Portland, Maine (January 11, 2020) – New England Fights (NEF) will hold its next mixed-martial-arts (MMA) event, "NEF 42: Symphony of Destruction," on Saturday, February 8, 2020, at Merrill Auditorium in Portland. Earlier today, NEF announced the addition of an amateur catchweight fight to the card. “Magic” Mike Murray (2-1) is scheduled to face Tim Birkenhead (1-0) at a fight weight of 165 pounds.
Mike Murray is coming off a standout rookie year in the NEF cage. Murray made his debut in June 2019 at “NEF 39” with a first-round submission victory and then followed up that win with another first-round submission at “NEF 40” in September. In November, he challenged for the vacant NEF Amateur Lightweight Title, losing by unanimous decision to Zac Richard (6-2-1) in a hard-fought, five-round effort. Murray, an active duty member of the United States Marine Corps, splits his time training between Camden Combat in Georgia and The Foundry in Farmington, Maine.
“I watched Tim’s only fight and I think this has the potential to be a very entertaining fight stylistically,” noted Murray. “I don’t see this fight going the distance. Besides that, I am so excited and so blessed to fight once again in the NEF cage. Good luck to my opponent and the rest of the fighters. God bless.”
Tim Birkenhead holds a blue belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu training out of South Shore Sportfighting (SSSF) in Rockland, Massachusetts. He made his amateur debut this past fall on a fight card in Plymouth, Massachusetts defeating Miguel Sevasin (0-2) via unanimous decision. Birkenhead is confident that his coaches and teammates at SSSF will have him prepared for Murray on February 8.
“It should be a fun fight. They probably think they know how I’m going to approach it, but they’ll be surprised. My team has given me too much for me to let them down. I’ll be on my A-game.”
New England Fights' next mixed-martial-arts event, "NEF 42: Symphony of Destruction," will take place on Saturday, February 8, 2020, at Merrill Auditorium in Portland, Maine. Tickets are on sale now at www.PortTix.com.