lightweight Champion Alexandre Izidro and the ATT fighter Glenn Mincer, who Ball defeated in Orlando back in January of this year.

 Jason Ball

Ball comes into this Title fight with a win already over the defending Champion in a non-Title bout back at RFC 18 in July of this year, where the Englishman's crisp boxing was good enough to eke-out a close spilt decision win after 3 rounds. Now some four months later, Ball returns to challenge for the Title in a bout which is booked for the Championship distance of five rounds. However the Englishman has come prepared and has been based in Florida for several weeks preparing for what is easily the biggest fight of his career to-date.

However despite coming off a loss, the defending Champion Edson Berto is not to be underestimated. With a professional record of 17-6-1; he is a seasoned and tricky campaigner who comes from a family with a well known fighting pedigree. As his brother Andre Berto is an undefeated Professional boxer who represented Haiti in the 2004 Olympic Games and is also the current WBC welterweight champion. Their family's sporting excellence also spreads into wrestling as their brother Cleveland Berto is a former Florida Wrestling Champion. Whilst their sister “Nana” Berto is also a professional MMA fighter (and RFC veteran) with an unbeaten 3-0 record. And finally Edson will be accompanied to the cage by his father Dieseul Berto who himself is a UFC and Vale Tudo veteran of many years ago

Nevertheless Edson Berto has shown he lives under no-ones shadow and has carved out a solid reputation in his own right with 17 wins in-and-around the Florida area. He is also known for his incredible array of leg lock submissions, which has seen him submit 7 of his opponents with a heel hook. These wins have not only seen him capture the the RFC title, but also the Florida state Lightweight title too.

Edson Berto's slick skills and impressive record has also seen him called-up by both EliteXC and Strikeforce in the past, and he is also rumoured to be on the verge of another call-up to the San Jose based promotion in the near future, if he can dispose of his English challenger this Friday night. This long awaited rematch tops the bill in Tampa and should be another intriguing bout between two fighters who are looking to rise to the top of a stacked worldwide Lightweight division.

However unlike last time Jason Ball will not be alone as team mate and friend Wayne “Mayhem” Murrie (7-2-1) has flown over to help his fellow Englishman prepare for his Title fight and will also feature on the card. Murrie will face the Freestyle fighter Mike Adams (5-5-0) from the Viper Pit in Georgia. Murrie is a regular on the UK circuit and is a veteran of both Cage Warriors and Ultimate Force.

Wayne Murrie

He is known for being a powerful and dynamic Welterweight fighter who originally comes from a Muay Thai background (having competed in 14 Muay Thai bouts which saw him claim a Commonwealth Title in the process). Whilst in MMA competition Murrie has defeated some top domestic opposition which has seen him claim the Ultimate Force British Title when he TKO'ed Leslee Ojugbana last year. Whilst the Yorkshireman also holds wins over the TUF 9 competitors Dean Amsinger and James Bateman.

Despite being relatively inactive during 2009, Murrie showed he is still a contender by dismantling the tough North East based fighter Brian Moore in the main event of the inaugural Barnsley Fight Night just last month, when he submitted his opponent midway through round 1. Murray will be hoping for more of the same when he makes his international debut in Florida on Friday night against Mike Adams in another UK vs. USA clash.

For more details on this exciting show see the information below or go to the official RFC website at www.rfcmma.com

RFC 19 -Revenge
Friday, November 13th, 2009
A La Carte Event Pavilion
4050 Dana Shores Drive, Tampa, FL 33634
Doors open at 7:00pm - Fights start at 8:00pm

Main Event - RFC Lightweight World Title
(Champion) Edson Berto (17-6-1) vs. Jason "Daddy Cool" Ball (15-7-0)

Rest of the card

Mike Adams (5-5-0) vs. Wayne "Mayhem" Murrie (7-2-1)
Patrick Cenoble (2-0-0) vs. Joe Ricart (2-0-0)
Chris "Big Boy" Jensen (0-0-0) vs. Chris Anderson (1-1-0)
Edems Celiscar (1-0-0) vs. James Powell (1-0-0)
Ron Jacobs (1-0-0) vs. Mark Brown (0-0-0)
Rick Hunley (1-1-0) vs. Blake Wilson (0-1-0)


Check out the full card below
http://www.rfcmma.com/events.html

Promo video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWY-P1Icsjc