Nick Barnes and Curtis Millender Headline the First Fight Night of 2018 on AXS TV
Legacy Fighting Alliance will kick of 2018 on AXS TV with LFA 30 which will feature the long-awaited clash between southern California kingpins and top LFA welterweights “Curtious” Curtis Millender and “The Phoenix” Nick Barnes. LFA 30 – Millender vs. Barnes takes place Friday, January 12th at the Costa Mesa Hall at the OC Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa, California. The entire main card of LFA 30 – Millender vs. Barnes will be televised live and nationwide on AXS TV at 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT.
Millender (13-3) returns home to the building where he fought and won his first seven fights. The Orange County juggernaut is looking to build off a perfect 2017 where he won three fights, including back-to-back LFA headliners. His most recent win came via highlight reel Head Kick KO in the main event of LFA 24. Millender will meet Barnes (12-2) in a long-awaited showdown between two of southern California’s finest. The welterweight stars started their careers in the southern California regional circuit, moved on to Bellator, and will finally meet in the main event of LFA 30. Barnes, like Millender, is coming off an impressive win in an LFA headliner this past August at LFA 20.
While the main event will feature a rivalry between two of the top welterweights in LFA, the co-main event will feature a rivalry between two of the LFA featherweight division’s most talented jiu-jitsu practitioners.
Fernando Padilla (10-1) put the division on notice in October, when he submitted longtime RFA vet Darrick Minner with a Triangle-Armbar in the first round of their co-main event bout at LFA 25. Padilla, who is a 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu brown belt, has now won 90% of his fights by first round stoppage. He will now face a man equally dangerous on the ground when he meets Talison Soares (9-2) in the co-main event of LFA 30. Soares is a jiu-jitsu black belt from the famed Checkmat BJJ team who has made a name for himself competing in his native Brazil. Soares has a 100% finishing rate in the nine bouts he has won and will now make his international debut in the co-main event of LFA 30.
Full Broadcast Card:
• Welterweight – Nick Barnes (12-2) vs. Curtis Millender (13-3)
• Featherweight – Talison Soares (9-2) vs. Fernando Padilla (10-1)
• Flyweight – Charlie Alaniz (11-2) vs. Maikel Perez (4-1)
• Middleweight – Craig Wilkerson (7-3) vs. Jordan Wright (8-0)
• Welterweight – Maycon Mendonca (6-3) vs. Christian Aguilera (8-4)
• Bantamweight – Vince Cachero (3-0) vs. Cameron Olson (8-3)
LFA 30 will be commentated by Ron Kruck, UFC Hall of Famer, Pat Miletich, and cageside reporter Phoenix Carnevale.
