Welterweight, lightweight titles on line at Saturday's BAMMA 11 card in England
by Matt Erickson on Nov 26, 2012 at 7:45 am ET

BAMMA returns this week with a card featuring a pair of title fights as well as a struggling UFC vet in the main event.

Tom Breese (5-0) meets Warren Kee (7-1-1) for the promotion's British welterweight title while Dale Hardiman (9-3) takes on Steve Ray (11-3) for the British lightweight belt. Headlining the card is a middleweight bout between UFC vet Xavier Foupa-Pokam (22-18) and BAMMA regular Jack Marshman (11-1).

BAMMA 11 takes place Saturday at National Indoor Arena in Birmingham, England. The main card airs live on AXS TV at 4 p.m. ET.

Foupa-Pokam was 20-9 when he signed with the UFC in 2009. But the Frenchman is just 2-9 since then. He dropped a unanimous decision to Denis Kang at UFC 97, then returned just five weeks later and was stopped by Drew McFedries just 37 seconds into the fight at UFC 98 and was released.

A win over Joey Guel from a doctor's stoppage at the end of the first round at Super Fight League 1 this past March is his lone win in seven fights. This past month, he dropped a unanimous decision to Claudio Henrique da Silva at SFL 6. He'll be fighting for the second time under the BAMMA banner.

Marshman will be looking to build another win streak. He started his career 10-0 with nine stoppages before losing a middleweight title fight to Tom Watson in the BAMMA 9 main event. Watson went on to sign with the UFC. Now Marshman looks for his second straight after a quick first-round submission of Andrew Punshon at BAMMA 10 in September. Ten of his 11 wins have come by stoppage, with six in the first round.

Breese will look to stay perfect for his career, as well as perfect under the BAMMA banner. All five of his fights have come for the promotion, and all have come by stoppage. In September, he stopped Jack Magee with a first-round triangle choke for his fourth choke submission in five fights. Before that, he stopped Mark Tucker with a knockout from a body shot at BAMMA 9 in March.

Kee started his career perfect at 7-0 before a draw with John Quinn at Cage Warriors 41 in April 2011. About a year later, he suffered his first setback when he was stopped by Bola Omoyele in the first round at an Ultimate Challenge event in England.

Hardiman goes after the BAMMA lightweight title after getting back in the win column with a second-round knockout of Ido Pariente at Cage Warriors 48 in July. He has eight of his nine wins by stoppage, including six submissions, and has won both his BAMMA fights.

Ray looks to make it three straight when he makes his BAMMA debut. The Scotsman has 10 stoppages in his 11 wins and is 3-1 in 2012, including back-to-back finishes since a March loss.

Rounding out the main card are a light heavyweight fight between Jason Jones (19-9) and Linton Vassell (10-3) and a middleweight bout featuring Sam Boo (5-7) and Alex Reid (9-9-1), who in August got back in the win column after an eight-fight winless skid.

The complete card for BAMMA 11 includes:

MAIN CARD (AXS TV, 4 p.m. ET)

Xavier Foupa-Pokam vs. Jack Marshman
Jason Jones vs. Linton Vassell
Sam Boo vs. Alex Reid
Tom Breese vs. Warren Kee - for welterweight title
Dale Hardiman vs. Steve Ray - for lightweight title

PRELIMINARY CARD

Max Nunes vs. Kevin Thompson
Marcin Lazarz vs. Sam Mensah
James Doolan vs. Spencer Hewitt
Richie Downes vs. Jeremy Petley
Marc Allen vs. Kyle Redfern
Andrew Fisher vs. Andy Green
Yannick Bahati vs. Ben Constantine
Bryan Creighton vs. Dawid Farycki
Jonny Bilton vs. Leon Edwards
Thomas Denham vs. Mike Neun