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Troid 109 Preview: O'Connor vs Volkov http://i.imgur.com/fEUPiXR.png When the popular "Lucky" Liam O'Connor (15-6) stepped off The Island to join up with Mark O'Sullivan's Team Finland to attempt to have a successful career, post The Island many were predicted his stay in professional MMA to be a short one, yet he has continually proved the critics wrong every step of the way in his illustrious MMA career. Liam O'Connor went off the radar for over 6 months but eventually joined up with BEEF for their SlaughterSeason tournament which was made especially for Island fighters, with one round of fights the tournament was cancelled and O'Connor was left once more as a free agent. It didn't take long for him to be signed up again as he was signed up by world renowned organisation Umbrella Corporation, Igor Byhenikov's then business and he had another fight one month later. Unfortunately, again Liam managed only one fight, this time a loss albeit against his first opponent who never appeared on The Island. It wasn't until Grant Brophy decided to take a gamble and sign the ex-Islander for Troid (now Troid EP) that he really shined and what a gamble it was, with Liam's current record in Troid being a very respectable 5-1 and him being on the back of a 4 fight winning streak which has lead him to where he is now... a fight for the Troid Middleweight title. Ironically former Umbrella owner Igor Byhenikov, the man who first saw Liam's potential off The Island would eventually have one of his own elite fighters take on the famous Irishman. Standing across the cage from him on Saturday night will be Ilya Mstislav Volkov (12-3) one of the most feared Russian MMA fighters in the world at this time. Oddly enough Ilya is another former Umbrella Corporation fighter and is no stranger to big fights having fought in numerous title fights during his time with Epicity Productions. He was the reigning Middleweight champion when the Epicity Production and Troid merger took place and got an immediate title shot at the then Troid title holder Joe Smith (13-3), it was a tough battle between the two champions but it was Ilya that emerged victorious as the new Troid EP Middleweight champion. In addition to fighting for both Umbrella and Epicity, Ilya also had a spell with Insanity which is another one of the current big orgs at this time. He's currently on a 6 fight win streak, with 5 of those coming via KO/TKO. Ilya will be confident coming into this fight having won 6 fights in a row but Liam O'Connor is no stranger to over coming the odds having already fought in one fight during 2015 where he was a heavy underdog against Moses Diggs son "Unchained" Django Diggs (9-1). Despite many throughout the world feeling he had no chance at all, he proved everyone wrong and left Django Diggs screaming for him to let go of his armbar, the technique Liam has used to help him win 5 of his 12 professional MMA submission wins. The Liam O'Connor tactic as it's now been called has worked time and time again through Liam's career. If he gets a hold of you in the clinch, you better hope to God he doesn't pull guard and take you with him because if he does, he's going to apply a lock to one of your limbs and force you to tap quicker than you can say "OH SHIT". Ilya knows exactly what not to do, he wants to keep the fight on the outside, avoid Liam's clinch game and utilise his own gameplan. Ilya has the power to get a KO and we know Liam has been KO'd before in the past. Interestingly, Ilya's biggest weakness (at least at looking at his record) is against submission guys with 2 of his 3 losses coming via submission. This mouth watering match up has the potential to be an all-time classic. This is the biggest test of Liam O'Connor's career and a win here could potentially cement himself as one of the all time greatest Irish MMA fighters if he hasn't done so already, winning the Troid title would surely be the biggest achievement of his MMA career to date. Ilya has all the pressure on him, will he be able to cope with it? Or will he buckle under the pressure? Find out on Saturday night!

Thanks to Callum McGregor for the video! Very rarely we would seen in the world of MMA Tycoon a fighter breakout and become a star towards the end of their career but one fighter who is doing just that is 35 year old MMA Helsinki Hall of Famer Leroy Morris (23-13). Leroy Morris has been quite vocal in recent times and being eager to prove himself as one of the best Featherweight fighters in the world he not so long ago called out the legendary fighter Clint Lomax (63-20-4). Clint Lomax wasn't to be the only legendary fighter who wanted a piece of the action: Sadly for all the Martel fans out there, Charles Martel (57-26-2) didn't come close to winning EPL, picking up only 2 wins out of the 10 EPL fights. On the other hand, Leroy Morris had his hand raised at the end of his gruelling 3 round fight with Clint Lomax, with many now calling for the former great to hang up his gloves after adding another loss to his MMA record. With no fight on the horizon, Leroy Morris may well have been the fighter who "broke" Clint Lomax and Leroy certainly believes that's the case. "Of course I broke him, I see him at the end of the fight, that punk knew he lost it, he came out acting Mr Big Shot and got schooled by me and was lucky that one judge felt sorry for him. Fortunately for me, the other two judges were watching the world class performance I was putting on." When asked about the challenge of fighting Charles Martel for the BW Syn title Leroy had the following to say. "The only thing I'm scared of the most is the weight cut. I've never fought at 135lbs before but I'm confident I can make the weight. Why should I fear a has been? I'm the legend killer, Charles Martel is just going to be another name added to the list! He should have retired a long time ago, much like Clint Lomax. I'm looking forward to getting that Syn belt wrapped around my waist, proving that I'm the best BW fighter in the world." We have no clue who's going to be winning this massive fight between these two superstars but one thing we do know, Leroy Morris vs Charles Martel is a fight you do not want to miss!

Preview: Diggs vs O'Connor http://i.imgur.com/hM4m5kk.png Many are saying that this is one of the most highly anticipated Middleweight bouts of 2015 and we're just two days away from seeing these bitter rivals go head to head inside the Troid cage. There's been a lot of smack talk between these two fighters and it's clear for everyone to see that they're not the best of friends. This fight is the classic setting in combat sports, the hot prospect in the division "Unchained" Django Diggs (6-0), going against a more experienced fighter, The Island veteran "Lucky" Liam O'Connor (13-6). Django Diggs, son of the MMA legend Moses Diggs, has been on fire since his first professional MMA bout. He's undefeated and has won by KO/TKO in 5 of his 6 wins. Many believe that he was born to fight and follow in his father's footsteps, if you watch him it's pretty clear to see he's a natural fighter. Liam O'Connor on the other hand only had his first professional MMA bout at the age of 25 while competing on Season One of The Island. He quickly established himself as one of the most dangerous Middleweights on that season and was dominating the Middleweight division with 8 wins in a row until he lost his title against The Castaway. Since losing that fight, Liam has lacked consistency and hasn't been able to maintain a winning streak. Django has the power to score a KO victory and could well come out with the intention to end the fight early by getting a quick KO. Most of his opponents hardly had a chance to get comfortable in the cage before Django bombarded them with strikes. One thing Django will have to look out for is the dangerous submission game of Liam O'Connor. Liam O'Connor has been a lot more conservative in his last two fights, picking up the win but not in the impressive style that we were used to seeing during his stay on The Island. His striking has looked very crisp although he wasn't able to KO his opponent or lock up one of his dangerous submissions. Without a doubt, he'll be looking to use his experience to his advantage and fight smart in this fight otherwise it could be over very quickly for the "Lucky" Irishman. http://i.imgur.com/ZkefKxL.png Both of these fighters have a career thread where you can read about how their career has progressed so far along with the smack talk which has went on between these two. Liam O'Connor career thread Django Diggs career thread