On last night’s WSOF 18 broadcast, the organization’s president Ray Sefo announced the dates, venues and headliners of WSOF 20 and 21.
WSOF 20 will take place at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, Conn. on April 10 and will be headlined by the second semifinal of their light-heavyweight championship tournament, a battle of former The Ultimate Fighter contestants Matt Hamill and Vinny Magalhaes.
This will mark the second time Hamill comes out of retirement. He stepped down for the first time in 2011, when he lost back-to-back fights against Quinton Jackson and Alexander Gustafsson, but returned a year after. A win and another loss later, Hamill got cut by the UFC and signed with WSOF, but retired again after a couple of injuries, without having fought for the organization once.
That will change now, when he faces slick submission artist Vinny Magalhaes, who made his way into the UFC through The Ultimate Fighter 8, where he came up short against Ryan Bader in the show’s finale. Since then he had two short stints with the UFC – both of them rather unsuccessful. Magalhaes won only one out of five UFC fights, but is a former M-1 champion and dangerous grappler.
The winner of this bout will go on to fight the winner of the first semifinal between Thiago Silva and Ronny Markes, contested at WSOF 19 on March 28. Given he wins, Hamill could face a rematch against Silva, who is the last guy to beat him. The tournament winner will be crowned the promotion’s inaugural light-heavyweight champion.
In the co-main event of WSOF 20, Melvin Guillard will look to get back on winning tracks when he faces the 26-year old Ozzy Dugulubgov. Guillard comes off a long stretch of ups and downs and has won only three of his last ten fights. His opponent Dugulubgov is a young and explosive guy with a 6-2 record, good submissions and lots of power in his hands, so this should make for an exciting matchup.
WSOF 21 will be headlined by former UFC middleweight title challenger Yushin Okami, who squares off with Ryan Ford in a welterweight bout. Okami was surprisingly cut by the UFC in 2013 after only one loss in his last four fights and quickly found a new home at WSOF, where went 1-1 since. He won his debut in March, but got stopped in a middleweight championship fight against David Branch in November. This will be Okami’s first fight in the 170 lbs. weight limit in years. Bellator veteran Ford lost his last fight against Jake Shields, but collected six wins in a row before that. The Tristar Gym product is a good boxer but also possesses strong ground and pound.
WSOF 21 will take place at the Edmonton Expo Centre in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada on June 5.