Combat sports notes: Vannata preps in Denver for UFC Fight Night
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Apr. 13—A Wednesday phone interview scheduled by the UFC for the Journal with longtime Albuquerque MMA fighter Lando Vannata did not happen, perhaps because, well, he's not training in Albuquerque anymore.
In a March 31 YouTube interview with MMA journalist James Lynch, Vannata (12-6-2) — scheduled to face Mexico's Daniel Zellhuber (12-1) Saturday on a UFC Fight Night card in Kansas City, Missouri — said he's now training with Elevation Fight Team in suburban Denver.
Vannata also is moving back to the lightweight limit of 155 pounds after fighting at featherweight (145) in his last two fights. The weight cut to 145, he told Lynch, had become too difficult.
"This is my first full camp here (in Colorado), and I'm loving it," Vannata said. "The coaches are great, I'm learning so much from them. My teammates are great."
Among those teammates: Cory Sandhagen, the UFC's third-ranked bantamweight, and veteran welterweight Neil Magny.
Vannata, a 31-year-old New Jersey native who went to high school in Florida, moved to Albuquerque in 2011. He trained at Jackson-Wink for years before switching to Jackson's Acoma in the fall of 2018.
But Jackson's Acoma head coach Nick Urso, who has cornered for Vanatta in his last several fights, will not do so on Saturday.
Urso did not respond to a Facebook message asking for comment.
Vannata, though, will have one Albuquerquean, his longtime jiujitsu coach Rafael "Barata" de Freitas, with him in Kansas City.
And there's this: in his interview with Lynch, Vannata did refer to Albuquerque as "back home."
SANCHEZ TO WALES: The last time Albuquerque boxer Jason Sanchez fought outside the United States, it proved to be his ticket to a world title shot.
On Thursday, it was announced that Sanchez (16-3, nine knockouts) will face Englishman Zelfa Barrett (28-2, 16 KOs) in Cardiff, Wales, on April 22.
Sanchez agreed to take the fight on short notice after Barrett's originally scheduled opponent, Alex Dilmaghani, withdrew due to injury.
On Halloween night 2018, Sanchez defeated Top Rank, Inc., contract fighter Jean Carlos Rivera in Panama. Top Rank then signed Sanchez to a contract, and just two fights later, Sanchez fought for a featherweight world title against then-WBO champion Oscar Valdez.
Sanchez lost to Valdez via unanimous decision and fought just three more times for Top Rank, going 1-2, before becoming a free agent.
He last fought on Feb. 24 at the Rio Rancho Events Center, defeating Rafael Reyes by third-round TKO.
Barrett is the European Boxing Union super featherweight champion. He last fought on Nov. 5, losing to Shavkatdzhon Rakhimof by ninth-round TKO in an IBF world title bout.
The card will be streamed on DAZN, a subscription service.
SUPER DUPER: MMA super heavyweights Dwight Maters and Shawn Holmes weighed in at a combined weight of 582.8 pounds — 314.4 for Holmes and 268.4 for Maters — on Thursday in advance of Friday's pro-am card at Jackson-Wink MMA.
The major U.S. MMA organizations — UFC, Bellator, PFL, LFA — don't sponsor competition above the heavyweight limit of 266 pounds. A few others do.
Maters and Morgan, Jackson-Wink teammates, are making their professional debuts. Morgan is listed on tapology.com with a 1-0 amateur record. Maters is 4-5 as an amateur MMA fighter, 1-0 as a professional boxer.
The only other pro fight on Friday's card matches lightweights Marquis Johnson (2-5) and Vincent Van Alstyne (pro debut, 4-0 as an amateur). They both train at Jackson-Wink.
Four amateur fights are scheduled.
TITLE SHOT FOR FULLER: Albuquerque MMA fighter Jalin "The Gentleman" Fuller (7-2) is scheduled to face Florida's Trey Waters in Sioux Falls, South Dakota on Friday with the vacant LFA welterweight title at stake.
Fuller trains at Duke City MMA.
Friday's card is scheduled to be streamed on UFC Fight Pass, starting at 7 p.m.
Friday
JW Fights, 7 p.m, Jackson-Wink MMA Academy, 301 Martin Luther King NE: Dwight Maters vs. Shawn Morgan, several other fights. Tickets: $40, holdmyticket.comLFA 156, Sioux Falls, S.D.: Jalin Fuller vs. Trey Waters, several other fights. UFC Fight Pass (streaming), 7 p.m.
SATURDAY
UFC Fight Night, Kansas City Mo.: Max Holloway vs. Arnold Allen, Lando Vannata vs. Daniel Zellhuber, several other fights: ESPN (main card, Holloway-Allen), 6:30 p.m.; espn+ (prelim card, Vannata-Zellhuber), 3:30 p.m.
