The British Association of Mixed Martial Arts officially announced that middleweight champion Tom “Kong” Watson will defend his belt against Murilo “Ninja” Rua on their next card, BAMMA 6.
The event takes place on May 21 at Wembley Arena in London. The main card will be broadcast live on Syfy U.K. An internet stream is expected for the U.S. audience.
Watson is one of the biggest stars for the promotion who wants to remind Zuffa that “for every Microsoft there needs to be an Apple.” His last title defense against Alex Reid drew a great deal of attention in the U.K. thanks to Reid’s reality show driven popularity. Kong also holds victories over Travis Galbraith, Matt Horwich and John Phillips.
“Ninja” earned a place as one of the sport’s top fighters during the heyday of Pride FC. In the promotion, he fought several big names including Quinton Jackson, Dan Henderson and Sergei Kharitonov. Since the fall of Pride, Rua has gone 9-4 and held the Elite XC middleweight title. However, after losing his last fight to Roy Boughton, he is consider to be entering the twilight of his career.
Rua’s younger brother, Mauricio “Shogun,” defend his UFC light heavyweight title against Jon Jones this weekend at UFC 128.
On the promotion’s last card, BAMMA 5, Paul Daley defeated Deep champion Yuya Shirai in the first round. The bout was scheduled to be a welterweight title fight, but Daley was unable to make weight.