Joe Stevenson headlines RFA 3 this weekend

Resurrection Fighting Alliance have made a bit of an impact with their first two shows but now the Nebraska-based promotion is growing as RFA 3: Stevenson vs. Cochrane is scheduled to be broadcast on Fight Now! TV in the US as well as webstreamed as a pay-per-view.  RFA 3 takes place June 30th at the Viaero Event Center in Kearney, Nebraska.

Joe StevensonTUF season 2’s Joe Stevenson has definitely gone downhill since his title shot loss to BJ Penn just over four years ago, since that fight going 3-6.  The main thing that kept Stevenson in the UFC until now is the fact he picked up three “Fight of the Night” bonuses along the way against Diego Sanchez (loss), Nate Diaz (win), and George Sotiropoulos (loss).  Stevenson even dropped to featherweight for his last fight, a unanimous decision loss to Javier Vazquez.  Now after sixteen UFC fights in seven years Stevenson ventures to the independent shows to take on Dakota Cochrane in the main event.  Cochrane was making waves with seven wins in a row including in TFC, the problem is when he moved to RFA he took two losses in a row to Ramicio Blackman last December followed by Cliff Wright in March.  Both these fighters prefer the ground game while having the ability to knock out an opponent standing making this stylistically a well-matched fight, if that is Cochrane can overcome the experience difference.

Maurice SmithCo-headlining the show is former UFC champion Maurice Smith against Ryan Lopez.  13-13 Smith was the first fighter to bring a serious standup game to the cage, the problem is he never really got the hang of grappling.  Smith had been out of the cage for four year when he returned in March for a KO win over Jorge Cordoba, a highlight reel of this promotion so far.  13-12 Lopez has seven submissions and five KOs on his record most recently defeating Jimmy Lane by rear-naked choke.  Lopez is arguably as experienced as far as amount of MMA fights but his have been in much smaller shows against not as accomplished fighters than Smith while Smith also has his kickboxing credentials including ISKA Muay Thai champion (1996) and WKA World Kickboxing Heavyweight title (1983) making this on paper tilted toward Smith.  The real factor in this fight will be age as Smith is now fifty years old.

RFA 3 card:

James Donahue vs.Brandon Neujahr-Gomez
Erin Smith vs.LaNita Jackson
Duane Johnson vs.Jesus Sandoval
Julian Marquez vs.Tony Rodriguez
Carl Postma vs.Anthony Alirez
Jeremy Miller vs.T.J. Hepburn
Matt Manzanares vs.Aaron Ely
Nick Macias vs.Sean Wilson
Jordan Rinaldi vs.Mark Dickman
Amir Khillah vs.James Krause
Bubba Jenkins vs.Jesus Adame
Chidi Njokuani vs.Bobby Cooper
Maurice Smith vs.Ryan Lopez
Joe Stevenson vs.Dakota Cochrane