Weekend Warrior: Regional Ruckus and the Professional Fighters League Golden Girl

Photo: Joe Scarnici [Getty Images]

The absence of an Ultimate Fighting Championship or Bellator MMA event has left the mixed martial arts stage to the regional players.

Fortis MMA standout Damon Jackson will square off with Nate Jennerman for the interim Legacy Fighting Alliance featherweight championship in the LFA 47 headliner on Friday at The Bomb Factory in Dallas. AXS-TV will carry the event live at 9 p.m. ET.

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Jackson has rattled off four consecutive victories, all by submission, since his knockout loss to Kevin Aguilar in February 2017. The 30-year-old UFC alum last appeared at LFA 40 on May 25, when he submitted Jeremy Spoon with a second-round rear-naked choke. Boasting a record of 15-2-1, Jackson has delivered 14 of his 15 wins by knockout, technical knockout or submission.

Jennerman has won seven of his last eight bouts, an August 2017 decision loss to recent UFC signee Bobby Moffett his only misstep. The 25-year-old trains out of the Roufusport camp in Milwaukee, where he hones his skills under the tutelage of four-time world kickboxing champion Duke Roufus. Jennerman, 25, last fought at LFA 41 on June 1 and needed just 48 seconds to choke Kevin Croom unconscious with a guillotine.

Meanwhile, former Pacific Xtreme Combat champion Yusuke Yachi will put his six-fight winning streak on the line against the undefeated Luiz Gustavo Felix dos Santos in the Rizin Fighting Federation 12 headliner on Sunday at Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium in Nagoya, Japan. The event will stream live to FITE.tv pay-per-view at a cost of $19.99. Other matches worth monitoring: Yuki Motoya vs. Kazume Sone, Kiichi Kunimoto vs. Ryuichiro Sumimura, Reina Miura vs. Kaitlin Young and Hatsu Hioki vs. Mikuru Asakura.

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Looking ahead, the Professional Fighters League will stage its sixth show of the 2018 season on Thursday at the Ocean Resort Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, with welterweights in the main and co-main event: Ray Cooper III vs. Pavel Kusch and Magomed Magomedkerimov vs. Bijan Velickovic. In addition, two-time Olympic gold medalist Kayla Harrison will make her second appearance in the PFL cage, as she collides with Jozette Cotton in a women’s lightweight feature. The American judoka was successful in her professional MMA debut on June 21, when she submitted Brittney Elkin with an armbar in a little more than three minutes. The event airs live on the NBC Sports Network at 8 p.m. ET.