GFL looking to make history Friday

Friday night is a big one on the local mixed martial arts scene.
At Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut, the Kings of the Cage makes its East Coast debut with a full slate on fights including Manchester's Nate Lamotte. The main event of that card will feature Jimmy Rivera against former WBO boxing champion Ray Mercer.
That event will be televised on HDNet starting at 10 p.m.
Even closer to home, in Durham, MMA history could be made in the Granite State when Global Fight League hosts GFL 9 at the Whittemore Center on the campus of the University of New Hampshire. I will be giving live updates from the event here at "End of the Line."
With a capacity for nearly 6,000 people, the Whitt is the largest venue in the state to ever host an MMA event.
GFL is taking a chance with this, but has played its hand quite brilliantly by targeting college students, which make up a huge fan base for the sport. The GFL has also recently hosted a couple other events down the road at the Dover Ice Arena, planting the seed for local interest.
It will be interesting to see how many people turn out on Friday. The GFL has certainly put together a good card to attract fans.
The event's headliner is a bantam weight championship between Pedro Gonzalez (6-3) and Matt Smith (7-2).
The fight that catches my eye, however, is for the middle weight championship, where Tom Moreau (6-2) of Derry will take on Dennis Olson (11-5) of Amherst. Moreau and Olson are two of the best fighters in New Hampshire, but have struggled lately. They each have a ton of talent and one will get back on the right track Friday.
And one of my favorite fighters, Cody Lightfoot (4-1), will compete in the heavyweight class when he takes on Kym Sturdivant (4-2).
The rest of the card is as follows: Brandon Cyr (2-0) vs. Nick Rivera (2-0); 155lb GFL Lightweight Championship - Josh Hersey (4-1) vs. John Benoit (8-2); Chris Fisette (3-3) vs. Ben Hudson (2-1); Jeremy Ross (3-2) vs. Justin Homsey (7-1); TBA vs. Josh Bourque (3-2); Trevor Stone (3-3) vs. Yann Oliveira (1-0); Devin Powell (1-1) vs. Ryan Thomas Clark (0-0); Brandon Fleming (2-0) vs. Austin Perault (0-0); Keegan Hornstra (1-4) vs. Billy Bonnell (0-0); Aaron Smith (3-0) vs. Christian Fenderson (1-0); Bobby Flynn (2-1) vs. Adam Gaudreault (0-1); Colton Blanchette (0-0) vs. Gordan Smith (0-0).
The event starts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets can be purchased through Ticketmaster.