Joash Walkins, Guillermo Salazar headline CUFF event

TT FIGHTER Joash Walkins will battle Venezuelan Guillermo Salazar in the headline bout when the Caribbean Ultimate Fist Fighting (CUFF) 18 is held at the Eastern Regional Indoor Sports Arena, Tacarigua at 7 pm on Saturday. Doors open at 6 pm.

Fighters are expected to participate from seven countries, including TT, Jamaica, USA and Venezuela. It will be an 11-fight card with six championship bouts.

Walkins, one of this country's most accomplished fighters, will fight against Salazar in the featherweight 145kg weight class.

Adam Chin Leung Kam, the founder of CUFF, told Newsday, "I look forward to every CUFF event that comes around because CUFF is an awesome event. It showcases the martial arts talent that we have across the Caribbean and in the states and even Canada as well too."

Walkins was carded to fight Canadian Donald Magboo, but he was injured and will now battle Salazar.

Speaking about the headline fight, Chin Leung Kam said, "We don't know much about the Venezuelan, but we know that Joash is a phenomenal fighter with a record of 13-1, so he should definitely be one of the highlights people should look out for."

Chin Leung Kam is glad the fight on Saturday is happening as the planning stage was challenging. "This event had been particularly hard. Usually when you hosting a fight event you have to look out for the unexpected and we've always been plagued by fighters dropping out last minute because they got injured or whatever (other reason)...there are a lot of brave guys out there and a lot of people stepped up last minute and filled out the card, so we are quite happy that happened.