LAS VEGAS – LFA CEO Ed Soares announced recently that the promotion will return to South Dakota in April with a title fight. The main event of LFA 156 will now feature the welterweight championship after former champion Chris Brown vacated the title. LFA 156 will be the 17th LFA event to take place in the state. RFA hosted four events in the “Mount Rushmore State” before the merger of RFA and Legacy FC that created LFA.
LFA 156 takes place Friday, April 14 at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The main event will feature a welterweight title fight between top prospects Jalin “The Gentleman” Fuller and Trey “The Truth” Waters. The entire main card will be available worldwide on UFC Fight Pass at 9 p.m. ET.
“Jalin Fuller and Trey Waters will now fight for the LFA welterweight title at LFA 156,” stated Soares. “They are two of the most exciting prospects in the division and will now fight for the title vacated by former champion Chris Brown. Fuller is coming off a highlight-reel submission victory in January, while Waters earned a ‘Knockout of the Year’ nomination in his LFA debut last year. This headliner was already generating a lot of buzz and now the stakes have been raised. It will be the 13th LFA title fight to take place at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
Tickets for “LFA 156: Fuller vs. Waters” are available for purchase through Ticketmaster.com.
Fuller (7-2) is a true home grown product that has been developing inside the LFA octagon since making his professional MMA debut four years ago at LFA 58. That night, he won his first fight in his hometown of Albuquerque, New Mexico by defeating Andrew Lipp via unanimous decision. However, it wouldn’t take long before he started re-writing the LFA record books. That would happen in his second fight for the promotion when he knocked out Gabe Rodriguez at LFA 80 in just 12 seconds, which currently stands as the fourth fastest knockout in UFC history.
Fuller has now competed for the LFA in eight of his nine fights, while racking up six wins for the promotion. That includes his most recent win last month against Scott Writz, who shared an identical record to him entering the bout. After the bout, “The Gentleman” requested a main event for his next bout. That wish will be granted at LFA 156.
Waters (6-1) also made an immediate impact on the LFA after signing with the promotion. The Jacksonville, Florida native made his LFA debut in Denver, Colorado at LFA 133 and scored one of the biggest knockouts of the year against Benjamin Bennett in what was a battle of unbeaten prospects. What made the knockout even more dramatic is the fact it came with just 23 seconds remaining in the fight.
The win brought his record to a perfect 6-0 and earned him a spot on Season 6 of Dana White’s Contender Series. That fight came this past September against the undefeated LFA welterweight champion Gabriel Bonfim. “The Truth” gave the champ the stiffest test of his career, but he came up short as Bonfim won the fight and signed with the UFC. Waters is now looking to rebound in the main event of LFA 156 in a bout that he hopes will springboard him right back onto the UFC boss’ radar.
The LFA 156 lineup includes:
- Jalin Fuller vs. Trey Waters – for vacant welterweight title
- Mitch McKee vs. Wendel Araujo
- Ryan Leininger vs. Miguel Jacob
- Richie Lewis vs. Jordan Isordia
- Talita Alencar vs. Kelsey Arnesen
- Ben Tynan vs. Will Johnson
