Poster

Press Release

HONOLULU -- X1 World Events "Legends," scheduled for Friday, will mark the return of a number of Hawaii's favorite fighters of yesteryears, including former Icon Sport middleweight champ Egan Inoue (Pictures) and Ray "Bradda" Cooper (Pictures).

Fighters and media gathered Wednesday in Honolulu to discuss the event, which will be headlined by a middleweight bout between Hawaiian fighting legend Egan Inoue and Hans Marrero (Pictures).

"It's going to be a tough fight," Inoue said. "I'm not taking [Marrero] for granted one bit. He's 23 years old, strong. He looks in shape and ready to go. It's going to be a good fight."

Inoue, whose last fight was a losing effort against Jason "Mayhem" Miller in December 2003, made the decision to come out of retirement when Marrero requested a fight with him.

"I found out that Hans was wanting to fight me," Inoue said. "Not that I always take on guys that want to fight me, [but] I actually wanted to test my skills against someone 23 years old, or someone young."

"Egan has definitely inspired my fight career, but it's gotten to the point now where we have to fight," Marrero said. "For me, it's just to see where I'm at and at the same time fight an inspiration, a hero to your sport and to you. It's going to be an awesome opportunity. As a fighter I think he's awesome. As a person I think he's awesome. Very humble guy."

In the evening's co-main event, Chad Reiner (Pictures) will defend his welterweight title against Team MMAD's Brandon Wolff (Pictures).

"I think Brandon is a great opponent," said Reiner, who took the belt from former champ Mark Moreno (Pictures) last January. "He's a coach, so he probably knows his stuff. It'll be a good fight."

Said Wolff: "Thanks to Chad for coming out here. He just had a fight about a month ago, and I respect that. It means a lot for me to be here."

In other title action, local favorite Ray Cooper will take on Richie Whitson for the recently vacated lightweight title.

"I'm a little disappointed," Cooper said of his original opponent, Shane Nelson (Pictures), bowing out of the fight. "I hope whatever came up with him works out pretty good. I just got to look at this guy right in front of me. [Whitson's] an aggressive guy, so hopefully it will turn out good."

"It's an honor to be here and it's an honor to fight Ray ‘Bradda' Cooper," said Whitson, who is coming off a TKO victory just last week in Alaska Fighting Championship and then took the fight with Cooper on only days' notice.

Also on the card, tough up-and-comer Michael Brightmon (Pictures) will battle veteran fighter Kola Koka; Ron Jhun will fight Dylan Clay; Kana Hyatt (Pictures) will defend his 135-pound title against the B.J. Penn (Pictures)-trained Albert Manners (Pictures); Maui's Brandon Visher will fight Bulls Pen's Lorenzo Moreno; and Sean Sakata will fight Johnavan Visante, Jr. in a 170-pound amateur title bout.

The event will be available for statewide pay-per-view on Oceanic channel 260 and in high definition on channel 1260 as well as a worldwide Internet pay-per-view available at www.x1ppv.oceanic.com.

Source:Sherdog

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

X1 World Events presents Legends
Friday, May 16, 2008
Blaisdell Arena, Honolulu Hawaii

If you think of Mixed Martial Arts in Hawaii; you think of Legendary Egan inoue. For the first time in four and a half years Local Superstar steps back inside the ring headlining X1 World events fight card at the Neal Blaisdell Arena on May 16, 2008. Inoue stepped away from fighting in December 2003, to become a businessman opening up his own gym for fighters and fitness enthusiast alike. A sensational athlete, Inoue was a five time Icon world champion, two time world racquetball champion, two time Brazilillian Jiu-Jitsu champion, a two time winner in Japan’s PRIDE organization, and was the only civilian to receive a government contract to train the US Navy SEALs.

In addition to Inoue’s return, Hawaii’s fans will have the privilege of watching another Legendary fighter once ranked #4 in Shooto, Ray “bradda” Cooper, a man that is feared by all in the Mixed Martial Arts World. He’ll be sure to give Hawaii’s fans an unforgettable night!

Returning to Hawaii to defend his X1 World Welterweight Belt, Chad “ The Grinder” Reiner squares off against local boy Brandon Wolff, an ex-Navy SEAL.

Making his X1 debut, Tyson Nam who has a daunting task facing champion Kana Hyatt for the X! Featherweight belt.

Stay tuned with www.x1events.com as we will be bringing you more exciting fights on May 16,2008!

Tickets will go on sale on Tues, March 18th

Tickets starting at $25 discounts for children under 12 and military. Infants on lap FREE!

Tickets can be purchased at the Neal Blaisdell ticket box office at 808-591-2211, and www. ticketmaster. com at 1877-750-4400,at all Times supermarket.

For information about X-1 World Events “Legends” visit www. x1events.com

Fight Card

 

X1 World Welterweight Title 170lbs
Chad Reiner vs. Brandon Wolff

Gorila House - Team MMAD

Weigh In

Weigh Ins

Date: 

Time: 

Place: 

MORE PICTURES - CLICK HERE

Videos

Results

Pics