Trio of big matchups announced for ACB 87 in Nottingham

Rising Russian MMA promotion ACB continues its strong relationship with the UK market with the announcement of its latest event to take place on these shores.

ACB 87 takes place on Saturday, 19 May at the Motorpoint Arena, and the main event will feature a featherweight ‘Battle of Britain’ as English lightweight and former BAMMA title challenger Kane Mousah takes on Scottish fan favourite and former UFC star Robert Whiteford.

Since that announcement two more bouts have been confirmed, both with significant British involvement.

Former UFC middleweight and BAMMA middleweight champion Scott Askham returns to ACB action when he takes on ACB middleweight veteran Ibragim Chuzhigaev in the night’s co-main event.

Askham recently signed with KSW and scored a big stoppage win over Michal Materla on his promotional debut earlier this month. And now he returns to home soil looking to extend his winning run to three in a row since being cut by the UFC last year.

And joining them on the card is one of the top-rated British fighters not to have set foot in the octagon.

Manchester’s Pietro “Pitbull” Menga’s first bout since 2016 saw him lose out on the scorecards to Brazilian Raymison Bruno at Celtic Gladiator 19 in Manchester in February. Now he’s looking to get back to winning ways as he makes his promotional debut for ACB in Nottingham against seasoned former UFC veteran and former WEC bantamweight title challenger Takeya Mizugaki in a bantamweight contest.

It looks very much like ACB are looking to make a splash on their return to the UK. The last time the Russian promotion staged a show on these shores ACB 70 delivered a 15-fight card headlined by the all-British middleweight clash between Askham and Luke Barnatt.

Now all eyes will turn to Nottingham as the promotion with the strapline “Less Show, More Fighting” gets set to bring the action once more.