An already stacked Strikeforce Challengers card just got that much stronger with the announcement that Dream World Champion Marius “The Whitemare” Zaromskis will take on battle-tested Waachiim Spiritwolf on Friday, Nov. 19, at Jackson Convention Complex in Jackson, Miss., live on Showtime at 11 p.m. ET/PT, (delayed on the West Coast).
The featured welterweight televised fight will replace the bout in which Ryan Couture could not fight due to a lingering staph infection.
Both fighters are coming off losses – Zaromskis (13-5) to Brazil’s Evangelista Cyborg on June 16 at Strikeforce Live in Los Angeles and Spiritwolf (8-7-1) to Billy Evangelista at a Challengers event in Fresno, Calif. on Oct. 22 – and both are eager to return to the win column.
The highly explosive, 30-year-old Zaromskis, who hails from Siauliai, Lithuania, has never shied away from taking on the sport’s best as he fell to Nick Diaz on Jan. 30, 2010, in Sunrise, Fla. Prior to that loss, Zaromskis had won three consecutive fights, all by way of head kick in the first round.
Zaromskis won the DREAM 2009 Welterweight Grand Prix and became the Japanese promotion’s inaugural Welterweight Champion by defeating Seichi Ikemoto at Dream.8. He conquered both Hayato “Mach” Sakurai and Jason High at Dream.10.
Zaromskis’ first love was karate as a child before switching to kickboxing. As an adult, Zaromskis moved to London to train with the London Shootfighters Fight Team. Since signing with Strikeforce, Zaromskis has moved to San Jose and currently is training at American Kickboxing Academy (AKA).
Fans will no doubt recall Spiritwolf’s Strikeforce debut on Oct. 22 in Fresno when he fell to the unbeaten, come backing Billy Evangelista in a highly entertaining slug fest by unanimous decision (30-27 twice and 29-28). Spiritwolf, 34, is a Fresno native now fighting out of Poway in the San Diego area. He is the head instructor of his own gym, Spiritwolf MMA.
He said after the fight he should have won. “I come to fight and that’s what I did tonight,’’ he said. “It is bad enough I thought I deserved the decision, but to not get a round on those scorecards is ridiculous. Honestly, I feel I got ripped off.”
Spiritwolf has trained with some of MMA’s best, including MMA legends Randy “The Natural” Couture and Dan Henderson.
In the Nov. 19 main event on Showtime, lightweight (155 pounds) star and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt Vitor “Shaolin” Ribeiro (20-4) will face Justin “The Silverback” Wilcox (9-3) of Cincinnati.
In another televised fight, former University of Tennessee linebacker Ovince St. Preux (7-4), of Knoxville, Tenn. will seek his fifth consecutive conquest inside the distance when he faces Antwain “The Juggernaut’’ Britt’’ (11-4) of Virginia Beach, Va., in a light heavyweight (205 pounds) scrap.
Power-punching Jan “Cuddles’’ Finney (8-8) of Springfield, Ohio, will be opposed by unbeaten Liz “Girl-Rilla’’ Carmouche (4-0) of San Diego, Calif., in a key women’s match at 135 pounds (welterweight) and Caros “The Future” Fodor (6-2) of Seattle, Wash., will throw down with Derek “The Pretzel’’ Getzel (2-1) of Andover, Minn., at lightweight (155 pounds).
