Kayla Hracho vs Claire Lopez headlines Combate Global event in Miami
COMBATE GLOBAL and Fuse Media today announced its complete Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fight card, including a women’s atomweight (105 pounds) showdown between hard-hitting, world-ranked rivals Kayla Hracho (6-4) and Claire Lopez (8-6), live from Miami on Saturday, June 22, and airing exclusively in English on Fuse at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT.
The winner of the matchup between Hracho and Lopez will become the number one contender for a first-ever COMBATE GLOBAL world atomweight title fight.
“’Kayrock’ Hracho vs. Claire Lopez will be the fight that proves to the world that COMBATE GLOBAL’s atomweights are, without a doubt, the best and most exciting in the world,” said COMBATE GLOBAL CEO Campbell McLaren.
Fighting out of Coconut Creek, Fla., Hracho, who turned 33 years of age this month, has been on a tear of late in La Jaula, the COMBATE GLOBAL competition cage, winning her last three fights against Katie Perez, Daniela Hernandez and Andres Meneses, respectively.
The gritty and tenacious Hracho, a member of American Top Team, has come a long way since her amateur career that spanned from 2017 to 2018, and saw her fight a total of 9 times over the course of those two years.
Prior to re-locating to South Florida to pursue her MMA career dreams, Hracho, originally from Reading, Penn., was an amateur boxer, competing in nearly a dozen fights.
Lopez, a 35-year-old native of Beziers, France and a part-time resident of London, England where she trains with Great Britain Top Team, spent 2023 in Japan, where she represented COMBATE GLOBAL in competition in Rizin Fighting Federation, Asia’s most prestigious fight promotion led by PRIDE founder, Nobuyuki Sakakibara.
Lopez exploded onto the scene in Japan on April 29 of last year, pulling off a massive upset victory over Japanese superstar Rena Kubota, taking Kubota deep into the fight, before submitting Kubota with a knee bar at the 4:21 mark of the third and final scheduled round of the bout.
The show’s co-main event will also feature a women’s atomweight bout between two-time national Karate champion Andrea Meneses (5-2) and unbeaten striker Janet Garcia (2-0).
The 27-year-old Meneses of Gava, Spain holds a Kyokushinkai Karate black belt, and is a member of Team Uppercut, the Barcelona-based fight camp that competed in the 2022 COMBATE GLOBAL ‘Exclusivos’ competition reality series.
Garcia is a 33-year-old upstart out of San Francisco, Calif. and a member of Team AKA, the famed camp led by trainer and former world kickboxing champion Javier Mendez, who has produced and mentored a slew of MMA champions and other superstars.
Garcia, to date, is unbeaten in La Jaula, since defeating Mariah Castro and Katie Perez, respectively, in 2023, with both wins coming by way of unanimous decision.
In a featured bantamweight (135 pounds) contest, unbeaten David Camacho (1-0) of Fort Lauderdale, Fla. will take on former amateur knockout artist Danny Martinez (0-0) of Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.
