Things were up in the air for a while, but Christian Larsen gets to put his Unified MMA heavyweight title on the line after all.
The Edmonton, Alta. native Larsen (6-2) is set to face Abbotsford, B.C.'s Grayson Wells (5-4) in a rematch during the Unified MMA 45 co-main event on Friday night.
Larsen, 34, was gearing up for the biggest bout of his MMA career when a meeting with UFC veteran Rashad Coulter was lined up. Trouble struck, though—Coulter pulled out because he couldn't secure a cornerman.
Luckily for Larsen, Wells, his most recent sparring partner, agreed to step in on short notice and grab his second shot at the Unified MMA heavyweight belt.
"I've been preparing for Grayson lately. I don't expect him to come in with the exact same game plan, so hopefully I can show off some of my strengths. A fight's a fight," Larsen told MMA Empire.
Larsen has battled to book fights over the last couple of years. He was originally scheduled to defend his Unified MMA heavyweight championship at Unified MMA 40 back in March 2020, but the event got scrapped when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down sports across the nation.
"Training was rough during COVID; our gyms were locked up. I work on an oil rig in Northern B.C., so I was stuck in camp with the gyms closed, eating camp food for weeks at a time," Larsen shared.
"COVID took a toll on me. We trained whenever we could once restrictions started loosening, and not much MMA was happening in Canada for a while. In the heavyweight division specifically, there just aren't many opponents available."
Follow Larsen on social media: INSTAGRAM
