XFC 50 Returns With Pay-Per-View Event Featuring All-Female 'Main Course'

XFC is back and stronger than ever.

XFC

For the first time since June 2023, XFC returns with its 50th event from Lakeland, Fla., on April 12. Under the direction of matchmaker McGee Wright, the promotion has put together a 10-fight card with the expectation of appetizing an eager MMA fanbase on the eve of UFC 300.

In a highly anticipated women’s bantamweight co-main event, Pearl Gonzalez (10-5 MMA), a seasoned UFC and Invicta FC veteran, is returning to MMA after a hiatus since Feb. 2020. Her opponent, Monica Medina (3-4 MMA), a BYB veteran and former women’s lightweight champion, is no stranger to the cage. This clash of titans promises to be a spectacle at RP Funding Center.

Gonzalez said her choice to return to MMA wasn’t a matter of if. It was a matter of the right situation coming together, which XFC offered. Gonzalez boxed, grappled, and briefly competed in bare-knuckle from Nov. 2019 to April 2023 when not participating in MMA full–time.

“I’m a grappler,” Gonzalez told MMA Knockout. “I’ve always been a grappler, and MMA has always been, you know, a big love of mine. It's probably my biggest love of my life. I’ve been doing it for almost 17 years now. And it was just interesting how XFC and this opportunity presented itself. It made perfect sense to me. I was ready and itching to get back into competition.”

Gonzalez said she felt a special connection to XFC because it was the promotion she competed under when she began her career.

“I love that I took a break and stepped away from MMA for a while, and I’m able to kind of come back and be reintroduced to the sport through XFC,” Gonzalez said.

As for Medina, she had been eying a possible fight with Gonzalez for the last few years, making the opportunity a no-brainer, she said.

“I actually told my coach not too long before this fight was offered to me – I was like, ‘I’m not going to do MMA anymore.’ I said, but if I ever get the chance to fight Pearl Gonzalez, I’ll do it because I have been offered her before in bare-knuckle MMA, and it just never happened,” Medina said.

Medina said she cannot shy away from an all-out brawl, which she and Gonzalez plan on delivering on fight night.

“Man, I think we could be the main course, honestly,” Medina said regarding competing head-to-head against PFL 2 and UFC 300 in Las Vegas. “You know, we’re women, and in women’s MMA, we come out there and we fight. We’re not there to feel each other out. We’re going to get after it.”

The event is headlined by heavyweight Bellator veteran Tim Johnson (16-9 MMA) against Darion Abbey (4-3 MMA), which excites Doug Kuiper, President of Xtreme One Entertainment.

Kuiper has been a critical fixture in putting the event together, working directly with iNDEMAND pay-per-view to distribute the card to “more than 90” cable and satellite providers across the U.S., Canada, and the Caribbean, according to a press release issued Tuesday. The event costs $29.95 to purchase, as a streaming option is still in the finalization stages.

“We are thrilled to partner with iNDEMAND to bring XFC 50 and our exciting card of bouts to more than 60 million homes in the Western Hemisphere,” Kuiper said. “As we continue to establish XFC as a leader and innovator in producing dynamic and rewarding events for fans, fighters and sponsors, it’s essential that we have a first-class partner in our distribution efforts, which is exactly what we’ve found with iNDEMAND.”

Kuiper told MMA Knockout Wednesday the promotion plans to return to Detroit for the second straight year at the end of May, along with a July event back in Lakeland and potentially a fall or end-of-the-year event in Brazil.

“Our goal is to put on four to six events this year,” Kuiper said.

Kuiper said fans will be treated to a great night of action built for a hardcore audience and accessible through social media afterward.

Nevertheless, the event begins at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT, kicking off a busy weekend in MMA.

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