In the North American professional MMA marketplace, a promotion is one of three things.  It is either Zuffa-owned, a regional feeder or Bellator.  There is a brand new promotion, called Resurrection Fighting Alliance, which will have the dubious distinction of incorporating fighters from all three.

Resurrection Fighting Alliance (RFA) will hold its inaugural event, on December 16^th, in the town of Kearney, NE.  Kearney is a strategic location, for the promotion, as it is middle ground between two MMA hotspots, the cities of Omaha, NE and Denver, CO.  This should allow RFA to pull fighters and fans from both of these fertile MMA areas.

This 12-fight, Pro-Am card will feature four former UFC fighters, two former WEC fighters and four former Bellator fighters, along with local up and comers who are in the process of making names for themselves and will attempt to do so off the backs of the veterans.  The fight card is as follows:

The current professional fight card includes:135 Jens Pulver, former UFC champion (25-15-1) vs. Tim Elliott (6-2-1) 165 Dakota Cochrane (11-1) vs. Ramico Blackmon (6-1) 155 Mark Dickman (4-0) vs. Ted Worthington (31-30) 135 Angelo Antuna, WEC veteran (7-1) vs. Aaron Ely, Bellator Veteran (2-0) 160 Alonzo Martinez, Bellator veteran (34-15-1) vs. Cole Williams (6-1) 150 Eric Marriott, Bellator Veteran (20-5) vs. Jared Downing, Bellator veteran (7-1) 170 James Krause, Bellator and WEC veteran (14-4) vs. Chad Reiner, UFC veteran (28-13) 205 Gilbert Yvel, UFC and Pride veteran (36-16-1) vs. Damian Dantibo (7-2) 265 Justin McCully, UFC veteran (10-5-2) vs. Justin Grizzard (7-14) The current amateur fight card includes: 265 Tyler Perry, Las Vegas vs. Anthony Simants, Kearney 185 Enrique Torres, Schuyler vs. Derek Williams, Kansas City 145 Richard Barajas, Kearney vs. TBA

The wizard behind the proverbial curtain at RFA is Scott Cutbirth, a former wrestler, turned manager who has taken on the roles of Promoter and Matchmaker for the promotion.  Scott was a guest on Pure Adrenaline Radio this week and detailed for us his goal for RFA.  That goal is simply to provide the fans with opportunities to see big name fighters and allow those fighters, who are trying to resurrect their careers, to test their skills against some young up and coming local fighters. This also allows the up and comers to grow their names and careers by notching a victory over a talented veteran.

You don’t have to look past the main event, which features former two-time All-American wrestler, Tim Elliott vs. the beloved veteran Jens Pulver, to see Cutbirth’s vision.  Elliott is undefeated in his last six fights and has finished five of them. Of course, we all know Pulver as a former UFC Champion, who looked fantastic in his last fight vs. Ox Wheeler.  Cutbirth is most excited by this fight and stated that the level of energy displayed by Elliott mixed with the excitement of Jens Pulver should make for a very fast paced fight and entertaining fight.  The Co-Main Event will feature local fighter Dakota Cochrane, who we saw take apart former WEC Lightweight Champ  Jamie Varner, taking on Ramico Blackmon, a wrestler who has wrestling wins over Bellator Champ Ben Askren and UFC fighter Josh Koscheck.  Add to that, names like McCully, Yvel, Krause, Reiner and Dantibo and you have a top notch card from beginning to end.  Additionally, Big John McCarthy will be officiating the Main Event and “Smooth” Ben Henderson will be in attendance as a special guest of the promotion.

More amazing than the card itself is that Scott was able to put this card together in about a six-week timeframe, which is absolutely astonishing, given the talent level of the card.  When asked how it was possible to put together such a stacked card in such a short amount of time, he talked about his connections locally as well as in Vegas and California as the main keys behind the quick creation.

For fans that can’t make it to the show live, RFA will be featuring a video feed through their website, which you can access via the hyperlink above.  You can also listen to Scott Cutbirth’s interview on Pure Adrenaline by clicking on that hyperlink, as well.

So, we will see what the future holds for RFA, but if it is anything like what we are seeing in the present, we may be watching this promotion flourish for a long time to come.