Moosin, a South Korean kickboxing and mixed martial arts promotion, has announced the lineup for their upcoming MMA event "Moosin: Gods of Martial Arts," set to take place May 21 at the DCU Center in Worcester, Mass. Headlining the card is a bout between former UFC heavyweight champion Tim "The Maine-iac" Sylvia and MMA neophyte Mariusz "Dominator" Pudzianowski.
In partnership with Moosin, Polish website MMARocks.pl was the first to report the finalized fight card. Featuring several UFC veterans and established MMA professionals, the event will be the first for Massachusetts since the state voted to regulate MMA competitions in November 2009.
Syliva (25-6) last fought at "Adrenaline MMA 4: Sylvia vs. Riley" where he secured a technical knockout win over Jason Riley at 2:32 of the first round. The victory was a long-time coming for the embattled ex-champion, who had not tasted victory since October 2007.
Pudzianowski (1-0), the most successful World's Strongest Man competitor, has just one MMA bout under his belt. He defeated Marcin Najman via submission (punches) at "KSW 12: Najman vs. Pudzianowski" in December 2009. With Sylvia's 31 career fights to Pudzianowski's single effort, it is not clear how a match with such disparate levels of experience between the two fighters received sanctioning.
According to Pudzianowski's schedule, his fight with Sylvia will be his third. The Polish fighter is slated to face Yusuke Kawaguchi just two weeks prior at "KSW XIII: Kumite" on May 7.
Despite earlier reports to the contrary, Moosin co-promoter Eric “Butterbean” Esch (12-6-1) will indeed be fighting at the event, going toe-to-toe in an open weight tilt with retired professional hockey player Lyndon Byers.
The nascent Massachusetts State Athletic Commission recently approved an uncommon "double weigh-in" provision aimed to limit the number of pounds a fighter can gain between a pre-fight weigh-in and the night of the fight. The first weigh-in is to occur within 36 hours of the fight, and the second just prior to the match. According to the guidelines, a combatant cannot weigh more than 1.0625 times his or her initial weight.
The full card is as follows:
* Tim Sylvia (25-6) vs. Mariusz Pudzianowski (1-0)
* Mu Bae Choi (9-4) vs. Travis Wiuff (59-14)
* Travis Lutter (10-5) vs. Rafael Natal (11-2)
* Yves Edwards (37-15-1) vs. Mike Campbell (6-2)
* Lyndon Byers (0-0) vs. Eric Esch (12-6-1)
* Jae Young Kim (12-8) vs. Łukasz Jurkowski (14-9)
* Matt Lee (11-8-1) vs. Brett Oteri (5-0)
* Ralph Johnson (4-0) vs. Forrest Petz (17-7)
* Dan Keefe (6-1) vs. Robert McDaniels (14-5)
* Pat Bennett (1-0) vs. Stipe Miocic (0-0)