BAMMA 12 Fight Card Set with Jim Wallhead-Matt Veach Welterweight Headliner

The March 9 event takes place at Metro Radio Arena in Newcastle, England, and will also see unbeaten light heavyweights Max Nunes and Marcin Lazarz lock horns in the co-main event. The evening’s main card airs on AXS TV and will feature a British lightweight title collision pitting UFC vet Curt Warburton against Scottish talent Steven Ray.

Wallhead, 28, returns to the cage for the first time since his defeat to Lyman Good in the Bellator Season 7 welterweight tournament. That setback snapped a two-fight winning streak for the Brit, who has won 10 of his last 12 fights. “Judo Jim” made his British Association of Mixed Martial Arts debut in September 2011, stepping up on four weeks’ notice to defeat Frank Trigg at BAMMA 7. Wallhead would maintain his momentum through his next contest just two months later, as the 7-year pro dispatched Strikeforce vet Joey Villasenor in just 48 seconds at BAMMA 8.

Veach, 31, was released from the UFC in 2010 after back-to-back submission defeats to Frankie Edgar and Paul Kelly. Though the Illinois native rebounded with four straight victories, he was submitted in each of his next two contests, tapping out to armbars applied by Drew Fickett and Eric Wisely. Veach returned to his winning ways in his last appearance, earning a first-round technical knockout over Zac Kelley on Aug. 18.