Final Fight Championship (FFC) is to hold its following event next Friday, September 18 in Linz, Austria. The upcoming spectacle will be headlined by Italia’s Alessio Sakara in the MMA part of the event, while the kickboxing part will be headlined by Jason Wilnis from Holland. However, when it comes to judging, so far FFC cooperated exclusively with Croatian Kickboxing Federation and Croatian MMA Federation, meaning that the aforementioned Federations decided upon the FFC judges and referees.

However, things are about to change starting with Linz, according to the statement issued by the Croatian MMA Federation and FFC. Having in mind the internationalization of the FFC event, the promotion decided to hire famous MMA referee Grant Waterman who often works for the UFC events in Europe.

Read the whole official statement issued by the Croatian MMA Federation and FFC:

In the past three years Final Fight Championship organized 22 professional fighting sports events and established itself as one of the Europe’s leading fighting sports promotions. In doing so, the big stress has always been on fair and independent judging which is under the authority of the Croatian Kickboxing Federation (kickboxing part of the event) as well as Croatian MMA Federation (MMA part of the event). Fair and independent judging at FFC events was recognized thought out the world and it is one of the reasons professional fighters gladly fight at Final Fight Championship events.

FFC already started to conquer the European market while the expansion to the US continent is set for 2016. Therefore the promotion will also have to make additional steps in all segments, as well as when it comes to judging. The internationalization of the events also means the internationalization of the judging process in order to meet the requests of all the countries and states in which the FFC events are about to take place.

Final Fight Championship will continue with its successful cooperation with the Croatian MMA organization but it will also license its own ‘FFC judges and referees’ who will go through an additional education under the authority of the well-known European MMA referee with more than 6000 matches under his belt – Britain’s Grant Waterman. Judges and referees will undergo demanding educational seminars and take tests in order to meet strict demands of the FFC’s international events in order for the FFC to continue to be recognized for its independent and fair judging.

As the main MMA referee Grant Waterman will also be the head of FFC MMA Referees and Judges Commission while he is to make his FFC debut at FFC 19 that is to take place September 18 in Linz, Austria.