UFC; Boetsch hopes to right ship against Henderson at UFC Fight Night 68

By Staff

NEW ORLEANS, LA. — Lincolnville native Tim “The Barbarian” Boetsch will step back into the octagon in the coming months.

Boetsch, who competes in the Ultimate Fighting Championship's (UFC) middleweight division, is scheduled to be on the card for UFC Fight Night 68 on Saturday, June 6 against Dan “Hendo” Henderson, who is 30-13 through 43 fights.

The 33-year-old Boetsch is ranked 13th in the middleweight division and is 18-8 through 26 fights, including a 2-2 record in his last four fights. He stands six feet and weights 185 pounds.

The 1999 Camden-Rockport High School graduate was submitted in the second round by Thales Leites at UFC 183 Jan. 31 in Las Vegas, Nev. Prior to that, Boetsch won by second-round TKO against Brad Tavares at UFC Fight Night 47 at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor.

The 44-year-old Henderson, who stands at 5-feet-11-inches and weighs 185 pounds, has lost five of his last six fights and is unranked in the middleweight division.

UFC Fight Night 68 will be at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, La. and will be broadcast live on Fox Sports 1. The main event of the night will be Daniel Cormier against Ryan “Darth” Bader (20-4) in a high-ranking light heavyweight bout.

Cormier (15-1), ranked third in the light heavyweight division, is coming off a five-round loss via decision to champion Jon “Bones” Jones at UFC 182 Jan. 3 in Las Vegas, NV, while Bader is ranked fifth and has won his last four fights.

Bader headlined UFC Fight Night 47 in Bangor, where he beat Ovince Saint Preux via unanimous decision after five rounds.

Courier Publications' sports staff can be reached by email at sports@villagesoup.com or by phone at 594-4401.

UFC brings Fight Night event to Maine in August

By Ariel Helwani  @arielhelwani 

At long last, the UFC is headed to Maine. 

Esther Lin, MMA Fighting 

UFC president Dana White announced on Thursday that the promotion will hold a Fight Night event at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor, ME, on Aug. 16. The event will air on FOX Sports 1 in the United States.

No fights have been announced for the card just yet. 

This will mark the promotion's first trip to Maine, a state that legalized the sport in 2009. The Cross Insurance Center opened in Sept. 2013 and can hold anywhere between 5,800 to 8,500 fans, depending on the event. 

White has deep roots in the area. He graduated from Eastern Maine's Herman High School in 1987, and he currently has a home in Levant, ME. In 2011, he donated $100,000 to Hermon High School for athletic facility upgrades and to help fund the start of the school's football program. 

Former WEC featherweight champion Mike Brown (pictured), who hails from nearby Portland, ME, has long said he would love to fight in his home state, but he has flirted with the idea of retirement recently after a string of health issues.

‘A killer show to Bangor’: Hermon High grad bringing UFC fights to Cross Insurance Center

By Ernie Clark, BDN Staff

David Manning | USA Today Sports

Dana White

The Ultimate Fighting Championship is coming to Bangor.

Dana White, the 1987 Hermon High School graduate who serves as president of the world’s top mixed martial arts organization, announced late Thursday afternoon that he has scheduled a UFC Fight Night card for Saturday, Aug. 16, at the Cross Insurance Center.

The show is scheduled to be televised live on Fox Sports 1.

“Obviously I have a big connection to the Bangor area,” said White, who owns a home in Levant and returns to the area several times each year to vacation with his family. “And when they built the arena and the [Hollywood] casino up there, it was a really big deal for the city. I don’t think people realize how big that is for Bangor.”

White took a hard-hat tour of the Cross Insurance Center during the summer of 2012 in the midst of the construction process, then indicated during a visit to the area last June that a UFC show at the 5,800-seat facility was already in the discussion stages even before the replacement for the Bangor Auditorium formally opened in September.

“I wanted this so badly, I just had to figure out financially if we could make it work,” said White Thursday night by phone from Cincinnati, where preparations were under way for another UFC Fight Night card on Saturday that also will be aired by Fox Sports 1. “We got it done.”

White, who confirmed plans for the Aug. 16 show on Twitter, said he ordinarily doesn’t schedule UFC events in markets as small as Bangor.

“Never,” he said. “This wouldn’t have happened in a million years if I didn’t have the relationship I have with that city.”

White said he was given some leeway by other UFC officials to schedule the Bangor show in light of the organization’s propensity to focus on much larger markets, but he also gave significant credit to officials of Global Spectrum, which manages the Cross Insurance Center, and Hollywood Casino for making the deal possible.

“Global Spectrum is incredibly excited to be hosting UFC this August for a nationally televised event at Cross Insurance Center,” said Joe Imbriaco, Cross Insurance Center general manager, in an email.

“Seeing Dana White tweet out the announcement to his 2.8 million followers and knowing the international attention that brings to Bangor is very exciting. We appreciate the willingness of both Dana and his staff in working to bring UFC to Bangor and can’t wait for a great show.”

White said he expects the event not only to feature some of the top talent in the UFC but to provide a significant financial boost to the area.

“People will be coming in from New York, New Hampshire, Boston, Connecticut, Canada and all over the world for these fights,” said White. “With the type of crowd we bring in filling the restaurants and the hotels, this will be a big boost for the economy.”

White, who made a $100,000 donation to upgrade the athletic complex at Hermon High School in 2011, said no specific fights have yet been scheduled for the Bangor card.

But Saturday’s UFC Fight Night show in Cincinnati, for example, will involve 13 bouts, headlined by a five-round welterweight clash between seventh-ranked Matt “The Immortal” Brown (20-11) and No. 14 Erick Silva (16-4).

“All I know is I want to bring a killer show to Bangor,” he said.