Mason Fowler has been the reigning absolute champion for quite some time now, so Submission Underground are deciding to hold a tournament to find a worthy challenger at their 24th event. This isn’t entirely new ground for the promotion as their inaugural absolute champion, Craig Jones, also ran through a whole host of challengers initially and they took the same approach to find a challenger for him too. Coincidentally, that’s how Fowler actually became champion, he won that first 8-man tournament back at SUG 15 and earned the right to challenge Jones at the very next event in a fight he would go on to win.
Since that victory, Fowler has gone on to defend his title a phenomenal seven times, having fought at every single SUG event thereafter. Most recently, he was seen sinking in the rear-naked choke to finish 10th Planet’s Kyle Chambers inside of the regulation time-period. It also seems as though his success in the Submission Underground cage has filled Mason Fowler with well-deserved confidence, as he recently decided to call out former UFC Welterweight and Middleweight world champion Georges St-Pierre for a grappling match too.
There has been no announcement of who will feature in the SUG 8-man tournament just yet, but the last one featured the likes of Roberto Jimenez, Kody Steele, and Nathan Orchard. Alongside the reward of a title-shot against Fowler, the winner of the tournament will also walk away with a $10,000 grand prize, while the runner-up will still receive $5,000 and the third-placed athlete will receive $2,500. Assuming the event runs just like SUG 15 did, there will also likely be a number of superfights throughout the event too.
The full Submission Underground 24 event will be available to watch live on UFC FightPass on June 27th, click here to subscribe and watch.
