Lightweights Varner & Fickett Meet At XFC 16

With the UFC taking more than eight days off between events for the first time in nearly a month, MMA fans can turn to a couple lesser-known organizations to get their fight action on Friday night.

XFC 16: High Stakes will take place at Knoxville Civic Coliseum in Tennessee, with main card action starting at 9:00 p.m. (ET) and televised live on HDNet.  Ring of Combat 39 will get underway 30 minutes earlier from the Tropicana Casino and Resort in Atlantic City.

XFC 16 will have seven televised bouts and 10 overall, including the main event between lightweights Jamie Varner (18-6-1) and Drew Fickett (41-16).  Varner is the former WEC lightweight champion, who lost the title a little more than two years ago to Ben Henderson.  That setback to Henderson – who is fighting UFC lightweight champ Frankie Edgar for the title at UFC 144 on February 25 – started a run of four losses in six bouts after going 12-1-1 in his previous 14.

Varner is coming off a first-round knockout of Nate Jolly at XFC 14 last October 21 in a catchweight bout and will be meeting a UFC veteran in Fickett.  A 32-year-old from Tampa who has an impressive fight resume, Fickett nearly made it onto the first season of The Ultimate Fighter after beating Kenny Florian but later went to jail.  Florian ended up taking his place and finished as the runner-up to Diego Sanchez.

Fickett owns impressive wins over Josh Koscheck, Dennis Hallman and Kurt Pellegrino and suffered his first UFC loss against Nick Diaz by a first-round TKO at UFC 51 seven years ago.  He ended up going 4-3 in the UFC and was let go in 2007, later dropping seven of eight fights before winning five in a row, including three in one night to capture the Shine Lightweight Grand Prix title.

However, Fickett is currently riding a three-bout losing streak.

Other fights that will be televised at XFC 16 include Josh Samman (8-2) against Mike Gomez (12-8) at middleweight, Len Cook (1-0) against Chris Wright (5-1-1) at catchweight, Chase Gormley (7-4) against Brandon Sayles (2-0) at super heavyweight, Amaechi Oselukwue (2-5) against Julio Gallegos (4-3) at middleweight, Dustin West (5-4) against Stoney Hale (5-2) at middleweight and Heather Clark (4-1) against Marianna Kheyfets (4-0) at super flyweight in another featured bout.

At ROC 39, 14 fights have been confirmed, including a light heavyweight title matchup between unbeaten Tom DeBlass (6-0) and Randy Smith (13-9-1) and the featherweight championship between Jeff Lentz (8-3-1) and Giovanni Moljo (4-4).  Those are the only two bouts scheduled to go three five-minute rounds if necessary.