Out of Obscurity: Looking Ahead (April 11 – April 17)

Every Monday, MMA DieHards takes a look at the upcoming week’s schedule of small regional and international shows with a focus on UFC and Pride veterans as well as consensus-ranked fighters. Here’s what’s going down between April 11 and April 17:

Denis Kang (photo courtesy of Sherdog)

Spotlight Event: Road FC 2: Alive (Seoul, South Korea; April 16)
In a fight that made Sherdog’s list of 10 April Tussles Worth Watching, UFC and Pride veteran Denis Kang (33-12-2) locks horns with Pride vet and former Spirit MC heavyweight champion Eun Soo Lee (14-2).

Combat on Capitol Hill 5 (St. Paul, Minn.; April 15)
TUF 5 alum Brian Geraghty (24-15-1) meets Marcus Levesseur (15-5)…Bellator veteran Travis Reddinger (14-3) clashes with Mike Pickett (9-19).

Evolution Combat Sports Championship: Friday Night Fights 3 (Clovis, N.M.; April 15)
Bellator veteran and No. 7-ranked 125-pound female fighter Carla Esparza (4-1) is slated to face Yadira Anzaldua (2-2).

Extreme Challenge MMA (Council Bluffs, Iowa; April 15)
UFC veteran Joe Vedepo (11-4) is among the fighters scheduled to compete on the card.

Scrap Live 7: Bad Intentions (Winston-Salem, N.C.; April 15)
UFC and Strikeforce veteran Cale Yarbrough (8-2) fights UFC veteran Rodney Wallace (10-4)…TUF 9 alum Cameron Dollar (6-2) tangles with Sylvain Bynum (4-1).

Cage Fury Fighting Championship 7: No Mercy (Atlantic City, N.J.; April 16)
UFC and IFL veteran Andre Gusmao (6-2) tussles with Tim Williams (5-0)…The event airs live via pay-per-view internet stream at GoFightLive.

Caged Combat III (Grand Ronde, Ore.; April 16)
Pride and EliteXC veteran Charles “Krazy Horse” Bennett (24-21-2) squares off with Jason Gybels (2-1).

King of the Cage: Texas (Lubbock, Tex.; April 16)
KOTC welterweight champion Quinn Mulhern (14-1) will put his title on the line against Anselmo Martinez (6-3).

Max Fight 8 (Campinas, Sao Paulo, Brazil; April 16)
Shine Fights and Rio Heroes veteran Flavio Alvaro (31-9) squares off with Jorge “Jorjao” Rodrigues (22-5).

Mixed Fighting Alliance: New Generation 5 (Miami, Fla.; April 16)
Bellator veteran Luis Palomino (15-6) and Peter Grimes (9-6) collide in the evening’s main event.

NAAFS: Caged Vengeance 9 (Canton, Ohio; April 16)
UFC veteran Chase Gormley (7-3) battles Stipe Miocic (4-0).

Showdown Fights: Shootout (Orem, Utah; April 16)
UFC and WEC veteran Tim McKenzie (12-8) meets Jordan Smith (15-1-1)…UFC and EliteXC veteran Justin Buchholz (9-6) goes up against Steve Sharp (26-13)…The event airs live via pay-per-view internet stream at GoFightLive.

World Free Fight Challenge 13: Heavy Hitters (Belgrade, Serbia; April 17)
Pride veteran Jose Landi-Jons (26-14) clashes with Lubomir Guedjev (11-8)…Jonas Billstein (9-0) takes on Aleksandar Radosavljevic (10-3).

Other Events
April 11
Knock Out Championship 5 (Cognac, France)

April 14
Extreme Fighting Championship Africa 8 (Brakpan, South Africa)

April 15
Brutaal: Owatonna (Owatonna, Minn.)
Central Pennsylvania Warrior Challenge XI (East Stroudsburg, Pa.)
Fighting Marcou Challenge 4 (Palavas les Flots, France)
Global Fight League 10: Benoit vs. Bessette (Lowell, Mass.)
Hybrid Combat: Proving Ground I (Gatineau, Quebec, Canada)
LFC 45: Mass Destruction Return of the Exorcist (Indianapolis)
Ring of Combat AM-XI (Rahway, N.J.)
STFC 15: Nature of the Beast (McAllen, Tex.)

April 16
Absolute Fighting Alliance 6: Uprising (Fort Wayne, Ind.)
AM Ford Fight Night: Redemption (Trail, British Columbia, Canada)
Amateur Combat Sports: Art of War (Jackson, Mich.)
Arkansas Xtreme Challenge 13: Chaos in Cabot III (Cabot, Ark.)
Barbarian Fight Club: Detention (Amelia, Va.)
Beg for Mercy (Onalaska, Wis.)
Bushido Fighting Championship (Brookings, N.D.)
Cage Carnage 6 (Carlisle, England)
Cage Combat MMA (Muskegon, Mich.)
Cage Warrior Championship 5 (Ashburton, New Zealand)
Extreme Cage Combat 12 (Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada)
Extreme IT Challenge (Findlay, Ohio)
Fight Card Entertainment 39: Vendetta (Melrose Park, Ill.)
Fight Lab 14: Misery Loves Company Series (Charlotte, N.C.)
Global Fighting Alliance 12 (Sulphur, La.)
Hardrock MMA 33 (Elizabethtown, Ky.)
Impact Fighting Championship: Evolution (Bismarck, N.D.)
Kauhajoki Fight Night: Back Where It All Began (Kauhajoki, Finland)
King of the Cage: Underground 68 (Peshawbestown, Mich.)
LA Bad Boy Promotions: Tournament of Champions Round 1 (Gonzales, La.)
Mid-South MMA Championships (Southhaven, Miss.)
MMA Big Show: Wage War (Cincinnati, Ohio)
New Breed Fighters XXXV: One Step Closer (Atlantic City, N.J.)
Rage in the Cage 151 (Chandler, Ariz.)
Revelation Fights: Big Guns 8 (Mansfield, Ohio)
Ring of Fire 40: Backlash (Broomfield, Colo.)
Rogue Warrior Fights: Vision Quest 3 (Redding, Calif.)
Saekson Muay Thai Classic and MMA Night (Irving, Tex.)
Shooto Finland: Chicago Collision 7 (Lahti, Finland)
Team Warrior Concepts: Freedom Fight Series (Springfield, Ill.)
Ultimate Impact 4: Bad Intentions (Gloucester, England)
United Fighting Federation VII: Redemption (Salina, Kan.)
Valley Fight League 33 (Chambersburg, Pa.)
World Kickboxing Federation: The Night of the Count (Wiener Neudorf, Austria)

April 17
Quest Arena 2: Krzysztofiak vs. Saarinen (Poznan, Poland)
Scottish Fight Challenge 4: Resolution (Stirling, Scotland)
Shooto: Gig Central 22 (Nagoya, Aichi, Japan)
Tenkaichi Super Fight 5 (Koza, Okinawa, Japan)