The top heavyweight mixed martial artist in the United Kingdom has signed a contract with the Ultimate Fighting Championship. James Mulheron (11-1) will make his UFC debut against Justin Willis on July 16.
The 29-year old Englishman made his professional mixed martial arts debut in 2012 and now five years later finds himself fighting on the largest stage in the sport, the UFC. Mulheron, known as 'The Juggernaut' is replacing an injured Mark Godbeer at the event to be held at the SSE Hydro Center in Glasgow, Scotland. Godbeer pulled out of the fight on May 21 with an undisclosed injury.
Tale Of The Tape
Riding a four-fight win-streak, Mulheron's only taste of defeat came at the hands of Ruben Wolf in February 2015. In that fight Mulheron broke his leg but has bounced back to each fight since. He has one fight with Bellator MMA to his credit, and all of the other 11 bouts falling under the M4tC (Made For The Cage) label where he currently holds the heavyweight championship. Six of his 11 wins have come by way of knockout. The fight with Bellator was during the organization's trip to London last year.
His opponent, Willis, is also making his UFC debut. The 29-year old fighter with a 4-1 record is from California and trains at American Kickboxing Academy. His last professional fight came in June 2016 for World Series of Fighting.
In that fight he defeated Juliano Coutinho via second round technical knockout.
Tickets for the July 16 UFC Fight Night 113 event go on sale for registered pre-sale and newsletters subscribers, June 1 at 10 a.m. General sale will begin 24 hours later on Friday, June 2.
The event is headlined by a welterweight matchup between Gunnar Nelson and Santiago Ponzinibbio.
It will be the second time that the UFC has held an event in Glasgow. The first was when Michael Bisping and Thales Leites fough in July 2015.
The most current and complete fight card for the event:
- Gunnar Nelson vs. Santiago Ponzinibbio
- Joanne Calderwood vs. Cynthia Calvillo
- Paul Craig vs. Khalil Rountree
- Jack Marshman vs. Ryan James
- Justin Willis vs. James Mulheron
- Galore Bofando vs. Charlie Ward
- Danny Roberts vs. Bobby Nash
- Paul Felder vs. Stevie Ray
- Brett Johns vs. Mitch Gagnon
- Neil Seery vs. Alexandre Pantoja
- Lina Lansberg vs. Leslie Smith
The fight card is subject to change. Preliminary bouts will stream on UFC's digital streaming service, UFC Fight Pass, followed by a second round of preliminary bouts and the main card on FS1.
