UFC vet Charlie Brenneman meets Gemiyale Adkins at Cage Fury FC 25

UFC vet Charlie Brenneman (17-5) will resume efforts to rebuild his career when he takes his next fight in the lightweight division. 

Sources close to the fighter today told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) that Brenneman is set to meet Gemiyale Adkins (8-5) at Cage Fury Fighting Championships 25, which takes place June 22 at Valley Forge Casino Resort in Prussia, Pa.

Adkins this past month snapped a three-fight skid with a win on the East Coast regional circuit. He trains out of Team Balance in Philadelphia.

Brenneman, whose primary gym is AMA Fight Club in Whippany, N.J., recently told MMAjunkie.com Radio (www.mmajunkie.com/radio) that his UFC release prompted some soul searching that led to his decision to drop weight. 

“People ragged on me all the time for not finishing fights,” he said. “What I’ve realized is part of the reason I wasn’t finishing fights was because these guys were so big that all of my effort went into controlling them. Whereas I’ve fought these guys at 155, and granted, they’re not UFC guys, it’s been a lot easier to finish them.”

At 170 pounds, Brenneman went an even 4-4 in the octagon, while he’s finished both of his opponents at lightweight.

The dietary requirements of making 155 pounds are not unfamiliar to Brenneman, who said his years as a collegiate wrestler helped prepare him for the demands of shedding weight. 

Still, he said, the process “always stinks.”

Cage Fury Fighting Championships 25 can be purchased via online pay-per-view on the promotion’s website. 

Brenneman recently helped another former welterweight prepare for his biggest fight at lightweight. Once scheduled to fight T.J. Grant in the UFC, he struck up a friendship with the Canadian fighter and assisted him in a training camp for Gray Maynard at UFC 160 this past month. Grant won that fight and now will meet champion Benson Henderson for the title at UFC 164 in August.