MacDonald and Goulet to Battle for King of the Cage Title

A UFC veteran and an Extreme Cage Combat champion will headline King of the Cage Canada's Halifax show on July 14.

Jonathan Goulet of Victoriaville, Que., will meet Montreal's Cory MacDonald in a 185-pound match at the Halifax Forum's KOTC event, dubbed Supremacy.

Goulet carries an impressive 17-7 record into the match, and once held a 12-fight winning streak in his career. He's earned some high-profile UFC wins, including a victory over Luke Cummo, who was runner-up on Spike TV's Ultimate Fighter show last season.

Overall, the fighter known as The Road Warrior is 2-2 in UFC competition.

Goulet normally fights at 170 pounds, and will move up in class to battle MacDonald (5-1), who earned the local promotion's welterweight championship with a second-round TKO of Port Williams's Rowen Cunningham at ECC 5 on March 31.

"Jonathan will be the highest-profile MMA athlete to fight in Halifax yet," said KOTC promoter Pete Rodley. "I really like what I've seen out of Cory, and I think this will be a very aggressive match."

ECC promoter Peter Martell said he has no problem with MacDonald fighting in KOTC, despite his current status as an ECC champion.

Earlier this month, Martell issued notice that fighters from his promotion that competed on Halifax's KOTC card would not be considered for future ECC events.

"That situation applied more to our local fighters, the ones we fought hard for to give them a chance to compete in their own backyard," Martell said. "Cory's not from here. He won't be stripped of his belt, and he'll be allowed to defend it on our future shows."

Also featured at the event will be Cole Harbour's T J Grant (6-1), who will fight veteran Kevin Manderson (11-8-1) of Winnipeg. Grant's only loss came against British Columbia native Gary Wright in a KOTC welterweight championship match at Vernon, B.C., in April.

John Cole (2-0), a karate-trained prison guard from Sudbury, Ont., will meet Pete Rogers in a 205-pound contest. Local fans may remember Rogers from the first ECC card, when he fell to Fairview's Roger Hollett in the first professional match for both fighters.

His time of 3:50 remains the longest an opponent has gone with Hollett (5-0), and he has since won two consecutive matches in Ontario.

In all, 14 contests are scheduled for the night, which will begin at 7 p.m.

Source: www.hfxnews.ca