Samurai Fighting Championship 8 - all you need to know

Samurai Fighting Championship 8 is live at Ebbw Vale Sports Arena on Saturday, 28 March as some of the brightest amateur and professional talent from the United Kingdom showcase their skills.

It is the eighth show under the SFC brand since its inception in October 2023, but the promotion has gone under other names and guises for more than a decade.

All the main card bouts will be shown on BBC iPlayer.

Former UFC star Brett Johns is on co-commentary alongside Joe Robbins, while the event is MC'd by Stella actor Justin Davies.

Welterweight Ioan Harris will be fighting David Round in the main event.

Harris won the 2022 International Mixed Martial Arts Federation (IMMAF) European Championship while finishing his masters degree in mathematics.

Harris is coming off a defeat by unbeaten George Staines at Cage Warriors 199 in December, but will look to bounce back against Round.

Fellow Welshman Round is a veteran of 45 professional fights, more recently competing in bare knuckle boxing.

Joe Orrey takes on Ash Williams in a featherweight clash, while Tallon Jones will make his professional debut against Uganda's Jordan Galabuzi, who fights out of Ireland, in a bantamweight clash.

There are also four SFC amateur titles up for grab on the main card.

Welsh duo Louie Murphy and Malakai Gough will meet for the SFC Featherweight Championship and Wales' Rhys Evans takes on Greece's Michail Papadopoulos for the lightweight title.

In another Greek-Welsh encounter, Ioannis Tsecheridis takes on Ellis Clement for the bantamweight title, and Tate Groves and Tom Archer will meet in an all-Welsh match for the welterweight title.

Samurai Fighting Championship helps grassroots fighters in the amateurs build their experience levels, and provides a springboard for novices and professionals to move onto bigger promotions such as Cage Warriors, PFL and UFC.

A number of former fighters at this level have progresed to bigger things.

Former UFC bantamweight Brett Johns fought against Joe Orrey while the SFC was under the Pain Pit brand.

Johns was a two-time world champion with Titan FC and Cage Warriors before becoming the first Welshman to fight in the UFC making his debut the same night as Jack Marshman in November 2016.

Jack Shore would go on to become the first Welshman to ever be ranked in the UFC as he claimed 15th spot in the bantamweight rankings in 2022.

Levi Batchelor signed and fought twice with PFL before signing with WOW FC this month.

Steph Evans won a PFL contract as a result of her win over Ruby Mesa at SFC 1.

Shore will be in attendance on Saturday night as he joins the corners of some of the fighters.

"I can't wait to be involved in terms of coaching a couple of the boys, he said. "[The BBC coverage] is just what the show deserves.

"They've been laying the grassroots in Wales for over 10 years now under different names and it's great to see it pay off for them."

Johns, who will be commentating on the night, said: "SFC is an exciting night anyway, they're evenly matched fights.

"I think one of the mottos of the fight card is if you're looking for easy fights this isn't the promotion you want to be on.

"I think it's the leading promotion here in Wales and the stepping stone to creating the next wave of stars in the MMA world really. We've had guys fighting on that show who've been on that card and had fantastic performances.

"I think a lot of fighters can see that and think, yes, this is the step up we need to take us to the next level."

"The last one was supposed to be my swansong," said Orrey, "But enjoyed it too much, so I'm back for my fifth 'last fight' now - very excited.

"I don't want to say I'm erratic but I try my best not to be in a boring fight. Sometimes I do need to be a bit cleaner but I'm kind of a scalp or be scalped guy, or at least I was back then.

"I'm trying to be the same now."

Rhys Evans comes into his bout on a three-fight win streak after a second round stoppage of Marlon Urzia at SFC 7 in October.

The 20-year-old Welshman is confident it's his time to wear SFC's lightweight title.

"I've put in all the hard work and can't wait to fight," he said. "I'm looking forward to getting the belt and the feeling of fighting, just having the belt around me, now is the time.

"Hopefully I turn professional in the next one to two years and go as far as I can. I want to be in the UFC and win belts."

Live coverage of the main card is available from 21:00 GMT on BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website.

Main card:

Preliminaries (all amateur bouts):