Billy ‘The Kidd’ in MMA fight tonight
International Falls’ Billy “The Kidd” Christianson will be featured tonight at the “Caged Chaos at Canterbury Park” in Shakopee, where he faces Zach “Juice” Juusola in a professional Mixed Martial Arts fight at 155 pounds.
Christianson, who is affiliated with Borderland Combat Sports in the Falls area, has a 6-2 pro record. Juusola is 8-2 and trains at the Minnesota Martial Arts Academy in Brooklyn Center.
Both fighters were supposed to have faced each other in May, but Juusola pulled out of the bout because of an injury and was replaced by Nick Compton, who defeated Christianson on a third-round technical knockout.
Juusola, who most recently fought in Florida, is also coming off a loss. He is ranked No. 2 by Minnesota MMA News at 155 pounds, while Christianson is seeking to get back into the top-10 rankings.
Christianson, who is now training full-time as an MMA fighter, spent five weeks this summer out in San Diego, Calif., training at Alliance MMA with a number of UFC fighters, before returning to the Falls area a few weeks ago to finish up his training for tonight’s fight.
Being in the “main event,” Christianson said he expects his fight with Juusola should begin tonight somewhere around 9-10 p.m.
The “Caged Chaos at Canterbury Park” fights will be streamed live online at www.sterlingmn.com starting at 7 p.m.
Following his fight tonight, Christianson said his next bout will be Dec. 1 in downtown Minneapolis against an opponent to be determined.
No Fort vs. Falls boys hockey for 2012-13
The boys hockey rivalry along the Rainy River between International Falls and Fort Frances won’t be taking place this coming season, Falls Athletic Director Don Rolando has confirmed.
Rolando said the two schools have “spoke at length” about the boys hockey teams playing each other, and a decision has been made not to have a game in 2012-13 because of “too many extra things that go on in the stands.”
He said it is unfortunate that the Broncos and Muskies won’t play each other in boys hockey next season because of the “bad apples” that have shown up at the game, but he hopes there will be a cooling off of hostilities by not playing in 2012-13 and the two teams will face each other again in the future.
In last season’s matchup at Fort Frances, Falls won in overtime, 6-5.
Though the boys teams won’t be playing, the girls hockey teams are scheduled to play each other twice next season.
The Bronco girls will host the Dec. 4 game with the Muskies hosting the Jan. 29 contest.
