Phil Baroni to Headline Icon/ProElite Card

Originally posted by MMAjunkie.com Staff [mmajunkie-staff] on Mar 12, 2008 at 3:58 pm

- News -

Saturday's "ICON Sport: To Hell and Back" takes place Saturday at the Blaisdell Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, and the entire fight card will be available for free on ProElite.com.

The event features a headline bout between Phil Baroni (10-8) and Kala Kolohe Hose (5-1). The winner earns the ICON Sport world middleweight belt, which was stripped from former title-holder Robbie Lawler last month.

The live event -- the first for ICON in nearly a year -- begins at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.

Baroni, a former UFC and PRIDE fighter, will make his ICON debut at the show. The 31-year-old hasn't fought since loss to Frank Shamrock in the main event of a June 2007 Strikeforce/EliteXC show. Baroni failed a drug test after the fight, and though he maintained his innocence, the California State Athletic Commission upheld a suspension (though it was reduced from 12 months to six). That suspension ended just last week.

Hose, a Hawaiian, had been promised a title shot before, but three previously scheduled fights with Lawler were canceled due to injuries suffered by the champ. In the meantime, Hose has pieced together five consecutive victories, including a televised "ShoXC" knockout win over Frederic Belleton (5-2) in January.

Lawler, who also holds EliteXC's middleweight title, won the ICON Sport belt with a fourth-round TKO of Frank Trigg nearly a year ago. However, Lawler had to pull out of the three ICON Sport events for various health-related reasons. With the fighter unable to defend his title, ICON Sport President T. Jay Thompson stripped Lawler of the title in February. Lawler said he understood his decision and hopes to reclaim the title sometime in the future.

ICON Sport was recently acquired by ProElite, Inc., EliteXC's parent company.

Saturday's full fight card includes:

Phil Baroni vs. Kala Kolohe Hose (for vacant ICON word middleweight title)
Augie Padekan vs. Jeremy Williams
Sadhu Bott vs. Bronson Pieper (for ICON state featherweight title)
Russell Doane vs. Tyson Nam
Wayne Perrin vs. Koa Ramos
Ross Ebanez vs. Brennan Kamaka
P.J. Dean vs. Eddie Rincon
Matt Comeau vs. Elias Delos Reyes
Alan Lima vs. David Padilla
Dwayne Haney vs. Zack Rapal
Jay Bolos VS. Nui Wheeler
Colin Mackenzie vs. Ricky Wallace
Wade Ke vs. Ikaika Moreno