High Rollerz 24 is set to take place on February 16th, 2023 and the promotion has booked an excellent main event match between Andy Varela and MMA veteran Ian Butler. Varela won the promotion’s absolute title a few months ago and the experienced 10th Planet black belt has every intention of hanging on to it for as long as possible. He’s a fantastic competitor and although he generally competes in middle to lighter weightclasses, he also had plenty of experience in absolute divisions as well.
Most recently he competed in the openweight tournament at UFC Fight Pass Invitational 3, where he came up against tough opposition in the form of Luke Griffith in the opening round. Just before that, he was invited to compete at ADCC 2022 in the 77kg division as a result of the impressive performance that he had at the North American West Coast Trials, where he defeated seven opponents in a row before falling just short in the final against William Tackett. Although Varela went out in the opening round of the 77kg division at ADCC 2022 to Roberto Jimenez, the organizers recognised his talent when taking on bigger opponents and allowed him to compete in the absolute division too.
Varela had a huge challenge immediately in the absolute division by coming up against Nicky Rodriguez, and he couldn’t overcome it. Andy Varela will be defending his absolute title at High Rollerz 24 against Ian Butler, an experienced MMA fighter who is currently riding a four-fight winning streak in the sport. Butler has previously fought for Bellator, although he recently signed a deal to move to PFL in order to compete in their 2023 welterweight season. While this fight will serve as the main event, High Rollerz has also put together an eight-man tournament for the same night with the competitors to be announced shortly.
The news that Andy Varela was going to defend his title against Ian Butler in the main event of High Rollerz 24 on February 16th, 2023 was announced to the promotion’s official Instagram account:
