EURO FC 22: MORGAN vs TAVARES

Euro FC 22 arrives in Paris with two belts on the line and a card that has the distinct look of a promotion trying to find out who among its collection of familiar names is actually ready for something bigger.

The Palais des Sports Marcel-Cerdan hosts a doubleheader of title fights, beginning with bantamweight champion Kassidy Morgan defending against Vanessa Tavares in the main event. Morgan has the belt and, consequently, the target. Tavares gets the more familiar role in these things, like challenger, spoiler and potential problem. The co-main event offers another interesting collision, with welterweight champion Cooper McDonald defending against Nigel Musgrove, a former Union GP middleweight title challenger who knows what championship-level stakes look like, even if this particular belt sits several pounds south of his old address.

Underneath the championships, Euro FC 22 has plenty of Union GP residue. Former UGP prospects Andrei Kozlov and Ray Rogers meet at lightweight, while Reece Parker and Ari Rosenberg return at lightweight and welterweight. Suhaim Chraibi, once a Union GP cruiserweight and now campaigning at middleweight, continues his own recalibration. On the early prelims, featherweights Michael Harris and Caleb O’Shea meet in another pairing involving fighters with unfinished business from their UGP days.

And then there is Bellamy Beckett, who apparently saw a sub-minute knockout go viral and interpreted it as a scheduling opportunity. The bantamweight is back on short notice, putting whatever momentum she generated to the test before it has had much time to cool.

There is also a first timer to consider. Featherweight prospect Randi Ekman makes her professional MMA debut, entering a sport where the promotional language is always about potential and the actual business is finding out what survives contact with another professional.

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