It’s a Big Weekend for the Spang Brothers
This weekend brings yet another solid two days of Mixed Martial Arts action with Bellator 69 Friday and Strikeforce on Saturday. The two cards each bring to the table some very important bouts, including one title fight, two tournament finals and a tournament semifinal. For members of the Spang family, two bouts will in particular will hold more importance than the others, as the Spang brothers Andreas (pictured) and Chris fight on separate cards this weekend.
Older brother, Andreas Spang (8-1) fights Friday at Bellator 69 against Maiquel Falcao in the season six middleweight final. Not only will the winner get an over sized check for $100,000, but they will earn the chance to fight Alexander Shlemenko for the vacant Bellator middleweight championship. Spang entered the middleweight tournament in the semifinals as a replacement for Bruno Santos and surprised people with his second round knockout of Brian Rogers. He’ll be facing a very tough opponent in Falcao (30-4, 1nc) who defeated Norman Paraisy and Vyacheslav Vasilevsky to reach the finals. With the two already have some bad blood between them; you can expect fireworks when they meet in the cage.
Younger brother, Chris Spang (4-1) will open up the Strikeforce main card on Showtime as he takes on Nah-Shon Burrell in a welterweight contest. The former super middleweight boxer made his Strikeforce debut in January, losing a unanimous decision to Ricky Legere. Burrell also fought on the same card, winning a rather controversial split decision over James Terry (who is also fighting on Saturday’s card). While his bout might not hold the same weight as his older brothers, the 24-year old has a perfect opportunity to display his skills on a main card being broadcasted on Showtime.
The Swedish Spang brothers have only fought one other time on the same weekend, when they fought on the same card back in June of 2009. That night at North American Challenge 25, Andres Spang would need only 54 seconds to earn a first round submission victory. Not to be out done though, Chris Spang needed just 16 seconds to knockout his opponent.
While things will be much tougher this weekend the Brothers can look to the past and aim high.
Picture of Andreas Spang courtesy of MFC
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Category: Bellator, Exclusive, MMA, Strikeforce