Combate Americas announces first four entrants in second annual Copa Combate tournament

Combate Americas second annual “COPA COMBATE” one-night tournament has its first four entrants.

On Tuesday afternoon, the promotion announced the following featherweights, all of whom represent a different country, will enter “La Jaula” to compete for the $100,000 grand prize:

Gaston Reyno (8-2) of Montevideo, Uruguay

Andres Quintana (15-2) of Roswell, NM

Alejandro Flores (13-1) of Monterrey, Mexico

Zebenzui Ruiz (7-2) of Las Palmas, Spain

Both Quintana and Flores secured their spots in the tournament following their victories in their ‘Copa’ qualifier bouts in September. Reyno was later announced as a tournament entrant following his first-round submission win over Carlos Ochoa at the “Combate Americas: Camino a Copa.”

Ruiz, who will be making his promotional debut, is currently riding a four-fight win streak. To date, all but one of his victories have come by way of (T)KO or submission.

The final four entrants are expected to be announced in the coming weeks.

This entire event will mark the first ever one-night, eight-man tournament held in California and will take place 25 years after UFC 1, another one-night, eight-man tournament, which launched MMA into the mainstream.

“This is the way I started the UFC 25 years ago – an 8-man tournament – the toughest challenge in sports – and now it’s coming to Fresno and the great state of California for the first time in history,” stated Combate Americas CEO and UFC co-founder Campbell McLaren in a press release.

The Dec. 7 card will go down inside Save Mart Center in Fresno, Calif. and will air live in Spanish on both Univision and Univision Deportes. It will also be streamed live in English over DAZN.