How And Why You Need To Watch BAMMA London: McKee vs Brazier

BAMMA London goes down this evening from the infamous York Hall in Bethnal Green, London and will be headlined by a champion vs champion bout with Rhys McKee.

Below are the all-important times and channels

MAIN CARD (ITV4 @ 10pm)
Rhys McKee (154.4) vs. Terry Brazier (154.4)
Anthony Taylor (151) vs. Mike Hales (150
Chi Lewis-Parry (244) vs. Lukasz Parobiec (235)

PRELIMINARY CARD (UNILAD Facebook @ 9pm)
David Khalsa (156) vs. John Nicholls (154.2)
Elliot Hoye (128.4) vs. Luke Shanks (129.6)

PRELIMINARY CARD (Dark fights @ 6pm)
James Reedman (170) Vs. Jefferson George (169.2)
Akonne Wanliss (148.2)* Vs. Kingsley Crawford (145)

*Wanliss missed weight but the fight proceeds

Reason to watch #1 – Champion vs Champion

It goes without saying that this is one of the best fights that BAMMA can put on right now.

With so many of their title belts vacant, it’s a hard to believe they can actually put together a champion vs champion clash, but tonight we get exactly that when BAMMA lightweight champion Rhys Mckee takes on BAMMA welterweight champion Terry Brazier.

Both McKee and Brazier come into the bout as newly crowned champions, but both have plenty of momentum behind them and they have every reason to feel confident ahead of their showdown this evening in London.

This is a true contest between experience and youthful exuberance as the ever game Brazier looks to put the dangerous McKee to the sword.

The young Northern Irishman is promising a fast pace from the get-go and an early finish, but if Brazier’s conditioning at lightweight is anything like it is at welterweight, he could be in for a long night.

It’s a fascinating contest.

Reason to watch #2 – Battle of the ‘Pretty Boys’

Yesterday we spent five minutes of our lives at the BAMMA London press conference witnessing an argument about who has more Instagram followers – MMA never die.

Everything about this fight screams this is all a bit ridiculous, but if you scratch below the surface there’s a lot to like here.

Love him or hate him, Taylor is inimitable and this larger than life persona he’s created might just be in his own mind, but it’s undeniably fun to watch and he’s must-see TV whenever he’s on your screen.

Hales, 5-0, comes into the contest a relative unknown with all of his wins against fighters with a combined record of 0-50. Whilst his record might not reveal much, the fact that he fights outs of SBG Ireland is nothing to dismiss out of hand.

Surrounded by some of the best training partners and coaches in the game, Hales must have something special about him and tonight he gets the opportunity to really put a marker in the sand against a recognisable name.

Who wins the battle of the ‘Pretty Boys?’ Who knows. It’s going to be a lot of fun to watch.

Reason to watch #3 – Chi Lewis-Parry is actually going to fight … hopefully

It’s long overdue, but tonight we actually get to see Chi Lewis-Parry fight… barring any last minute disasters that is.

Yes, Lewis-Parry did take on Stav Economou earlier this year, but yet again we were denied seeing what he really has to offer after the contest ended in a controversial no contest.

That fight aside, we’ve not seen Lewis-Parry in an MMA cage for nearly 4 years and the clock is ticking on a very promising career.

This evening he takes on Lukasz Parobiec in the main card opener (10pm ITV4) and it’s going to be interesting to see what he brings to the table.

Will there be ring rust? Will it be a dominant display? Will the much smaller Polish fighter pull off an upset?

Who knows, but it’s a reason to switch the channel to ITV4 right after you’ve seen England defeat Belgium in the World Cup.