Phoenix 3: UK vs The World’ will be held in London on Sept 22nd, 2017, taking place at the ‘Indigo’, O2 Arena. The first MMA fight has been announced. Ashleigh “Cruiser” Grimshaw (18-10-1. 3 NC) from England is set against Izzeddine Al Derbani (5-0-0) from Jordan in a featherweight bout.
Both have been in a bit of back and forth trash talk to each other, hyping up the energy for this first fight. Grimshaw is adamant about showing Al Derbani the difference between the MMA in the UK and that from the Middle East. Seems like he’s bashing on the skills of the region. Al Derbani was quite happy to reply that he will very simply make the Brit retire after the showdown that will take place on British soil.
Grimshaw has been in the professional MMA world since 2003, and has fought in several notable British promotions. Cage Rage, Cage Warriors and BAMMA have all seen him go at it in the cage. This fighter trains with Team Titan and has seen around half of his wins taken by submission.
Al Derbani who comes from a Kickboxing/Muaythai background, has built his professional MMA career in the Arab promotion Desert Force. This Jordanian trains with two different teams, Team Shogun and Kingdom Fighters. He participated in the first installment of Phoenix Championship on the Muay Thai card and won against Jonathan Tuhu from Papua new Guinea. Though he hasn’t fought MMA since last September, he has been refining and strengthening his skill set waiting for the right fight to come along. Al Derbani is a strong striker, who lacks in wins by submission and will most likely keep the coming bout standing.
Despite the higher level of experience on Grimshwaw’s side, Al Derbani’s striking style can play a big role n this battle. Al Derbani vs. Grimshaw will be an interesting one!
Stay tuned to find out the latest updates related to Phoenix 3: UK vs The World fight card.
