Looking to make a splash in the late summer is the World Series Of Fighting promotion who announced today their 22nd event. WSOF 22 will take place in Las Vegas on August 8th and will feature three championship title bouts. The anticipated match up for the welterweight title between the two submission specialists in Jake Shields and Rousimar Palhares is finally set to take place. Promotion standout Marlon Moraes will defend his bantamweight title against Sheymon Moraes and the inaugural flyweight championship will be crowned between undefeated fighters Magomed “Gladiator” Bibulatov and Donavon Frelow. The event will take place at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino on Saturday, Aug. 1, live on NBCSN.
It’s also important to note that this will be the return of Tyrone Spong (2-0) to the promotion after his horrific accident at Glory. He will face light heavyweight bruiser Mike Kyle (21-12-1). You can currently see Tyrone coaching on this season of The Ultimate Fighter.
Looking to once again defend his welterweight title leg lock assassin Rousimar Palhares (17-6) faces his best challenge to date. He meets also former UFC fighter Jake Shields (31-7-1, 1 NC) who like Rousimar has won each of his WSOF fights by submission. This will be an enticing match up when it gets to the canvas and with each fighters grappling ability a mistake here or there could be costly. Rousimar will look to consecutively retain his title and hopefully not do anything to bring up issues with the fighter from the past.
Marlon Moraes (14-4-1) recently defended his 135 strap in a surprising battle between Josh Hill. Not only will he be defending his title but going for his tenth straight win in a clash with Sheymon Moraes (7-0). Moraes won his previous bout for WSOF and now has been placed in an unlikely position to face the champ. He has mostly fought in Brazil but looked decent in his U.S. debut. Hopefully the spotlight and competition won’t be too much for him.
Magomed Bibulatov (9-0) is one of the newly signed prospects for WSOF and will be dropping down to 125 for a chance at the title. His opponent Donavon Frelow (4-0) won his debut for the promotion with a unanimous decision over Taylor McCorriston back in January. Don’t let the records fool you as Frelow has competed in 5 high level amatuer fights even though Magomed is showing a total of nine. Both athletes are well rounded fighters with finishing capabilities.
WSOF 22 could go down as one of the best cards for the promotion and more matches will be announced soon. The live NBCSN telecast of “WSOF 22: Palhares vs. Shields” begins at 11 p.m. ET/8 p.m. PT on Saturday, August 1.