Abril Anguiano suddenly withdraws from her co-main event fight and Sophie Lang withdraws due to a medical issue; Kira Songer replaces Lang and two pro debut fighters face off in place of Anguiano’s scheduled matchup with Nadia Vera
The Combate Global: ‘Mexico vs. USA’ event set for this Saturday, April 11 has taken a couple of blows – most notably losing Abril Anguiano due to a reported contractual conflict with a boxing promoter – but is still standing with five bouts intact, including the bantamweight (135 pounds/61 kilograms) main event matchup between Gianni “Kriptonita” Vazquez (13-5-1) and Alvin “The Anvil” Welch (6-1).
Just days away from the event, Anguiano, who also boxes professionally, was forced to withdraw from her scheduled matchup with Mexican veteran Nadia Vera due to an unspecified “contractual conflict” with her boxing promoter.
According to sources, Anguiano’s trainer, Steve Wright, was not happy about having to pull his fighter from the MMA commitment with Combate Global, but was met with some type of pushback from Anguiano’s boxing promoter, who allegedly has Anguiano under some type of contract.
Fajador will be following up on the Anguiano situation but, in the meantime, a suitable replacement for Anguiano was not found and the fight with Vera has been replaced by a meeting between two pro debut fighters, Mexico’s Erik Valerio (0-0), who fights out of Chihuahua, and American Amin Derakshan (0-0) out of Irvine, Calif.
Above: Gianni “Kriptonita” Vazquez (left) will face Alvin “The Anvil” Welch in Combate Global’s ‘Mexico vs. USA’ main event this Saturday, April 11. Photo credit: Scott Hirano/Combate Global
Valerio and Derakshan will square off at featherweight (145 pounds/66 kilograms).
Replacing Sophie Lang in the strawweight (115 pounds/52 kilograms) contest with Gabriela Aviña (2-1) of Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico will be Kira Songer (0-0) of Washington State.
Saturday’s Combate Global show airs live in the U.S. in Spanish on both EstrellaTV and Samsung TV Plus and in English on the Combate Global English language channel on Samsung TV Plus, beginning at 10 p.m. ET/9 p.m. CT.
The event also streams live worldwide, including in the U.S., on Combate Global’s YouTube channel.
A live broadcast of the event is available in Mexico on Samsung TV Plus as well.
The complete, updated Combate Global: ‘Mexico vs. USA’ fight card:
BANTAMWEIGHT MAIN EVENT:
Gianni Vazquez (13-5-1) vs. Alvin Welch (6-1)
STRAWWEIGHT:
Gabriela Avina (2-1) vs. Kira Songer (0-0)
CATCHWEIGHT (175 LBS/79 KG):
Gerardo Bazaldua (6-3) vs. Joaquin Garcia (2-0)
FEATHERWEIGHT:
Erik Valerio (0-0) vs. Amin Derakshan (0-0)
CATCHWEIGHT (133 LBS/60 KG)
Jesse Velazquez (1-1) vs. Ricardo Hussein (3-1)
