Jameel Massouh to fight on HCF show in Quebec, Canada

Fresh of his WCS submission of the night victory at Freestyle Combat Challenge 33 last month, Jameel “The Real Deal” Massouh of Dave Strasser’s Freestyle Academy is set to fight again on March 29 in Gatineau, Quebec, Canada. According to MMA News, Massouh is slated to fight Myles “Cowboy” Merola of British Columbia, Canada on the Hardcore Championship Fighting card entitled, Crows Nest.

As you may recall from my previous article, Massouh recently fought Craig Howard of the Freaks of the Industry based out of Lafayette, Indiana. Massouh gave up nearly 40 pounds to his inexperienced opponent. It didn’t matter as Massouh made short work of his opponent dominating every aspect of the fight.

Jameel Massouh sports a (15-3) record according to Sherdog and holds wins over area fighters such as Rob Mrotek, Eugene Crisler, and Mike Lambrecht. His only losses have come to the very tough and notable Tristan Yunker, Daiki Hata, and Miki Shida. The Hata and Shida fights took place in Japan’s Pancrase organization.

Myles “The Cowboy” Merola sports a (9-4) record according to Sherdog and fights out of Surrey, British Columbia, Canada for the Suitela Fight Team. He is a two-time veteran of HCF and sports a (1-1) record in the organization and is the former National Fighting Challenge or NFC Welterweight Champion. He most recently lost via rear naked choke to Ariel Sexton last month at the HCF – Destiny show in Calgary. He has fought at both 170lbs and 155lbs and is listed at 155 on the HCF website. He appears to be primarily a grappler with some decent triangles as can be seen in his highlight reel. His striking shows he has some heavy, yet sloppy hands.

Jameel Massouh was announced as 140lbs in his bout last month against Craig Howard and is able to make the bantamweight class. I believe this bout will probably take place at 155lbs but I have not been able to verify it. Regardless, Massouh will again be the smaller opponent is this bout and while I feel that Massouh is probably the more technical striker and grappler, I think he may have some trouble against a veteran fighter in Merola due to the size disadvantage, which can be evidenced in the Merola vs. Davis video below where Merola is the noticeably smaller fighter against Davis. This remains to be seen, but many good fighters have suffered setbacks when they fight outside of their respective weight classes against equal or lesser talent. I hope this is not the case for Jameel Massouh and wish him best of luck in the bout.

Hardcore Championship Fighting is quickly become one of the premier fight organizations in Canada. In less than one year, HCF has had notable fighters such as Joe Riggs, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Aleksander Emelianenko, Sean Salmon, and Solomon Hutcherson fight on their shows. This card will feature talent that has fought in the UFC, Pride, Pancrase, IFL, and BodogFight. This is a big opportunity for Massouh to test himself on the big stage that will draw attention from many harcore MMA fans worldwide. Mysteriously absent from this card is HCF signed fighter with Wisconsin roots, Solomon Hutcherson.

Below is the fight card according to MMA News:

Hardcore Championship Fighting: Crows Nest
Robert Guertin Arena
Gatineau, Quebec
03/29/2008

Main Event:
David Loiseau (Canada) vs. Todd Gouwenberg (Canada)

Semi Main Event: Rob MacDonald (Canada) vs. Hector Ramirez (USA)

HCF World Lightweight Title Defense
Sarah Kaufman (Canada) vs. Molly Helsel (USA) World Champion

Nabil Khatib (Canada) vs. Gideon Ray (USA)

Brent Beauparlant (Canada) vs. Amir Rahnavardi (USA)

Andrew Buckland (Canada) vs. Dan Hornbuckle (USA)

Bill Boland (Canada) vs. Michal Hamrsmid (Czech Rep.)

Myles Merola (Canada) vs. Jameel Massouh (USA)

Marcus Vinicios (Canada) vs. Rodrigo Ruas (Brazil)

Dan Grandmaison (Canada) vs. Nino Schembri (Brazil)

Ben Greer (Canada) vs. TBA

Len Tam (Canada) vs. Russell Yip (Japan)


My other articles with Jameel Massouh:

Freestyle Combat Challenge 33 - Agallar, Massouh, and Geraghty Victorious

Freestyle Combat Challenge 33: Geraghty, Agallar, and Massouh return to Wisconsin


Other links:

Jameel Massouh vs. Craig Howard

Myles Merola vs. Garett Davis

Myles Merola Highlight Reel

Interview with FCC fighter Jameel "The Sergeant" Massouh in Osaka Japan!