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| Dunesa Hesser (middle) is happy that WSOF Global is now in the Philippines. Aldrin Alejo |
By Ivan Saldajeno
QUEZON CITY--WSOF, through its non-American arm WSOF Global, will finally stage an event in the Philippines, and no one is happier than the owner of WSOF Global, Dunesa Hesser, who is proud of her Filipino roots.
"It's overwhelming that I can bring a world-class MMA event here to my beloved country," Hesser, whose father hails from Escalante, told Dugout Philippines during the press launch of WSOF-GC 3 at the Novotel Hotel on Thursday.
The said MMA fight card will take place on July 30 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum here, and it will be highlighted by the showdown between Evgeny Erokhin and Richard Odoms for the WSOF Global heavyweight title, only the second time ever that an international MMA promotion's heavyweight belt is at stake in the country or nearly eight months after Brandon Vera won the One heavyweight plum against Paul Cheng on Dec. 11, 2015 at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay.
"We are bringing two of the best heavyweights. They are elite fighters," Hesser said of both fighters, who also work as cops in their respective home countries.
Also at stake is the WSOF Global featherweight belt, where Filipino Danilo Sarmiento tries to join Vera as Filipino world MMA champs with a match against Ahmed Mujtaba.
Also booked for an appearance in the said event is Jujeath Nagaowa, who last fought at One Championship.
"She's gonna be huge [for us]. If she's gonna win in her fight, I'm sure everybody will be expecting her to fight not just in the Philippines but internationally as well," Hesser thought of Nagaowa's WSOF debut against Malaysia's Audreylaura Boniface.
Nagaowa, a former champion boxer, is unbeaten in two matches, both at One, into her MMA career.
Also, to give MMA fans more reasons to watch WSOF-GC 3, WSOF Global cooked up a special promo to the ticketholders.
"One lucky fan is going to win PHP1 million. We're going to have a raffle. All you have to do is to buy a ticket to be eligible to win," Hesser bared the details of the promo.
Follow him on Twitter: @IvanSaldajeno
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